Open English Translation EST Chapter 9

9 Finally when the 13th of March arrived, it was time for everyone to do what the letters from the king said that he had decreed for them to do. The enemies of the Jews had expected to destroy the Jews on that day but just the opposite happened—instead, it was the Jews who destroyed their enemies. 2 Throughout the empire, the Jews joined together in their cities to defend themselves against those who wanted to harm them. No one was able to fight back against them because everyone else in the empire had become afraid of them. 3 All the leaders in each province, the royal officials, the governors, and everyone who worked for the king helped the Jews because they had become afraid of Mordekai 4 because he was now a very important royal official, and his fame spread throughout the provinces as he became more and more powerful. 5 So the Jews took their weapons and fought against all of their enemies and completely destroyed them. They were able to do everything that they wanted to do against their enemies.

6 In the capital city of Shushan, the Jews killed 500 men 7 including Haman’s ten sons Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha, 8 Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha, 9 Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai, and Vaizatha. 10 Those were the ten sons of Haman (son of Hammedatha), the enemy of the Jews, but the Jews didn’t take their possessions.

11 At the end of the day, the king received a report about how many people the Jews had killed in the capital city of Shushan 12 and he told Queen Esther, “Here in the capital city of Shushan the Jews have killed 500 men, including Haman’s ten sons. In the rest of my empire, they must have killed many more than that! So tell me what else you want and I’ll do it for you. I’ll do whatever you ask, so do tell me.”

13 “If it seems like a good plan to you, your majesty,” Esther replied, “then please allow the Jews who live here in Shushan to do again tomorrow what you allowed them to do today. Also, command that the bodies of Haman’s ten sons be impaled on the wooden pole.” 14 Then the king ordered for this to be done and a decree was made throughout in Shushan, and they publicly impaled the bodies of Haman’s ten sons. 15 So the next day on the 14th, the Jews in Shushan gathered together again and killed 300 more men in Shushan. But once again they did not take the things that belonged to those men.

16 The Jews in the other parts of the empire, who had gathered together to fight for their lives had defeated their enemies and killed 75,000 of them. But they too did not take the things that had belonged to their enemies. 17 That all happened on the 13th (as the law had said), and then they stopped on the 14th and made it a day of feasting and celebration. 18 But the Jews in Shushan had gathered together and fought their enemies on both the 13th and the 14th, so they stopped on the 15th and made it a day of feasting and celebration. 19 So that’s why the Jews who live in the rural villages observe this holiday on the 14th rather than the 15th. They celebrate with feasting and by giving gifts to each other.

20 Now Mordekai recorded everything that had happened and sent letters to all the Jews throughout the empire, in both the near provinces and the far away ones. 21 That decree established an annual holiday on the 14th and 15th of March every year,[fn] 22 because those were the days when the Jews no longer had to oppose their enemies and that was the month when their sorrow and mourning had changed into a good day. Now they were instructed to make them days of feasting and happiness, and sending of gifts—to each other but also to the needy. 23 The Jews had already celebrated those days that way, so they readily agreed to do what Mordekai had written.

24 Yes, Haman (the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite), the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted to annihilate them, and he had thrown a ‘Pur’ (which is ‘lot’ or perhaps ‘dice’) choose the date to crush them and to destroy them. 25 But instead they would remember how Queen Esther stood in front of the king, and how he had said in the letter, “Let his evil plot that he plotted concerning the Jews return on his head, and let them execute him and his sons on the pole.” 26 Therefore they called this celebration ‘Purim’[fn] because of what they had experienced and because of the contents of Mordekai’s letter. 27 The Jews agreed to establish those two days as holidays and to observe them on those specific days as they’d been instructed. They agreed that they and their descendants and everyone who became part of the Jewish people would celebrate it every year. 28 So that’s why every Jewish family in every generation since has celebrated these days as holidays, wherever they live. The Jewish community and its descendants will always faithfully observe this festival of ‘Purim’.

29 Then Queen Esther (the daughter of Abihail), with help from Mordekai the Jew, wrote a second letter about ‘Purim’. 30 He sent this second letter to all the Jews throughout the empire of King Ahasuerus, with words of peace and truth 31 to set up the ‘Purim’ celebration on the given dates according to what Mordekai the Jew and Queen Esther had determined for them. They also confirmed that the Jews should continue the times of fasting and mourning that they had established for themselves and their future descendants. 32 So Esther’s decree confirmed these regulations about ‘Purim’ and they were written into the official record.