Esther 9

For in the twelfth month, on the thirteenth of the month, which is Adar, the letters written by the king arrived.

On that same day those who opposed the Jews perished; for no one withstood them, because they feared them.

For the rulers of the satraps and the local governors and the royal scribes were honouring the Jews; for the fear of Mordecai lay upon them.

For the king's decree went forth, that he should be named throughout all the kingdom.

And in the city of Susa the Jews killed five hundred men,

both Pharsannestain and Delphon and Phasga,

and Pharadatha and Barea and Sarbacha,

and Marmasima and Arouphaeon and Arsaeon and Zabouthaithan,

the ten sons of Haman son of Hammedatha the Bougaean, the enemy of the Jews; and they plundered.

On that same day the number of those who had perished in Susa was handed in to the king.

And the king said to Esther, “The Jews have destroyed five hundred men in the city of Susa; and in the surrounding country, how do you suppose they have dealt? What then do you still ask? And it shall be yours.”

And Esther said to the king, “Let it be granted to the Jews to do the same tomorrow, so as to hang the ten sons of Haman.”

And he allowed it to be so done, and he gave over to the Jews of the city the bodies of Haman's sons to hang up.

And the Jews gathered in Susa on the fourteenth of Adar and killed three hundred men, and they plundered nothing.

And the rest of the Jews who were in the kingdom gathered and helped one another, and got rest from their foes; for they destroyed fifteen thousand of them on the thirteenth of Adar, and they plundered nothing.

And they rested on the fourteenth of the same month, and kept it as a day of rest with joy and gladness.

But the Jews in the city of Susa gathered on the fourteenth as well and did not rest; and they kept the fifteenth also with joy and gladness.

Therefore the Jews scattered in every outlying region keep the fourteenth of Adar as a good day with gladness, each sending portions to his neighbour; while those who dwell in the chief cities keep also the fifteenth of Adar as a glad and good day, sending out portions to their neighbours.

And Mordecai wrote these words in a book and sent them out to the Jews, as many as were in the kingdom of Artaxerxes, both near and far,

to establish these days as good days, and to keep the fourteenth and the fifteenth of Adar;

for in these days the Jews got rest from their enemies; and as for the month in which it was turned for them—which was Adar—from mourning into joy and from pain into a good day, they were to keep the whole of it as good days of wedding feasts and gladness, sending out portions to their friends and to the poor.

And the Jews accepted it, just as Mordecai had written to them,

telling how Haman son of Hammedatha the Macedonian made war on them, how he laid down a decree and a lot to wipe them out,

and how he went in to the king proposing to hang Mordecai; but whatever evils he attempted to bring upon the Jews came upon himself, and he was hanged, he and his children.

For this reason these days were called Phrourai, on account of the lots—for in their language they are called Phrourai—and on account of the words of this letter, and all that they had suffered on this account, and all that had befallen them.

And he established it, and the Jews accepted it upon themselves and upon their seed and upon those joined to them; nor indeed shall they do otherwise. And these days are a memorial, kept up generation after generation, and city and family and region.

And these days of Phrourai shall be kept for all time, and the memorial of them shall never fail from among the generations.

And Queen Esther, daughter of Aminadab, and Mordecai the Jew wrote down all that they had done, and the confirmation of the letter of Phrourai.

And Mordecai and Queen Esther established it for themselves upon their own authority; and then, having established it for their own well-being, they established their resolve also.

And Esther established it by a word for ever, and it was written down for a memorial.