Esther 9:1-17

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

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) 2} the Jews gathered in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus to kill^[a] those who had sought their ruin, and no one could withstand them, because the fear of them had fallen upon all peoples.^{(B) 3} All the officials of the provinces, the satraps and the governors, and the royal officials were supporting the Jews because the fear of Mordecai had fallen upon them.^{(C) 4} For Mordecai was powerful in the king’s palace, and his fame spread throughout all the provinces, because the man Mordecai was growing more and more powerful.^{(D) 5} So the Jews struck down all their enemies with the sword, slaughtering 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 people. ⁷ They 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, but they did not touch the plunder.^(E)

¹¹ That very day the number of those killed 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 people and the ten sons of Haman. What have they done in the rest of the king’s provinces? Now what is your petition? It shall be granted you. And what further is your request? It shall be fulfilled.”^{(F) 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.”^{(G) 14} So the king commanded this to be done; a decree was issued in Susa, and the ten sons of Haman were hung. 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.^(H)

¹⁶ Now the other Jews who were in the king’s provinces also gathered to defend their lives and gained relief from their enemies and killed seventy-five thousand of those who hated them, but they laid no hands on the plunder.^{(I) 17} This was on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, and on the fourteenth day they rested and made that a day of feasting and gladness.^(J)