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Esther, starting at chapter 7
{7:1} So the king and Haman came to banquet with Esther the queen.
{7:2} The king said again to Esther on the second day at the banquet
of wine, "What is your petition, queen Esther? It shall be granted
you. What is your request? Even to the half of the kingdom it shall be
performed."
{7:3} Then Esther the queen answered, "If I have found favor in your
sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at
my petition, and my people at my request. {7:4} For we are sold, I and
my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had
been sold for bondservants and bondmaids, I would have held my peace,
although the adversary could not have compensated for the king's loss."
{7:5} Then King Ahasuerus said to Esther the queen, "Who is he, and
where is he who dared presume in his heart to do so?"
{7:6} Esther said, "An adversary and an enemy, even this wicked
Haman!"
Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen. {7:7} The king
arose in his wrath from the banquet of wine and went into the palace
garden. Haman stood up to make request for his life to Esther the
queen; for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the
king. {7:8} Then the king returned out of the palace garden into the
place of the banquet of wine; and Haman had fallen on the couch where
Esther was. Then the king said, "Will he even assault the queen in
front of me in the house?" As the word went out of the king's mouth,
they covered Haman's face.
{7:9} Then Harbonah, one of the eunuchs who were with the king said,
"Behold, the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman has made for
Mordecai, who spoke good for the king, is standing at Haman's house."
The king said, "Hang him on it!"
{7:10} So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for
Mordecai. Then was the king's wrath pacified.
{8:1} On that day, King Ahasuerus gave the house of Haman, the Jews'
enemy, to Esther the queen. Mordecai came before the king; for Esther
had told what he was to her. {8:2} The king took off his ring, which
he had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. Esther set Mordecai
over the house of Haman. {8:3} Esther spoke yet again before the king,
and fell down at his feet, and begged him with tears to put away the
mischief of Haman the Agagite, and his device that he had devised
against the Jews. {8:4} Then the king held out to Esther the golden
scepter. So Esther arose, and stood before the king. {8:5} She said,
"If it pleases the king, and if I have found favor in his sight, and
the thing seem right to the king, and I am pleasing in his eyes, let
it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman, the son of
Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews who are in
all the king's provinces. {8:6} For how can I endure to see the evil
that would come to my people? How can I endure to see the destruction
of my relatives?"
{8:7} Then King Ahasuerus said to Esther the queen and to Mordecai
the Jew, "See, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and him they
have hanged on the gallows, because he laid his hand on the Jews.
{8:8} Write also to the Jews, as it pleases you, in the king's name,
and seal it with the king's ring; for the writing which is written in
the king's name, and sealed with the king's ring, may not be reversed
by any man."
{8:9} Then the king's scribes were called at that time, in the third
month Sivan, on the twenty-third day of the month; and it was written
according to all that Mordecai commanded to the Jews, and to the
satraps, and the governors and princes of the provinces which are from
India to Ethiopia, one hundred twenty-seven provinces, to every
province according to its writing, and to every people in their
language, and to the Jews in their writing, and in their language.
{8:10} He wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus, and sealed it with the
king's ring, and sent letters by courier on horseback, riding on royal
horses that were bread from swift steeds. {8:11} In those letters, the
king granted the Jews who were in every city to gather themselves
together, and to defend their life, to destroy, to kill, and to cause
to perish, all the power of the people and province that would assault
them, their little ones and women, and to plunder their possessions,
{8:12} on one day in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, on the
thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar. {8:13} A
copy of the letter, that the decree should be given out in every
province, was published to all the peoples, that the Jews should be
ready for that day to avenge themselves on their enemies. {8:14} So
the couriers who rode on royal horses went out, hastened and pressed
on by the king's commandment. The decree was given out in the citadel
of Susa.
{8:15} Mordecai went out of the presence of the king in royal
clothing of blue and white, and with a great crown of gold, and with a
robe of fine linen and purple; and the city of Susa shouted and was
glad. {8:16} The Jews had light, gladness, joy, and honor. {8:17} In
every province, and in every city, wherever the king's commandment and
his decree came, the Jews had gladness, joy, a feast, and a good day.
