The King Plans to Honor Mordecai

6 On that night ^[a]the king could not sleep; so he ordered that the book of records and memorable deeds, the chronicles, be brought, and they were read before the king. ² It was found written there how Mordecai had reported that Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs who were doorkeepers, had planned to ^[b]attack King Ahasuerus (Xerxes). ³ The king said, “What honor or distinction has been given Mordecai for this?” Then the king’s servants who attended him said, “Nothing has been done for him.” ⁴ So the king said, “Who is in the court?” Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the king’s palace to ask the king about ^[c]hanging Mordecai on the gallows which he had prepared for him. ⁵ The king’s servants said to him, “Look, Haman is standing in the court.” And the king said, “Let him come in.” ⁶ So Haman came in and the king said to him, “What is to be done for the man whom the king desires to honor?” Now Haman thought ^[d]to himself, “Whom would the king desire to honor more than me?” ⁷ So Haman said to the king, “For the man whom the king desires to honor, ⁸ let a royal robe be brought which the king has worn, and the horse on which the king has ridden, and on whose head a royal crown has been placed; ⁹ and let the robe and the horse be handed over to one of the king’s most noble officials. Let him dress the man whom the king delights to honor [in the royal robe] and lead him on horseback through the open square of the city, and proclaim before him, ‘This is what shall be done for the man whom the king desires to honor.’”

Haman Must Honor Mordecai

¹⁰ Then the king said to Haman, “Quickly take the royal robe and the horse, as you have said, and do this for Mordecai the Jew, who is sitting at the king’s gate. Leave out nothing of all that you have said.” ¹¹ So Haman took the royal robe and the horse and dressed Mordecai, and led him on horseback through the open square of the city, proclaiming before him, “This is what shall be done for the man whom the king desires to honor.”

¹² Then Mordecai returned to the king’s gate. But Haman hurried to his [own] house, mourning and with his head covered [in sorrow]. ¹³ Then Haman told Zeresh his wife and all his friends everything that had happened to him. Then his wise counselors and his wife Zeresh said to him, “If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall in status, is of Jewish heritage, you will not overcome him, but will certainly fall before him.”

¹⁴ While they were still speaking with him, the king’s eunuchs (attendants) arrived and hurriedly brought Haman to the banquet which Esther had prepared.

Esther’s Plea

7 So the king and Haman came to drink wine with Esther the queen. ² And the king said to Esther on the second day also as they drank their wine, “What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted to you. And what is your request? Even to half of the kingdom, it shall be done.” ³ Then Queen Esther replied, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be spared as my petition, and my people [be spared] as my request; ⁴ for we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, killed and wiped out of existence. Now if we had only been sold as slaves, men and women, I would have remained silent, for our hardship would not be sufficient to burden the king [by even mentioning it].” ⁵ Then King Ahasuerus (Xerxes) asked Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, who dares to do such a thing?” ⁶ Esther said, “An adversary and an enemy is Haman, this evil man.” Then Haman became terrified before the king and queen.

Haman Is Hanged

⁷ Then in his fury, the king stood up from drinking wine and went into the palace garden [to decide what he should do]; but Haman stayed to plead for his life from Queen Esther, for he saw that harm had been determined against him by the king. ⁸ When the king returned from the palace garden to the place where they were drinking wine, Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was. Then the king said, “Will he even attempt to assault the queen with me in the palace?” As the king spoke those words, the servants covered Haman’s face [in preparation for execution]. ⁹ Then Harbonah, one of the eunuchs serving the king said, “Now look, there are gallows fifty cubits (75 ft.) high standing at Haman’s house, which Haman made for Mordecai, whose good warning saved the king.” And the king said, “Hang him on it.” ¹⁰ So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king’s anger subsided.

Mordecai Promoted

8 On that day King Ahasuerus (Xerxes) gave the ^[e]house of Haman, the enemy of the Jews, to Queen Esther; and Mordecai came before the king, because Esther had disclosed what [^[f]relation] he was to her. ² The king took off his signet ring which he had taken away from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. And Esther put Mordecai in charge of the house of Haman.

³ Then Esther spoke again to the king and fell down at his feet and wept and implored him to avert the evil plot of Haman the Agagite and his plan which he had devised against the Jews [because the decree to annihilate the Jews was still in effect]. ⁴ Then the king held out to Esther the golden scepter. So Esther arose and stood before the king. ⁵ Then she said, “If it pleases the king and if I have found favor before him and the matter is proper in the king’s view and I am pleasing in his sight, let it be written to revoke the letters devised by Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, which he wrote [in order] to destroy the Jews who are in all the king’s provinces. ⁶ For how can I endure to see the tragedy that will happen to my people? Or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?” ⁷ Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, “Behold, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and they have hanged him on the gallows because he stretched out his hand against the Jews.

The King’s Decree Avenges the Jews

⁸ Also, concerning the Jews, write as you see fit, in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s signet ring—for a decree which is written in the king’s name and sealed with the king’s signet ring may not be revoked.”

⁹ So the king’s scribes were called at that time in the third month (that is, the month of Sivan) on the twenty-third day; and it was written in accordance with everything that Mordecai commanded, to the Jews, to the chief rulers (satraps), and the governors and officials of the provinces which extended from India to Ethiopia (Cush), 127 provinces, to every province in its own script (writing), and to every people in their own language and to the Jews according to their script and their language. ¹⁰ He wrote [a decree] in the name of King Ahasuerus, and sealed it with the king’s ring, and sent letters by couriers on horseback, riding on the royal [mail] relay horses, the offspring of the racing mares. ¹¹ In it the king granted the Jews who were in every city the right to assemble and to defend their lives; to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate any armed force that might attack them, their little children, and women; and to take the enemies’ goods as plunder, ¹² on one day in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, the thirteenth [day] of the twelfth month (that is, the month of Adar). ¹³ A copy of the edict was to be issued as a law in every province and as a proclamation to all peoples, so that the Jews would be ready on that day, to avenge themselves on their enemies. ¹⁴ So the couriers, who were mounted on the royal relay horses, left quickly, urged on by the king’s command; and the decree was issued at the citadel in Susa [the capital].

