Old/New Testament

Jews Defend Themselves

9 Consequently, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month (that is the month Adar), the king’s edict and his law drew near to be carried out. On that day the enemies of the Jews had hoped to overpower them, but contrary to expectations the Jews gained the upper hand over those that hated them. ² Jews assembled in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus in order to lay hands on those seeking their harm. No one was able to stand against them, for fear of them had fallen on all the peoples. ³ Even all the administrators of the provinces, the officers and governors, and those doing business for the king, helped the Jews, for the dread of Mordecai had fallen on them. ⁴ Mordecai was prominent at the palace, and his fame spread throughout all the provinces. The man Mordecai was growing ever more powerful.

⁵ The Jews struck down all their enemies with the sword, killing and destroying, and they did whatever they wished to those who hated them. ⁶ In the citadel at Shushan the Jews killed and destroyed 500 people, ⁷ including Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha, ⁸ Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha, ⁹ Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai and Vaizatha, ¹⁰ the 10 sons of Haman, the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews. They slew them but did not lay their hands on the plunder.

¹¹ On that day the number of those that were killed in the citadel at Shushan was brought to the king’s attention. ¹² Then the king said to Queen Esther, “The Jews have killed and destroyed 500 men in the citadel of Shushan, including Haman’s ten sons. What have they done, in the rest of the king’s provinces? Now what is your request? It shall be granted to you. What other petition do you have? It shall be done.”

¹³ “If it please the king,” Esther said, “let the Jews in Shushan be allowed to carry out today’s edict tomorrow also, and let Haman’s ten sons be hanged on the gallows.”

¹⁴ The king commanded that this be done. A decree was issued in Shushan and they hanged Haman’s 10 sons. ¹⁵ The Jews in Shushan gathered together on the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and they killed 300 men in Shushan, but they did not put their hands on the plunder.

¹⁶ Meanwhile the rest of the Jews who were in the king’s provinces gathered together to protect themselves and to get relief from their enemies. They killed 75,000 of their enemies, but they did not lay their hands on the plunder. ¹⁷ This happened on the thirteenth day of Adar and on the fourteenth day they rested, making it a day of feasting and gladness.

¹⁸ But the Jews that were in Shushan had assembled on the thirteenth and on the fourteenth and on the fifteenth they rested, making it a day of feasting and gladness. ¹⁹ That is why the rural Jews—those living in unwalled villages—make the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of gladness and feasting, a day of sending presents of food to one another.

Purim Festival

²⁰ Mordecai recorded these events and he sent letters to all the Jews throughout the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far, ²¹ urging them to celebrate the fourteenth and fifteenth days of Adar every year ²² as the days when the Jews got relief from their enemies, and as the month when their sorrow was turned into joy and their mourning into celebration. These were to be days of feasting, celebration and sending presents of food to one another and giving gifts to the poor.

²³ So the Jews agreed to continue the commemoration they had begun, and do what Mordecai had written to them. ²⁴ For Haman, son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had schemed against the Jews to destroy them and had cast the pur—that is, the lot—to ruin and destroy them. ²⁵ But when it came to the king’s attention, he issued a written edict that the wicked scheme Haman^[a] had devised against the Jews should come back on his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows. (²⁶ For this reason, these days were called Purim, from the word pur.) Therefore because of everything in this letter and because of what they had seen and what had happened to them, ²⁷ the Jews established and took upon themselves, upon their descendants, and upon all who joined with them, that they would commemorate these two days in the way prescribed and at the appointed time every year. ²⁸ These days should be remembered and observed in every generation by every family and in every province and every city. These days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor their remembrance perish from their descendants.

²⁹ Then Queen Esther the daughter of Abihail, and also Mordecai the Jew, wrote with full authority to confirm this second letter of Purim. ³⁰ He sent letters to all the Jews in the 127 provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, with words of shalom and truth, ³¹ to establish these days of Purim at their designated times, just as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had decreed for them and just as they had established for themselves and their descendants, matters regarding their times of fasting and lamentations. ³² Esther’s command confirmed these regulations about Purim and it was written into the records.

10 Now King Ahasuerus imposed a tribute upon the entire land, even to the coastlands of the sea. ² All the acts of his power and might, along with the full account of the greatness of Mordecai and the story of how the king promoted 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, preeminent among the Jews, and held in high esteem by the multitude of his people. He sought their good and spoke for the welfare of his descendants.

7 Then the kohen gadol said, “Are these things so?”

² Stephen declared, “Brothers and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran. ³ He said to him, ‘Leave your country and your relatives, and come here to the land that I will show you.’ ⁴ Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. From there, after his father died, God moved him to this land where you now live. ⁵ He gave him no inheritance in it—not even a foothold—yet He promised ‘to give it to him as a possession to him and to his descendants after him,’ even though he had no child.

⁶ “But God spoke in this way, that his ‘descendants would be foreigners in a land belonging to others, and they would enslave and mistreat them for four hundred years. ⁷ But I will judge the nation they serve as slaves,’ God said, ‘and afterward they shall come out and serve Me in this place.’^[a]

⁸ “Then God gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision.^[b] So he became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day, and so Isaac with Jacob, and Jacob with the twelve patriarchs. ⁹ The patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him into Egypt. Yet God was with him. ¹⁰ He rescued him out of all his troubles and granted him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him governor over Egypt and all his household.

¹¹ “Famine and great suffering came over all Egypt and Canaan, and our fathers could find no food. ¹² But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers there the first time. ¹³ On the second visit, Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and his family became known to Pharaoh. ¹⁴ So Joseph sent and called for Jacob and all his relatives—seventy-five persons. ¹⁵ Jacob went down to Egypt and died, he and our fathers. ¹⁶ They were carried to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

¹⁷ “But as the time drew near for the promise God had sworn to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt— ¹⁸ until ‘there arose another king over Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph.’ ^{[c] 19} Dealing with our people with cruel cunning, this king mistreated our fathers and forced them to abandon their infants so they would not survive.

²⁰ “At this time Moses was born—extraordinary before God. For three months he was nurtured in his father’s house. ²¹ And when he was set outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and raised him as her own son.