¹And in the twelfth month – that is the month of Adar – on the thirteenth day of it, when the king's word and his decree were reaching the point of being carried out, on the day when the enemies of the Jews hoped to have dominion over them, this was inverted, so that it was the Jews who had dominion over those that hated them. ²The Jews assembled in their cities in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, to lay their hands on those who sought to harm them, and no man stood before them, for the fear of them fell upon all the various peoples. ³And all the officials of the provinces, and the satraps and the governors, and those who carried out the king's work, assisted the Jews, for fear of Mordecai had fallen on them. ⁴For Mordecai was great in the king's house, and his reputation went to all the provinces, for the man Mordecai became greater and greater. ⁵And the Jews struck all their enemies with the blow of the sword, and slaughter and destruction. And they did what they pleased to those who hated them. ⁶And in the citadel of Shushan the Jews killed and eliminated five hundred men, ⁷and Parshandatha and Dalphon and Aspatha, ⁸and Poratha and Adalia and Aridatha, ⁹and Parmashta and Arisai and Aridai and Vajezatha. ¹⁰They killed the ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha the enemy of the Jews, but they did not lay their hands on the spoil. ¹¹On that day the report of the number of those killed in the citadel of Shushan came before the king. ¹²And the king said to Esther the queen, “In the citadel of Shushan the Jews have killed and eliminated five hundred men and Haman's ten sons. In the remainder of the provinces of the king, what have they done and what else is your petition, and it will be given to you, and what is your request, and it will be done?” ¹³And Esther said, “If the king approves, let the Jews who are in Shushan do according to today's decree tomorrow as well, and let them hang Haman's ten sons on the gallows.” ¹⁴And the king commanded this to be done, and the decree was issued in Shushan, and they hanged Haman's ten sons. ¹⁵And the Jews who were in Shushan assembled also on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar, and they killed in Shushan three hundred men, but they did not lay their hands on the spoil. ¹⁶And the remainder of the Jews, who were in the king's provinces, assembled and took a stand for their lives, and for rest from their enemies, and they killed seventy-five thousand of those who hated them, but they did not lay their hands on the spoil. ¹⁷This was on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, and there was rest on the fourteenth day of it, and they made it a day of festivity and gladness. ¹⁸And the Jews who were in Shushan assembled on the thirteenth day of it, and on the fourteenth day of it. And there was rest on the fifteenth day of it, and they made it a day of festivity and gladness. ¹⁹Therefore the Jews in the villages, who dwelt in unwalled towns, made the fourteenth day of the month of Adar a day of gladness and festivity, and a holiday, and of sending each other presents. ²⁰And Mordecai wrote these things, and he sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, near and far, ²¹to establish among them that they should celebrate the fourteenth day of the month of Adar, and the fifteenth day of it, each year, ²²as the days on which the Jews rested from their enemies, and as the month when it was turned for them from sorrow to gladness, and from mourning to a holiday, to make them days of festivity and gladness, and sending of presents to one another, and gifts to the poor. ²³And the Jews undertook that which they had begun to do, and that which Mordecai had written to them. ²⁴For Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, plotted against the Jews to eliminate them, and he cast Pur – that is a lot – to defeat them and to eliminate them, ²⁵but when she came before the king, he commanded with a letter that his evil plot which he plotted against the Jews should rebound on him, and they hanged him and his sons on the gallows. ²⁶Therefore they call these days Purim, according to the name Pur, for this reason, because of all the words of this letter, and because of what they saw of this matter, and because of what had come upon them. ²⁷The Jews established and took it upon themselves and upon their seed and upon all those who joined them, that it would not pass into disuse, to celebrate these two days according to their description and according to their time each year. ²⁸And these days are remembered and celebrated in every generation, in every family, in every province and in every city. And these days of Purim will not pass into disuse among the Jews, and their memory will not come to an end among their seed. ²⁹And Queen Esther, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, wrote with all authority to confirm this second letter of Purim. ³⁰And he sent letters to all the Jews – to the one hundred and twenty-seven provinces – of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, with words of peace and truth, ³¹to establish these days of Purim at their times, as Mordecai the Jew had established them among them, as had Esther the queen, and as they had established matters of fasts and their outcry for their lives and for their seed. ³²And Esther's commandment established these matters of Purim, and it was written in the book.