Esther 7:1–10:3
Haman Hanged Instead of Mordecai
7 So the king and Haman went to dine with Queen Esther. 2 And on the second day, aat the banquet of wine, the king again said to Esther, “What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request, up to half the kingdom? It shall be done!”
3 Then Queen Esther answered and said, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request. 4 For we have been bsold, my people and I, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. Had we been sold as cmale and female slaves, I would have held my tongue, although the enemy could never compensate for the king’s loss.”
5 So King Ahasuerus answered and said to Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, who would dare presume in his heart to do such a thing?”
6 And Esther said, “The adversary and denemy is this wicked Haman!”
So Haman was terrified before the king and queen.
7 Then the king arose in his wrath from the banquet of wine and went into the palace garden; but Haman stood before Queen Esther, pleading for his life, for he saw that evil was determined against him by the king. 8 When the king returned from the palace garden to the place of the banquet of wine, Haman had fallen across ethe couch where Esther was. Then the king said, “Will he also assault the queen while I am in the house?”
As the word left the king’s mouth, they fcovered Haman’s face. 9 Now gHarbonah, one of the eunuchs, said to the king, “Look! hThe 1gallows, fifty cubits high, which Haman made for Mordecai, who spoke igood on the king’s behalf, is standing at the house of Haman.”
Then the king said, “Hang him on it!”
10 So jthey khanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king’s wrath subsided.
8 On that day King Ahasuerus gave Queen Esther the house of Haman, the aenemy of the Jews. And Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had told bhow he was related to her. 2 So the king took off chis signet ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai; and Esther appointed Mordecai over the house of Haman.
3 Now Esther spoke again to the king, fell down at his feet, and implored him with tears to counteract the evil of Haman the Agagite, and the scheme which he had devised against the Jews. 4 And dthe king held out the golden scepter toward Esther. So Esther arose and stood before the king, 5 and said, “If it pleases the king, and if I have found favor in his sight and the thing seems right to the king and I am pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to revoke the eletters devised by Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to annihilate the Jews who are in all the king’s provinces. 6 For how can I endure to see fthe evil that will come to my people? Or how can I endure to see the destruction of my countrymen?”
7 Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and Mordecai the Jew, “Indeed, gI have given Esther the house of Haman, and they have hanged him on the gallows because he tried to lay his hand on the Jews. 8 You yourselves write a decree concerning the Jews, 1as you please, in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s signet ring; for whatever is written in the king’s name and sealed with the king’s signet ring hno one can revoke.”
9 iSo the king’s scribes were called at that time, in the third month, which is the month of Sivan, on the twenty-third day; and it was written, according to all that Mordecai commanded, to the Jews, the satraps, the governors, and the princes of the provinces jfrom India to Ethiopia, one hundred and twenty-seven provinces in all, to every province kin its own script, to every people in their own language, and to the Jews in their own script and language. 10 lAnd he wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus, sealed it with the king’s signet ring, and sent letters by couriers on horseback, riding on royal horses 2bred from swift steeds.
11 By these letters the king permitted the Jews who were in every city to mgather together and protect their lives—to ndestroy, kill, and annihilate all the forces of any people or province that would assault them, both little children and women, and to plunder their possessions, 12 oon one day in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of 3Adar. 13 pA copy of the document was to be issued as a decree in every province and published for all people, so that the Jews would be ready on that day to avenge themselves on their enemies. 14 The couriers who rode on royal horses went out, hastened and pressed on by the king’s command. And the decree was issued in 4Shushan the 5citadel.
15 So Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal apparel of 6blue and white, with a great crown of gold and a garment of fine linen and purple; and qthe city of 7Shushan rejoiced and was glad. 16 The Jews had rlight and gladness, joy and honor. 17 And in every province and city, wherever the king’s command and decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast sand a holiday. Then many of the people of the land tbecame Jews, because ufear of the Jews fell upon them.
The Jews Destroy Their Tormentors
9 Now ain the twelfth month, that is, the month of Adar, on the thirteenth day, bthe time came for the king’s command and his decree to be executed. On the day that the enemies of the Jews had hoped to overpower them, the opposite occurred, in that the Jews themselves coverpowered those who hated them. 2 The Jews dgathered together in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus to lay hands on those who esought their harm. And no one could withstand them, fbecause fear of them fell upon all people. 3 And all the officials of the provinces, the satraps, the governors, and all those doing the king’s work, helped the Jews, because the fear of Mordecai fell upon them. 4 For Mordecai was great in the king’s palace, and his fame spread throughout all the provinces; for this man Mordecai gbecame increasingly prominent. 5 Thus the Jews defeated all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, with slaughter and destruction, and did what they pleased with those who hated them.
6 And in hShushan 1the 2citadel the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men. 7 Also Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha, 8 Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha, 9 Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai, and Vajezatha—10 ithe ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews—they killed; jbut they did not lay a hand on the 3plunder.
11 On that day the number of those who were killed in 4Shushan the 5citadel 6was brought to the king. 12 And the king said to Queen Esther, “The Jews have killed and destroyed five hundred men in Shushan the citadel, and the ten sons of Haman. What have they done in the rest of the king’s provinces? Now kwhat is your petition? It shall be granted to you. Or what is your further request? It shall be done.”
13 Then Esther said, “If it pleases the king, let it be granted to the Jews who are in Shushan to do again tomorrow laccording to today’s decree, and let Haman’s ten sons mbe hanged on the gallows.”
14 So the king commanded this to be done; the decree was issued in Shushan, and they hanged Haman’s ten sons.
15 And the Jews who were in 7Shushan ngathered together again on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and killed three hundred men at Shushan; obut they did not lay a hand on the plunder.
16 The remainder of the Jews in the king’s provinces pgathered together and protected their lives, had rest from their enemies, and killed seventy-five thousand of their enemies; qbut they did not lay a hand on the plunder. 17 This was on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar. And on the fourteenth of 8the month they rested and made it a day of feasting and gladness.
18 But the Jews who were at 9Shushan assembled together ron the thirteenth day, as well as on the fourteenth; and on the fifteenth of 1the month they rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness. 19 Therefore the Jews of the villages who dwelt in the unwalled towns celebrated the fourteenth day of the month of Adar swith gladness and feasting, tas a holiday, and for usending presents to one another.
20 And Mordecai wrote these things and sent letters to all the Jews, near and far, who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, 21 to establish among them that they should celebrate yearly the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar, 22 as the days on which the Jews had rest from their enemies, as the month which was turned from sorrow to joy for them, and from mourning to a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and joy, of vsending presents to one another and gifts to the wpoor. 23 So the Jews accepted the custom which they had begun, as Mordecai had written to them, 24 because Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, xhad plotted against the Jews to annihilate them, and had cast Pur (that is, the lot), to consume them and destroy them; 25 but ywhen 2Esther came before the king, he commanded by letter that 3this wicked plot which Haman had devised against the Jews should zreturn on his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.
26 So they called these days Purim, after the name 4Pur. Therefore, because of all the words of athis letter, what they had seen concerning this matter, and what had happened to them, 27 the Jews established and imposed it upon themselves and their descendants and all who would bjoin them, that without fail they should celebrate these two days every year, according to the written instructions and according to the prescribed time, 28 that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city, that these days of Purim should not fail to be observed among the Jews, and that the memory of them should not perish among their descendants.
29 Then Queen Esther, cthe daughter