Many from among the peoples of the land became Jews; for the fear of
the Jews was fallen on them.
{9:1} Now in the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, on the
thirteenth day of the month, 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 conquer them, (but it was turned out the opposite
happened, that the Jews conquered those who hated them), {9:2} the
Jews gathered themselves together in their cities throughout all the
provinces of the King Ahasuerus, to lay hands on those who wanted to
harm them. No one could withstand them, because the fear of them had
fallen on all the people. {9:3} All the princes of the provinces, the
satraps, the governors, and those who did the king's business helped
the Jews, because the fear of Mordecai had fallen on them. {9:4} For
Mordecai was great in the king's house, and his fame went out
throughout all the provinces; for the man Mordecai grew greater and
greater. {9:5} The Jews struck all their enemies with the stroke of
the sword, and with slaughter and destruction, and did what they
wanted to those who hated them. {9:6} In the citadel of Susa, the Jews
killed and destroyed five hundred men. {9:7} They killed Parshandatha,
Dalphon, Aspatha, {9:8} Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha, {9:9} Parmashta,
Arisai, Aridai, and Vaizatha, {9:10} the ten sons of Haman the son of
Hammedatha, the Jew's enemy, but they didn't lay their hand on the
plunder. {9:11} On that day, the number of those who were slain in the
citadel of Susa was brought before the king. {9:12} The king said to
Esther the queen, "The Jews have slain and destroyed five hundred men
in the citadel of Susa, including the ten sons of Haman; what then
have they done in the rest of the king's provinces! Now what is your
petition? It shall be granted you. What is your further request? It
shall be done."
{9:13} Then Esther said, "If it pleases 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 on the gallows."
{9:14} The king commanded this to be done. A decree was given out in
Shushan; and they hanged Haman's ten sons. {9:15} 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 didn't
lay their hand on the spoil. {9:16} The other Jews who were in the
king's provinces gathered themselves together, defended their lives,
had rest from their enemies, and killed seventy-five thousand of those
who hated them; but they didn't lay their hand on the plunder. {9:17}
This was done on the thirteenth day of the month Adar; and on the
fourteenth day of that month they rested and made it a day of feasting
and gladness. {9:18} But the Jews who were in Shushan assembled
together on the thirteenth and on the fourteenth days of the month;
and on the fifteenth day of that month, they rested, and made it a day
of feasting and gladness. {9:19} Therefore the Judeans of the
villages, who live in the unwalled towns, make the fourteenth day of
the month Adar a day of gladness and feasting, a good day, and a day
of sending presents of food to one another. {9:20} 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, {9:21} to enjoin
them that they should keep the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the
month Adar yearly, {9:22} as 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 presents of food to
one another, and gifts to the needy. {9:23} The Jews accepted the
custom that they had begun, as Mordecai had written to them; {9:24}
because 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; {9:25}
but when this became known to the king, he commanded by letters that
his wicked device, which he had devised against the Jews, should
return on his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on
the gallows. {9:26} Therefore they called these days "[1>]Purim,[<1]"
from the word "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, {9:27} the Jews established, and imposed
on themselves, and on their descendants, and on all those who joined
themselves to them, so that it should not fail, that they would keep
these two days according to what was written, and according to its
appointed time, every year; {9:28} and 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 their memory perish from their seed.
{9:29} Then Esther the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai
the Jew, wrote with all authority to confirm this second letter of
Purim. {9:30} He sent letters to all the Jews, to the hundred
twenty-seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, with words of
peace and truth, {9:31} to confirm these days of Purim in their
appointed times, as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had decreed,
and as they had imposed upon themselves and their descendants, in the
matter of the fastings and their cry. {9:32} The commandment of Esther
confirmed these matters of Purim; and it was written in the book.
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Footnotes:
[1] {9:26} Purim is the Hebrew plural for pur, which means lot.
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