Austah (Esther) — 9

The Yahudym Destroy Their Tormentors

1 Now in the twelfth month, that is, on the thirteenth day, the time came for the king’s command and his decree to be executed. On the day that the enemies of the Yahudym had hoped to overpower them, the opposite occurred, in that the Yahudym themselves overpowered those who hated them. 

2 The Yahudym gathered together in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuarus to lay hands on those who sought their harm. And no one could withstand them, because fear of them fell upon all people. 

3 And all the officials of the provinces, the satraps, the governors, and all those doing the king’s work, helped the Yahudym, because the fear of Murdacayahu fell upon them. 

4 For Murdacayahu was great in the king’s palace, and his fame spread throughout all the provinces; for this man Murdacayahu became increasingly prominent. 

5 Thus the Yahudym defeated all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, with slaughter and destruction, and did what they pleased with those who hated them.

6 And in Shushan the citadel the Yahudym killed and destroyed five hundred men. 

7 Also Parshandatha, Dalphun, Aspatha, 

8 Puratha, Adalia, Aridatha, 

9 Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai, and Bayazatha,

10 the ten sons of Haman the son of Hammadatha, the enemy of the Yahudym, they killed; but they did not lay a hand on the plunder.

11 On that day the number of those who were killed in Shushan the citadel was brought to the king. 

12 And the king said to Queen Austah, “The Yahudym have killed and destroyed five hundred men in Shushan the citadel, and the ten sons of Haman. What have they done in the rest of the king’s provinces? Now what is your petition? It shall be granted to you. Or what is your further request? It shall be done.”

13 Then queen Austah said, “If it pleases the king, let it be granted to the Yahudym who are in Shushan to do again tomorrow according to today’s decree, and let Haman’s ten sons be hanged on the gallows.”

14 So the king commanded this to be done; the decree was issued in Shushan, and they hanged Haman’s ten sons.

15 And the Yahudym who were in Shushan gathered together again on the fourteenth day and killed three hundred men at Shushan; but they did not lay a hand on the plunder.

16 The remainder of the Yahudym in the king’s provinces gathered together and protected their lives, and had rest from their enemies, and killed seventy-five thousand of their enemies; but they did not lay a hand on the plunder. 

17 This was on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, and on the fourteenth of the month they rested and made it a day of feasting and gladness.

The Feast of Purim

18 But the Yahudym who were at Shushan assembled together on the thirteenth day, as well as on the fourteenth; and on the fifteenth of the month they rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness. 

19 Therefore the Yahudym of the villages who dwelt in the unwalled towns celebrated the fourteenth day of the month with gladness and feasting, as a freeday, and for sending presents to one another.

20 And Murdacayahu wrote these things and sent letters to all the Yahudym, near and far, who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuarus, 

21 to establish among them that they should celebrate yearly the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month, 

22 as the days on which the Yahudym had rest from their enemies, as the month which was turned from sorrow to joy for them, and from mourning to a celebration day; that they should make them days of feasting and joy, of sending presents to one another and gifts to the poor. 

23 So the Yahudym accepted the custom which they had begun, as Murdacayahu had written to them, 

24 because Haman, the son of Hammadatha the Agagite, the enemy of all the Yahudym, had plotted against the Yahudym to annihilate them, and had cast Pur (that is, the lot), to consume them and destroy them; 

25 but when queen Austah came before the king, he commanded by letter that this wicked plot which Haman had devised against the Yahudym should return on his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.

26 So they called these days Purim, after the name Pur. Therefore, because of all the words of this letter, what they had seen concerning this matter, and what had happened to them, 

27 the Yahudym established and imposed it upon themselves and their descendants and all who would join them, that without fail they should celebrate these two days every year, according to the written instructions and according to the prescribed time, 

28 that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city, that these days of Purim should not fail to be observed among the Yahudym, and that the memory of them should not perish among their descendants.

29 Then Queen Austah, the daughter of Abihail, with Murdacayahu the Yahudym, wrote with full authority to confirm this second letter about Purim. 

30 And Murdacayahu sent letters to all the Yahudym, to the one hundred and twenty-seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuarus, with words of Shalum and truth, 

31 to confirm these days of Purim at their appointed time, as Murdacayahu the Yahudym and Queen Austah had prescribed for them, and as they had decreed for themselves and their descendants concerning matters of their fasting and lamenting. 

32 So the decree of Austah confirmed these matters of Purim, and it was written in the book.