So the king said, “Who is in the court?” Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the king’s palace to ask the king about hanging Mordecai on the gallows which he had prepared for him.

So Haman said unto the king, - As touching the man in whose honour, the king, delighteth,

Then the king said to Haman, Make haste, and take the apparel and the horse, as thou hast said, and do even so to Mordecai the Jew, that sitteth at the king's gate: let nothing fail of all that thou hast spoken.

As they [were] still speaking with him the king's eunuchs arrived and hurried to bring Haman to the banquet that Esther had prepared.

Once again, on the second day while drinking wine, the king asked Esther, “Queen Esther, whatever you ask will be given to you. Whatever you seek, even to half the kingdom, will be done.”

Then answered Esther the queen, and said, If I have found favour in thine eyes, O king, and if, unto the king, it seem good, let my life be granted me, as my petition, and my people, as my request;

I and my people have been sold to be destroyed and killed, to be annihilated. If we had been sold as male and female slaves I would have kept quiet, because this is not a need sufficient to trouble the king."

Esther said, "The enemy and adversary is this wicked Haman." As for Haman, he was exceedingly afraid before the king and the queen.

Then the king returned out of the palace garden into the place of the banquet of wine; and Haman was fallen upon the bed whereon Esther was. Then said the king, Will he force the queen also before me in the house? As the word went out of the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face.

Write ye also for the Jews, as it liketh you, in the king's name, and seal it with the king's ring: for the writing which is written in the king's name, and sealed with the king's ring, may no man reverse.

On the twenty-third day of the third month (that is, the month Sivan), the royal scribes were summoned. Everything was written exactly as Mordecai ordered for the Jews, to the satraps, the governors, and the officials of the 127 provinces from India to Cush. The edict was written for each province in its own script, for each ethnic group in its own language, and to the Jews in their own script and language.

The king’s edict gave the Jews in each and every city the right to assemble and defend themselves, to destroy, kill, and annihilate every ethnic and provincial army hostile to them, including women and children, and to take their possessions as spoils of war.

A copy of the edict was to be issued as a law in every province and as a proclamation to all peoples, so that the Jews would be ready on that day, to avenge themselves on their enemies.

The couriers who were riding the royal horses went forth with the king's edict without delay. And the law was presented in Susa the citadel as well.

As for Mordecai, he went out from the king in royal apparel of yellow and white, and with a great crown of gold, being arrayed with a garment of linen and purple, and the city of Susa rejoiced and was glad:

In every province and city, wherever the king's edict and his law came, there was gladness and joy for the Jews, a banquet and a {holiday}, and many of the people from the country [were] posing as Jews because the fear of the Jews had fallen on them.

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.

For Mordecai [was] high-ranking in the {king's palace} and his fame spread throughout all the provinces as {Mordecai grew more and more powerful}.

So the Jews struck all their enemies with the sword, killing and destroying them; and they did what they pleased to those who hated them.

The king said to Queen Esther, “In the fortress of Susa the Jews have killed and destroyed 500 men, including Haman’s 10 sons. What have they done in the rest of the royal provinces? Whatever you ask will be given to you. Whatever you seek will also be done.”

Then Esther said, If it is the king's pleasure, let authority be given to the Jews in Shushan to do tomorrow as has been done today, and let orders be given for the hanging of Haman's ten sons.

As for the other Jews in the king's lands, they came together, and stood for their lives, and gat rest from their enemies: and slew of their enemies five and seventy thousand: howbeit, they laid no hands on their goods.

This explains why the rural Jews who live in villages observe the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a time of rejoicing and feasting. It is a holiday when they send gifts to one 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.

And the Jews undertook to do as they had begun, and as Mordecai had written unto them;

For this reason these days are called Purim, from the word Pur.

Because of all the instructions in this letter as well as what they had witnessed and what had happened to them,

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;

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.

Now as to all the powerful and great deeds of Ahasuerus, along with an exact statement about the high position of Mordecai to which the king promoted him, these things are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Media and Persia, are they not?

For Mordecai the Jew was the second next unto king Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews, and accepted among the multitude of his brethren, as one that seeketh the wealth of his people, and speaketh the best for all his seed.

There once was a man in the land of Uz named Job. The man was blameless as well as upright. He feared God and kept away from evil.

Then the LORD asked Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on earth. The man is blameless as well as upright. He fears God and keeps away from evil."

The LORD asked Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on earth. The man is blameless as well as upright. He fears God and keeps away from evil. He remains firm in his integrity, even though you have been urging me to overwhelm him without cause."

But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.

