Open English Translation ESG Chapter 9

9 Now in the twelfth month, on the thirteenth day of the month, which is Adar, the letters written by the king arrived. 2 In that day, the adversaries of the Yehudim perished; for no one resisted, through fear of them. 3 Because the chiefs of the local governors, and the princes and the royal scribes, honoured the Yehudim; for the fear of Mordekai was on them. 4 Because the order of the king was in force, that he should be celebrated in all the kingdom. 6 In the city Shushan the Yehudim killed five hundred men, 7 including Pharsannes, Delphon, Phasga, 8 Pharadatha, Barea, Sarbaca, 9 Marmasima, Ruphaeus, Arsaeus, and Zabuthaeus, 10 the ten sons of Haman the son of Hamedata the Bugaean, the enemy of the Yehudim; and they plundered their property on the same day. 11 The number of those who perished in Shushan was reported to the king.

12 Then the king said to Ester, “The Yehudim have slain five hundred men in the city Shushan. What do you think they’ve done in the rest of the country? What more do you ask, that it may be done for you?”

13 Ester said to the king, “Let it be granted to the Yehudim to do the same to them tomorrow. Also, hang the bodies of the ten sons of Haman.”

14 He permitted it to be done; and he gave up to the Yehudim of the city the bodies of the sons of Haman to hang. 15 The Yehudim assembled in Shushan on the fourteenth day of Adar and killed three hundred men, but plundered no property.

16 The rest of the Yehudim who were in the kingdom assembled, and helped one another, and obtained peace and security from their enemies; for they destroyed fifteen thousand of them on the thirteenth day of Adar, but took no spoil. 17 They rested on the fourteenth of the same month, and kept it as a Rest Day with joy and gladness.

18 The Yehudim in Shushan city assembled also on the fourteenth day and rested; and they also observed the fifteenth with joy and gladness. 19 On this account then, the Yehudim dispersed in every foreign land keep the fourteenth of Adar as a[fn] holy day with joy, each sending gifts of food to his neighbour.

20 Mordekai wrote those things in a book and sent them to the Yehudim, as many as were in Ahashverosh’s (Ahasuerus’) kingdom, both those who were near and those who were far away, 21 to establish these as joyful days and to keep the fourteenth and fifteenth of Adar; 22 for on these days the Yehudim obtained rest from their enemies; and in that month, which was Adar, in which a change was made for them from mourning to joy, and from sorrow to a holiday, to spend the whole of it in good days of[fn] feasting and gladness, sending portions to their friends and to the poor. 23 And the Yehudim consented to that as Mordekai wrote to them, 24 showing how Haman the son of Hamedata the person from Makedonia fought against them, how he made a decree and threw[fn] lots to destroy them utterly; 25 also how he went in to the king, telling him to hang Mordekai; but all the calamities he tried to bring on the Yehudim came on himself, and he was hanged, along with his children. 26 Therefore those days were called Purim, because of the lots (for in their language they’re called Purim) because of the words of this letter, and because of all they suffered on this account, and all that happened to them. 27 Mordekai established it, and the Yehudim took on themselves, on their descendants, and on those who were joined to them to observe it, neither would they on any account behave differently; but these days were to be a memorial kept in every generation, city, family, and province. 28 These days of Purim must be kept forever, and their memorial must never be forgotten in any generation.

29 Queen Ester the daughter of Aminadav and Mordekai the Yehudi (Jew) wrote all that they’d done, and gave the confirmation of the letter about Purim. 31 Mordekai and Ester the queen established that decision on their own, pledging their own well-being to their plan. 32 And Ester established it by a command forever, and it was written for a memorial.