1Now in the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, on the thirteenth day of the same, when the king's commandment and his decree drew near to be put in execution on the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to have rule over them 2the Jews gathered themselves together in their cities throughout all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, to lay hand on such as sought their hurt. And no man could withstand them, for the fear of them fell upon all the peoples. 3And all the rulers of the provinces, and the satraps, and the governors, and those who did the king's business, helped the Jews, because the fear of Mordecai fell upon them. 4For Mordecai was great in the king's house, and his fame went forth throughout all the provinces, for the man Mordecai grew greater and greater. 5And the Jews smote all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, and with slaughter and destruction, and did what they would to those who hated them. 6And in Shushan the palace the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men. 7And they killed Parshandatha, and Dalphon, and Aspatha, 8and Poratha, and Adalia, and Aridatha, 9and Parmashta, and Arisai, and Aridai, and Vaizatha, 10the ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Jew's enemy, but they did not lay their hand on the spoil. 11On that day the number of those who were slain in Shushan the palace was brought before the king. 12And the king said to Esther the queen, The Jews have slain and destroyed five hundred men in Shushan the palace, and the ten sons of Haman. What then have they done in the rest of the king's provinces! Now what is thy petition? And 13Then Esther said, If it please the king, let it be granted to the Jews who are in Shushan to do tomorrow also according to this day's decree, and let Haman's ten sons be hanged upon the gallows. 14And the king commanded it so to be done. And a decree was given out in Shushan, and they hanged Haman's ten sons. 15And the Jews who were in Shushan gathered themselves together on the fourteenth day also of the month Adar, and killed three hundred men in Shushan, but they did not lay their hand on the spoil. 16And the other Jews who were in the king's provinces gathered themselves together, and stood for their lives, and had rest from their enemies, and killed seventy-five thousand of those who hated them. But they did not lay their hand 17[This was done] on the thirteenth day of the month Adar. And on the fourteenth day of the same they rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness. 18But the Jews who were in Shushan assembled together on the thirteenth [day] of it, and on the fourteenth of it, and on the fifteenth [day] of the same they rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness. 19Therefore the Jews of the villages, who dwell in the unwalled towns, make the fourteenth day of the month Adar [a day of] gladness and feasting, and a good day, and of sending portions one to another. 20And Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, both near and far, 21to enjoin them that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly, 22as the days in which the Jews had rest from their enemies. And the month which was turned to them from sorrow to gladness, and from mourning into a good day, that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, and of sending 23And the Jews undertook to do as they had begun, and as Mordecai had written to them, 24because 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 consume them, and to destroy them. 25But when [the matter] came before the king, he commanded by letters that his wicked device, which he had devised against the Jews, should return upon his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows. 26Therefore they called these days Purim, after the name of Pur. Therefore because of all the words of this letter, and of that which they had seen concerning this matter, and that which had come to them, 27the Jews ordained, and took upon them, and upon their seed, and upon all such as joined themselves to them, so that it should not fail, that they would keep these two days according to the writing of it, and according to the appoin 28And that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city, and that these days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor the remembrance of them perish from 29Then Esther the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, wrote with all authority to confirm this second letter of Purim. 30And he sent letters to all the Jews, to the hundred twenty-seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, [with] words of peace and truth, 31to confirm these days of Purim in their appointed times, according as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had enjoined them, and as they had ordained for themselves and for their seed in the matter of the fastings and their cry. 32And the commandment of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim, and it was written in the book.