Then the king gave a drinking party lasting seven days for all his Friends and the officers to celebrate his marriage to Esther, and he granted a remission of taxes to those who were under his rule.

Instructions were sent by couriers throughout all the empire of Artaxerxes to destroy the Jewish people in a single day of the twelfth month, which is Adar, and to plunder their goods.

Addition B

The King’s Letter

This is a copy of the letter: “The Great King, Artaxerxes, writes the following to the governors of the hundred twenty-seven provinces from India to Ethiopia and to the officials under them: “Having become ruler of many nations and master of the whole world (not elated with presumption of authority but always acting reasonably and with kindness), I have determined to settle the lives of my subjects in lasting tranquility and, in order to make my kingdom peaceable and open to travel throughout all its extent, to restore the peace desired by all people. “When I asked my counselors how this might be accomplished, Haman—who excels among us in sound judgment and is distinguished for his unchanging goodwill and steadfast fidelity and has attained the second place of honor in the kingdom— pointed out to us that among all the nations in the world there is scattered a certain hostile people who have laws contrary to those of every nation and continually disregard the ordinances of kings, so that the unifying of the kingdom that we honorably intend cannot be brought about. We understand that this people, and it alone, stands constantly in opposition to all humanity, perversely following a strange manner of life and laws, and is ill-disposed to our interests, doing all the harm they can so that our kingdom may not attain stability. “Therefore we have decreed that those indicated to you in the letters written by Haman, who is in charge of affairs and is our second father, shall all—wives and children included—be utterly destroyed by the swords of their enemies, without pity or restraint, on the fourteenth day of the twelfth month, Adar, of this present year, so that those who have long been hostile and remain so may in a single day go down in violence to Hades and leave our interests secure and untroubled hereafter.”

Cling to him and do not depart, so that your last days may be prosperous.

Mourning for the dead lasts seven days, but for the foolish or the ungodly it lasts all the days of their lives.

The days of a good life are numbered, but a good name lasts forever.

The Last Words of Mattathias

Now the days drew near for Mattathias to die, and he said to his sons: “Arrogance and scorn have now become strong; it is a time of ruin and furious anger.

The Last Days of Antiochus Epiphanes

King Antiochus was going through the upper provinces when he heard that Elymais in Persia was a city famed for its wealth in silver and gold.

The fourth way: they shall consider the torment laid up for themselves in the last days.

The fourth order: they understand the rest that they now enjoy, being gathered into their chambers and guarded by angels in profound quiet and the glory waiting for them in the last days.

and the Most High will show you in those dream visions what the Most High will do to those who inhabit the earth in the last days.” So I slept that night and the following one, as he had told me.

In its last days the Most High will raise up three kings, and they shall renew many things in it and shall rule the earth

For the sword of one shall devour him who was with him, but he also shall fall by the sword in the last days.

because they understand the things that are reserved for the last days but cannot attain them.

Yet it is better to come into these things, though incurring peril, than to pass from the world like a cloud and not to see what will happen in the last days.” He answered me and said,

If then I have found favor with you, send the holy spirit into me, and I will write everything that has happened in the world from the beginning, the things that were written in your law, so that people may be able to find the path and that those who want to live in the last days may do so.”

The Horror of the Last Days

The beginning of sorrows, when there shall be much lamentation; the beginning of famine, when many shall perish; the beginning of wars, when the powers shall be terrified; the beginning of calamities, when all shall tremble.