King James Version

1 In the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, on the thirteenth day of it, when the word of the king and his decree was to be carried out on the day when the enemies of the Jews hoped to overpower them, and it turned out that the Jews themselves gained the upper hand over those who hated them. 2 The Jews gathered in their cities in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus to attack those who sought their harm, and no one stood before them, for fear of them had fallen upon all the peoples. 3 And all the officials of the provinces and the satraps and the governors and those who do the work of the king were causing fear among the Jews because the terror of Mordecai had fallen upon them. 4 For Mordecai is great in the king's house, and his fame is going throughout all the provinces, for the man Mordecai is great and is going. 5 And the Jews struck all their enemies with a stroke of the sword and with killing and with destruction, and they did with their haters as they pleased. 6 And in Shushan the palace, the Jews killed five hundred men. 7 And the Parshandatha and the Dalphon and the Aspatha. 8 And / the potah and / the adalyah and / the aridatah. 9 And Parmashta, and Arisai, and Aridai, and Vayzatha. 10 Ten sons of Haman, the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews, were killed, but they did not lay their hands on the plunder. 11 On that day came the number of the slain in Shushan the palace before the king. 12 And the king said to Esther the queen in Shushan the city, "The Jews have been killed and five hundred men have been destroyed and the ten sons of Haman in the rest of the provinces of the king. What have they done and what is your request, and it shall be given to you, and what is your further petition, and it shall be done." 13 And Esther said, "If it pleases the king, let it be given tomorrow to the Jews who are in Shushan to do according to the law of the day, and let the ten sons of Haman be hanged on the gallows." 14 And the king said to have it done, and a decree was given in Shushan, and the ten sons of Haman were hanged. 15 And the Jews who were in Shushan also assembled on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar, and they killed three hundred men in Shushan, but they did not lay a hand on the plunder. 16 And the rest of the Jews who were in the king's provinces gathered and stood for their lives and had rest from their enemies and killed seventy-five thousand of their haters, but they did not lay their hands on the plunder. 17 On the thirteenth day of the month Adar, and Noah on the fourteenth day of it made a day of feasting and joy. 18 And the Jews who were in Shushan gathered on the thirteenth day and on the fourteenth day, and they rested on the fifteenth day and made it a day of feasting and rejoicing. 19 Therefore, the Jews in the unwalled towns celebrate the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a day of joy and feasting and a good day, and of sending portions of food to one another. 20 Mordecai wrote these matters and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far. 21 To uphold them to be doing on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and on the fifteenth day of it in every year. 22 On the days when the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month which was transformed for them from sorrow to joy and from mourning to a good day, to make for them days of feasting and joy, and sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor. 23 And the Jews accepted what they had begun to do and what Mordecai had written to them. 24 For Haman, son of Hammedatha the Agagite, sought to destroy all the Jews and cast lots to annihilate them. 25 And when she came before the king, she said, "With the book, let his thoughts return regarding the evil that he thought against the Jews upon his head, and let them hang him and his sons on the tree." 26 Therefore, they called these days Purim, because of the lot. Therefore, according to all the words of this letter and whatever they saw concerning this and what happened to them. 27 The Jews and their descendants, along with all those who join them, shall not fail to observe these two days each year as written and at their appointed times in every year. 28 And these days shall be remembered and kept in every generation and family, and family and state, and state and city, and the days of these Purim shall not pass from among the Jews, and their remembrance shall not perish from their descendants. 29 And Esther the queen, daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew wrote all the strength to establish this second letter of the Purim. 30 And he sent letters to all the Jews in the one hundred and twenty-seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, words of peace and truth. 31 To establish these days of Purim in their times, as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther established for them, and as they confirmed upon themselves and their descendants, the words of the fasts and their crying out. 32 And the decree of Esther confirmed these words of Purim and was written in the book.