Victory of the Jews
1Now on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is Adar, the letter written by the king arrived.* 2On that same day the enemies of the Jews perished; no one resisted, because they feared them.* 3The governors of the satrapies, the princes, and the royal secretaries were paying honor to the Jews, because fear of Mordecai weighed upon them.* 4The king’s decree required that Mordecai’s name be held in honor throughout the kingdom.j 6Now in the city of Susa the Jews killed five hundred men, 7including Pharsannestain, Delphon, Phasga, 8Pharadatha, Barea, Sarbacha, 9Marmasima, Aruphaeus, Arsaeus, Zabutheus, 10the ten sons of Haman son of Hammedatha, the Bougean, the enemy of the Jews—and they indulged themselves in plunder.*
11That same day, the number of those killed in Susa was reported to the king. 12The king said to Esther, “In the city of Susa, the Jews have destroyed five hundred people. What do you suppose they have done in the surrounding countryside? Whatever more you ask will be done for you.”* 13And Esther said to the king, “Let the Jews be allowed to do the same tomorrow. Also, hang up the bodies of Haman’s ten sons.”* 14So he permitted this to be done and handed over to the Jews of the city the bodies of Haman’s sons to hang up.* 15The Jews who were in Susa gathered on the fourteenth and killed three hundred men but took no plunder.*
16Now the other Jews in the kingdom gathered to defend themselves and got relief from their enemies. They destroyed fifteen thousand of them on the thirteenth of Adar but did not engage in plunder.* 17On the fourteenth day of the same month they rested and kept it as a day of rest with joy and gladness.* 18The Jews who were in the city of Susa came together also on the fourteenth but did not rest. They celebrated the fifteenth with joy and gladness.* 19On this account, then, the Jews who are scattered around the countryside keep the fourteenth of Adar as a joyful holiday and send presents of food to one another, while those who live in the large cities keep the fifteenth day of Adar as their joyful holiday, also sending presents to one another.*
The Festival of Purim
20Mordecai recorded these things in a book and sent it to the Jews in the kingdom of Artaxerxes both near and far, 21to institute these days as holidays and to keep the fourteenth and fifteenth days of Adar,* 22for on these days the Jews got relief from their enemies. The whole month (namely, Adar) in which their condition had been changed from sorrow into gladness and from a time of distress to a holiday was to be celebrated as a time for feastingk and gladness and for sending presents of food to their friends and to the poor.*
23So the Jews accepted what Mordecai had written to them: 24how Haman son of Hammedatha, the Macedonian, fought against them, how he made a decree and cast lotsl to destroy them,* 25and how he went in to the king, telling him to hang Mordecai, but the wicked plot he had devised against the Jews came back upon himself, and he and his sons were hanged.* 26Therefore these days were called “Purim,” because of the lots (for in their language this is the word that means “lots”). And so, because of what was written in this letter and because of what they had experienced in this affair and what had befallen them, Mordecai established this festival,m,* 27and the Jews took upon themselves, upon their descendants, and upon all who would join them to observe it without fail.n These days of Purim should be a memorial and kept from generation to generation, in every city, family, and country.* 28These days of Purim shall be observed for all time, and the commemoration of them shall never cease among their descendants.
29Then Queen Esther daughter of Aminadab along with Mordecai the Jew wrote down what they had done and gave full authority to the letter about Purim.o,* 31And Mordecai and Queen Esther established this decision on their own responsibility, pledging their own well-being to the plan.p 32Esther established it by a decree forever, and it was written for a memorial.