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the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, the king’s command and edict was carried out. So on the very day when the enemies of the Jews had hoped to overpowered them, the very opposite happened, and the Jews overpowered those who hated them. 2 The Jews assembled in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus to attack those who had sought to harm them. No one could make a stand against them, because fear of the Jews had fallen on all people of the other nationalities. 3 All the officials of the provinces, the satraps, the governors, and the officials of the king helped the Jews, because the fear of Mordecai had seized them. 4 For Mordecai had become prominent in the king’s palace, and his fame spread throughout the provinces. So the man Mordecai became more and more powerful.
5 The Jews struck down all their enemies with the sword, killing and destroying them, and did as they pleased to those who hated them. 6 In the citadel of Susa the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men, 7 They also killed Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha, 8 Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha, 9 Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai, and Vaizatha, 10 the ten sons of Haman son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews. However they did not lay their hands on any of the plunder.
11 On that day the number of those who were slain in the citadel of Susa was reported to the king. 12 The king said to Queen Esther, “In the citadel of Susa the Jews have killed and destroyed five hundred men and the ten sons of Haman. What have they done in the rest of the king’s provinces? Now what is your petition? It will be granted you. Or what is your further request? It will also be granted.”
13 Esther answered, “If it pleases the king, give permission to the Jews in Susa to carry out the edict tomorrow also, and let Haman’s ten sons be hanged on the gallows.”
14 So the king commanded that this be done. An edict was issued in Susa, and they hanged the ten sons of Haman. 15 The Jews in Susa also came together on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and killed three hundred men at Susa, but they did not lay their hands on the plunder.
16 At that time, the remainder of the Jews who were in the king’s provinces also assembled together to defend themselves and get relief from their enemies. They killed seventy-five thousand of those who hated them, but they did not lay their hands on any plunder. 17 This happened on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, and on the fourteenth day they rested and made that a day of feasting and rejoicing.
18 But the Jews in Susa had assembled on the thirteenth day and the fourteenth day of the month, and then on the fifteenth day they rested, and made it a day of feasting and rejoicing.
19 This is why the Jews living in the rural and remote villages celebrate the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a day of feasting and rejoicing, and a day when they give gifts to each other.
20 Mordecai recorded these events and sent letters to all the Jews throughout the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far, 21 to establish among them that they should celebrate annually the fourteen and fifteenth days of the month of Adar, 22 as the days on which the Jews got relief from their enemies, and as the month when their sorrow was turned into rejoicing and their mourning into a joyful day of celebration. They were to be days of feasting and rejoicing, and of sending gifts of food to one another and to the poor.
23 So the Jews agreed to continue the custom they had adopted, doing what Mordecai had written them to do. 24 For Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast the Pur (that is, the lot) to crush them and to destroy them. 25 But when the plot was brought to the king’s attention, he commanded by letter that the evil scheme Haman had devised against the Jews should come back on his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows. 26 For this reason these days are called Purim, from the word Pur. Because of everything written in this letter and because of what they had witnessed and what had happened to them, 27 the Jews bound established and accepted the custom that they and their descendants and all who would join with them would not fail to celebrate these two days every year according to the written instructions and at the time appointed. 28 These days should be remembered and kept in every generation by every family, and in every province and in every city. And these days of Purim should never be neglected or abandoned from Jewish life, nor should the memory of them fade our among their descendants.
29 So Queen Esther, daughter of Abihail, along with Mordecai the Jew, wrote with full authority to confirm this second letter about Purim. 30 Mordecai sent letters to all the Jews in the 127 provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, with words of peace and faithfulness, 31 to establish these days of Purim at their appointed times, just as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had established for them, and as they had decreed for themselves and their descendants in regard to their times of fasting and lamentation. 32 So the decree of Esther confirmed these regulations about Purim, and it was written down in the records.