¹⁵ Then Mordecai departed from the presence of the king in royal apparel of blue and white, with a large crown of gold and with a robe of fine linen and purple wool; and the city of Susa shouted and rejoiced. ¹⁶ For [at this time] the Jews had light [a dawn of new hope] and gladness and joy and honor. ¹⁷ In each and every province and in each and every city, wherever the king’s command and his decree arrived, the Jews celebrated with gladness and joy, a feast and a holiday. And many among the peoples of the land ^[g]became Jews, for the fear of the Jews [and their God] had fallen on them.

The Jews Destroy Their Enemies

9 Now in the twelfth month (that 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 had hoped to gain power over them [and slaughter them], it happened the other way around so that the Jews themselves gained power over those who hated them. ² The Jews assembled in their cities throughout the provinces of King Ahasuerus (Xerxes) to apprehend those who wanted to do them harm; and no one could stand before them, for the fear of them [and their God] had fallen on all the peoples. ³ Even all the officials of the provinces and the chief rulers (satraps) and the governors and those who attended to the king’s business supported the Jews [in defeating their enemies], because the fear of Mordecai [and his God’s power] had fallen on them. ⁴ For Mordecai was great and respected in the king’s palace, and his fame spread throughout all the provinces; for the man Mordecai became greater and greater. ⁵ So the Jews struck all their enemies with the sword, killing and destroying them; and they did what they pleased to those who hated them. ⁶ At the citadel in Susa the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men, ⁷ and [they killed] Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha, ⁸ Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha, ⁹ Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai, and Vaizatha, ¹⁰ the ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Jews’ enemy; but they did not lay their hands on the plunder.

¹¹ On that day the number of those who were killed at the citadel in Susa was reported to the king. ¹² The king said to Queen Esther, “The Jews have killed and destroyed five hundred men and the ten sons of Haman at the citadel in Susa. What then have they done in the rest of the king’s provinces! Now what is your petition? It shall be granted to you. What is your further request? It shall also be done.” ¹³ Esther replied, “If it pleases the king, let it be granted to the Jews who are in Susa to act tomorrow also in accordance with the decree of today; and let [the dead bodies of] Haman’s ten sons be hanged on the gallows.”^{(A) 14} So the king commanded it to be done; the decree was given in Susa, and they hanged [the bodies of] Haman’s ten sons. ¹⁵ The Jews who were in Susa also gathered together on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and killed three hundred men in Susa, but they did not lay their hands on the plunder.

¹⁶ Now the rest of the Jews who were in the king’s provinces assembled, to defend their lives and rid themselves of their enemies, and kill 75,000 of those who hated them; but they did not lay their hands on the plunder. ¹⁷ This was done on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, and on the fourteenth day they rested and made it a day of feasting and rejoicing.

¹⁸ But the Jews who were in Susa assembled on the thirteenth and on the fourteenth of the same month, and on the fifteenth day they rested and made it a day of feasting and rejoicing. ¹⁹ Therefore the Jews of the villages, who live in the rural [unwalled] towns, make the fourteenth day of the month of Adar a holiday for rejoicing and feasting and sending choice portions of food to one another.

The Feast of Purim Instituted

²⁰ Now Mordecai recorded these events, and he sent letters to all the Jews who lived in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far, ²¹ obliging them to celebrate the fourteenth day of the month of Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same month, annually, ²² because on those days the Jews rid themselves of their enemies, and as the month which was turned for them from grief to joy and from mourning into a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and rejoicing and sending choice portions of food to one another and gifts to the poor.

²³ So the Jews undertook what they had started to do, and what Mordecai had written to them. ²⁴ For Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them and had cast Pur, that is, the lot, [to find the right time] to disturb and destroy them. ²⁵ But when it came before the king, he commanded in writing that Haman’s wicked scheme which he had devised against the Jews was to return on his own head, and that he and his sons should [endure what he planned for the Jews and] be hanged on the gallows. ²⁶ Therefore they called these days Purim after the name Pur (lot). And because of all the instructions in this letter, and what they had faced in this regard and what had happened to them, ²⁷ the Jews established and made it a custom for themselves and for their descendants and for all who joined them, so that they would not fail to celebrate these two days as it was written and at the appointed time annually. ²⁸ So these days were to be remembered and celebrated throughout every generation, every family, every province and every city; and these days of Purim were not to cease from among the Jews, nor their memory fade from their descendants.

²⁹ Then Queen Esther, the daughter of Abihail, with Mordecai the Jew, wrote with full power and authority to confirm this second letter about Purim. ³⁰ He sent letters to all the Jews, to the 127 provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, in words of peace and truth, ³¹ to establish these days of Purim [to be observed] at their appointed times, just as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had established for them, and as they had established for themselves and for their descendants with instructions regarding their times of fasting and their lamentations (expressions of needing help). ³² The command of Esther established these customs for Purim, and it was written in the book [of the royal archives].

Mordecai’s Greatness

10 King Ahasuerus (Xerxes) imposed a tax on the land and on the coastlands of the sea. ² And all the accomplishments of his authority and strength, and the full account of the greatness of Mordecai to which the king had raised him, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Media and Persia? ³ For Mordecai the Jew was second only to King Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews and in favor with his many fellow people, for he worked for the good of his people and spoke for the welfare and peace of his whole nation.