Esther 9 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
On the thirteenth day of the twelfth month — the month of Adar — when the king's command and decree were to be carried out, on the very day the enemies of the Jewish people had expected to overpower them, the were the Jewish people overpowered those who hated them.
The Jewish people assembled in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus to fight against those who wanted to destroy them. No one could stand against them, because fear of them had fallen on all the peoples.
All the officials of the provinces — the governors, the regional leaders, and the king's administrators — supported the Jewish people, because fear of Mordecai had fallen on them.
Mordecai had become in the royal palace, and his reputation spread throughout all the provinces. The man Mordecai more and more
The Jewish people struck down all their enemies with the sword, killing and destroying them, and did whatever they wanted to those who hated them.
In the fortified palace of Susa alone, the Jewish people killed and destroyed five hundred men.
They also killed Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha,
Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha,
Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai, and Vaizatha —
the ten sons of Haman son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jewish people. But they did not
That same day, the number of people killed in the fortified palace of Susa was reported to the king.
The king said to Queen Esther, "In the fortified palace of Susa alone, the Jewish people have killed five hundred men plus Haman's ten sons. What must they have done in the rest of the royal provinces! Now — what else do you want? It will be granted. What more do you ask for? It will be done."
Esther said, "If it pleases the king, let the Jewish people in Susa carry out tomorrow also what was decreed for today. And let Haman's ten sons be on
The king ordered this to be done. The decree was issued in Susa, and Haman's ten sons were impaled.
The Jewish people in Susa assembled again on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and killed three hundred men in Susa. But they did not seize any plunder.
The rest of the Jewish people throughout the king's provinces also assembled to defend their lives. They from their and killed seventy-five thousand of those who hated them. But they did not seize any plunder.
This happened on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar. On the fourteenth day, they rested and made it a day of feasting and celebration.
But the Jewish people in Susa had assembled on both the thirteenth and the fourteenth, so they rested on the fifteenth and made it a day of feasting and celebration.
That's why Jewish people in the rural areas — those living in unwalled towns — celebrate the fourteenth day of Adar as a day of celebration and feasting, a holiday when they of to
Mordecai recorded all these events and sent letters to all the Jewish people throughout King Ahasuerus's provinces, both near and far.
He established for them the annual celebration of the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar,
as the days when the Jewish people found relief from their enemies, and the month that was for them from to and from mourning to a holiday. They should observe these days with feasting and sending gifts of food to one another and to the
The Jewish people agreed to continue the celebrations they had already started, doing what Mordecai had written to them.
Because Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite — the enemy of all the Jewish people — had plotted against the Jewish people to destroy them, and had cast (that is, the lot) to crush and destroy them.
But when it came before the king, he issued a written decree that the evil plan Haman had devised against the Jewish people should come back on his own head — and they impaled him and his sons on stakes.
That's why these days are called — from the word Pur. Because of everything written in this letter, and what they had experienced and what had happened to them,
the Jewish people established and committed themselves — along with their descendants and everyone who joined them — to celebrate these two days every year in the prescribed way and at the appointed time, without fail.
These days would be remembered and celebrated by every generation, every family, every province, and every city. These days of Purim would never stop being observed among the Jewish people, and the memory of them would never die out among their descendants.
Queen Esther, the daughter of Abihail, along with Mordecai the Jew, wrote with full authority to confirm this second letter about Purim.
Letters were sent to all the Jewish people in the one hundred and twenty-seven provinces of Ahasuerus's kingdom — words of and —
to confirm these days of Purim at their appointed times, just as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had established for them, and just as they had committed themselves and their descendants to observe the and associated with them.
Esther's command confirmed these regulations about Purim, and it was written down in the official record.