
Esther

   {1:1} Now it happened in the days of Ahasuerus (this is Ahasuerus
who reigned from India even to Ethiopia, over one hundred twenty-seven
provinces), {1:2} that in those days, when the King Ahasuerus sat on
the throne of his kingdom, which was in Shushan the palace, {1:3} in
the third year of his reign, he made a feast for all his princes and
his servants; the power of Persia and Media, the nobles and princes of
the provinces, being before him. {1:4} He displayed the riches of his
glorious kingdom and the honor of his excellent majesty many days, even
one hundred eighty days. {1:5} When these days were fulfilled, the king
made a seven day feast for all the people who were present in Shushan
the palace, both great and small, in the court of the garden of the
king's palace. {1:6} There were hangings of white, green, and blue
material, fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings
and marble pillars. The couches were of gold and silver, on a pavement
of red, white, yellow, and black marble. {1:7} They gave them drinks in
golden vessels of various kinds, including royal wine in abundance,
according to the bounty of the king. {1:8} In accordance with the law,
the drinking was not compulsory; for so the king had instructed all the
officials of his house, that they should do according to every man's
pleasure. {1:9} Also Vashti the queen made a feast for the women in the
royal house which belonged to King Ahasuerus.

   {1:10} On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with
wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, and Abagtha,
Zethar, and Carcass, the seven eunuchs who served in the presence of
Ahasuerus the king, {1:11} to bring Vashti the queen before the king
with the royal crown, to show the people and the princes her beauty;
for she was beautiful. {1:12} But the queen Vashti refused to come at
the king's commandment by the eunuchs. Therefore the king was very
angry, and his anger burned in him. {1:13} Then the king said to the
wise men, who knew the times, (for it was the king's custom to consult
those who knew law and judgment; {1:14} and the next to him were
Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucan, the
seven princes of Persia and Media, who saw the king's face, and sat
first in the kingdom), {1:15} "What shall we do to the queen Vashti
according to law, because she has not done the bidding of the King
Ahasuerus by the eunuchs?"

   {1:16} Memucan answered before the king and the princes, "Vashti the
queen has not done wrong to just the king, but also to all the princes,
and to all the people who are in all the provinces of the King
Ahasuerus. {1:17} For this deed of the queen will become known to all
women, causing them to show contempt for their husbands, when it is
reported, 'King Ahasuerus commanded Vashti the queen to be brought in
before him, but she didn't come.' {1:18} Today, the princesses of
Persia and Media who have heard of the queen's deed will tell all the
king's princes. This will cause much contempt and wrath.

   {1:19} "If it please the king, let a royal commandment go from him,
and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes, so
that it cannot be altered, that Vashti may never again come before King
Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal estate to another who is
better than she. {1:20} When the king's decree which he shall make is
published throughout all his kingdom (for it is great), all the wives
will give their husbands honor, both great and small."

   {1:21} This advice pleased the king and the princes, and the king
did according to the word of Memucan: {1:22} for he sent letters into
all the king's provinces, into every province according to its writing,
and to every people in their language, that every man should rule his
own house, speaking in the language of his own people.

   {2:1} After these things, when the wrath of King Ahasuerus was
pacified, he remembered Vashti, and what she had done, and what was
decreed against her. {2:2} Then the king's servants who served him
said, "Let beautiful young virgins be sought for the king. {2:3} Let
the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom, that
they may gather together all the beautiful young virgins to the citadel
of Susa, to the women's house, to the custody of Hegai the king's
eunuch, keeper of the women. Let cosmetics be given them; {2:4} and let
the maiden who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti." The thing
pleased the king, and he did so.

