The king issued a decree to save the Jews

8 Later on that same day, King Xerxes declared that everything that Haman, the enemy of the Jews, owned, would now belong to Queen Esther. Esther told the king that Mordecai was her cousin. When the king heard that, he sent a message to tell Mordecai to come in. 2 When Mordecai came in, the king took off the ring that had his official seal on it, the ring that he had previously given to Haman, and gave it to Mordecai, to indicate that Mordecai was now his most important official. And Esther appointed Mordecai to be in charge of everything that had belonged to Haman.

3 Esther again came to talk to the king. She prostrated herself at his feet, crying. She wanted to plead for him to stop what Haman had planned, to kill all the Jews. 4 The king held out his gold scepter/staff toward Esther, so Esther arose and stood in front of him. 5 She said, “Your majesty, if you are pleased with me, and if you think that it is the right thing to do, make a new law to cancel what Haman decreed, that all the Jews in all the provinces in your empire should be killed. 6 I cannot bear seeing all my family and all the rest of my people killed.” 7 King Xerxes replied to Queen Esther and Mordecai, “Because Haman tried to get rid of all the Jews, I have given to Esther everything that belonged to Haman, and I have ordered my soldiers to hang Haman. 8 So now I am also permitting you to write other letters, to save your people. You may put my name on the letters, and use my ring to seal them because no letter that has my name on it and which is sealed with my ring can ever be changed.” 9 Then the king summoned his secretaries, on June 25th, and Mordecai told them to write letters to the Jews and to all the governors and other officials in all of the 127 provinces, which extended from India in the east to Ethiopia in the west. They wrote these letters in all the languages that the people in each area spoke. They also wrote letters to the Jewish people, in their language. 10-11 10-11They wrote in those letters that the Jews in every city were permitted by the king to gather together to protect themselves. They also were permitted to kill any group of soldiers who attacked them. They were also permitted to kill the women and children of those who attacked them, and to take the possessions of the people whom they killed. 12 All this was to be done on March 7th of the following year. Mordecai signed the king’s name on the letters, and sealed them with the seal that was on the king’s ring. Then he gave them to messengers, who rode on fast horses that had been raised especially for the king. 13 Copies of this law were to be nailed to posts in every province and read to all the people, in order that the Jews would be ready to ◄get revenge on/fight against► their enemies on March 7th. 14 The king commanded the men who took these letters to all the provinces to ride quickly on the king’s horses. And copies of the letter were also posted and read to the people in the capital city, Susa. 15 Before Mordecai left the palace, he put on the blue and white robe and a large gold crown that the king had given him. He also put on a coat made of fine purple cloth. When the people in Susa heard the new law, they all shouted and cheered. 16 The Jews in Susa were very happy, and other people honored them. 17 And when the new law arrived in every city and province, the Jews there celebrated and prepared feasts and were very joyful. And many men throughout the empire were circumcised and became Jews, because they were now afraid of what the Jews would do to them if they were not Jews.

