It was found written what Mordecai had reported concerning Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs who were doorkeepers, that they had sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus.

The king said, “What honor or dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this?” Then the king’s servants who attended him said, “Nothing has been done for him.”

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

So Haman came in and the king said to him, “What is to be done for the man whom the king desires to honor?” And Haman said to himself, “Whom would the king desire to honor more than me?”

Then Haman said to the king, “For the man whom the king desires to honor,

and let the robe and the horse be handed over to one of the king’s most noble princes and let them array the man whom the king desires to honor and lead him on horseback through the city square, and proclaim before him, ‘Thus it shall be done to the man whom the king desires to honor.’”

Then the king said to Haman, “Take quickly the robes and the horse as you have said, and do so for Mordecai the Jew, who is sitting at the king’s gate; do not fall short in anything of all that you have said.”

So Haman took the robe and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and led him on horseback through the city square, and proclaimed before him, “Thus it shall be done to the man whom the king desires to honor.”

Haman recounted to Zeresh his wife and all his friends everything that had happened to him. Then his wise men and Zeresh his wife said to him, “If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of Jewish origin, you will not overcome him, but will surely fall before him.”

Then King Ahasuerus asked Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, who would presume to do thus?”

Then Harbonah, one of the eunuchs who were before the king said, “Behold indeed, the gallows standing at Haman’s house fifty cubits high, which Haman made for Mordecai who spoke good on behalf of the king!” And the king said, “Hang him on it.”

Then she said, “If it pleases the king and if I have found favor before him and the matter seems proper to the king and I am pleasing in his sight, let it be written to revoke the letters devised by Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the king’s provinces.

In them the king granted the Jews who were in each and every city the right to assemble and to defend their lives, to destroy, to kill and to annihilate the entire army of any people or province which might attack them, including children and women, and to plunder their spoil,

Now in the twelfth month (that is, the month Adar), on the thirteenth day when the king’s command and edict were about to be executed, on the day when the enemies of the Jews hoped to gain the mastery over them, it was turned to the contrary so that the Jews themselves gained the mastery over those who hated them.

The Jews assembled in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus to lay hands on those who sought their harm; and no one could stand before them, for the dread of them had fallen on all the peoples.

Even all the princes of the provinces, the satraps, the governors and those who were doing the king’s business assisted the Jews, because the dread of Mordecai had fallen on them.

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

On that day the number of those who were killed at the citadel in Susa was reported to the king.

Then said Esther, “If it pleases the king, let tomorrow also be granted to the Jews who are in Susa to do according to the edict of today; and let Haman’s ten sons be hanged on the gallows.”

The Jews who were in Susa assembled also on the fourteenth day of the month Adar and killed three hundred men in Susa, but they did not lay their hands on the plunder.

Now the rest of the Jews who were in the king’s provinces assembled, to defend their lives and rid themselves of their enemies, and kill 75,000 of those who hated them; but they did not lay their hands on the plunder.

But the Jews who were in Susa assembled on the thirteenth and the fourteenth of the same month, and they rested on the fifteenth day and made it a day of feasting and rejoicing.

Therefore the Jews of the rural areas, who live in the rural towns, make the fourteenth day of the month Adar a holiday for rejoicing and feasting and sending portions of food to one another.

Then Mordecai recorded these events, and he sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far,

the Jews established and made a custom for themselves and for their descendants and for all those who allied themselves with them, so that they would not fail to celebrate these two days according to their regulation and according to their appointed time annually.

For Mordecai the Jew was second only to King Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews and in favor with his many kinsmen, one who sought the good of his people and one who spoke for the welfare of his whole nation.

“Let those curse it who curse the day,
Who are prepared to rouse Leviathan.

With kings and with counselors of the earth,
Who rebuilt ruins for themselves;

Or with princes who had gold,
Who were filling their houses with silver.

“Why is light given to him who suffers,
And life to the bitter of soul,

Who long for death, but there is none,
And dig for it more than for hidden treasures,

Who rejoice greatly,
And exult when they find the grave?

“Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden,
And whom God has hedged in?

“If one ventures a word with you, will you become impatient?
But who can refrain from speaking?

“Remember now, who ever perished being innocent?
Or where were the upright destroyed?

“According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity
And those who sow trouble harvest it.

‘How much more those who dwell in houses of clay,
Whose foundation is in the dust,
Who are crushed before the moth!

“Call now, is there anyone who will answer you?
And to which of the holy ones will you turn?

Who does great and unsearchable things,
Wonders without number.

So that He sets on high those who are lowly,
And those who mourn are lifted to safety.