   {2:5} There was a certain Jew in the citadel of Susa, whose name was
Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a
Benjamite, {2:6} who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the
captives who had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom
Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away. {2:7} He brought
up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle's daughter; for she had neither
father nor mother. The maiden was fair and beautiful; and when her
father and mother were dead, Mordecai took her for his own daughter.
{2:8} So it happened, when the king's commandment and his decree was
heard, and when many maidens were gathered together to the citadel of
Susa, to the custody of Hegai, that Esther was taken into the king's
house, to the custody of Hegai, keeper of the women. {2:9} The maiden
pleased him, and she obtained kindness from him. He quickly gave her
cosmetics and her portions of food, and the seven choice maidens who
were to be given her out of the king's house. He moved her and her
maidens to the best place in the women's house. {2:10} Esther had not
made known her people nor her relatives, because Mordecai had
instructed her that she should not make it known. {2:11} Mordecai
walked every day in front of the court of the women's house, to find
out how Esther was doing, and what would become of her.

   {2:12} Each young woman's turn came to go in to King Ahasuerus after
her purification for twelve months (for so were the days of their
purification accomplished, six months with oil of myrrh, and six months
with sweet fragrances and with preparations for beautifying women).
{2:13} The young woman then came to the king like this: whatever she
desired was given her to go with her out of the women's house to the
king's house. {2:14} In the evening she went, and on the next day she
returned into the second women's house, to the custody of Shaashgaz,
the king's eunuch, who kept the concubines. She came in to the king no
more, unless the king delighted in her, and she was called by name.
{2:15} Now when the turn of Esther, the daughter of Abihail the uncle
of Mordecai, who had taken her for his daughter, came to go in to the
king, she required nothing but what Hegai the king's eunuch, the keeper
of the women, advised. Esther obtained favor in the sight of all those
who looked at her. {2:16} So Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus into
his royal house in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the
seventh year of his reign. {2:17} The king loved Esther more than all
the women, and she obtained favor and kindness in his sight more than
all the virgins; so that he set the royal crown on her head, and made
her queen instead of Vashti.

   {2:18} Then the king made a great feast for all his princes and his
servants, even Esther's feast; and he proclaimed a holiday in the
provinces, and gave gifts according to the king's bounty.

   {2:19} When the virgins were gathered together the second time,
Mordecai was sitting in the king's gate. {2:20} Esther had not yet made
known her relatives nor her people, as Mordecai had commanded her; for
Esther obeyed Mordecai, like she did when she was brought up by him.
{2:21} In those days, while Mordecai was sitting in the king's gate,
two of the king's eunuchs, Bigthan and Teresh, who were doorkeepers,
were angry, and sought to lay hands on the King Ahasuerus. {2:22} This
thing became known to Mordecai, who informed Esther the queen; and
Esther informed the king in Mordecai's name. {2:23} When this matter
was investigated, and it was found to be so, they were both hanged on a
tree; and it was written in the book of the chronicles in the king's
presence.

   {3:1} After these things King Ahasuerus promoted Haman the son of
Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all
the princes who were with him. {3:2} All the king's servants who were
in the king's gate bowed down, and paid homage to Haman; for the king
had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai didn't bow down or pay
him homage. {3:3} Then the king's servants, who were in the king's
gate, said to Mordecai, "Why do you disobey the king's commandment?"
{3:4} Now it came to pass, when they spoke daily to him, and he didn't
listen to them, that they told Haman, to see whether Mordecai's reason
would stand; for he had told them that he was a Jew. {3:5} When Haman
saw that Mordecai didn't bow down, nor pay him homage, Haman was full
of wrath. {3:6} But he scorned the thought of laying hands on Mordecai
alone, for they had made known to him Mordecai's people. Therefore
Haman sought to destroy all the Jews who were throughout the whole
kingdom of Ahasuerus, even Mordecai's people.

   {3:7} In the first month, which is the month Nisan, in the twelfth
year of King Ahasuerus, they cast Pur, that is, the lot, before Haman
from day to day, and from month to month, and chose the twelfth month,
which is the month Adar. {3:8} Haman said to King Ahasuerus, "There is
a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in
all the provinces of your kingdom, and their laws are different than
other people's. They don't keep the king's laws. Therefore it is not
for the king's profit to allow them to remain. {3:9} If it pleases the
king, let it be written that they be destroyed; and I will pay ten
thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who are in charge of
the king's business, to bring it into the king's treasuries."

