Beginning

6 That night the king could not sleep, so he ordered that the chronicles,^[a] the record of the memorable events of his reign, be brought to him. These accounts were read to the king.

² They found the account about the incident when Mordecai had reported Bigthan^[b] and Teresh, the king’s two eunuchs who had controlled access to the entrance to the palace, who had tried to assassinate King Xerxes.

³ The king said, “What honor and recognition has been given to Mordecai for this?”

Then the servants of the king who were attending him said, “Nothing has been done for him.”

⁴ The king said, “Who is in the court?” Just then Haman had come to the outer court of the king’s palace to speak to the king about hanging Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him.

⁵ The king’s servants said to him, “Look, Haman is standing in the court.” The king said, “Have him come in.”

⁶ When Haman came in, the king said to him, “What should be done to honor the man with whom the king is pleased?”

Haman said in his heart, “Who could there be that the king would be more pleased to honor than me?”

⁷ Haman said to the king, “The man whom the king is pleased to honor ⁸ should be clothed with garments that the king has worn. He should be given a horse on which the king has ridden, and crowned with a crown that has been on the king’s head. ⁹ These clothes and this horse should be delivered by one of the highest ranking noblemen of the king. They should dress up the man whom the king is pleased to honor and let him ride on the horse in the public square of the city. Walking in front of him, they will proclaim, “This is what is done for the man whom the king is pleased to honor.”

¹⁰ The king said to Haman, “Hurry! Take the clothing and the horse just as you have said, and do this for Mordecai the Jew, who sits in the gatehouse of the king. Do not leave out a thing from whatever you have said.”

¹¹ Haman took the clothing and the horse, clothed Mordecai, had him ride through the public square of the city, and proclaimed before him, “This is what is done for the man whom the king is pleased to honor.”

¹² Mordecai returned to the king’s gate, but Haman hurried to his home, mourning, with his head covered. ¹³ Haman reported all this to Zeresh his wife and to all his friends.

His advisors and Zeresh his wife said to him, “If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of Jewish descent,^[c] you will not overcome him. Instead, you will surely fall before him.”

¹⁴ While they were still talking with him, the king’s eunuchs arrived and rushed Haman to the banquet that Esther had prepared.

7 So the king and Haman went to the feast with Queen Esther.

² On the second day, when they were again drinking wine, the king said to Esther, “What is your request, Queen Esther? It will be given to you. What are you seeking? Up to half of the kingdom—it’s yours.”

³ Queen Esther responded, “My King, if I have found favor in your eyes, and if it pleases the king, I am asking that my life be spared, and I am seeking the lives of my people, ⁴ because I and my people have been sold to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. If we were merely being sold to be male and female slaves, I would have remained silent, because that would not have been bad enough to be a reason to bother the king.”

⁵ King Xerxes spoke up. He said to Queen Esther, “Who is this, and where is this person who has the audacity to do this?”

⁶ Esther said, “This hateful enemy is this evil Haman!” Haman was terrified in the presence of the king and the queen.

⁷ The king rose angrily from the place where they were drinking wine^[d] and went to the palace garden. But Haman stayed to beg for his life from Queen Esther, because he saw the king had evil plans for him.

⁸ Just as the king was returning from the palace garden to the hall where they had been drinking wine, Haman was falling onto the couch on which Esther was lying. The king said, “Will he even assault the queen when I am in the building?” As soon as the words left the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face.^[e]

⁹ In addition, Harbona, one of the eunuchs present with the king, said, “You know, there is a gallows seventy-five feet high standing by the house of Haman, which he made for Mordecai, the person who spoke up for the benefit of the king.” The king said, “Hang^[f] him on it.”

¹⁰ So they hanged Haman on the gallows which he had prepared for Mordecai, and the king’s anger subsided.

8 That day King Xerxes gave Queen Esther the house of Haman, the enemy of the Jews. Mordecai came and appeared before the king, because Esther had told him what Mordecai’s relationship to her was.

² The king took off his signet ring that he had taken from Haman and gave it to Mordecai. Esther put Mordecai in charge of the house of Haman.

³ In addition, Esther spoke to the king. She fell at his feet, wept, and requested that he put an end to the evil plan that Haman the Agagite had devised against the Jews.

⁴ The king held out the golden scepter to Esther. Esther rose and stood in the presence of the king.

⁵ She said, “If it is acceptable to the king, if I have found favor before him, if this idea seems right to the king, and if I am acceptable to him, a decree should be written to nullify the letters for the plot of Haman, son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews in all of the provinces of the king. ⁶ For how can I watch the disaster that is about to come on my people! How can I watch the destruction of my relatives!”

⁷ King Xerxes said to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, “Look. I have given Haman’s house to Esther. They have hanged him on the gallows because he raised his hand against the Jews. ⁸ You can write concerning the Jews whatever seems good to you and seal it with the king’s signet ring, because a document written in the name of the king and sealed with the king’s signet ring cannot be changed.”

⁹ The king’s scribes were summoned at once, on the twenty-third day of Sivan, the third month. Whatever Mordecai commanded concerning the Jews was written to the satraps, governors, and the officials of the provinces from India to Cush, one hundred twenty-seven provinces in all. They wrote to each province in its own writing system and to each people in its own language (including to the Jews in their writing system and in their language). ¹⁰ He wrote in the name of King Xerxes and sealed it with the king’s signet ring. He sent letters by messengers mounted on the king’s fastest thoroughbreds.^[g]

The Content and Effect of the Letters

¹¹ The king gave the Jews in every city the right to gather together to defend their own lives and to destroy, kill, and annihilate any military force of any people or province that might attack them, along with their children and their wives, and to plunder their goods.