“Behold, how happy is the man whom God reproves,
So do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.

“As a slave who pants for the shade,
And as a hired man who eagerly waits for his wages,

“The eye of him who sees me will behold me no longer;
Your eyes will be on me, but I will not be.

“When a cloud vanishes, it is gone,
So he who goes down to Sheol does not come up.

“So are the paths of all who forget God;
And the hope of the godless will perish,

“Those who hate you will be clothed with shame,
And the tent of the wicked will be no longer.”

“Wise in heart and mighty in strength,
Who has defied Him without harm?

“It is God who removes the mountains, they know not how,
When He overturns them in His anger;

Who shakes the earth out of its place,
And its pillars tremble;

Who commands the sun not to shine,
And sets a seal upon the stars;

Who alone stretches out the heavens
And tramples down the waves of the sea;

Who makes the Bear, Orion and the Pleiades,
And the chambers of the south;

Who does great things, unfathomable,
And wondrous works without number.

“Were He to snatch away, who could restrain Him?
Who could say to Him, ‘What are You doing?’

“If it is a matter of power, behold, He is the strong one!
And if it is a matter of justice, who can summon Him?

“The earth is given into the hand of the wicked;
He covers the faces of its judges.
If it is not He, then who is it?

“There is no umpire between us,
Who may lay his hand upon us both.

“If He passes by or shuts up,
Or calls an assembly, who can restrain Him?

“But I have intelligence as well as you;
I am not inferior to you.
And who does not know such things as these?

“I am a joke to my friends,
The one who called on God and He answered him;
The just and blameless man is a joke.

“He who is at ease holds calamity in contempt,
As prepared for those whose feet slip.

“The tents of the destroyers prosper,
And those who provoke God are secure,
Whom God brings into their power.

“Who among all these does not know
That the hand of the Lord has done this,

“Who will contend with me?
For then I would be silent and die.

“Man, who is born of woman,
Is short-lived and full of turmoil.

“Who can make the clean out of the unclean?
No one!

“What is man, that he should be pure,
Or he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

How much less one who is detestable and corrupt,
Man, who drinks iniquity like water!

To whom alone the land was given,
And no alien passed among them.

“Lay down, now, a pledge for me with Yourself;
Who is there that will be my guarantor?

“He who informs against friends for a share of the spoil,
The eyes of his children also will languish.

“But He has made me a byword of the people,
And I am one at whom men spit.

“Nevertheless the righteous will hold to his way,
And he who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger.

Where now is my hope?
And who regards my hope?

“O you who tear yourself in your anger—
For your sake is the earth to be abandoned,
Or the rock to be moved from its place?

“Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked,
And this is the place of him who does not know God.”

“Those who live in my house and my maids consider me a stranger.
I am a foreigner in their sight.

Whom I myself shall behold,
And whom my eyes will see and not another.
My heart faints within me!

He perishes forever like his refuse;
Those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’

“In the fullness of his plenty he will be cramped;
The hand of everyone who suffers will come against him.

‘Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him,
And what would we gain if we entreat Him?’

“Who will confront him with his actions,
And who will repay him for what he has done?

Who were snatched away before their time,
Whose foundations were washed away by a river?

“He will deliver one who is not innocent,
And he will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.”

“But He is unique and who can turn Him?
And what His soul desires, that He does.

“It is God who has made my heart faint,
And the Almighty who has dismayed me,

“Why are times not stored up by the Almighty,
And why do those who know Him not see His days?

“Others have been with those who rebel against the light;
They do not want to know its ways
Nor abide in its paths.

“Drought and heat consume the snow waters,
So does Sheol those who have sinned.

“Now if it is not so, who can prove me a liar,
And make my speech worthless?”

“Dominion and awe belong to Him
Who establishes peace in His heights.

“Is there any number to His troops?
And upon whom does His light not rise?

“How then can a man be just with God?
Or how can he be clean who is born of woman?

“To whom have you uttered words?
And whose spirit was expressed through you?

“Behold, these are the fringes of His ways;
And how faint a word we hear of Him!
But His mighty thunder, who can understand?”

“As God lives, who has taken away my right,
And the Almighty, who has embittered my soul,

Because I delivered the poor who cried for help,
And the orphan who had no helper.

“I chose a way for them and sat as chief,
And dwelt as a king among the troops,
As one who comforted the mourners.

“From want and famine they are gaunt
Who gnaw the dry ground by night in waste and desolation,

Who pluck mallow by the bushes,
And whose food is the root of the broom shrub.