Dual Panel1ON the thirteenth day of Adar, the twelfth month, the time came for the king's command and decree to be carried out. That very day on which the enemies of the Jews had hoped to triumph over them was to become the day when the Jews should triumph over those who hated them.
2Throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, the Jews assembled in their cities to attack those who had sought to bring disaster on them. None could offer resistance, because fear of them had fallen on all the peoples.
3The rulers of the provinces, the satraps and the governors, and the royal officials all aided the Jews, out of fear of Mordecai,
4for he had become a person of great power in the royal palace, and as the power of the man increased, his fame spread throughout every province.
5The Jews put all their enemies to the sword. There was great slaughter and destruction, and they worked their will on those who hated them.
6In Susa the capital the Jews slaughtered five hundred men;
7and they also put to death Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha,
8Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha,
9Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai, and Vaizatha,
10the ten sons of Haman son of Hammedatha, the persecutor of the Jews; but they took no plunder.
11That day when the number of those killed in Susa was reported to the king,
12he said to Queen Esther, “In Susa the capital the Jews have slaughtered five hundred men; they have killed the ten sons of Haman; what will they have done in the rest of the provinces of the kingdom? Whatever you ask will be given you; whatever further request you have, it will be granted.”
13Esther replied, “If it please your majesty, let the Jews in Susa be permitted tomorrow also to take action according to this day's decree; and let the bodies of Haman's ten sons be hung up on the gallows.”
14The king gave orders for this to be done; the decree was issued in Susa, and Haman's ten sons were hung up on the gallows.
15The Jews in Susa assembled again on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and killed there three hundred men; but they took no plunder.
16The rest of the Jews throughout the king's provinces rallied in self-defence and so had respite from their enemies; they slaughtered seventy-five thousand of those who hated them, but they took no plunder.
17That was on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar; on the fourteenth day they rested and made it a day of feasting and joy.
18The Jews in Susa had assembled on both the thirteenth and fourteenth days of the month; they rested on the fifteenth day and made that a day of feasting and joy.
19This explains why Jews in the countryside who live in remote villages observe the fourteenth day of Adar with joy and feasting as a holiday, sending presents of food to one another.
The feast of Purim
20MORDECAI put these things on record, and he sent letters to all the Jews throughout the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far,
21requiring them to observe annually the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar
22as the days on which the Jews had respite from their enemies; that was the month which was changed for them from sorrow into joy, from a time of mourning to a holiday. They were to observe them as days of feasting and joy, days for sending presents of food to one another and gifts to the poor.
23The Jews undertook to continue the practice that they had begun in accordance with Mordecai's letter.
24This they did because Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted to destroy them and had cast lots -- Pur as it is called -- with intent to crush and destroy them.
25But when the matter came before the king, he issued written orders that the wicked plot which Haman had devised against the Jews should recoil on his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.
26This is why these days were named Purim, from the word Pur. Accordingly, because of all that was written in this letter, because of all they had seen and experienced in this affair,
27the Jews resolved and undertook, on behalf of themselves, their descendants, and all who might join them, to observe without fail these two days as a yearly festival in the prescribed manner and at the appointed time;
28further, that these days were to be remembered and celebrated throughout all generations, in every family, province, and city, so that the observance of the days of Purim should never lapse among the Jews, and the commemoration of them should never cease among their descendants.
29Queen Esther daughter of Abihail gave full authority in writing to Mordecai the Jew, to confirm this second letter about Purim.
30Letters to ensure peace and security were sent to all the Jews in the one hundred and twenty-seven provinces of King Ahasuerus,
31requiring the observance of these days of Purim at their appointed time, as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had prescribed for them, and in the same way as regulations for fasts and lamentations were prescribed for themselves and for their descendants.
32By the command of Esther these regulations for Purim were confirmed and put in writing.