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BibleCompass

/Chapter 9

9 / 10

Esther

ESV

Chapter 9

¹Now in the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, on the thirteenth day of the month, when the king’s command and his edict were about to be carried out, on the very day when the enemies of the Jews hoped to gain the mastery over them, the reverse occurred: the Jews gained mastery over those who hated them. ²The Jews gathered in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus to lay hands on those who sought their harm. And no one could stand against them, for the fear of them had fallen on all peoples. ³All the officials of the provinces, the satraps, the governors, and the royal agents helped the Jews, because the fear of Mordecai had fallen on them. ⁴For Mordecai was great in the king’s house, and his fame spread throughout all the provinces, for the man Mordecai grew more and more powerful. ⁵So the Jews struck all their enemies with the sword, killing and destroying them, and did as they pleased to those who hated them. ⁶In Susa the citadel the Jews killed and destroyed 500 men, ⁷and Parshandatha and Dalphon and Aspatha ⁸and Poratha and Adalia and Aridatha ⁹and Parmashta and Arisai and Aridai and Vajezatha, ¹⁰the ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews, they killed, but they laid no hand on the plunder. ¹¹That very day the number of those killed in Susa the citadel was reported to the king. ¹²And the king said to Queen Esther, “In Susa the citadel the Jews have killed and destroyed 500 men and also the ten sons of Haman. What then have they done in the rest of the king’s provinces? Now what is your wish? It shall be granted you. And what further is your request? It shall be fulfilled.” ¹³Then Esther said, “If it please the king, let the Jews who are in Susa be allowed tomorrow also to do according to this day’s edict. And let the ten sons of Haman be hanged on the gallows.” ¹⁴So the king commanded this to be done. A decree was issued in Susa, and the ten sons of Haman were hanged. ¹⁵The Jews who were in Susa gathered also on the fourteenth day of the month Adar and they killed 300 men in Susa, but they laid no hands on the plunder. ¹⁶Now the rest of the Jews who were in the king’s provinces also gathered to defend their lives, and got relief from their enemies and killed 75,000 of those who hated them, but they laid no hands on the plunder. ¹⁷This was on the thirteenth day of the month Adar, and on the fourteenth day they rested and made it a day of feasting and gladness. ¹⁸But the Jews who were in Susa gathered on the thirteenth day and on the fourteenth, and rested on the fifteenth day, making it a day of feasting and gladness. ¹⁹Therefore the Jews of the villages, who live in the open towns, hold the fourteenth day of the month Adar as a day for gladness and feasting, as a holiday, and for sending gifts of food to one another. ²⁰And Mordecai recorded these things and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far, ²¹obliging them to keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar and also the fifteenth day of the same, year by year, ²²as the days on which the Jews got relief from their enemies, and as the month that had been turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days for sending gifts of food to one another and gifts to the poor. ²³So the Jews accepted what they had started to do, and what Mordecai had written to them. ²⁴For Haman the Agagite, the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast Pur—that is, the lot—to crush and destroy them. ²⁵But when it came before the king, he gave orders in writing that his evil plan that he had devised against the Jews should return on his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows. ²⁶Therefore they called these days Purim, from the term Pur. And so, because of all that was written in this letter, and because of what they had seen concerning this matter and what had happened to them, ²⁷the Jews firmly obligated themselves and their offspring and all who joined them, that without fail every year they would keep these two days according to their written order and at their appointed time, ²⁸that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, in every clan, province, and city, and that these days of Purim should never fall into disuse among the Jews, nor should the commemoration of them cease among their descendants. ²⁹Then Queen Esther, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, gave full written authority to confirm this second letter about Purim. ³⁰He sent letters to all the Jews, to the 127 provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, in words of peace and truth, ³¹that these days of Purim should be observed at their appointed times, as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had obligated them, and as they had obligated themselves and their offspring, with regard to their fasts and their lamenting. ³²The command of Esther confirmed these practices of Purim, and it was written in a book.