Esther 9

¹³And the letters were sent by couriers to each of the royal provinces with the order to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the Jews—young and old, women and children—and to plunder their possessions on a single day, the thirteenth day of Adar, the twelfth month.

¹²The single day appointed throughout all the provinces of King Xerxes was the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar.

¹¹You turned my mourning into dancing; You peeled off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,

¹⁸The nations were enraged, and Your wrath has come. The time has come to judge the dead and to reward Your servants the prophets, as well as the saints and those who fear Your name, both small and great—and to destroy those who destroy the earth.”

¹⁴The sons of your oppressors will come and bow down to you; all who reviled you will fall facedown at your feet and call you the City of the Lord, Zion of the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁵Whereas you have been forsaken and despised, with no one passing through, I will make you an everlasting pride, a joy from age to age.

⁴¹You have made my enemies retreat before me; I destroyed those who hated me.

¹⁷In every province and every city, wherever the king’s edict and decree reached, there was joy and gladness among the Jews, with feasting and celebrating. And many of the people of the land themselves became Jews, because the fear of the Jews had fallen upon them.

¹¹By these letters the king permitted the Jews in each and every city the right to assemble and defend themselves, to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the forces of any people or province hostile to them, including women and children, and to plunder their possessions.

²⁴My tongue will indeed proclaim Your righteousness all day long, for those who seek my harm are disgraced and confounded.

¹³May the accusers of my soul be ashamed and consumed; may those who seek my harm be covered with scorn and disgrace.

⁵As they set out, a terror from God fell over the surrounding cities, so that they did not pursue Jacob’s sons.

²⁰For it was of the Lord to harden their hearts to engage Israel in battle, so that they would be set apart for destruction and would receive no mercy, being annihilated as the Lord had commanded Moses.

³⁶They also delivered the king’s edicts to the royal satraps and governors of the region west of the Euphrates, who proceeded to assist the people and the house of God.

²All the royal servants at the king’s gate bowed down and paid homage to Haman, because the king had commanded that this be done for him. But Mordecai would not bow down or pay homage.

³Then the royal servants at the king’s gate asked Mordecai, “Why do you disobey the command of the king?”

⁹At once the royal scribes were summoned, and on the twenty-third day of the third month (the month of Sivan), they recorded all of Mordecai’s orders to the Jews and to the satraps, governors, and princes of the 127 provinces from India to Cush—writing to each province in its own script, to every people in their own language, and to the Jews in their own script and language.

¹²On the thirteenth day of the first month, the royal scribes were summoned and the order was written exactly as Haman commanded the royal satraps, the governors of each province, and the officials of each people, in the script of each province and the language of every people. It was written in the name of King Xerxes and sealed with the royal signet ring.

⁵“If it pleases the king,” she said, “and if I have found favor in his sight, and the matter seems proper to the king, and I am pleasing in his sight, may an order be written to revoke the letters that the scheming Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, wrote to destroy the Jews in all the king’s provinces.

¹Now it pleased Darius to appoint 120 satraps to rule throughout the kingdom,

²and over them three administrators, including Daniel, to whom these satraps were accountable so that the king would not suffer loss.

¹Now the war between the house of Saul and the house of David was protracted. And David grew stronger and stronger, while the house of Saul grew weaker and weaker.

⁹And David became greater and greater, for the Lord of Hosts was with him.

⁴³You have delivered me from the strife of the people; You have made me the head of nations; a people I had not known shall serve me.

¹⁸The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining brighter and brighter until midday.

³He is like a tree planted by streams of water, yielding its fruit in season, whose leaf does not wither, and who prospers in all he does.

¹⁹Behold, at that time, I will deal with all who afflict you. I will save the lame and gather the scattered; and I will appoint praise and fame for the disgraced throughout the earth.

⁴⁷the God who avenges me and subdues nations beneath me,

⁴⁸who delivers me from my enemies. You exalt me above my foes; You rescue me from violent men.

²¹Therefore, hand their children over to famine; pour out the power of the sword upon them. Let their wives become childless and widowed; let their husbands be slain by disease, their young men struck down by the sword in battle.

⁶May the high praises of God be in their mouths, and a double-edged sword in their hands,

⁷to inflict vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples,

³⁴He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze.

³⁵You have given me Your shield of salvation; Your right hand upholds me, and Your gentleness exalts me.

⁷Some trust in chariots and others in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

⁸They collapse and fall, but we rise up and stand firm.

⁶After all, it is only right for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you,

¹⁵The couriers left, spurred on by the king’s command, and the edict was issued in the citadel of Susa. Then the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Susa was in confusion.

¹¹Haman recounted to them his glorious wealth, his many sons, and all the ways the king had honored and promoted him over the other officials and servants.

¹¹By these letters the king permitted the Jews in each and every city the right to assemble and defend themselves, to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the forces of any people or province hostile to them, including women and children, and to plunder their possessions.

²³that I will not accept even a thread, or a strap of a sandal, or anything that belongs to you, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich.’

¹⁸He is driven from light into darkness and is chased from the inhabited world.

¹⁹He has no offspring or posterity among his people, no survivor where he once lived.

¹³This is the wicked man’s portion from God—the heritage the ruthless receive from the Almighty.

¹⁴Though his sons are many, they are destined for the sword; and his offspring will never have enough food.

¹⁷Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Carefully consider what is right in the eyes of everybody.

²and as they drank their wine on that second day, the king asked once more, “Queen Esther, what is your petition? It will be given to you. What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be fulfilled.”

⁶And as they drank their wine, the king said to Esther, “What is your petition? It will be given to you. What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be fulfilled.”

¹¹By these letters the king permitted the Jews in each and every city the right to assemble and defend themselves, to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the forces of any people or province hostile to them, including women and children, and to plunder their possessions.

²³you must not leave the body on the tree overnight, but you must be sure to bury him that day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not defile the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.

¹³Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”

⁶let seven of his male descendants be delivered to us so that we may hang them before the Lord at Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of the Lord.” “I will give them to you,” said the king.

¹⁵On the fourteenth day of the month of Adar, the Jews in Susa came together again and put to death three hundred men there, but they did not lay a hand on the plunder.

⁹And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the hill before the Lord. So all seven of them fell together; they were put to death in the first days of the harvest, at the beginning of the barley harvest.

¹¹By these letters the king permitted the Jews in each and every city the right to assemble and defend themselves, to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the forces of any people or province hostile to them, including women and children, and to plunder their possessions.

¹⁰They killed these ten sons of Haman son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews, but they did not lay a hand on the plunder.

¹⁶The rest of the Jews in the royal provinces also assembled to defend themselves and rid themselves of their enemies. They killed 75,000 who hated them, but they did not lay a hand on the plunder.

²In each of the provinces of King Xerxes, the Jews assembled in their cities to attack those who sought to harm them. No man could withstand them, because the fear of them had fallen upon all peoples.

⁵Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, for God has said: “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.”

⁷The Lord is on my side; He is my helper. Therefore I will look in triumph on those who hate me.

⁸It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man.

¹¹By these letters the king permitted the Jews in each and every city the right to assemble and defend themselves, to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the forces of any people or province hostile to them, including women and children, and to plunder their possessions.

²In each of the provinces of King Xerxes, the Jews assembled in their cities to attack those who sought to harm them. No man could withstand them, because the fear of them had fallen upon all peoples.

⁷You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall by the sword before you.

⁸Five of you will pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you will pursue ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you.

¹On the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, the king’s command and edict were to be executed. On this day the enemies of the Jews had hoped to overpower them, but their plan was overturned and the Jews overpowered those who hated them.

²¹to establish among them an annual celebration on the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar

¹²On the thirteenth day of the first month, the royal scribes were summoned and the order was written exactly as Haman commanded the royal satraps, the governors of each province, and the officials of each people, in the script of each province and the language of every people. It was written in the name of King Xerxes and sealed with the royal signet ring.

⁹At once the royal scribes were summoned, and on the twenty-third day of the third month (the month of Sivan), they recorded all of Mordecai’s orders to the Jews and to the satraps, governors, and princes of the 127 provinces from India to Cush—writing to each province in its own script, to every people in their own language, and to the Jews in their own script and language.

¹⁸The Jews in Susa, however, had assembled on the thirteenth and the fourteenth days of the month. So they rested on the fifteenth day, making it a day of feasting and joy.

²¹to establish among them an annual celebration on the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar

¹⁵On the fourteenth day of the month of Adar, the Jews in Susa came together again and put to death three hundred men there, but they did not lay a hand on the plunder.

¹On the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, the king’s command and edict were to be executed. On this day the enemies of the Jews had hoped to overpower them, but their plan was overturned and the Jews overpowered those who hated them.

¹³Esther replied, “If it pleases the king, may the Jews in Susa also have tomorrow to carry out today’s edict, and may the bodies of Haman’s ten sons be hanged on the gallows.”

¹¹On that day the number of those killed in the citadel of Susa was reported to the king,

¹⁷In every province and every city, wherever the king’s edict and decree reached, there was joy and gladness among the Jews, with feasting and celebrating. And many of the people of the land themselves became Jews, because the fear of the Jews had fallen upon them.

²²as the days on which the Jews gained rest from their enemies and the month in which their sorrow turned to joy and their mourning into a holiday. He wrote that these were to be days of feasting and joy, of sending gifts to one another and to the poor.

¹⁰Then Nehemiah told them, “Go and eat what is rich, drink what is sweet, and send out portions to those who have nothing prepared, since today is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

¹¹And the Levites calmed all the people, saying, “Be still, since today is holy. Do not grieve.”

¹⁰And those who dwell on the earth will gloat over them and celebrate and send one another gifts, because these two prophets had tormented them.

¹⁴And you shall rejoice in your feast—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite, as well as the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widows among you.

¹¹and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God in the place He will choose as a dwelling for His Name—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite within your gates, as well as the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widows among you.

⁴One generation will commend Your works to the next, and will proclaim Your mighty acts—

⁵the glorious splendor of Your majesty. And I will meditate on Your wondrous works.

¹²On the thirteenth day of the first month, the royal scribes were summoned and the order was written exactly as Haman commanded the royal satraps, the governors of each province, and the officials of each people, in the script of each province and the language of every people. It was written in the name of King Xerxes and sealed with the royal signet ring.

²²He sent letters to all the provinces of the kingdom, to each province in its own script and to each people in their own language, proclaiming that every man should be master of his own household.

¹⁴Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this on a scroll as a reminder and recite it to Joshua, because I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.”

¹A song of ascents. Of David. If the Lord had not been on our side—let Israel now declare—

²if the Lord had not been on our side when men attacked us,

¹⁰He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and He will deliver us. In Him we have placed our hope that He will yet again deliver us,

¹¹as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the favor shown us in answer to their prayers.

¹¹You turned my mourning into dancing; You peeled off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,

¹In that day you will say: “O Lord, I will praise You. Although You were angry with me, Your anger has turned away, and You have comforted me.

²Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. For the Lord God is my strength and my song, and He also has become my salvation.”

¹⁹This is why the rural Jews, who live in the villages, observe the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a day of joy and feasting. It is a holiday for sending gifts to one another.

³On the day that the Lord gives you rest from your pain and torment, and from the hard labor into which you were forced,

¹⁰They only asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.

¹²On the thirteenth day of the first month, the royal scribes were summoned and the order was written exactly as Haman commanded the royal satraps, the governors of each province, and the officials of each people, in the script of each province and the language of every people. It was written in the name of King Xerxes and sealed with the royal signet ring.

¹³And the letters were sent by couriers to each of the royal provinces with the order to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the Jews—young and old, women and children—and to plunder their possessions on a single day, the thirteenth day of Adar, the twelfth month.

⁵When Haman saw that Mordecai would not bow down or pay him homage, he was filled with rage.

⁶And when he learned the identity of Mordecai’s people, he scorned the notion of laying hands on Mordecai alone. Instead, he sought to destroy all of Mordecai’s people, the Jews, throughout the kingdom of Xerxes.

¹⁰They killed these ten sons of Haman son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews, but they did not lay a hand on the plunder.

¹⁶His trouble recoils on himself, and his violence falls on his own head.

⁴⁴He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed.”

¹⁰Let the wicked fall into their own nets, while I pass by in safety.

⁵Then King Xerxes spoke up and asked Queen Esther, “Who is this, and where is the one who would devise such a scheme?”

¹³Esther replied, “If it pleases the king, may the Jews in Susa also have tomorrow to carry out today’s edict, and may the bodies of Haman’s ten sons be hanged on the gallows.”

¹⁴So the king commanded that this be done. An edict was issued in Susa, and they hanged the ten sons of Haman.

¹⁷The cursing that he loved, may it fall on him; the blessing in which he refused to delight, may it be far from him.

¹⁸The cursing that he wore like a coat, may it soak into his body like water, and into his bones like oil.

²⁰Mordecai recorded these events and sent letters to all the Jews in all the provinces of King Xerxes, both near and far,

⁴⁰just as the Lord commanded him through Moses. This was to be a reminder to the Israelites that no outsider who is not a descendant of Aaron should approach to offer incense before the Lord, lest he become like Korah and his followers.

¹¹And on that day I will give Gog a burial place in Israel, the Valley of the Travelers, east of the Sea. It will block those who travel through, because Gog and all his hordes will be buried there. So it will be called the Valley of Hamon-gog.

⁶And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord to minister to Him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be His servants—all who keep the Sabbath without profaning it and who hold fast to My covenant—

¹¹“On that day many nations will join themselves to the Lord, and they will become My people. I will dwell among you, and you will know that the Lord of Hosts has sent Me to you.

³Let no foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say, “The Lord will utterly exclude me from His people.” And let the eunuch not say, “I am but a dry tree.”

¹⁷In every province and every city, wherever the king’s edict and decree reached, there was joy and gladness among the Jews, with feasting and celebrating. And many of the people of the land themselves became Jews, because the fear of the Jews had fallen upon them.

¹During the reign of David there was a famine for three successive years, and David sought the face of the Lord. And the Lord said, “It is because of the blood shed by Saul and his family, because he killed the Gibeonites.”

²At this, David summoned the Gibeonites and spoke to them. (Now the Gibeonites were not Israelites, but a remnant of the Amorites. The Israelites had taken an oath concerning them, but in his zeal for Israel and Judah, Saul had sought to kill them.)

²⁵And so it has been from that day forward. David established this statute and ordinance for Israel to this very day.

⁵For He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers to teach to their children,

⁶that the coming generation would know them—even children yet to be born—to arise and tell their own children

²Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all His kind deeds—

⁷you are to tell them, ‘The waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters were cut off.’ Therefore these stones will be a memorial to the Israelites forever.”

⁸And on that day you are to explain to your son, ‘This is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’

⁹It shall be a sign for you on your hand and a reminder on your forehead that the Law of the Lord is to be on your lips. For with a mighty hand the Lord brought you out of Egypt.

¹⁴The crown will reside in the temple of the Lord as a memorial to Helem, Tobijah, Jedaiah, and the gracious son of Zephaniah.

¹⁷So you are to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your divisions out of the land of Egypt. You must keep this day as a permanent statute for the generations to come.

²⁰Mordecai recorded these events and sent letters to all the Jews in all the provinces of King Xerxes, both near and far,

¹⁵Now Esther was the daughter of Abihail, the uncle from whom Mordecai had adopted her as his own daughter. And when it was her turn to go to the king, she did not ask for anything except what Hegai, the king’s trusted official in charge of the harem, had advised. And Esther found favor in the eyes of everyone who saw her.

¹⁰Mordecai wrote in the name of King Xerxes and sealed it with the royal signet ring. He sent the documents by mounted couriers riding on swift horses bred from the royal mares.

¹⁵The couriers left, spurred on by the king’s command, and the edict was issued in the citadel of Susa. Then the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Susa was in confusion.

¹This is what happened in the days of Xerxes, who reigned over 127 provinces from India to Cush.

¹⁹“This is what the Lord of Hosts says: The fasts of the fourth, the fifth, the seventh, and the tenth months will become times of joy and gladness, cheerful feasts for the house of Judah. Therefore you are to love both truth and peace.”

⁸But Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “At least there will be peace and security in my lifetime.”

⁹At once the royal scribes were summoned, and on the twenty-third day of the third month (the month of Sivan), they recorded all of Mordecai’s orders to the Jews and to the satraps, governors, and princes of the 127 provinces from India to Cush—writing to each province in its own script, to every people in their own language, and to the Jews in their own script and language.

³In every province to which the king’s command and edict came, there was great mourning among the Jews. They fasted, wept, and lamented, and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.

¹⁶“Go and assemble all the Jews who can be found in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day, and I and my maidens will fast as you do. After that, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish!”

²“Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message that I give you.”

³This time Jonah got up and went to Nineveh, in accordance with the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, requiring a three-day journey.

²⁶Therefore these days are called Purim, from the word Pur. Because of all the instructions in this letter, and because of all they had seen and experienced,