The Jews Destroy Their Enemies

1And in the twelfth month (this the month Adar) in the thirteenth day in it, when the word of the king drew near, and his edict to do in the day that the enemies of the Jews expected to have power over them, (and it was turned that these Jews will have power over those hating them:) 2The Jews were gathered together in their cities in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, to stretch forth the hand upon those seeking their evil: and a man stood not before them, for their fear fell upon all the peoples. 3And all the chiefs of the provinces, and the satraps, and the prefects, and those doing the work that was for the king, were lifting up with the Jews; for the fear of Mordecai fell upon them: 4For great was Mordecai in the house of the king, and his fame went into all the provinces: for the man Mordecai went and was magnified. 5And the Jews will strike against all their enemies with the blow of the sword, and killing and destruction; and they will do according to their desire upon those hating them. 6And in Shushan the fortress the Jews slew and destroyed five hundred men. 7Parshandatha and Dalphon, and Aspatha, 8And Poratha, and Adalia, and Aridatha, 9And Parmashta, and Arisai, and Aridai, and Vajezatha, 10The ten sons of Haman son of Hammedatha, the Jews enemy, they slew; and upon the prey they stretched not out their hand.

Haman’s Sons Hanged

11In that day came the number of those slain in Shushan the fortress before the king.

12And the king will say to Esther the queen, In Shushan the fortress the Jews slew and destroyed five hundred men, and the ten sons of Haman: in the rest of the king's provinces what did they? and what thy asking? and it shall be given to thee: and what more thy seeking? and it shall be done. 13And Esther will say, If good to the king, it shall be given also to-morrow to the Jews that are in Shusan to do according to the edict of the day, and they shall hang Haman's ten sons upon the tree. 14And the king will say to do this. And the edict will be given in Shushan; and they hung the ten sons of Haman. 15For the Jews that were in Shushan will gather together also in the fourteenth day to the month Adar, and they will kill in Shushan three hundred men; and upon the prey they sent not the hand.

16And the rest of the Jews which were in the king's provinces gathered together and stood for their soul, and rested from their enemies, and slew among their enemies five and seventy thousand; and upon the prey they sent not their hand. 17In the thirteenth day to the month Adar, and resting in the fourteenth in it, and making it a day of drinking and gladness.

The Feast of Purim Instituted

18And the Jews that were in Shushan were assembled in the thirteenth in it, and in the fourteenth in it; and resting in the fifteenth in it, and making it a day of drinking and gladness. 19For this the Jews of the villages and in cities of the open country making the fourteenth day to the month Adar, gladness and drinking, and a good day, and sending portions a man to his neighbor.

20And Mordecai will write these words, and send letters to all the Jews that were in all the king Ahasuerus's provinces, near and far off, 21To set up to them to be doing the fourteenth day to the month Adar, and the fifteenth day in it, in every year and year, 22As the days which the Jews rested in them from their enemies, and the month that was turned to them from grief to gladness, and from mourning to a good day, to make them days of drinking and gladness, and sending portions a man to his neighbor, and gifts to the needy.

23And the Jews admitting what they began to do, and what Mordecai wrote to them. 24For Haman son of Hammedatha the Amite, oppressing all the Jews, purposed against the Jews to destroy them, and he cast Pur (this the lot) to discomfit them and to destroy them; 25And in her coming before the king, he said by letter he will turn back his purpose of evil that he purposed against the Jews upon his head: and they hung him and his sons upon the tree. 26For this they called to these days Purim, for the name of Pur. For this upon all the words of this epistle, and What they saw upon this, and what came to them, 27The Jews set up and admitted upon them, and upon their seed, and upon all joining themselves to them, and they shall not pass by to be doing these two days according to their writing, and according to their time in every year and year; 28And these days being remembered and done in every generation and generation, family and family, province and province, city and city; and these days of the lots shall not pass by from the midst of the Jews, and their remembrance shall not be ended from their seed.

29And Esther the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, will write with all power to set up the epistle of Purim, this second. 30And he will send the letter to all the Jews, to the seventy and twenty and a hundred provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, words of peace and truth, 31To set up these days of Purim in their times, as Mordecai the Jew set up to them, and Esther the queen, and as they set up for their souls and for their seed, the words of fastings and their cry: 32And the saying of Esther set up these words of Purim; and it was written in the book.