Esther 9:1-19

The order the king had commanded was to be done on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar. That was the day the enemies of the Jewish people had hoped to defeat them, but that was changed. So the Jewish people themselves defeated those who hated them. The Jews met in their cities in all the empire of King Xerxes in order to attack those who wanted to harm them. No one was strong enough to fight against them, because all the other people living in the empire were afraid of them. All the important men of the states, the governors, captains of the soldiers, and the king’s officers helped the Jewish people, because they were afraid of Mordecai. Mordecai was very important in the king’s palace. He was famous in all the empire, because he was becoming a leader of more and more people. And, with their swords, the Jewish people defeated all their enemies, killing and destroying them. And they did what they wanted with those people who hated them. In the palace at Susa, they killed and destroyed five hundred men. 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 Jewish people. But the Jewish people did not take their belongings. On that day the number killed in the palace at Susa was reported to the king. The king said to Queen Esther, “The Jewish people have killed and destroyed five hundred people in the palace at Susa, and they have also killed Haman’s ten sons. What have they done in the rest of the king’s empire! Now what else are you asking? I will do it! What else do you want? It will be done!” Esther answered, “If it pleases the king, give the Jewish people who are in Susa permission to do again tomorrow what the king ordered for today. And let the bodies of Haman’s ten sons be hanged on the platform.” So the king ordered that it be done. A law was given in Susa, and the bodies of the ten sons of Haman were hanged. The Jewish people in Susa came together on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar. They killed three hundred people in Susa, but they did not take their belongings. At that same time, all the Jewish people in the king’s empire also met to protect themselves and get rid of their enemies. They killed seventy-five thousand of those who hated them, but they did not take their belongings. This happened on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar. On the fourteenth day they rested and made it a day of joyful feasting. But the Jewish people in Susa met on the thirteenth and fourteenth days of the month of Adar. Then they rested on the fifteenth day and made it a day of joyful feasting. This is why the Jewish people who live in the country and small villages celebrate on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar. It is a day of joyful feasting and a day for exchanging gifts.