The Feast of Purim Inaugurated

¹⁸ But the Jews who were in Susa gathered on the thirteenth day and on the fourteenth and rested on the fifteenth day, making that a day of feasting and gladness.^(A)

²¹ enjoining them that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar and also the fifteenth day of the same month, year by year,

¹⁵ The Jews who were in Susa gathered also on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar, and they killed three hundred persons in Susa, but they did not touch the plunder.^(A)

¹³ Esther said, “If it pleases 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 hung on the pole.”^(A)

Destruction of the Enemies of the Jews

9 Now in the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, on the thirteenth day, when the king’s command and edict were about to be executed, on the very day when the enemies of the Jews hoped to gain power over them but that had been changed to a day when the Jews would gain power over their foes,^(A)

¹¹ That very day the number of those killed in the citadel of Susa was reported to the king.