   {3:10} The king took his ring from his hand, and gave it to Haman
the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the Jews' enemy. {3:11} The king
said to Haman, "The silver is given to you, the people also, to do with
them as it seems good to you." {3:12} Then the king's scribes were
called in on the first month, on the thirteenth day of the month; and
all that Haman commanded was written to the king's satraps, and to the
governors who were over every province, and to the princes of every
people, to every province according its writing, and to every people in
their language. It was written in the name of King Ahasuerus, and it
was sealed with the king's ring. {3:13} Letters were sent by couriers
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, even on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the
month Adar, and to plunder their possessions. {3:14} A copy of the
letter, that the decree should be given out in every province, was
published to all the peoples, that they should be ready against that
day. {3:15} The couriers went forth in haste by the king's commandment,
and the decree was given out in the citadel of Susa. The king and Haman
sat down to drink; but the city of Shushan was perplexed.

   {4:1} Now when Mordecai found out all that was done, Mordecai tore
his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the
midst of the city, and wailed loudly and a bitterly. {4:2} He came even
before the king's gate, for no one is allowed inside the king's gate
clothed with sackcloth. {4:3} In every province, wherever the king's
commandment and his decree came, there was great mourning among the
Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth
and ashes. {4:4} Esther's maidens and her eunuchs came and told her
this, and the queen was exceedingly grieved. She sent clothing to
Mordecai, to replace his sackcloth; but he didn't receive it. {4:5}
Then Esther called for Hathach, one of the king's eunuchs, whom he had
appointed to attend her, and commanded him to go to Mordecai, to find
out what this was, and why it was. {4:6} So Hathach went out to
Mordecai, to city square which was before the king's gate. {4:7}
Mordecai told him of all that had happened to him, and the exact sum of
the money that Haman had promised to pay to the king's treasuries for
the destruction of the Jews. {4:8} He also gave him the copy of the
writing of the decree that was given out in Shushan to destroy them, to
show it to Esther, and to declare it to her, and to urge her to go in
to the king, to make supplication to him, and to make request before
him, for her people.

   {4:9} Hathach came and told Esther the words of Mordecai. {4:10}
Then Esther spoke to Hathach, and gave him a message to Mordecai:
{4:11} "All the king's servants, and the people of the king's
provinces, know, that whoever, whether man or woman, comes to the king
into the inner court without being called, there is one law for him,
that he be put to death, except those to whom the king might hold out
the golden scepter, that he may live. I have not been called to come in
to the king these thirty days."

   {4:12} They told to Mordecai Esther's words. {4:13} Then Mordecai
asked them return answer to Esther, "Don't think to yourself that you
will escape in the king's house any more than all the Jews. {4:14} For
if you remain silent now, then relief and deliverance will come to the
Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish.
Who knows if you haven't come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"

   {4:15} Then Esther asked them to answer Mordecai, {4:16} "Go, gather
together all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me, and
neither eat nor drink three days, night or day. I and my maidens will
also fast the same way. Then I will go in to the king, which is against
the law; and if I perish, I perish." {4:17} So Mordecai went his way,
and did according to all that Esther had commanded him.

    {5:1} Now it happened on the third day that Esther put on her royal
clothing, and stood in the inner court of the king's house, next to the
king's house. The king sat on his royal throne in the royal house, next
to the entrance of the house. {5:2} When the king saw Esther the queen
standing in the court, she obtained favor in his sight; and the king
held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. So Esther
came near, and touched the top of the scepter. {5:3} Then the king
asked her, "What would you like, queen Esther? What is your request? It
shall be given you even to the half of the kingdom."

   {5:4} Esther said, "If it seems good to the king, let the king and
Haman come today to the banquet that I have prepared for him."

   {5:5} Then the king said, "Bring Haman quickly, so that it may be
done as Esther has said." So the king and Haman came to the banquet
that Esther had prepared.

   {5:6} The king said to Esther at the banquet of wine, "What is your
petition? It shall be granted you. What is your request? Even to the
half of the kingdom it shall be performed."