9 The first law that the king had commanded was to be made effective on March 7th. On that day the enemies of the Jews hoped to get rid of them. But instead, on that same day the Jews defeated their enemies. 2 Throughout the empire, the Jews gathered together in their cities to attack those who wanted to get rid of them. No one could fight against the Jews, because all the other people in the areas where the Jews lived were afraid of them, so they did not want to help anyone who attacked the Jews. 3 All the governors and other officials and important people in all the provinces helped the Jews, because they were afraid of Mordecai. 4 They were afraid of him because in all the provinces they knew that Mordecai was now the king’s most important official, with the authority that Haman previously had. Mordecai was becoming more famous because the king was giving him more and more power. 5 On March 7th, the Jews attacked and killed with their swords all of their enemies. They did whatever they wanted to do, to the people who hated them. 6 Just in Susa alone, the capital city, they killed 500 people. 7 Among those whom they killed were the ten sons of Haman. Their names were Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha, 8 Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha, 9 Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai, and Vaizatha. 10 Those were grandsons of Hammedatha and sons of Haman, the enemy of the Jews. The Jews killed them, but they did not take the things that belonged to the people whom they killed. 11 At the end of that day someone reported to the king the number of people whom the Jews killed in Susa. 12 Then the king said to Queen Esther, “The Jews have killed 500 people here in Susa, including the ten sons of Haman! So I think that they must have killed many more people in the rest of my empire [RHQ]! But okay, now what else do you want me to do for you. You tell me, and I will do it.” 13 Esther replied, “If it pleases you, allow the Jews here in Susa to do again tomorrow what you commanded them to do today. And command that the bodies of Haman’s ten sons be hanged on the gallows/poles.” 14 So the king commanded that the Jews be permitted to kill more of their enemies the next day. After he issued another order in Susa, the bodies of Haman’s ten sons were hanged. 15 On the next day, the Jews in Susa gathered together and killed 300 more people. But again, they did not take the things that belonged to the people whom they killed. 16 That happened on March 8th. On the following day, the Jews in Susa rested and celebrated. In all the other provinces, the Jewish people gathered together to defend themselves, and they killed 75,000 people who hated them, but again they did not take the things that belonged to the people whom they killed. 17 That occurred on March 7th, and on the following day they rested and celebrated. 18 After the Jews in Susa gathered together and killed their enemies on March 7th and 8th, they rested and celebrated on March 9th. 19 That is why every year, on March 8th, the Jews who live in villages now celebrate defeating their enemies. They have feasts and give gifts of food to each other. 20 Mordecai wrote down all the things that had happened. Then he sent letters to the Jews who lived throughout the empire of King Xerxes. 21 He told them that every year they should celebrate on the 8th and 9th of March, 22 because those were the days when the Jews got rid of their enemies. He also told them that they should celebrate on those days by feasting and giving gifts of food to each other and to poor people. They would remember it as the month in which they changed from being very sorrowful to being very joyful, from crying to celebrating. 23 So the Jews agreed to do what Mordecai wrote. They agreed to celebrate on those days every year. 24 They would remember how Haman, son of Hammedatha, a descendant of King Agag, became an enemy of all the Jews. They would remember how he had made an evil plan to kill the Jews, and that he had ◄cast lots/thrown small marked stones► to choose the day to kill [DOU] them. 25 They would remember that when Esther told the king about Haman’s plan, the king arranged that the evil plan that Haman had made to kill the Jews would fail, and that he would be killed instead of the Jews, and that Haman and that his sons were hanged. 26 Because the ◄lot/small marked stone► that Haman threw was called Pur, the Jews called these days Purim. And, because of everything that ◄Mordecai wrote/was written► in that letter, and because of all that happened to them, 27 the Jews throughout the empire agreed to celebrate in that manner on those two days every year. They said that they would tell their descendants and those people who became Jews to be certain to celebrate this festival every year. They should celebrate just as Mordecai told them to do in the letter that he wrote. 28 They said that they would remember and celebrate on those two days every year, in each family, in every city, and in every province. They solemnly declared that they and their descendants would never stop remembering and celebrating those days called Purim. 29 Then Mordecai and Queen Esther, who was the daughter of Abihail, wrote a second letter about the Purim feast. Esther used the authority that she had because of being the queen to confirm that what Mordecai had written in the first letter was true. 30-31 30-31What they wrote in the second letter was, “We wish that all of you will be living peacefully and safely/righteously. We want you and your descendants to celebrate Purim each year on the days that we two established, and to do the things that we two told you to do.” In that letter, Queen Esther and Mordecai also gave them instructions about ◄fasting/abstaining from eating food► and being sorrowful. Then copies of that letter were sent to all the Jews who were living in the 127 provinces of the empire. 32 The letter that Esther wrote about the manner in which they should celebrate the Purim feast was also written in an official record.

10 King Xerxes required that all the people in his empire pay taxes. Even the people who lived on the islands in the Mediterranean Sea (OR, in coastal areas) were required to pay taxes. 2 And all the great and powerful things that Xerxes did were written in the scroll called/entitled ‘The record of the things done by the kings of Media and Persia’. In this book were also written the things done by Mordecai, the man whom the king had greatly honored. 3 Mordecai, who was a Jew, became the king’s most important official, and all the Jews also considered him to be a very great man. They all respected him, because he did many good things for the Jews, and he often asked the king to do good things for them.