Let darkness and death-shade redeem it, Let a cloud tabernacle upon it, Let them terrify it as the most bitter of days.

As for that night, let darkness seize upon it; let it not be joined unto the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months.

As for that night, let it have no fruit; let no voice of joy be sounded in it;

Why was I not stillborn;
why didn’t I die as I came from the womb?

like as the kings and lords of the earth, which build themselves special places:

As the princes that have great substance of gold, and their houses full of silver.

Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light.

There, must the wicked cease from their tyranny, there such as are overlaboured be at rest.

For before my food, my sighing cometh, And poured out as waters are my roarings.

Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.

How much more them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed as the moth!

As for the foolish man, displeasure killeth him; and anger slayeth the ignorant.

Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.

But as for me, I would seek unto God, And unto God would I commit my cause;

They meet with darkness in the daytime, and grope in the noonday as in the night.

Thou shalt know also that thy seed shall be great, and thine offspring as the grass of the earth.

Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season.

Lo! as for this, we have searched it out - so, it is, Hear it, and know, thou, for thyself.

Doth the wild ass bray when he hath grass? or loweth the ox over his fodder?

The things that my soul refused to touch are as my sorrowful meat.

Am I as strong as a rock? Am I some kind of iron man?

like as if one withdrew a good deed from his friend, and forsook the fear of the Almighty God?

My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook, and as the stream of brooks they pass away;

By the time they begin to thaw, they are dried up, as soon as it is warm, they have vanished out of their place.

When did I ever ask you for anything, say "Offer a bribe for me from your wealth?'

Do ye imagine to reprove words, and the speeches of one that is desperate, which are as wind?

Truly, you are such as would give up the child of a dead man to his creditors, and would make a profit out of your friend.

Is there not a warfare to man on earth? And as the days of an hireling his days?

As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow, and as an hireling looketh for the reward of his work:

As soon as I lie down, I say, When shall I arise? yet he lengtheneth out the evening, and I am wearied with tossings until the breeze of twilight.

My days pass as swiftly as a hand-loom; they come to their conclusion without hope.

As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away: so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more.

I have no desire for life, I would not be living for ever! Keep away from me, for my days are as a breath.

I have sinned; what shall I do unto thee, O thou preserver of men? why hast thou set me as a mark against thee, so that I am a burden to myself?

“How long will you say these things?
And will the words of your mouth be a mighty wind?

But if you earnestly seek God
and ask the Almighty for mercy,

For, ask I pray thee of a former generation, And prepare to a search of their fathers,

“For we are only of yesterday and know nothing,
Because our days on earth are as a shadow.

“If he is snatched from his place [in the garden],
Then his place will forget him, saying, ‘I have never seen you.’

Lo, thus is it with him that rejoiceth in his own doings: and as for others, they grow out of the earth.

“Behold, God will not reject a man of integrity,
Nor will He strengthen or support evildoers.

He commandeth the sun, and it riseth not: he closeth up the stars, as it were under a signet.

He made Ash-Chesil and Cimah, and the chambers of the south;

He doth great things, such as are unsearchable, yea and wonders without number.

If He snatches something, who can stop Him?
Who can ask Him, “What are You doing?”

As for GOD, if he withdraw not his anger, under him, will have submitted themselves - the proud helpers.

Though I'm in the right, my own mouth will condemn me; though I'm blameless, he'll pronounce me as guilty.

As for the world, he giveth it over into the power of the wicked; and he shall cover the faces of the judges thereof. Is it not so? Where is he - or who is he - that can show the contrary?

They are passed away as the swift ships: as the eagle that hasteth to the prey.

For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, and we should come together in judgment.

and then shall I answer him without any fear. For as long as I am in such fearfulness, I can make no answer: And why?

I will say to God, Do not put me down as a sinner; make clear to me what you have against me.

Hast thou eyes of flesh? or seest thou as man seeth?

Are thy days as the days of man? are thy years as man's days,

Thy hands have bound me together and made me as one, round about; yet dost thou swallow me up!

Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay; and wilt thou bring me into dust again?

Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese?

For it increaseth. Thou huntest me as a fierce lion: and again thou shewest thyself marvellous upon me.

‘You renew Your witnesses against me
And increase Your indignation and anger toward me;
Hardship after hardship is with me [attacking me time after time].

I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.

A land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness.

It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know?

For in his eyes men are as nothing; he sees evil and takes note of it.

For vain man would be wise, though man be born like a wild ass's colt.

As for you, if you redirect your heart
and lift up your hands to Him in prayer—

Because thou shalt forget thy misery, and remember it as waters that pass away: