And he scorned to lay hands only on Mordecai, for they had revealed to him the people of Mordecai. And Haman sought to destroy all the Jews throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, the people of Mordecai.

And the king took his ring from his hand, and gave it to Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the Jews' enemy.

And the letters were sent by postal riders into all the king's provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, on the thirteenth of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to take what they owned for a prize.

And in every province, wherever the king's command and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping and wailing. And many lay in sackcloth and ashes.

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

And Mordecai commanded them to answer Esther, Do not think within yourself that you shall escape in the king's house more than all the Jews.

For if you are completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance shall arise to the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house shall be destroyed. And who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for a time like this?

Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me, and do not eat nor drink three days, night or day. My maidservants and I will also fast in the same way. And so I will go in to the king, which is not according to the law. And if I perish, I perish.

And Haman told Zeresh his wife and all his friends every thing that had happened to him. Then his wise men and Zeresh his wife said to him, If Mordecai is of the seed of the Jews, before whom you have begun to fall, you shall not prevail against him but shall surely fall before him.

On that day King Ahasuerus gave the house of Haman, the Jews' enemy, to Esther the queen. And Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had told what he was to her.

And Esther spoke yet again before the king, and fell down at his feet, and begged him with tears to put away the evil of Haman the Agagite, and his plot which he had plotted against the Jews.

and said, If it please the king, and if I have found favor in his sight, and if the thing is right before the king, and if I am pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to bring back the documents (a sly plan by Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite) which he wrote to destroy the Jews in all the king's provinces.

And King Ahasuerus said to Esther the queen and to Mordecai the Jew, Behold, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and have hanged him on the wooden gallows, because he laid his hand on the Jews.

And you write for the Jews as it pleases 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, no man may turn back.

Then the king's scribes were called at that time in the third month, the month Sivan, on the twenty-third of it. And it was written according to all that Mordecai commanded to the Jews, and to the lieutenants and the governors and rulers of the provinces from India to Ethiopia, a hundred and twenty-seven provinces, to every province according to the writing of it, and to every people in their writing, and to the Jews according to their writing and according to their language.

In them the king granted the Jews in every city to gather themselves, and to stand for their life, to destroy, to kill and to cause to perish, all the power of the people and province who desired to attack them, little ones and women, and to take what they owned for a prize,

The copy of the writing for a command to be given in every province was announced to all people, even that the Jews should be ready against that day to avenge themselves on their enemies.

The Jews had light and gladness and joy and honor.

And in every province, and in every city where the king's command and his order came, the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast and a good day. And many of the people of the land became Jews, for the fear of the Jews fell on them.

And in the twelfth month, the month Adar, on the thirteenth day of the same, when the king's command and his order came to be done, in the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to have power over them; though it was turned around, so that the Jews had rule over the ones who hated them.

The Jews gathered themselves in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, in order to lay hand on any who sought their harm. And no man could withstand them, for the fear of them fell on all people.

And all the rulers of the provinces, and the lieutenants and the governors and officers of the king helped the Jews, because the fear of Mordecai fell on them.

And the Jews struck all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, and slaughter, and destruction, and did what they would to those who hated them.

And in Shushan the palace the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men.

they killed the ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews. But they did not lay their hands on the spoil.

And the king said to Esther the queen, The Jews have killed and destroyed five hundred men in Shushan the palace, and the ten sons of Haman. What have they done in the rest of the king's provinces? And what is your petition, that it may be granted you? Or what further request do you have? And it shall be done.

Then Esther said, If it pleases the king, let it be granted to the Jews in Shushan to do tomorrow also according to this day's decree, and let Haman's ten sons be hanged on the wooden gallows.

For the Jews in Shushan gathered themselves on the fourteenth day also of the month Adar, and killed three hundred men at Shushan. But they did not lay their hands on the spoil.

But the rest of the Jews in the king's provinces gathered themselves and stood for their lives, and had rest from their enemies, and killed seventy-five thousand of their foes. But they did not lay their hands on the spoil.

But the Jews at Shushan gathered on the thirteenth of it and on the fourteenth of it. And on the fifteenth of the same, they rested and made it a day of feasting and gladness.

Therefore the Jews of the villages, who lived in the unwalled towns, made the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of gladness and feasting, and a good day, and a day of sending portions to one another.

And Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters to all the Jews in all the provinces of the King Ahasuerus, near and far,

as the days in which the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month which was turned to 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 to one another, and gifts to the poor.

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

because Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast Pur, the lot, to finish them and to destroy them.

But when Esther came before the king, he commanded by letters that his wicked plot which he had plotted against the Jews should return on his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the wooden gallows.

the Jews ordained, and took on them and on their seed, and on all such as joined themselves to them, so as it should not fail, that they would keep these two days according to their writing, and according to their time every year,

and that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city, and these days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor the memorial of them perish from their seed.

And he sent the letters to all the Jews, to the hundred and twenty-seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, with words of peace and truth,

For Mordecai the Jew was next to King Ahasuerus and great among the Jews, and pleasing to the multitude of his brothers, seeking the wealth of his people and speaking peace to all his seed.