1
And in the twelfth month— that is, the month Adar— on the thirteenth day of it, when the Word of the King and his decree drew near to be carried out, on the day when the enemies of the Yehudim hoped to rule over them, the matter was overturned, and the Yehudim ruled over those who hated them.
2
The Yehudim assembled themselves in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Achashverosh, to stretch out their hand against those who sought their evil. And no ish could stand before them, for fear of them had fallen upon all the peoples.
3
And all the rulers of the provinces, and the satraps, and the governors, and those who performed the king’s work supported the Yehudim, for fear of Mordekhai had fallen upon them.
4
For Mordekhai was great in the house of the king, and the report of him went throughout all the provinces. For the ish Mordekhai grew greater and greater.
5
And the Yehudim struck all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, with slaughter and destruction, and they did to those who hated them according to what was good in their eyes.
6
And in Shushan the citadel the Yehudim killed and destroyed five hundred ish.
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And Parshandatha, and Dalphon, and Aspatha,
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and Poratha, and Adalya, and Aridatha,
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and Parmashta, and Arisai, and Aridai, and Vaizatha—
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the ten sons of Haman son of Hammedatha, the adversary of the Yehudim— they killed. But upon the plunder they did not stretch out their hand.
11
On that day the number of those killed in Shushan the citadel came before the king.
12
And the king said to Queen Ester: “In Shushan the citadel the Yehudim have killed and destroyed five hundred ish, and the ten sons of Haman. What then have they done in the rest of the king’s provinces? Now what is your petition? It shall be given to you. And what further is your request? It shall be done.”
13
And Ester said: “If it is good before the king, let it be given to the Yehudim who are in Shushan to do tomorrow also according to the decree of this day, and let the ten sons of Haman be hanged upon the tree.”
14
And the king commanded that it be done so. And the decree was given in Shushan, and they hanged the ten sons of Haman.
15
And the Yehudim who were in Shushan assembled themselves also on the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and they killed three hundred ish in Shushan. But upon the plunder they did not stretch out their hand.
16
And the rest of the Yehudim who were in the king’s provinces assembled themselves and stood for their lives, and obtained rest from their enemies. And they killed among those who hated them seventy-five thousand. But upon the plunder they did not stretch out their hand.
17
This was on the thirteenth day of the month Adar. And on the fourteenth day of it they rested, and made it a day of feasting and joy.
18
But the Yehudim who were in Shushan assembled themselves on the thirteenth day and on the fourteenth day, and on the fifteenth day they rested, and made it a day of feasting and joy.
19
Therefore the Yehudim of the villages, who dwell in unwalled towns, make the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of joy and feasting, a good day, and of sending portions one ish to his companion.
20
And Mordekhai wrote these matters and sent sefarim to all the Yehudim who were in all the provinces of King Achashverosh, near and far,
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to establish among them that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar and the fifteenth day of it year by year,
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as the days in which the Yehudim obtained rest from their enemies, and the month which was turned for them from grief to joy, and from mourning to a good day. They were to make them days of feasting and joy, and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor.
23
And the Yehudim received what they had begun to do, and what Mordekhai had written to them.
24
For Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the adversary of all the Yehudim, had devised against the Yehudim to destroy them, and had cast Pur— that is, the lot— to crush them and destroy them.
25
But when Ester came before the king, he commanded by sefer that Haman’s evil scheme which he had devised against the Yehudim should return upon his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged upon the tree.
26
Therefore they called these days Purim, after the name of Pur. Therefore, because of all the words of this sefer, and because of what they themselves had seen concerning this, and what had reached them,
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the Yehudim established and received for themselves, and for their seed, and for all who joined themselves to them, that it should not pass away: that they should keep these two days according to their writing and according to their appointed time, year by year.
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And these days were to be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city. And these days of Purim should not pass away from among the Yehudim, nor should their remembrance come to an end from their seed.
29
Then Queen Ester, daughter of Avichayil, and Mordekhai the Yehudi wrote with all authority to establish this second sefer of Purim.
30
And he sent sefarim to all the Yehudim throughout the one hundred and twenty-seven provinces of the Kingdom of Achashverosh, words of shalom and truth,
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to establish these days of Purim at their appointed times, just as Mordekhai the Yehudi and Queen Ester had established them, and just as they had established for themselves and for their seed the matters of fasting and their cries.
32
And the command of Ester established these matters of Purim, and it was written in a sefer.