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.