1
Now in the twelfth*month, that is, the monthAdar, on the thirteenth*day of the same, when the king'scommandment and his decree drew near to be put in execution, in the day that the enemies of the Jewshoped to have power over them, (though it was turned to the contrary, that the Jews had rule over them that hated them;)
2
The Jews gathered themselves together in their cities throughout all the provinces of the kingAhasuerus, to layhand on such as sought their hurt: and no man could withstandthem; for the fear of them fell upon all people.
3
And all the rulers of the provinces, and the lieutenants, and the deputies, and officers* of the king,helped the Jews; because the fear of Mordecaifell upon them.
5
Thus the Jewssmote all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, and slaughter, and destruction, and did what they would unto those that hated them.
12
And the kingsaid unto Esther the queen, The Jews have slain and destroyedfivehundredmen in Shushan the palace, and the tensons of Haman; what have they done in the rest of the king'sprovinces? now what is thy petition? and it shall be granted thee: or what is thy requestfurther? and it shall be done.
13
Then saidEsther, If it please the king, let it be granted to the Jews which are in Shushan to do to morrow also according unto this day'sdecree, and let Haman'stensons be hanged upon the gallows.
15
For the Jews that were in Shushan gathered themselves together on the fourteenth*day also of the monthAdar, and slewthreehundredmen at Shushan; but on the prey they laid not their hand.
16
But the otherJews that were in the king'sprovinces gathered themselves together, and stood for their lives, and had rest from their enemies, and slew of their foesseventy and fivethousand, but they laid not their hands on the prey,
18
But the Jews that were at Shushan assembled together on the thirteenthday thereof, and on the fourteenththereof; and on the fifteenthday of the same they rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness.
19
Therefore the Jews of the villages, that dwelt in the unwalledtowns,made the fourteenth*day of the monthAdar a day of gladness and feasting, and a goodday, and of sendingportionsone to another.
22
As the days wherein the Jewsrested from their enemies, and the month which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning into a goodday: that they should make them days of feasting and joy, and of sendingportionsone to another, and gifts to the poor.
24
Because Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had devised against the Jews to destroy them, and had castPur, that is, the lot, to consume them, and to destroy them;
25
But when Esther camebefore the king, he commanded by letters that his wickeddevice, which he devised against the Jews, should return upon his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.
26
Wherefore they called these daysPurim after the name of Pur. Therefore for all the words of this letter, and of that which they had seen concerning this matter, and which had come unto them,
27
The Jewsordained, and took upon them, and upon their seed, and upon all such as joined themselves unto them, so as it should not fail, that they would keep these twodays according to their writing, and according to their appointed time every year*;
28
And that these days should be remembered and keptthroughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city; and that these days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor the memorial of them perish from their seed.
31
To confirm these days of Purim in their times appointed, according as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had enjoined them, and as they had decreed for themselves and for their seed, the matters of the fastings and their cry.