But {he considered it beneath him} to lay hands on Mordecai only, for they told him of Mordecai's people, and Haman sought to destroy all the Jews, the people of Mordecai, who [were] in the kingdom of Ahasuerus.

So the king removed his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews.

Letters [were] sent by couriers to all the provinces of the king to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all the Jews, {both young and old}, women and children, on one day, the thirteenth day of the month, that [is] Adar, and to plunder their goods.

In every province [each] place where the king's edict and his law came, there [was] great mourning for the Jews with fasting, crying, wailing, [and] sackcloth; and ashes were spread out as a bed for them.

and Mordecai told him all that had happened to him, and the exact amount of money that Haman has promised to pay to the treasury of the king for the destruction of the Jews.

Then Mordecai told [them] to reply to Esther: "Do not think that your life will be saved [in] the palace of the king more than all the Jews.

For if indeed you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, and you and the family of your father will perish. Who knows? [Perhaps] you have come to a royal position for a time such as this."

"Go, gather all the Jews that are found in Susa and fast for me; do not eat or drink [for] three days, both night and day. I and my young girls will fast likewise, and then I will go to the king, which [is] not according to the law; if I perish, I perish.

And Haman told Zeresh his wife and all his friends all that had happened to him. And his advisers and Zeresh his wife said to him, "If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, [is] {from the descendants of the Jews}, you will not prevail against him, but will certainly fall before him."

On that day King Ahasuerus gave Queen Esther the house of Haman, the enemy of the Jews; and Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had told what he [was] to her.

And Esther again spoke before the king, and she fell before his feet and wept, pleading for his grace to avert Haman the Agagite's evil [plan] and the plot that he devised against the Jews.

and she said, "If it is good to the king, and if I have found favor before him, and if the king is pleased with this matter, and {I have his approval}, let [an edict] be written to revoke the letters of the plans of Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews that [are] in all the provinces of the king.

And King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, "Look, I have given Haman's house to Esther, and they have hanged him on the gallows because he {plotted against} the Jews.

Write {as you see fit} concerning the Jews in the name of the king, and seal [it] with the king's signet ring; for a decree that is written in the name of the king and sealed with the king's signet ring cannot be revoked."

And the secretaries of the king were summoned at that time, in the third month, which [is] in the month of Sivan on the twenty-third [day], and [an edict] was written according to all that Mordecai commanded, to the Jews and to the governors and satraps and officials of the provinces from India to Cush--one hundred and twenty-seven provinces--each province according to its own script and to every people in their own {language}, and to the Jews in their own script and language.

[In them] the king allowed the Jews who [were] in every city to assemble and {defend their lives}, to destroy and kill and annihilate any army of any people or province attacking them, including women and children, and to plunder their spoil,

A copy of the {edict} [was] to be given [as] law in each province to inform all the people, so that the Jews would be ready on that day to avenge themselves from their enemies.

For the Jews, there was light and gladness, joy and honor.

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.

In the twelfth month, that [is] the month of Adar, on the thirteenth day, on which the edict of the king arrived and his law was enacted, on the day in which the enemies of the Jews had hoped to gain power over them but was overturned, [and] the Jews gained power against their enemies,

the Jews gathered in their cities in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus {to strike against} those who sought their destruction, and no one could withstand them, as the fear of them fell on all the people.

All the officials of the provinces, the satraps, governors, and {those who did the work of the king} [were] supporting the Jews, because the fear of Mordecai had fallen on them.

The Jews struck down all their enemies with {the sword}, killing and destroying [them]; and they did as they pleased with those that hated them.

And in the citadel of Susa the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men,

the ten sons of Haman, the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews; but they did not {touch} the plunder.

And the king said to Queen Esther, "In the citadel of Susa the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men and the ten sons of Haman. What have they done in the rest of the king's provinces? What [is] your petition? It will be granted to you. And what further [is] your request? It will be done."

Esther replied, "If it is good to the king, let tomorrow also be granted to the Jews who [are] in Susa to do according to the edict of today; and let them hang Haman's ten sons on the gallows."

And the Jews were gathered who [were] in Susa, and on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and they killed in Susa three hundred men, but they did not {touch} the plunder.

The rest of the Jews who [were] in the king's provinces gathered and {defended their lives} and {found repose} from their enemies. And they killed seventy-five thousand of those that hated them, but they did not {touch} the plunder.

But the Jews who [were] in Susa gathered on the thirteenth and on the fourteenth day, and rested on the fifteenth day. And they made it a day of feasting and joy.

Therefore the Jews in the rural [areas], living in the rural towns, made the fourteenth month of Adar a day of joy and feasting, a festive day of giving gifts to each other.

Mordecai wrote down these things and he sent letters to all the Jews who [were] in all [of] the provinces of King Ahasuerus, [both] near and far,

as the day that the Jews {found relief} from their enemies, and the month which changed for them from sorrow to joy, and from a mourning ceremony to a {festive day}; to make them days of feasting and joy, and giving gifts to each other and to the poor.

And the Jews adopted what they had begun to do and what Mordecai had written to them.

For Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews had plotted against the Jews to destroy them, and he had cast pur, that [is] the lot, to rout them out and destroy them.

But when it came {to the attention of} the king, he {gave orders in writing} [that] his evil plot that he had devised against the Jews should return on his head, and they hung him and his sons on the gallows.

the Jews established and adopted [it] for themselves and for their offspring, and for all who joined them. They did not neglect {to observe} these two days every year as it was written and appointed to them.

These days [are] to be remembered and [are] to be kept in every generation, and in family, province, and city; and these days of Purim are not [to be] neglected among the Jews, and their memory shall not come to an end among their offspring.

He sent letters of words of peace and truth to all the Jews, to the one hundred and twenty-seven provinces of Ahasuerus' kingdom,

For Mordecai the Jew [was] second-in-command to King Ahasuerus. [He was] great for the Jews and popular with many of his brothers, for he sought good for his people, {interceding for the welfare of all his descendants}.