   {5:7} Then Esther answered and said, "My petition and my request is
this. {5:8} If I have found favor in the sight of the king, and if it
please the king to grant my petition and to perform my request, let the
king and Haman come to the banquet that I will prepare for them, and I
will do tomorrow as the king has said."

   {5:9} Then Haman went out that day joyful and glad of heart, but
when Haman saw Mordecai in the king's gate, that he didn't stand up nor
move for him, he was filled with wrath against Mordecai. {5:10}
Nevertheless Haman restrained himself, and went home. There, he sent
and called for his friends and Zeresh his wife. {5:11} Haman recounted
to them the glory of his riches, the multitude of his children, all the
things in which the king had promoted him, and how he had advanced him
above the princes and servants of the king. {5:12} Haman also said,
"Yes, Esther the queen let no man come in with the king to the banquet
that she had prepared but myself; and tomorrow I am also invited by her
together with the king. {5:13} Yet all this avails me nothing, so long
as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate."

   {5:14} Then Zeresh his wife and all his friends said to him, "Let a
gallows be made fifty cubits high, and in the morning speak to the king
about hanging Mordecai on it. Then go in merrily with the king to the
banquet." This pleased Haman, so he had the gallows made.

   {6:1} On that night, the king couldn't sleep. He commanded the book
of records of the chronicles to be brought, and they were read to the
king. {6:2} It was found written that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and
Teresh, two of the king's eunuchs, who were doorkeepers, who had tried
to lay hands on the King Ahasuerus. {6:3} The king said, "What honor
and dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this?"

   Then the king's servants who attended him said, "Nothing has been
done for him."

   {6:4} The king said, "Who is in the court?" Now Haman had come into
the outer court of the king's house, to speak to the king about hanging
Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him.

   {6:5} The king's servants said to him, "Behold, Haman stands in the
court."

   The king said, "Let him come in." {6:6} So Haman came in. The king
said to him, "What shall be done to the man whom the king delights to
honor?"

   Now Haman said in his heart, "Who would the king delight to honor
more than myself?" {6:7} Haman said to the king, "For the man whom the
king delights to honor, {6:8} let royal clothing be brought which the
king uses to wear, and the horse that the king rides on, and on the
head of which a crown royal is set. {6:9} Let the clothing and the
horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king's most noble princes,
that they may array the man whom the king delights to honor with them,
and have him ride on horseback through the city square, and proclaim
before him, 'Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to
honor!'"

   {6:10} Then the king said to Haman, "Hurry and take the clothing and
the horse, as you have said, and do this for Mordecai the Jew, who sits
at the king's gate. Let nothing fail of all that you have spoken."

   {6:11} Then Haman took the clothing and the horse, and arrayed
Mordecai, and had him ride through the city square, and proclaimed
before him, "Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to
honor!"

   {6:12} Mordecai came back to the king's gate, but Haman hurried to
his house, mourning and having his head covered. {6:13} 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 descent, you will not
prevail against him, but you will surely fall before him." {6:14} While
they were yet talking with him, the king's eunuchs came, and hurried to
bring Haman to the banquet that Esther had prepared.

   {7:1} So the king and Haman came to banquet with Esther the queen.
{7:2} The king said again to Esther on the second day at the banquet of
wine, "What is your petition, queen Esther? It shall be granted you.
What is your request? Even to the half of the kingdom it shall be
performed."

   {7:3} Then Esther the queen answered, "If I have found favor in your
sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my
petition, and my people at my request. {7:4} For we are sold, I and my
people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had been
sold for bondservants and bondmaids, I would have held my peace,
although the adversary could not have compensated for the king's loss."

   {7:5} Then King Ahasuerus said to Esther the queen, "Who is he, and
where is he who dared presume in his heart to do so?"

   {7:6} Esther said, "An adversary and an enemy, even this wicked
Haman!"

   Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen. {7:7} The king
arose in his wrath from the banquet of wine and went into the palace
garden. Haman stood up to make request for his life to Esther the
queen; for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the
king. {7:8} Then the king returned out of the palace garden into the
place of the banquet of wine; and Haman had fallen on the couch where
Esther was. Then the king said, "Will he even assault the queen in
front of me in the house?" As the word went out of the king's mouth,
they covered Haman's face.

   {7:9} Then Harbonah, one of the eunuchs who were with the king said,
"Behold, the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman has made for
Mordecai, who spoke good for the king, is standing at Haman's house."

   The king said, "Hang him on it!"

   {7:10} So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for
Mordecai. Then was the king's wrath pacified.

   {8:1} On that day, King Ahasuerus gave the house of Haman, the Jews'
enemy, to Esther the queen. Mordecai came before the king; for Esther
had told what he was to her. {8:2} The king took off his ring, which he
had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. Esther set Mordecai over
the house of Haman. {8:3} Esther spoke yet again before the king, and
fell down at his feet, and begged him with tears to put away the
mischief of Haman the Agagite, and his device that he had devised
against the Jews. {8:4} Then the king held out to Esther the golden
scepter. So Esther arose, and stood before the king. {8:5} She said,
"If it pleases the king, and if I have found favor in his sight, and
the thing seem right to the king, and I am pleasing in his eyes, let it
be written to reverse 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. {8:6} For how can I endure to see the evil
that would come to my people? How can I endure to see the destruction
of my relatives?"

   {8:7} Then King Ahasuerus said to Esther the queen and to Mordecai
the Jew, "See, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and him they
have hanged on the gallows, because he laid his hand on the Jews. {8:8}
Write also to 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, may not be reversed by any man."

   {8:9} Then the king's scribes were called at that time, in the third
month Sivan, on the twenty-third day of the month; and it was written
according to all that Mordecai commanded to the Jews, and to the
satraps, and the governors and princes of the provinces which are from
India to Ethiopia, one hundred twenty-seven provinces, to every
province according to its writing, and to every people in their
language, and to the Jews in their writing, and in their language.
{8:10} He wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus, and sealed it with the
king's ring, and sent letters by courier on horseback, riding on royal
horses that were bread from swift steeds. {8:11} In those letters, the
king granted the Jews who were in every city to gather themselves
together, and to defend their life, to destroy, to kill, and to cause
to perish, all the power of the people and province that would assault
them, their little ones and women, and to plunder their possessions,
{8:12} on one day in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, on the
thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar. {8:13} A
copy of the letter, that the decree should be given out in every
province, was published to all the peoples, that the Jews should be
ready for that day to avenge themselves on their enemies. {8:14} So the
couriers who rode on royal horses went out, hastened and pressed on by
the king's commandment. The decree was given out in the citadel of Susa.

   {8:15} Mordecai went out of the presence of the king in royal
clothing of blue and white, and with a great crown of gold, and with a
robe of fine linen and purple; and the city of Susa shouted and was
glad. {8:16} The Jews had light, gladness, joy, and honor. {8:17} In
every province, and in every city, wherever the king's commandment and
his decree came, the Jews had gladness, joy, a feast, and a good day.
Many from among the peoples of the land became Jews; for the fear of
the Jews was fallen on them.

   {9:1} Now in the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, on the
thirteenth day of the month, when the king's commandment and his decree
drew near to be put in execution, on the day that the enemies of the
Jews hoped to conquer them, (but it was turned out the opposite
happened, that the Jews conquered those who hated them), {9:2} the Jews
gathered themselves together in their cities throughout all the
provinces of the King Ahasuerus, to lay hands on those who wanted to
harm them. No one could withstand them, because the fear of them had
fallen on all the people. {9:3} All the princes of the provinces, the
satraps, the governors, and those who did the king's business helped
the Jews, because the fear of Mordecai had fallen on them. {9:4} For
Mordecai was great in the king's house, and his fame went out
throughout all the provinces; for the man Mordecai grew greater and
greater. {9:5} The Jews struck all their enemies with the stroke of the
sword, and with slaughter and destruction, and did what they wanted to
those who hated them. {9:6} In the citadel of Susa, the Jews killed and
destroyed five hundred men. {9:7} They killed Parshandatha, Dalphon,
Aspatha, {9:8} Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha, {9:9} Parmashta, Arisai,
Aridai, and Vaizatha, {9:10} the ten sons of Haman the son of
Hammedatha, the Jew's enemy, but they didn't lay their hand on the
plunder. {9:11} On that day, the number of those who were slain in the
citadel of Susa was brought before the king. {9:12} The king said to
Esther the queen, "The Jews have slain and destroyed five hundred men
in the citadel of Susa, including the ten sons of Haman; what then have
they done in the rest of the king's provinces! Now what is your
petition? It shall be granted you. What is your further request? It
shall be done."

