Ester, starting at chapter 7
{7:1} So the king and Haman came to banquet with Ester the queen.
{7:2} The king said again to Ester on the second day at the banquet of
wine, What is your petition, queen Ester? and it shall be granted you:
and what is your request? even to the half of the kingdom it shall be
performed. {7:3} Then Ester 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 had held my shalom,
although the adversary could not have compensated for the king's
damage. {7:5} Then spoke the king Achashverosh and said to Ester the
queen, Who is he, and where is he, that dared presume in his heart to
do so? {7:6} Ester 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: and Haman stood up to make request for his life to
Ester 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 was fallen on the
couch whereon Ester was. Then said the king, Will he even force the
queen before me in the house? As the word went out of the king's
mouth, they covered Haman's face. {7:9} Then said Harvonah, one of the
chamberlains who were before the king, Behold also, the gallows fifty
cubits high, which Haman has made for Mordekhai, who spoke good for
the king, stands in the house of Haman. The king said, Hang him
thereon. {7:10} So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had
prepared for Mordekhai. Then was the king's wrath pacified.
{8:1} On that day did the king Achashverosh give the house of Haman
the Yehudim' enemy to Ester the queen. Mordekhai came before the king;
for Ester 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 Mordekhai. Ester
set Mordekhai over the house of Haman. {8:3} Ester 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 Yehudim. {8:4} Then the king held out to Ester
the golden scepter. So Ester arose, and stood before the king. {8:5}
She said, If it please the king, and if I have found favor in his
sight, and the thing seem right before the king, and I be pleasing in
his eyes, let it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman,
the son of Hammedata the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the
Yehudim who are in all the king's provinces: {8:6} for how can I
endure to see the evil that shall come to my people? or how can I
endure to see the destruction of my relatives? {8:7} Then the king
Achashverosh said to Ester the queen and to Mordekhai the Yehudi, See,
I have given Ester the house of Haman, and him they have hanged on the
gallows, because he laid his hand on the Yehudim. {8:8} Write you also
to the Yehudim, 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 no man reverse. {8:9} Then
were the king's [1>]Sofrim[<1] called at that time, in the third month
Sivan, on the three and twentieth [day] of it; and it was written
according to all that Mordekhai commanded to the Yehudim, and to the
satraps, and the governors and princes of the provinces which are from
Hoddu to Kush, one hundred twenty-seven provinces, to every province
according to the writing of it, and to every people after their
language, and to the Yehudim according to their writing, and according
to their language. {8:10} He wrote the name of king Achashverosh, and
sealed it with the king's ring, and sent letters by post on horseback,
riding on swift steeds that were used in the king's service, bred of
the stud: {8:11} in which the king granted the Yehudim who were in
every city to gather themselves together, and to stand for 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 take the spoil of them for a prey, {8:12} on one day in
all the provinces of king Achashverosh, [namely], on the thirteenth
[day] of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar. {8:13} A copy of
the writing, that the decree should be given out in every province,
was published to all the peoples, and that the Yehudim should be ready
against that day to avenge themselves on their enemies. {8:14} So the
posts who rode on swift steeds that were used in the king's service
went out, being hurried and pressed on by the king's [2>]mitzvah[<2];
and the decree was given out in Shushan the palace. {8:15} Mordekhai
went forth from 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 Shushan shouted and was glad. {8:16} The
Yehudim had light and gladness, and joy and honor. {8:17} In every
province, and in every city, wherever the king's [3>]mitzvah[<3] and
his decree came, the Yehudim had gladness and joy, a feast and a good
day. Many from among the peoples of the land became Yehudim; for the
fear of the Yehudim was fallen on them.
{9:1} Now in the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, on the
thirteenth day of the same, when the king's [1>]mitzvah[<1] and his
decree drew near to be put in execution, on the day that the enemies
of the Yehudim hoped to have rule over them, (whereas it was turned to
the contrary, that the Yehudim had rule over those who hated them,)
{9:2} the Yehudim gathered themselves together in their cities
throughout all the provinces of the king Achashverosh, to lay hand on
such as sought their hurt: and no man could withstand them; for the
fear of them was fallen on all the peoples. {9:3} All the princes of
the provinces, and the satraps, and the governors, and those who did
the king's business, helped the Yehudim; because the fear of Mordekhai
was fallen on them. {9:4} For Mordekhai was great in the king's house,
and his fame went forth throughout all the provinces; for the man
Mordekhai grew greater and greater. {9:5} The Yehudim struck all their
enemies with the stroke of the sword, and with slaughter and
destruction, and did what they would to those who hated them. {9:6} In
Shushan the palace the Yehudim killed and destroyed five hundred men.
{9:7} Parshandata, and Dalfon, and Aspata, {9:8} and Porata, and
Adalyah, and Aridata, {9:9} and Parmashta, and Arisai, and Aridai, and
Vaizata, {9:10} the ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedata, the
Yehudi's enemy, killed they; but they didn't lay their hand on the
spoil. {9:11} On that day the number of those who were slain in
Shushan the palace was brought before the king. {9:12} The king said
to Ester the queen, The Yehudim 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 your
petition? and it shall be granted you: or what is your request
further? and it shall be done. {9:13} Then said Ester, If it please
the king, let it be granted to the Yehudim 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 it so to be done:
and a decree was given out in Shushan; and they hanged Haman's ten
sons. {9:15} The Yehudim 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 Yehudim who were in the king's provinces
gathered themselves together, and stood for their lives, and had rest
from their enemies, and killed of those who hated them seventy-five
thousand; but they didn't lay their hand on the spoil. {9:17} [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. {9:18} But the Yehudim 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. {9:19} Therefore do the Yehudim 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. {9:20} Mordekhai wrote these
things, and sent letters to all the Yehudim who were in all the
provinces of the king Achashverosh, both near and far, {9:21} to
enjoin those who they should keep the fourteenth day of the month
Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly, {9:22} as the days in
which the Yehudim 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 portions one to another, and gifts to the needy. {9:23} The
Yehudim undertook to do as they had begun, and as Mordekhai had
written to them; {9:24} because Haman the son of Hammedata, the
Agagite, the enemy of all the Yehudim, had plotted against the Yehudim
to destroy them, and had cast Pur, that is the lot, to consume them,
and to destroy them; {9:25} but when [the matter] came before the
king, he commanded by letters that his wicked device, which he had
devised against the Yehudim, 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 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, {9:27} the
Yehudim ordained, and took on them, and on their seed, and on 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 appointed time of it, 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 Yehudim, nor the memory of them
perish from their seed. {9:29} Then Ester the queen, the daughter of
Avichayil, and Mordekhai the Yehudi, wrote with all authority to
confirm this second letter of Purim. {9:30} He sent letters to all the
Yehudim, to the hundred twenty-seven provinces of the kingdom of
Achashverosh, [with] words of shalom and truth, {9:31} to confirm
these days of Purim in their appointed times, according as Mordekhai
the Yehudi and Ester 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. {9:32} The [2>]mitzvah[<2] of Ester confirmed
these matters of Purim; and it was written in the book.
________________________________________________________________________
Footnotes:
[1] {8:9} scribes
[2] {8:14} commandment
[3] {8:17} commandment
[1] {9:1} commandment
[2] {9:32} commandment
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