Old/New Testament

Victories of the Jews

9 The king’s command and law^(A) went into effect on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month,^(B) the month Adar. On the day when the Jews’ enemies^(C) had hoped to overpower them, just the opposite happened. The Jews overpowered those who hated them.^{(D) 2} In each of King Ahasuerus’s provinces^(E) the Jews assembled in their cities to attack those who intended to harm them.^[a] Not a single person could withstand them; fear of them^(F) fell on every nationality.^(G)

³ All the officials of the provinces, the satraps, the governors, and the royal civil administrators^[b](H) aided the Jews because they feared Mordecai.^{(I) 4} For Mordecai exercised great power in the palace,^(J) and his fame spread throughout the provinces as he became more and more powerful.^(K)

⁵ The Jews put all their enemies to the sword, killing and destroying them.^(L) They did what they pleased to those who hated them. ⁶ In the fortress of Susa^(M) 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 these ten sons^(N) of Haman son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews.^(O) However, they did not seize^[c] any plunder.^(P)

¹¹ On that day the number of people killed in the fortress of Susa was reported to the king. ¹² The king said to Queen Esther, “In the fortress of Susa the Jews have killed and destroyed five hundred men, including Haman’s ten sons. What have they done in the rest of the royal provinces? Whatever you ask will be given to you. Whatever you seek will also be done.”^(Q)

¹³ Esther answered, “If it pleases the king, may the Jews who are in Susa also have tomorrow^(R) to carry out today’s law,^(S) and may the bodies of Haman’s ten sons^(T) be hung on the gallows.”^{(U) 14} The king gave the orders for this to be done, so a law was announced in Susa, and they hung the bodies of Haman’s ten sons. ¹⁵ The Jews in Susa assembled again on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar^(V) and killed three hundred men in Susa, but they did not seize any plunder.^(W)

¹⁶ The rest of the Jews in the royal provinces assembled, defended themselves, and gained relief from their enemies. They killed seventy-five thousand^[d] of those who hated them,^(X) but they did not seize any plunder. ¹⁷ They fought on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar and rested on the fourteenth, and it became a day of feasting and rejoicing.

¹⁸ But the Jews in Susa had assembled on the thirteenth and the fourteenth days of the month. They rested on the fifteenth day of the month, and it became a day of feasting and rejoicing.^{(Y) 19} This explains why the rural Jews who live in villages observe the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a time of rejoicing and feasting. It is a holiday when they send gifts to one another.^(Z)

²⁰ Mordecai^(AA) recorded these events and sent letters to all the Jews in all of King Ahasuerus’s provinces, both near and far. ²¹ He ordered^(AB) them to celebrate the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar every year ²² because during those days the Jews gained relief from^(AC) their enemies. That was the month when their sorrow was turned into rejoicing and their mourning into a holiday.^(AD) They were to be days of feasting,^(AE) rejoicing, and of sending gifts to one another and to the poor.

²³ So the Jews agreed to continue the practice they had begun, as Mordecai had written them to do. ²⁴ For Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews,^(AF) had plotted against the Jews to destroy them. He cast the pur—that is, the lot—to crush and destroy them.^{(AG) 25} But when the matter was brought before the king,^(AH) he commanded by letter that the evil plan Haman had devised against the Jews return on his own head^(AI) and that he should be hanged with his sons on the gallows.^{(AJ) 26} For this reason these days are called Purim, from the word pur.^(AK) Because of all the instructions in this letter as well as what they had witnessed and what had happened to them, ²⁷ the Jews bound themselves, their descendants, and all who joined^(AL) with them to a commitment that they would not fail to celebrate these two days each and every year according to the written instructions and according to the time appointed. ²⁸ These days are remembered and celebrated by every generation, family, province, and city, so that these days of Purim will not lose their significance in Jewish life^[e] and their memory will not fade from their descendants.^(AM)

²⁹ Queen Esther, daughter of Abihail,^(AN) along with Mordecai the Jew,^(AO) wrote this second letter with full authority^(AP) to confirm the letter about Purim. ³⁰ He sent letters with assurances of peace and security^[f] to all the Jews who were in the 127 provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, ³¹ in order to confirm these days of Purim at their proper time just as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had established them and just as they had committed themselves and their descendants to the practices of fasting^(AQ) and lamentation.^{(AR) 32} So Esther’s command confirmed these customs of Purim, which were then written into the record.

Mordecai’s Fame

10 King Ahasuerus imposed a tax throughout the land^(AS) even to the farthest shores.^{[g](AT) 2} All of his powerful and magnificent accomplishments^(AU) and the detailed account of Mordecai’s great rank with which the king had honored him,^(AV) have they not been written in the Book of the Historical Events of the Kings of Media and Persia?^{(AW) 3} Mordecai the Jew was second only to King Ahasuerus.^(AX) He was famous among the Jews and highly esteemed by many of his relatives.^(AY) He continued to pursue prosperity for his people and to speak for the well-being of all his descendants.^(AZ)

Stephen’s Sermon

7 “Are these things true?” the high priest asked.

² “Brothers and fathers,” he replied, “listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he settled in Haran,^{(A) 3} and said to him: Leave your country and relatives, and come to the land that I will show you.^[a](B)

⁴ “Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. From there, after his father died, God had him move to this land in which you are now living.^{(C) 5} He didn’t give him an inheritance in it—not even a foot of ground—but he promised to give it to him as a possession, and to his descendants after him,^(D) even though he was childless. ⁶ God spoke in this way: His descendants would be strangers in a foreign country, and they would enslave and oppress them for four hundred years. ⁷ I will judge the nation that they will serve as slaves, God said. After this, they will come out and worship me in this place.^{[b](E) 8} And so he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. After this, he fathered Isaac and circumcised^(F) him on the eighth day. Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.^(G)

The Patriarchs in Egypt

⁹ “The patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him into Egypt, but God was with him^{(H) 10} and rescued him out of all his troubles. He gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who appointed him ruler over Egypt and over his whole household.^{(I) 11} Now a famine and great suffering came over all of Egypt and Canaan,^(J) and our ancestors could find no food. ¹² When Jacob heard there was grain in Egypt, he sent our ancestors there the first time. ¹³ The second time, Joseph revealed himself to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh. ¹⁴ Joseph invited his father Jacob and all his relatives, seventy-five people in all,^{(K) 15} and Jacob went down to Egypt. He and our ancestors died there,^{(L) 16} were carried back to Shechem, and were placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.^(M)

Moses, a Rejected Savior

¹⁷ “As the time was approaching to fulfill the promise that God had made to Abraham, the people flourished and multiplied in Egypt^{(N) 18} until a different king who did not know Joseph ruled over Egypt.^{[c] 19} He dealt deceitfully with our race and oppressed our ancestors by making them abandon their infants outside so that they wouldn’t survive.^{(O) 20} At this time Moses was born, and he was beautiful in God’s sight. He was cared for in his father’s home for three months. ²¹ When he was put outside, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted and raised him as her own son.^(P)