9 The time approached for the king’s order and decree to be carried out, the day when the enemies of the Jews hoped to overpower them. But, as it turned out, the opposite took place — the Jews overpowered those who hated them. Thus, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, ² the Jews assembled in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Achashverosh to attack anyone who tried to do them harm; and no one was able to withstand them; because all the peoples were afraid of them. ³ All the officials of the provinces, the army commanders, the governors and those occupied with the king’s affairs helped the Jews; because they were afraid of Mordekhai. ⁴ For Mordekhai had become a powerful person in the king’s palace, and his fame had spread through all the provinces; Mordekhai continued to grow increasingly powerful.

⁵ The Jews put all their enemies to the sword; there was great slaughter and destruction, as they did whatever they wanted to those who hated them; ⁶ in Shushan the capital, the Jews slaughtered 500 men. ^7-10 They put to death the ten sons of Haman the son of Hamdata, the enemy of the Jews — Parshandata, Dalfon, Aspata, Porata, Adalya, Aridata, Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai and Vaizata. But they did not touch the spoil.

¹¹ The same day, after the king had been told the number of those killed in Shushan the capital, ¹² he said to Ester the queen, “If the Jews have slaughtered 500 men in Shushan the capital and the ten sons of Haman, what have they done in the rest of the royal provinces! Now, whatever your request, you will be granted it; whatever more you want, it will be done.” ¹³ Ester replied, “If it pleases the king, let the Jews in Shushan act again tomorrow in accordance with today’s decree; also have Haman’s ten sons hanged on the gallows.” ¹⁴ The king ordered these things done — a decree was issued in Shushan, and they hanged Haman’s ten sons. ¹⁵ So the Jews in Shushan assembled also on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and killed 300 men in Shushan, but they did not touch the spoil.

¹⁶ The other Jews, those in the royal provinces, had assembled, defended their lives and won rest from their enemies, killing 75,000 of those who hated them, but without touching the spoil, ¹⁷ on the thirteenth day of the month Adar. So on the fourteenth day of Adar they rested and made it a holiday for celebrating and rejoicing. ¹⁸ However, the Jews of Shushan assembled on both the thirteenth and fourteenth days of Adar, so it was on the fifteenth that they rested and made it a holiday for celebrating and rejoicing. ¹⁹ This is why the Jews of the villages, those who live in unwalled towns, make the fourteenth day of the month of Adar a day for celebrating and rejoicing, a holiday and a time for sending each other portions [of food].

²⁰ Mordekhai recorded these events and sent letters to all the Jews in all the provinces of King Achashverosh, both near and far, ²¹ instructing them to observe the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and the fifteenth day, every year, ²² [to commemorate] the days on which the Jews obtained rest from their enemies and the month which for them was turned from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday; they were to make them days of celebrating and rejoicing, sending portions [of food] to each other and giving gifts to the poor.

²³ So the Jews took it upon themselves to continue what they had already begun to do, and as Mordekhai had written to them; ²⁴ because Haman the son of Hamdata the Agagi, the enemy of the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them and had thrown pur (that is, “cast lots”) to crush and destroy them; ²⁵ but when Ester came before the king, he ordered by letters that [Haman’s] wicked scheme, which he had plotted against the Jews, should recoil on his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows. ²⁶ This is why these days have been called Purim, after the word pur. Thus, because of everything written in this letter, and what they had seen concerning this matter, and what had come upon them, ²⁷ the Jews resolved and took upon themselves, their descendants and all who might join them that without fail they would observe these two days in accordance with what was written in [this letter] and at the appointed time, every year; ²⁸ and that these days would be remembered and observed throughout every generation, every family, every province and every city; and that these days of Purim would never cease among the Jews or their memory be lost by their descendants.

²⁹ Then Ester the queen, the daughter of Avichayil, and Mordekhai the Jew, gave full written authority to confirm a second letter about Purim. ³⁰ He sent copies of it to all the Jews, to the 127 provinces of the kingdom of Achashverosh, ensuring their peace and security ³¹ and requiring the observance of these days of Purim at their designated times, as Mordekhai the Jew and Ester the queen had enjoined them, and as they had established for themselves and their descendants concerning the matters of fasting and lamenting. ³² At Ester’s order these matters of Purim were confirmed and put in writing in the book.

10 King Achashverosh laid tribute on the land, the coasts and the islands. ² All the acts of his power and might, along with a full account of the high honor to which the king advanced Mordekhai, are written in the Annals of the Kings of Media and Persia. ³ For Mordekhai the Jew was second only to King Achashverosh; he was a great man among the Jews, popular with all his many countrymen. He sought the good of his people and interceded for the welfare of all their descendants.

7 The cohen hagadol asked, “Are these accusations true?” ² and Stephen said:

“Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to Avraham avinu in Mesopotamia before he lived in Haran ³ and said to him, ‘Leave your land and your family, and go into the land that I will show you.’^{[a] 4} So he left the land of the Kasdim and lived in Haran. After his father died, God made him move to this land where you are living now. ⁵ He gave him no inheritance in it, not even space for one foot;^[b] yet he promised to give it to him as a possession and to his descendants after him,^[c] even though at the time he was childless. ⁶ What God said to him was, ‘Your descendants will be aliens in a foreign land, where they will be in slavery and oppressed for four hundred years. ⁷ But I will judge the nation that enslaves them,’ God said, ‘and afterwards they will leave and worship me in this place.’^{[d] 8} And he gave him b’rit-milah. So he became the father of Yitz’chak and did his b’rit-milah on the eighth day, and Yitz’chak became the father of Ya‘akov, and Ya‘akov became the father of the Twelve Patriarchs.

⁹ “Now the Patriarchs grew jealous of Yosef and sold him into slavery in Egypt. But Adonai was with him;^{[e] 10} he rescued him from all his troubles and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who appointed him chief administrator over Egypt and over all his household.^{[f] 11} Now there came a famine that caused much suffering throughout Egypt and Kena‘an^{[g] 12} But when Ya‘akov heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers there the first time. ¹³ The second time, Yosef revealed his identity to his brothers,^[h] and Yosef’s family became known to Pharaoh. ¹⁴ Yosef then sent for his father Ya‘akov and all his relatives, seventy-five people. ¹⁵ And Ya‘akov went down to Egypt; there he died, as did our other ancestors. ¹⁶ Their bodies were removed to Sh’khem and buried in the tomb Avraham had bought from the family of Hamor in Sh’khem for a certain sum of money.

¹⁷ “As the time drew near for the fulfillment of the promise God had made to Avraham, the number of our people in Egypt increased greatly, ¹⁸ until there arose another king over Egypt who had no knowledge of Yosef.^{[i] 19} With cruel cunning this man forced our fathers to put their newborn babies outside their homes, so that they would not survive.

²⁰ “It was then that Moshe was born, and he was beautiful in God’s sight. For three months he was reared in his father’s house; ²¹ and when he was put out of his home, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and brought him up as her own son.