²⁸ All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father said to them when he blessed them, blessing each one of them with a suitable blessing.^(A)

⁴ And I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred forty-four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the people of Israel:^(A)

⁷ a promise that our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly worship day and night. It is for this hope, Your Excellency,^[a] that I am accused by Jews!^(A)

⁸ It has come! It has happened, says the Lord God. This is the day of which I have spoken.

⁹ Then those who live in the towns of Israel will go out and make fires of the weapons and burn them—bucklers and shields, bows and arrows, clubs and spears—and they will make fires of them for seven years.^{(A) 10} They will not need to take wood out of the field or cut down any trees in the forests, for they will make their fires of the weapons; they will despoil those who despoiled them and plunder those who plundered them, says the Lord God.^(B)

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 By these letters the king allowed the Jews who were in every city to assemble and defend their lives, to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate any armed force of any people or province that might attack them, their children, and their women, and to plunder their goods^(A)

⁹ The king’s secretaries were summoned at that time, in the third month, which is the month of Sivan, on the twenty-third day, and an edict was written, according to all that Mordecai commanded, to the Jews and to the satraps and the governors and the officials of the provinces from India to Cush, one hundred twenty-seven provinces, to every province in its own script and to every people in its own language, and also to the Jews in their script and their language.^(A)

⁷ Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, “See, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and they have hung him on the pole because he plotted to kill^[a] the Jews.^(A)

³¹ Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord came, saying, “Israel shall be your name”;^(A)