   {9:13} Then Esther said, "If it pleases the king, let it be granted
to the Jews who are in Shushan to do tomorrow also according to this
day's decree, and let Haman's ten sons be hanged on the gallows."

   {9:14} The king commanded this to be done. A decree was given out in
Shushan; and they hanged Haman's ten sons. {9:15} The Jews who were in
Shushan gathered themselves together on the fourteenth day also of the
month Adar, and killed three hundred men in Shushan; but they didn't
lay their hand on the spoil. {9:16} The other Jews who were in the
king's provinces gathered themselves together, defended their lives,
had rest from their enemies, and killed seventy-five thousand of those
who hated them; but they didn't lay their hand on the plunder. {9:17}
This was done on the thirteenth day of the month Adar; and on the
fourteenth day of that month they rested and made it a day of feasting
and gladness. {9:18} But the Jews who were in Shushan assembled
together on the thirteenth and on the fourteenth days of the month; and
on the fifteenth day of that month, they rested, and made it a day of
feasting and gladness. {9:19} Therefore the Jews of the villages, who
live in the unwalled towns, make the fourteenth day of the month Adar a
day of gladness and feasting, a good day, and a day of sending presents
of food to one another. {9:20} Mordecai wrote these things, and sent
letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of the king
Ahasuerus, both near and far, {9:21} to enjoin them that they should
keep the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month Adar yearly, {9:22}
as the days in which the Jews had rest from their enemies, and the
month which was turned to them from sorrow to gladness, and from
mourning into a good day; that they should make them days of feasting
and gladness, and of sending presents of food to one another, and gifts
to the needy. {9:23} The Jews accepted the custom that they had begun,
as Mordecai had written to them; {9:24} 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," that is the lot, to
consume them, and to destroy them; {9:25} but when this became known to
the king, he commanded by letters that his wicked device, which he had
devised against the Jews, should return on his own head, and that he
and his sons should be hanged on the gallows. {9:26} Therefore they
called these days "[1>]Purim,[<1]" from the word "Pur." Therefore
because of all the words of this letter, and of that which they had
seen concerning this matter, and that which had come to them, {9:27}
the Jews established, and imposed on themselves, and on their
descendants, and on all those who joined themselves to them, so that it
should not fail, that they would keep these two days according to what
was written, and according to its appointed time, every year; {9:28}
and that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every
generation, every family, every province, and every city; and that
these days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor their
memory perish from their seed.

   {9:29} Then Esther the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai
the Jew, wrote with all authority to confirm this second letter of
Purim. {9:30} He sent letters to all the Jews, to the hundred
twenty-seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, with words of peace
and truth, {9:31} to confirm these days of Purim in their appointed
times, as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had decreed, and as
they had imposed upon themselves and their descendants, in the matter
of the fastings and their cry. {9:32} The commandment of Esther
confirmed these matters of Purim; and it was written in the book.

   {10:1} King Ahasuerus laid a tribute on the land, and on the islands
of the sea. {10:2} All the acts of his power and of his might, and the
full account of the greatness of Mordecai, to which the king advanced
him, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of
Media and Persia? {10:3} For Mordecai the Jew was next to King
Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews, and accepted by the multitude of
his brothers, seeking the good of his people, and speaking peace to all
his descendants.





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Footnotes:
[1] {9:26} Purim is the Hebrew plural for pur, which means lot.

