Deliverance of the Jews

8 At that time King Ahasuerus gave the property of Haman the Jews’ enemy to Queen Esther. Mordecai was made one of the king’s personal advisers, for Esther had disclosed his relationship to her. 2 The king also drew off his signet ring, which he had taken from Haman. He gave it to Mordecai, and Esther placed Mordecai in charge of Haman’s property.

3 Then Esther sought another audience with the king and fell at his feet and with tears begged him to avert the evil planned by Haman the Agagite and to frustrate his designs against the Jews. 4 The king held out to her the golden sceptre, and she arose and stood before him. 5 ‘If it seems best to the king,’ she said, ‘and if I have won his favour and he thinks it right, and if I please him, let written orders be given to revoke the dispatches devised by Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote ordering the destruction of the Jews who are in all the king’s provinces. 6 For how can I bear to look upon the evil that will come to my people? How can I bear to see their destruction?’ 7 Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, ‘See, I have given Esther the property of Haman, and they have hanged him on the gallows, because he laid hands upon the Jews. 8 Now you write on behalf of the Jews, as seems best to you, in the king’s name and seal it with the king’s signet ring. For a document that is written in the king’s name and sealed with the king’s signet ring cannot be revoked.’

9 On the twenty-third day of the third month (that is the month of Sivan), the king’s secretaries were summoned and as Mordecai instructed an edict was issued to the Jews, to the satraps and provincial governors and the rulers of each of the one hundred twenty-seven provinces from India to Ethiopia in their own script and their own language, and to the Jews in their own script and language.

10 Mordecai wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus. He sealed it with the king’s signet ring. Dispatches were sent by mounted couriers who rode the swift, noble steeds, bred of the royal studs. 11 In this way the king permitted the Jews who were in every city to gather together and make a stand for their life, to destroy, to kill, and annihilate all the armed forces of any people or province that might be hostile to them, including their children and women, and to take their goods as plunder 12 throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus on that thirteenth day of the twelfth month (which is called Adar). 13 A copy of the edict was to be published as a decree in every province – publicly displayed so that the Jews might be ready for that day and avenge themselves. 14 So the couriers who rode the swift, noble steeds went out, hastened and impelled by the king’s commands!

Meantime the decree had been given out in the royal palace at Susa; 15 and Mordecai had gone out from the presence of the king in royal garments of violet and white and with a great crown of gold and with a robe of fine linen and purple. The people of Susa shouted and were glad. 16 To the Jews there came light and gladness and joy and honour. 17 And in every province and city, wherever the king’s command and decree came, there was gladness and joy among the Jews and a holiday. Many of the peoples of the earth professed to be Jews, for fear of the Jews took possession of them.

9 Now in the twelfth month (that is the month of Adar), on the thirteenth day, when the king’s command and his decree was about to put into execution, on the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to gain the mastery over them, then the tables were turned so that the Jews had the mastery over those who hated them. 2 The Jews gathered together in the cities throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, to attack anyone who tried to harm them. No one could withstand them, for the fear of them had fallen on all the peoples. 3 All the princes of the provinces and the satraps and the governors and they who attended to the king’s business, helped the Jews, because the fear of Mordecai had fallen on them. 4 For Mordecai was great in the king’s palace, and as his power increased his fame spread throughout all the provinces. 5 The Jews put all their enemies to the sword and, with slaughter and destruction, they did what they wanted to those who hated them. 6 In Susa the capital the Jews killed five hundred people. 7 They killed Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha, 8 Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha, 9 Parmashta, Arisia, Aridai, and Vaizatha, 10 the ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Jews’ enemy; but they did not take any plunder.

11 On that day the number of those who were slain in Susa was brought before the king, 12 and the king said to Queen Esther, ‘The Jews have slain five hundred people in Susa, and the ten sons of Haman. What then have they done in the rest of the king’s provinces! Now what is your petition? It will be granted to you. What is your request? It will be done.’

13 ‘If it please the king,’ Esther said, ‘let it be granted to the Jews who are in Susa to do tomorrow also according to this day’s decree. Let the bodies of Haman’s ten sons be hanged on the gallows.’ 14 And the king commanded it to be done. A decree was given out in Susa and they hung the bodies of Haman’s ten sons on the gallows. 15 The Jews who were in Susa gathered themselves together again on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar. They killed three hundred people in Susa. But they did not take any plunder. 16 And the other Jews who were in the king’s provinces gathered themselves together and fought for their lives and overcame their enemies. They killed seventy-five thousand who hated them. But they did not take any plunder. 17 This was on the thirteenth day of Adar.Titleless Section Break

On the fourteenth day of the month Adar the Jews rested and made it a day of feasting and rejoicing. 18 (But the Jews in Susa gathered on both the thirteenth and fourteenth day – and rested on the fifteenth day of the same month and made it a day of feasting and rejoicing.)

19 This is why the Jews who live in the country villages keep the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a day of rejoicing and feasting and a holiday, and a day in which they send gifts of food to each other.