9:1 For in the twelfth month, on the
thirteenth day of the month which is Adar, the letters written by the king
arrived.
9:2 In that day the adversaries of the Jews perished: for no one resisted,
through fear of them.
9:3 For the chiefs of the satraps, and the princes and the royal scribes,
honoured the Jews; for the fear of Mordecai lay upon them.
9:4 For the order of the king was in force, that he should be celebrated in
all the kingdom.
9:5
9:6 And in the city Susa the Jews slew five hundred men:
9:7 both Pharsannes, and Delphon and Phasga,
9:8 and Pharadatha, and Barea, and Sarbaca,
9:9 and Marmasima, and Ruphaeus, and Arsaeus, and Zabuthaeus,
9:10 the ten sons of Haman the son of Amadathes the Bugaean, the enemy of the
Jews, and they plundered [their property] on the same day:
9:11 and the number of them that perished in Susa was rendered to the king.
9:12 And the king said to Esther, The Jews have slain five hundred men in
the city Susa; and how, thinkest thou, have they used them in the rest of
the country? What then dost thou yet ask, that it may be [done] for thee?
9:13 And Esther said to the king, let it be granted to the Jews so to treat
them tomorrow as to hand the ten sons of Haman.
9:14 And he permitted it to be so done; and he gave up to the Jews of the
city the bodies of the sons of Haman to hang.
9:15 And the Jews assembled in Susa on the fourteenth [day] of Adar, and
slew three hundred men, but plundered no property.
9:16 And the rest of the Jews who were in the kingdom assembled, and helped
one another, and obtained rest from their enemies: for they destroyed
fifteen thousand of them on the thirteenth [day] of Adar, but took no spoil.
9:17 And they rested on the fourteenth of the same month, and kept it as a
day of rest with joy and gladness.
9:18 And the Jews in the city Susa assembled also on the fourteenth [day]
and rested; and they kept also the fifteenth with joy and gladness.
9:19 On this account then [it is that] the Jews dispersed in every foreign
land keep the fourteenth of Adar [as] a holy day with joy, sending portions
each to his neighbour.
9:20 And Mordecai wrote these things in a book, and sent them to the
Jews, as many as were in the kingdom of Artaxerxes, both them that were near
and them that were afar off,
9:21 to establish these [as] joyful days, and to keep the fourteenth and
fifteenth of Adar;
9:22 for on these days the Jews obtained rest from their enemies; and [as
to] the month, which was Adar, in which a change was made for tem, from
mourning to joy, and from sorrow to a good day, to spend the whole of it
[in] good days of feasting and gladness, sending portions to their friends,
and to the poor.
9:23 And the Jews consented [to this] accordingly as Mordecai wrote to
them,
9:24 [shewing] how Haman the son of Amadathes the Macedonian fought against
them, how he made a decree and cast lots to destroy them utterly;
9:25 also how he went in to the king, telling [him] to hang Mordecai: but
all the calamities he tried to bring upon the Jews came upon himself, and he
was hanged, and his children.
9:26 Therefore these days were called Phrurae, because of the lots; (for in
their language they are called Phrurae;) because of the words of this
letter, and [because of] all they suffered on this account, and all that
happened to them.
9:27 And [Mordecai] established it, and the Jews took upon themselves,
and upon their seed, and upon those that were joined to them [to observe
it], neither would they on any account behave differently: but these days
[were to be] a memorial kept in every generation, and city, and family, and
province.
9:28 And these days of the Phrurae, [said they,] shall be kept for ever, and
their memorial shall not fail in any generation.
9:29 And queen Esther, the daughter of Aminadab, and Mordecai the Jew,
wrote all that they had done, and the confirmation of the letter of Phrurae.
9:30
9:31 And Mordecai and Esther the queen appointed [a fast] for themselves
privately, even at that time also having formed their plan against their own
health.
9:32 And Esther established it by a command for ever, and it was written for
a memorial. |
9:1 Now in the twelfth month, that 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, in the day that the enemies
of the Jews hoped to have power over them, (though it was turned to the
contrary, that the Jews had rule over them that hated them;)
9:2 The 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 people.
9:3 And all the rulers of the provinces, and the lieutenants, and the
deputies, and officers of the king, helped the Jews; because the fear of
Mordecai fell upon them.
9:4 For Mordecai was great in the king's house, and his fame went out
throughout all the provinces: for this man Mordecai waxed greater and
greater.
9:5 Thus the Jews smote all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, and
slaughter, and destruction, and did what they would unto those that hated
them.
9:6 And in Shushan the palace the Jews slew and destroyed five hundred men.
9:7 And Parshandatha, and Dalphon, and Aspatha,
9:8 And Poratha, and Adalia, and Aridatha,
9:9 And Parmashta, and Arisai, and Aridai, and Vajezatha,
9:10 The ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews,
slew they; but on the spoil laid they not their hand.
9:11 On that day the number of those that were slain in Shushan the palace
was brought before the king.
9:12 And the king said unto Esther the queen, The Jews have slain and
destroyed five hundred men in Shushan the palace, and the ten sons of Haman;
what have they done in the rest of the king's provinces? now what is thy
petition? and it shall be granted thee: or what is thy request further? and
it shall be done.
9:13 Then said Esther, If it please the king, let it be granted to the Jews
which are in Shushan to do to morrow also according unto this day's decree,
and let Haman's ten sons be hanged upon the gallows.
9:14 And the king commanded it so to be done: and the decree was given at
Shushan; and they hanged Haman's ten sons.
9:15 For the Jews that were in Shushan gathered themselves together on the
fourteenth day also of the month Adar, and slew three hundred men at Shushan;
but on the prey they laid not their hand.
9:16 But the other Jews that were in the king's provinces gathered
themselves together, and stood for their lives, and had rest from their
enemies, and slew of their foes seventy and five thousand, but they laid not
their hands on the prey,
9:17 On the thirteenth day of the month Adar; and on the fourteenth day of
the same rested they, and made it a day of feasting and gladness.
9:18 But the Jews that were at Shushan assembled together on the thirteenth
day thereof, and on the fourteenth thereof; and on the fifteenth day of the
same they rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness.
9:19 Therefore the Jews of the villages, that dwelt in the unwalled towns,
made 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 And Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters unto all the Jews
that were in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, both nigh and far,
9:21 To stablish this among them, that they should keep the fourteenth day
of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly,
9:22 As the days wherein the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month
which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning into a good
day: that they should make them days of feasting and joy, and of sending
portions one to another, and gifts to the poor.
9:23 And the Jews undertook to do as they had begun, and as Mordecai had
written unto them;
9:24 Because Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the
Jews, had devised 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 Esther came before the king, he commanded by letters that his
wicked device, which he devised against the Jews, should return upon his own
head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.
9:26 Wherefore they called these days Purim after the name of Pur. Therefore
for all the words of this letter, and of that which they had seen concerning
this matter, and which had come unto them,
9:27 The Jews ordained, and took upon them, and upon their seed, and upon
all such as joined themselves unto them, so as it should not fail, that they
would keep these two days according to their writing, and according to their
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 the memorial of them
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 And he sent the letters unto all the Jews, to the hundred twenty and
seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, with words of peace and truth,
9:31 To confirm these days of Purim in their times appointed, according as
Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had enjoined them, and as they had
decreed for themselves and for their seed, the matters of the fastings and
their cry.
9:32 And the decree of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim; and it was
written in the book. |