15Mordecai left the king’s presence in royal robes of blue and white, with a magnificent crown of gold and a mantle of fine linen and purple wool. And the city of Shushan rang with joyous cries. 16The Jews enjoyed light and gladness, happiness and honor. 17And in every province and in every city, when the king’s command and decree arrived, there was gladness and joy among the Jews, a feast and a holiday. And many of the people of the land professed to be Jews, for the fear of the Jews had fallen upon them.
9 And so, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month—that is, the month of Adar—when the king’s command and decree were to be executed, the very day on which the enemies of the Jews had expected to get them in their power, the opposite happened, and the Jews got their enemies in their power. 2Throughout the provinces of King Ahasuerus, the Jews mustered in their cities to attack those who sought their hurt; and no one could withstand them, for the fear of them had fallen upon all the peoples. 3Indeed, all the officials of the provinces—the satraps, the governors, and the king’s stewards—showed deference to the Jews, because the fear of Mordecai had fallen upon them. 4For Mordecai was now powerful in the royal palace, and his fame was spreading through all the provinces; the man Mordecai was growing ever more powerful. 5So the Jews struck at their enemies with the sword, slaying and destroying; they wreaked their will upon their enemies.
6In the fortress Shushan the Jews killed a total of five hundred men. 7They also killeda Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha, 8Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha, 9Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai, and Vaizatha, 10the ten sons of Haman son of Hammedatha, the foe of the Jews. But they did not lay hands on the spoil. 11When the number of those slain in the fortress Shushan was reported on that same day to the king, 12the king said to Queen Esther, “In the fortress Shushan alone the Jews have killed a total of five hundred men, as well as the ten sons of Haman. What then must they have done in the provinces of the realm! What is your wish now? It shall be granted you. And what else is your request? It shall be fulfilled.” 13“If it please Your Majesty,” Esther replied, “let the Jews in Shushan be permitted to act tomorrow also as they did today; and let Haman’s ten sons be impaled on the stake.” 14The king ordered that this should be done, and the decree was proclaimed in Shushan. Haman’s ten sons were impaled: 15and the Jews in Shushan mustered again on the fourteenth day of Adar and slew three hundred men in Shushan. But they did not lay hands on the spoil.
16The rest of the Jews, those in the king’s provinces, likewise mustered and fought for their lives. They disposed of their enemies, killing seventy-five thousand of their foes; but they did not lay hands on the spoil. 17That was on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar; and they rested on the fourteenth day and made it a day of feasting and merrymaking. (18But the Jews in Shushan mustered on both the thirteenth and fourteenth days, and so rested on the fifteenth, and made it a day of feasting and merry-making.) 19That is why village Jews, who live in unwalled towns, observe the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and make it a day of merry-making and feasting, and as a holiday and an occasion for sending gifts to one another.
20Mordecai recorded these events. And he sent dispatches to all the Jews throughout the provinces of King Ahasuerus, near and far, 21charging them to observe the fourteenth and fifteenth days of Adar, every year— 22the same days on which the Jews enjoyed relief from their foes and the same month which had been transformed for them from one of grief and mourning to one of festive joy. They were to observe them as days of feasting and merrymaking, and as an occasion for sending gifts to one another and presents to the poor. 23The Jews accordingly assumed as an obligation that which they had begun to practice and which Mordecai prescribed for them.
24For Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the foe of all the Jews, had plotted to destroy the Jews, and had cast pur—that is, the lot—with intent to crush and exterminate them. 25But when [Esther] came before the king, he commanded: b-“With the promulgation of this decree,-b let the evil plot, which he devised against the Jews, recoil on his own head!” So they impaled him and his sons on the stake. 26For that reason these days were named Purim, after pur.
In view, then, of all the instructions in the said letter and of what they had experienced in that matter and what had befallen them, 27the Jews undertook and irrevocably obligated themselves and their descendants, and all who might join them, to observe these two days in the manner prescribed and at the proper time each year. 28Consequently, these days are recalled and observed in every generation: by every family, every province, and every city. And these days of Purim shall never cease among the Jews, and the memory of them shall never perish among their descendants.
29cThen Queen Esther daughter of Abihail wrote a second letter of Purim for the purpose of confirming with full authority the aforementioned one of Mordecai the Jew. 30Dispatches were sent to all the Jews in the hundred and twenty-seven provinces of the realm of Ahasuerus with an ordinance of “equity and honesty:”d 31These days of Purim shall be observed at their proper time, as Mordecai the Jew—and now Queen Esther—has obligated them to do, and just as they have assumed for themselves and their descendants the obligation of the fasts with their lamentations.e
32And Esther’s ordinance validating these observances of Purim was recorded in a scroll.
10 King Ahasuerus imposed tribute on the mainland and the islands. 2All his mighty and powerful acts, and a full account of the greatness to which the king advanced Mordecai, are recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Media and Persia. 3For Mordecai the Jew ranked next to King Ahasuerus and was highly regarded by the Jews and popular with the multitude of his brethren; he sought the good of his people and interceded for the welfare of all his kindred.
a I.e., the fortified city.
b Meaning of part of this verse uncertain.
c Lit. “the times.”
a Identical with Hege in v. 3.
b Or “an amnesty.”
c Meaning of verse uncertain.
a I.e., that as a Jew he could not bow to a descendant of Agag, the Amalekite king; see I Sam. 15, and cf. Exod. 17.14–16; Deut. 25.17–19.
a-a Emendation yields “a trifle” (hissar). lit. “little finger.”
b-b Meaning of Heb. uncertain. Emendation yields “blanched”; cf. Ps. 34.6.
a-a Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
a Moved up from v. 10 for greater clarity.
b-b Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
c Force of vv. 29–31 uncertain in part. Verse 29 reads literally, “Then Queen Esther, daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, wrote with full authority to confirm this second letter of Purim.”
d I.e., of new holidays, the instituting of which is linked to love of equity and honesty in Zech. 8.19.
e The Jews had long been observing fast days in commemoration of national calamities; see Zech. 7.5; 8.19.
Daniel
1 In the third year of the reign of King Jehoiakim of Judah, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to Jerusalem and laid siege to it. 2The Lord delivered King Jehoiakim of Judah into his power, together with some of the vessels of the House of God, and he brought them to the land of Shinar to the house of his god; he deposited the vessels in the treasury of his god. 3Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, his chief officer, to bring some Israelites of royal descent and of the nobility—4youths without blemish, handsome, proficient in all wisdom, knowledgeable and intelligent, and capable of serving in the royal palace—and teach them the writings and the language of the Chaldeans. 5The king allotted daily rations to them from the king’s food and from the wine he drank. They were to be educated for three years, a-at the end of which they-a were to enter the king’s service.
6Among them were the Judahites Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. 7The chief officer gave them new names; he named Daniel Belteshazzar, Hananiah Shadrach, Mishael Meshach, and Azariah Abed-nego. 8Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the king’s food or the wine he drank, so he sought permission of the chief officer not to defile himself, 9and God disposed the chief officer to be kind and compassionate toward Daniel. 10The chief officer said to Daniel, “I fear that my lord the king, who allotted food and drink to you, will notice that you look out of sorts, unlike the other youths of your age—and you will put my lifeb in jeopardy with the king.” 11Daniel replied to the guard whom the chief officer had put in charge of Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, 12“Please test your servants for ten days, giving us legumes to eat and water to drink. 13Then compare our appearance with that of the youths who eat of the king’s food, and do with your servants as you see fit.”
