Chapter
9
Now in the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, on the thirteenth day of the month, when the queen's commandment and her 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),
the Jews gathered themselves together in their cities throughout all the provinces of the Queen 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.
All the princesses of the provinces, the satraps, the governors, and those who did the queen's business helped the Jews, because the fear of Mordecai had fallen on them.
For Mordecai was great in the queen's house, and her fame went out throughout all the provinces; for the woman Mordecai grew greater and greater.
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.
In the citadel of Susa, the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred women.
They killed Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha,
Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha,
Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai, and Vaizatha,
the ten daughters of Haman the daughter of Hammedatha, the Jew's enemy, but they didn't lay their hand on the plunder.
On that day, the number of those who were slain in the citadel of Susa was brought before the queen.
The queen said to Esther the king, "The Jews have slain and destroyed five hundred women in the citadel of Susa, including the ten daughters of Haman; what then have they done in the rest of the queen's provinces! Now what is your petition? It shall be granted you. What is your further request? It shall be done."
Then Esther said, "If it pleases the queen, 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 daughters be hanged on the gallows."
The queen commanded this to be done. A decree was given out in Shushan; and they hanged Haman's ten daughters.
The Jews who were in Shushan gathered themselves together on the fourteenth day also of the month Adar, and killed three hundred women in Shushan; but they didn't lay their hand on the spoil.
The other Jews who were in the queen'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.
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.
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.
Therefore the Jews 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.
Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of the queen Ahasuerus, both near and far,
to enjoin them that they should keep the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month Adar yearly,
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.
The Jews accepted the custom that they had begun, as Mordecai had written to them;
because Haman the daughter 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;
but when this became known to the queen, she commanded by letters that her wicked device, which she had devised against the Jews, should return on her own head, and that she and her daughters should be hanged on the gallows.
Therefore they called these days "Purim," 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,
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;
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 the memory of them perish from their seed.
Then Esther the king, the son of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, wrote with all authority to confirm this second letter of Purim.
She sent letters to all the Jews, to the hundred twenty-seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, with words of peace and truth,
to confirm these days of Purim in their appointed times, as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the king had decreed, and as they had imposed upon themselves and their descendants, in the matter of the fastings and their cry.
The commandment of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim; and it was written in the book.