¹² In all the provinces of King Xerxes, ¹³ a copy of the writing, which was issued as a law for every province, proclaimed to all the peoples that on one day (the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, Adar), the Jews would be ready to avenge themselves on their enemies.

¹⁴ The couriers riding their swift horses went out quickly, spurred on by the word of the king. The decree originated in Susa, the citadel.

¹⁵ Mordecai went out from the king’s presence, dressed in blue and white royal clothing, with a large gold crown and a purple linen cape. The city of Susa shouted and rejoiced. ¹⁶ It was a time of light, gladness, joy, and honor for the Jews.

¹⁷ In every province and in every city which the message of the king reached, his edict brought gladness and joy to the Jews. There was a feast and a holiday. Many of the peoples of the land declared themselves Jews because the fear of the Jews had fallen upon them.

9 On the thirteenth day of the twelfth month (Adar), the day which the king’s proclamation had specified for his decree to be carried out, the day on which the enemies of the Jews hoped to obtain power over them, the situation was reversed so that the Jews would gain power over those who hated them.

² The Jews gathered in their cities in all the provinces of King Xerxes, to strike against those seeking to hurt them. No one opposed them because the fear of the Jews had fallen upon all the people. ³ All the officials of the provinces, the satraps, the governors, and the people who did the work of the king were helping the Jews because the fear of Mordecai had fallen on them, ⁴ because he was important in the king’s house. His reputation was spreading in all the provinces because this man Mordecai was becoming more and more influential.

⁵ The Jews struck all their enemies with the sword, slaughtering and destroying them. They did whatever they pleased against their enemies.

⁶ In Susa, the citadel, the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men, ⁷ including Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha, ⁸ Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha, ⁹ Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai, and Vaizatha. ¹⁰ They killed the ten sons of Haman son of Hammedatha, who had been persecuting the Jews, but they did not seize any plunder.

¹¹ On that day the number of those killed in Susa, the citadel, was reported to the king. ¹² The king said to Queen Esther, “In Susa, the citadel, the Jews have killed five hundred men, including the ten sons of Haman. What have they done in the rest of the provinces of the king? What is your request? It will be granted. What you are still seeking will be done.”

¹³ Esther said, “If it seems good to the king, let permission be given to the Jews who are in Susa to carry out today’s order also tomorrow and that the ten sons of Haman be hanged on the gallows.”

¹⁴ The king said that this would be done. The command was given in Susa. The ten sons of Haman were hanged.

¹⁵ The Jews in Susa gathered again on the fourteenth day of Adar. In Susa they killed three hundred men, but they did not seize any plunder.

¹⁶ The rest of the Jews who were in the provinces of the king also gathered and defended themselves, getting relief from their enemies. They killed seventy-five thousand of those who hated them, but they did not seize any plunder. ¹⁷ This happened on the thirteenth day of Adar. They rested on the fourteenth and had a day of feasting^[h] and joyful celebration.

¹⁸ But the Jews who were in Susa gathered on the thirteenth and on the fourteenth. They rested on the fifteenth and made it a day of feasting and joyful celebration. ¹⁹ Therefore the Jews of the villages, who live in the unwalled towns of the open countryside, have their day of joyful celebration and feasting on the fourteenth of Adar. It is a holiday, and they send portions of food to their neighbors.

²⁰ Mordecai wrote these things down. Then he sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Xerxes, both near and far, ²¹ to call upon them to celebrate the fourteenth and fifteenth days of Adar every year, ²² because those were the days on which the Jews gained relief from their enemies. This was the month which was changed from sorrow to gladness for them and from a day of mourning to a holiday. They were to make those days into days of feasting and joyful celebration, sending portions of food to their neighbors and gifts to the poor.

²³ So the Jews completed what they had begun to do and what Mordecai had written to them, ²⁴ because Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the one opposed to all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them and had cast pur (that is, they had cast lots) to crush them and to destroy them.

²⁵ However, because Esther came into the presence of the king, he said in writing that Haman’s wicked plot, which he had devised against the Jews, was to return on his own head, and they should hang him and his sons on the gallows.

²⁶ That is why they called these days Purim (lots) because of the word pur. Therefore, because of all the words of this letter, because of what they had observed, and because of what had happened to them, ²⁷ the Jews established this festival and made a commitment that they, their descendants, and all those associated with them would never fail to observe these two days according to these directions and at their proper time every year.

²⁸ These days are to be remembered and preserved in every generation, in every family, province, and city. The Jews should never stop celebrating the days of Purim. Their commemoration should never be set aside by their descendants.

²⁹ Then Queen Esther, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew used their authority to publish this second communication about Purim. ³⁰ He sent letters to all the Jews in one hundred twenty-seven provinces of the kingdom of Xerxes containing words of true peace, ³¹ telling them to observe the days of Purim at their appointed times, just as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had given them the responsibility to do, and telling them to carry out the directions about their fasts and their lamentation just as they and their descendants had agreed to do.

³² The command of Esther established the directions about Purim, and they were written in a book.

10 King Xerxes imposed taxes on the land and on the islands and coasts of the sea. ² All his powerful and mighty acts and the account of the greatness of Mordecai, whom the king promoted, are they not written in the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia?

³ This was written there because Mordecai the Jew, second in command to King Xerxes, was important for the Jews and popular with large numbers of his brother Israelites, because he sought the welfare of his people and spoke peace to all their descendants.