be it known to the king that the Jews who have come up from near you to us have gone to Jerusalem. They are building the rebellious and wicked city. They are finishing the wall and repairing the foundation.

Then when a copy of the letter of King Artaxerxes was read before Rehum, Shimshai the scribe, and their associates they returned in a hurry to Jerusalem against the Jews and they stopped them by force and power.

Now the prophets, Haggai and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews who were in {Judah} and in Jerusalem, in the name of the God of Israel who was over them.

And the eye of their God was on the elders of the Jews, and they did not stop them until the report came to Darius, and then [answer] was received.

Leave this work of the house of God alone. Let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews build this house of God on its site.

And I issue forth a decree for what you should do for these elders of the Jews to build this house of God. The full expense will be paid to these men from the riches of the king from the taxes of [the province] Beyond the River, without delay.

So the elders of the Jews were building and prospering, through the prophecy of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah son of Iddo. They finished building by the command of the God of Israel and by the decree of Cyrus, Darius, and King Artaxerxes of Persia.

and one of my brothers, Hanani, came with some men from Judah. I asked them about the Jews who had escaped the captivity and about Jerusalem.

The prefects did not know where I had gone and what I was doing. I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the prefects, and the rest of the workers.

Now it happened when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, [he] became angry and greatly provoked, and he mocked the Jews.

Then he said before his brothers and the army of Samaria, "What are the feeble Jews doing? Will they restore [these things] for themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish it in a day? Will they revive the stones from the piles of rubble--even those burned up?"

When the Jews who lived beside them came, they said to us ten times, "From all of the places where they live, [they will come up] against us."

and I said to them: "We ourselves have bought back our brothers the Jews who were sold to the nations as we were able. But now you yourselves have sold your brothers so they may be sold to us!" They were silent and could not find a word [to say].

One hundred and fifty men, prefects and Jews, and those who came to us from the nations around us, [were] at my table.

In it was written, "It has been reported among the nations, and Gashmu also is saying it, that you and the Jews are considering rebellion. Therefore, truly you are building the wall and you are becoming their king, according to these words.

Also in those days I saw Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab.

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}.

{Therefore} {at this time} [some] {astrologers} came forward and {they denounced the Jews}.

saying, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star at its rising and have come to worship him."

So Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, saying, "Are you the king of the Jews?" And Jesus said, "You say [so]."

and weaving a crown of thorns, they put [it] on his head, and [put] a reed in his right hand. And kneeling down before him, they mocked him, saying, "Hail, king of the Jews!"

And they put above his head the charge against him {in writing}: "This is Jesus, the king of the Jews."

So they took the money [and] did as they were told, and spread abroad this report among the Jews until this very day.

(For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands {ritually}, [thus] holding fast to the traditions of the elders.

And Pilate asked him, "Are you the king of the Jews?" And he answered him [and] said, "You say [so]."

So Pilate answered them, saying, "Do you want me to release for you the king of the Jews?"

So Pilate answered [and] said to them again, "Then what do you want me to do with [the one] whom you call the king of the Jews?"

And they began to greet him, "Hail, king of the Jews!"

And the inscription of the charge against him was written, "The king of the Jews."

And Pilate asked him, saying, "Are you the king of the Jews?" And he answered him [and] said, "You say [so]."

and saying, "If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself!"

And there was also an inscription over him, "This [is] the king of the Jews."

And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem so that they could ask him, "Who are you?"

Now six stone water jars were set there, in accordance with the ceremonial cleansing of the Jews, each holding two or three measures.

And the Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

So the Jews answered and said to him, "What sign do you show to us, because you are doing these [things]?"

Then the Jews said, "This temple has been under construction forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?"

Now there was a man of the Pharisees {whose name was} Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.

So the Samaritan woman said to him, "How do you, being a Jew, ask from me [water] to drink, [since I] am a Samaritan woman?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)

You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, because salvation is from the Jews.

After these [things] [there] was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

So the Jews were saying to the one who had been healed, "It is the Sabbath, and it is not permitted for you to pick up the mat!"

The man went and reported to the Jews that Jesus was the one who made him well.

And on account of this the Jews began to persecute Jesus, because he was doing these [things] on the Sabbath.

So on account of this the Jews were seeking even more to kill him, because he not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God his own Father, [thus] making himself equal with God.

(Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was near.)

Now the Jews began to grumble about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven,"

So the Jews began to quarrel {among themselves}, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"

And after these [things] Jesus was going about in Galilee. For he did not want to go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him.

Now the feast of the Jews--the [feast of] Tabernacles--was near.

So the Jews were looking for him at the feast, and were saying, "Where is he?"

However, no one was speaking openly about him for fear of the Jews.

Then the Jews were astonished, saying, "How does this man {possess knowledge}, [because he] has not been taught?"

So the Jews said to one another, "Where [is] this one going to go, that we will not find him? He is not going to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks, [is he]?

Then the Jews began to say, "Perhaps he will kill himself, because he is saying, 'Where I am going you cannot come.'"

Then Jesus said to those Jews who had believed him, "If you continue in my word you are truly my disciples,

The Jews answered and said to him, "Do we not correctly say that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?"

The Jews said to him, "Now we know that you have a demon! Abraham and the prophets died, and you say, 'If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death {forever}.'

So the Jews said to him, "{You are} not yet fifty years [old], and have you seen Abraham?"

So the Jews did not believe concerning him that he had been blind and received sight, until they summoned the parents of the one who received sight.

(His parents said these [things] because they were afraid of the Jews, for the Jews had already decided that if anyone should confess him [to be] Christ, he would be expelled from the synagogue.