Read the Bible

¹ NOW in the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, on the thirteenth day of the same, when the time drew near for the kings decree and his commandment to be put into execution, in the day when the enemies of the Jews hoped to overpower them (though the edict was turned to the contrary so that the Jews should have rule over those that hated them),² The Jews gathered themselves together in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Akhshirash to attack such as sought their hurt; and no man could withstand them; for the fear of them fell upon all people.³ And all the princes of the provinces and the commanders of the armies and the governors and those who were employed in the kings work honored the Jews because the fear of the king fell upon them.⁴ For Mordecai was great in the kings house, and his fame spread throughout all the provinces; for the man Mordecai grew greater and greater.⁵ Thus the Jews smote all their enemies with the sword and slaughter and destruction, and did what they would to those who hated them.⁶ And in Shushan the palace the Jews slew and destroyed five hundred men.⁷ And they slew Shepiroth and Dalcon and Aspoth and⁸ Parlat and Adalia and Derath⁹ And Aprasmoth and Disai and Adri and Zoth,¹⁰ The ten sons of Haman the son of Hammadatha, the enemy of the Jews; but they did not lay their hands on the plunder.¹¹ On that day the number of those that were slain in Shushan the palace was brought before the king.¹² And the king said to Esther the queen, The Jews have slain and destroyed five hundred men in Shushan the palace and the ten sons of Ha man; what have they done in the rest of the provinces? Now what is your petition? And it shall be granted you; and what is your request further? And it shall be done for you.¹³ Then Esther said, Let it be granted to the Jews who are in Shushan to do tomorrow also according to this days decree, and let Hamans ten sons be hanged on the gallows.¹⁴ And the king commanded it so to be done; and the decree was given in Shushan, and the ten sons of Ha man were hanged.¹⁵ For the Jews who were in Shushan gathered themselves together on the fourteenth day also of the same month, and slew three hundred men in Shushan; but they did not lay their hands on the plunder.¹⁶ And the rest of the Jews who were in the kings provinces gathered themselves together to defend their lives, and had rest from their enemies and slew of those who hated them seventy-five thousand, but they did not lay their hands on the plunder.¹⁷ They began on the thirteenth day of the month Adar; and on the fourteenth day of the same they rested¹⁸ And made it a day of feasting and gladness;¹⁹ Therefore the Jews who are scattered, who dwell in widely separated towns, make the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of gladness and feasting and a good day, and send portions one to another.

²⁰ And Mordecai wrote these things and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Akhshirash, both near and far.²¹ To agree among themselves that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly,²² As the days on which the Jews rested from their enemies and the month which was turned for them from sorrow to joy and from mourning to a good day, that they should make them days of feasting and joy and of sending portions of food one to another and gifts to the poor.²³ And the Jews took upon them selves to do as they had begun and as Mordecai had written them;²⁴ Because Haman the son of Hammadatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast lots to consume them and to destroy them;²⁵ When Esther came before the king, the scribe would say, Let the wicked plots which were devised against the Jews return upon the head of him who had devised them, and let him and his sons be hanged on the gallows.²⁶ Therefore they called these days Porayey, after the name Passover. Because of all the words of this letter and of that which they had seen concerning this matter and because of that which has befallen them.²⁷ The Jews ordained thus, and took upon themselves and upon their descendants and upon all such as joined themselves to them that it should not fail that they would keep these two days according to their writing and according to their appointed time every year.²⁸ And that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation in every province and every city; and that these days of Porayey should not fail from among the Jews, nor the memorial of them perish from their descend ants.²⁹ Then Esther the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew wrote with all authority to confirm this letter of Porayey.³⁰ And they sent letters to all the Jews, to the hundred and twenty-seven provinces of the kingdom of Akhshirash the king, with words of truth and peace³¹ To confirm these days of Porayey in their appointed times, ac cording as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had enjoined upon them and upon their children the decree of their fasting and their prayer.³² And the decree of Esther con firmed these matters of Porayey which were written in the book.