Esther 9— Septuagint (LXX)

In the twelfth month — the month of Adar — on its thirteenth day, when the king's command and law were to be carried out, on the very day the enemies of the Jews expected to overpower them, the opposite happened: the Jews overpowered those who hated them.

The Jews assembled in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus to strike at those who sought to harm them. No one could stand against them, because dread of them had fallen on all the peoples.

All the provincial officials, the satraps, the governors, and the king's administrators supported the Jews, because dread of Mordecai had fallen on them.

For Mordecai was powerful in the king's court, and his reputation was spreading through all the provinces, because the man Mordecai kept growing greater.

The Jews struck down all their enemies with the sword — slaughter and destruction — and did as they wished to those who hated them.

They also killed Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha,

Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha,

Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai, and Vaizatha —

the ten sons of Haman son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews. But they did not lay a hand on the plunder.

That same day the count of those killed in the citadel of Susa was reported to the king.

The king said to Queen Esther, "In the citadel of Susa alone the Jews have killed and destroyed five hundred men and the ten sons of Haman. What must they have done in the rest of the king's provinces! Now what is your petition? It will be granted. What further request do you have? It will be done."

Esther said, "If it pleases the king, let the Jews in Susa be allowed to act tomorrow as well, under today's decree, and let Haman's ten sons be hung on the poles."

The king ordered it done. A decree was issued in Susa, and the ten sons of Haman were hung on the poles.

The Jews in Susa assembled again on the fourteenth day of Adar and killed three hundred men in Susa, but they did not lay a hand on the plunder.

This was on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar. They rested on the fourteenth and made it a day of feasting and joy.

But the Jews in Susa assembled on the thirteenth and the fourteenth, and rested on the fifteenth, making it a day of feasting and joy.

That is why the Jews of the countryside — those living in unwalled towns — observe the fourteenth day of Adar as a day of joy and feasting, a holiday, and a time for sending food gifts to one another.

establishing for them the obligation to observe the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and the fifteenth day, every year,

as the days on which the Jews gained relief from their enemies, and the month that was transformed for them from grief to joy and from mourning to celebration — to observe them as days of feasting and joy, sending food gifts to one another and giving gifts to the poor.

The Jews accepted as a permanent practice what they had already begun to do and what Mordecai had written to them.

For Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them and had cast the pur — that is, the lot — to crush and destroy them.

But when she came before the king, he ordered by written decree that Haman's wicked scheme — the one he had devised against the Jews — should come back on his own head, and that he and his sons should be hung on the poles.

the Jews established and accepted for themselves, their descendants, and all who would join them, an obligation that would not be set aside — to observe these two days according to their written instructions and at their appointed time every year.

These days are to be remembered and observed in every generation, every family, every province, and every city. These days of Purim will never cease from among the Jews, and their memory will never fade from their descendants.

Then Queen Esther daughter of Abihail, together with Mordecai the Jew, wrote with full authority to confirm this second letter of Purim.

He sent letters to all the Jews in the one hundred twenty-seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus — words of peace and faithfulness —

to confirm these days of Purim at their appointed times, just as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had established for them, and just as they had accepted for themselves and their descendants the practices of fasting and lamentation.

Esther's decree confirmed these regulations of Purim, and it was written in the record.