34
And those who had previously believed that the Jews would be destroyed and become food for birds, and had joyfully registered them, groaned as they themselves were overcome by disgrace, and their fire-breathing boldness was ignominiously quenched.
35
But the Jews, when they had arranged the aforementioned choral group, as we have said before, passed the time in feasting to the accompaniment of joyous thanksgiving and psalms.
36
And when they had ordained a public rite for these things in their whole community and for their descendants, they instituted the observance of the aforesaid days as a festival, not for drinking and gluttony, but because of the deliverance that had come to them through God.
37
Then they petitioned the king, asking for dismissal to their homes.
38
So their registration was carried out from the twenty-fifth of Pachon to the fourth of Epeiph, for forty days; and their destruction was set for the fifth to the seventh of Epeiph, the three days
39
on which the Lord of all most gloriously revealed his mercy and rescued them all together and unharmed.
40
Then they feasted, provided with everything by the king, until the fourteenth day, on which also they made the petition for their dismissal.
41
The king granted their request at once and wrote the following letter for them to the generals in the cities, magnanimously expressing his concern: