9:1So on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which we have already said before is called Adar, when slaughter was being prepared for all the Jews, and their enemies were gaping for their blood, the tables were turned, and the Jews began to be the stronger, and to avenge themselves on their adversaries. 9:2And they gathered together in every city, town, and place, to stretch out a hand against their enemies and persecutors. 9:2And no one dared to resist, because the dread of their greatness had pierced all peoples. 9:3For both the judges of the provinces, and the leaders, and the procurators, and every rank which presided over the several places and works, were exalting the Jews out of fear of Mordecai, whom they had learned to be the chief of the palace, and to have very great power: the fame of his name too was growing daily, and flying through the mouths of all.
9:5And so the Jews struck their enemies with a great blow, and killed them, paying back to them what they had prepared to do to them: so much so that even in Susa they killed five hundred men, besides the ten sons of Haman the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews: whose names are these: Pharsandatha, and Delphon, and Esphatha, and Phoratha, and Adalia, and Aridatha, and Phermesta, and Arisai, and Aridai, and Jezatha. 9:10And when they had killed them, they would not touch booty from their possessions. 9:11And at once the number of those who had been killed in Susa was reported to the king. 9:12He said to the queen: "In the city of Susa the Jews have killed five hundred men, and besides ten sons of Haman: how great a slaughter do you think they are carrying out in all the provinces?
9:12What more do you ask, and what do you want me to order to be done?" 9:13She answered him: "If it pleases the king, let power be given to the Jews, that just as they have done today in Susa, so they may do tomorrow too, and that the ten sons of Haman be hanged on gibbets." 9:14And the king commanded that it be done so. 9:14And at once in Susa the edict was hung up, and the ten sons of Haman were hanged. 9:15The Jews having gathered on the fourteenth day of the month Adar, three hundred men were killed in Susa: nor were their possessions plundered by them.
9:16But also through all the provinces which lay under the king's rule, the Jews stood for their lives, their enemies and persecutors having been killed: so much so that seventy-five thousand of the slain were made up, and no one touched anything of their possessions. 9:17Now the thirteenth day of the month Adar was the first day of slaughter among them all, and on the fourteenth day they ceased to kill. 9:17This they appointed to be solemn, so that on it, for all time thereafter, they should be free for feasts, joy, and banquets. 9:18But those who had carried out the slaughter in the city of Susa were engaged in slaughter on the thirteenth and fourteenth day of the same month: but on the fifteenth day they ceased to strike.
9:18And for that reason they appointed that same day as a solemn day of feasts and gladness. 9:19But those Jews who lived in unwalled towns and villages decreed the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of banquets and joy, so that they exult on it, and send to one another portions of feasts and of foods. 9:20So Mordecai wrote all these things, and, having put them into letters, sent them to the Jews who lived in all the king's provinces, both those placed nearby and those far off, that they should take up the fourteenth and fifteenth day of the month Adar as festivals, and, as the year always returned, celebrate them with solemn honour: because on these days the Jews avenged themselves on their enemies, and mourning and sadness were turned into cheerfulness and joy, and that these should be days of feasts and gladness, and they should send to one another portions of food, and lavish little gifts on the poor.
9:23And the Jews took up as a solemn rite all the things which they had begun to do at that time, and which Mordecai had commanded by letters to be done. 9:24For Haman, son of Hammedatha, of the stock of Agag, the enemy and adversary of the Jews, devised evil against them, to kill and destroy them: and he cast pur, which in our language is translated as lot. 9:25And afterwards Esther went in to the king, begging that his attempts might be made void by the king's letters, and that the evil which he had devised against the Jews might return upon his own head. 9:25Finally they fixed both him and his sons to a cross, and from that time these days have been called Purim, that is, of lots: because pur, that is, a lot, had been cast into an urn.
9:26And all the things that were done are contained in the letter, that is, in the volume of this book: and what they endured, and what was changed afterwards, the Jews took upon themselves and their seed, and upon all who wished to be joined to their religion, so that it should be lawful for no one to pass these two days without solemnity, which the writing attests, and which fixed times require, the years following one another continually. 9:28These are the days which no forgetfulness will ever blot out, and through each generation all the provinces in the whole world will celebrate them: nor is there any city in which the days of Purim, that is, of lots, are not observed by the Jews, and by their offspring, which is bound to these ceremonies.
9:29And Queen Esther, daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, wrote also a second letter, so that with all zeal this solemn day might be ratified for the future: and they sent to all the Jews who were living in the one hundred and twenty-seven provinces of King Ahasuerus, that they should have peace, and receive the truth, observing the days of lots, and celebrate them in their time with joy: just as Mordecai and Esther had appointed, and they took up, to be observed by themselves and by their seed, fasts, and cries, and the days of lots, and all the things which are contained in the history of this book, which is called Esther.