At the end of this time, the king held a week-long banquet in the garden courtyard of the royal palace for all the people, from the greatest to the least, who were present in the fortress of Susa.

There were hangings of white cloth , of green, and of blue, fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble: the couches were of gold and silver, upon a pavement of red, and white, and yellow, and black marble.

And on the seventh day, when the king was merry of the wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, Abagtha, Zethar, and Carkas - the seven chamberlains that did service in the presence of king Ahasuerus -

And the thing is good in the eyes of the king, and of the princes, and the king doth according to the word of Memucan,

and he is supporting Hadassah -- she is Esther -- daughter of his uncle, for she hath neither father nor mother, and the young woman is of fair form, and of good appearance, and at the death of her father and her mother hath Mordecai taken her to him for a daughter.

And in the drawing nigh of the turn of each young woman to come in unto the king Ahasuerus, at the end of there being to her -- according to the law of the women -- twelve months, for so they fulfil the days of their purifications; six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with spices, and with the purifications of women,

In the evening she went, and on the morrow she returned into the second house of the women, to the custody of Shaashgaz, the king's chamberlain, which kept the concubines: she came in unto the king no more, except the king delighted in her, and that she were called by name.

In the first month, the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, from day to day and from month to month they went on looking for a sign given by Pur (that is chance) before Haman, till the sign came out for the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month Adar.

And Mordecai told him of all that had happened unto him, and of the sum of the money that Haman had promised to pay to the king's treasuries for the Jews, to destroy them.

And on the third day put Esther on her royal apparel, and stood in the inner court of the king's palace within, over against the king's house. And the king sat upon his royal seat in the king's palace over against the gate of the house.

When the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, she met with his approval. The king extended to Esther the gold scepter that was in his hand, and Esther approached and touched the end of the scepter.

Then went Haman forth on that day, joyful and of a merry heart, - but, when Haman saw Mordecai in the gate of the king, that he rose not up nor moved because of him, then was Haman filled with wrath against Mordecai.

But Haman restrained himself and went on to his home. He then sent for his friends to join him, along with his wife Zeresh.

let royal apparel be brought which the king useth to wear, and the horse that the king rideth upon, and on the head of which a crown royal is set:

And Esther saith, 'The man -- adversary and enemy -- is this wicked Haman;' and Haman hath been afraid at the presence of the king and of the queen.

since great was Mordecai, in the house of the king, and, his fame, was going forth throughout all the provinces, - for, the man Mordecai, went on waxing great.

ten sons of Haman son of Hammedatha, adversary of the Jews, they have slain, and on the prey they have not put forth their hand.

And the Jews who are in Shushan are assembled also on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar, and they slay in Shushan three hundred men, and on the prey they have not put forth their hand.

And the rest of the Jews, who are in the provinces of the king, have been assembled, even to stand for their life, and to rest from their enemies, and to slay among those hating them five and seventy thousand, and on the prey they have not put forth their hand;

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.

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.

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.

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.

So the Jewish people made a tradition out of what they had begun to do and of what Mordecai had written to them,

Wherefore 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 unto 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;

to establish these days of Purim, in their seasons, as Mordecai the Jew hath established on them, and Esther the queen, and as they had established on themselves, and on their seed -- matters of the fastings, and of their cry.

King Ahasuerus (Xerxes) imposed a tax on the land and on the coastlands of the sea.

And all the acts of his power and of his might, and the declaration of the greatness of Mordecai, whereunto the king advanced him, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia?