When the report about the queen goes out to all the women, it will cause them to despise their husbands. They'll say, "King Ahasuerus ordered Queen Vashti to be brought before him, but she wouldn't come.'

They asked him this day after day, and he would not listen to them, so they told Haman to see whether or not Mordecai would get away with his disobedience, since he also had told them that he was Jewish.

Because they had told him who the people of Mordecai were, Haman found it unacceptable to kill only Mordecai. So Haman sought to destroy all of Mordecai's people, the Jewish people, who were in all the kingdom of Ahasuerus.

Then Haman told King Ahasuerus, "There is a certain people scattered and divided among the people throughout the provinces of your kingdom. Their laws are different than all the other people, they don't obey the king's laws, and it's not in the king's best interest to leave them alone.

If the king approves, let it be decreed that they're to be destroyed, and I'll measure out 10,000 silver talents and bring it to the king's treasury for those who will do the work."

They reported Esther's message to Mordecai.

While they were drinking wine, the king asked Esther, "What's your petition? It will be given to you. What's your request? Up to half of the kingdom, and it will be done."

That night the king could not sleep, so he gave instructions to bring the book of records, the chronicles, and they were read to the king.

It was found recorded there that Mordecai had reported about Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king's eunuchs who guarded the entrance to the restricted areas of the palace, and that they had conspired to assassinate King Ahasuerus.

While they were still talking to him, the king's eunuchs arrived, and they quickly took him to the banquet that Esther had prepared.

On the second day the king again told Esther as they drank wine, "What's your petition, Queen Esther? It will be given to you. What's your request? Up to half of the kingdom, and it will be done."

When the king returned to the banquet hall from the palace garden, Haman was prostrate on the couch where Esther was. The king asked, "Will this man even assault the queen with me in the house?" The king had no sooner spoken than they covered Haman's face.

The king said, "Hang him on it." So they hanged Haman on the pole he had set up for Mordecai, and then the king's anger subsided.

King Ahasuerus told Queen Esther and Mordecai the Jew, "Look, I've given Haman's property to Esther, and they have hanged him on the pole because he tried to harm the Jewish people.

In each and every province, and in each and every city, in the places where the king's order and edict reached, there was gladness and joy among the Jewish people, along with a festival and a holiday. Many of the people of the land became Jews, because they had come to fear the Jewish people.

The Jewish people struck down all their enemies with the sword, killing and destroying them, and they did with their enemies as they pleased.

They killed Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha,

the ten sons of Hammedatha's son Haman, the enemy of the Jewish people, but they did not lay their hands on the spoils.

The king told Queen Esther, "In Susa the capital the Jewish people have killed and destroyed 500 people, including Haman's ten sons. What have they done in the rest of the king's provinces? Now what's your petition? It will be given to you. What's your further request? It will be done."

The Jewish people in Susa assembled again on that day, the fourteenth of Adar, and they killed 300 people in Susa, but they did not lay their hands on the spoils.

The rest of the Jewish people in the king's provinces assembled to defend themselves, and they gained relief from their enemies, killing 75,000 of those who hated them. But they did not lay their hands on the spoils.

They did this on the thirteenth day of Adar and rested on the fourteenth day, making it a day of feasting and joy.

establishing that they should celebrate the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month Adar every year,

as the days on which the Jewish people enjoyed relief from their enemies. It was a month when things turned around for them, from sorrow to joy and from mourning to a holiday. They were to celebrate these days as days of feasting and joy, and they were to send presents to one 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,

Therefore these days were called , from the word . Because of all that was written in this letter, because of what they experienced in this matter, and because of what happened to them,

the Jewish people established this celebration, making it a tradition for themselves, for their descendants, and for all who joined with them that they should not fail to observe these two days each year, based on the written instructions, and at the prescribed time.

These days should be remembered and observed in every generation by each family in every province and town. These days of Purim should not be neglected by the Jewish people, and that they should not be forgotten by their descendants.

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?