The In-Dept Study of the Bible
Septuagint 09
1 Now in the twelfth month, on the thirteenth
day of the month, which is Adar, the
letters written by the king arrived.
2 In that day, the adversaries of the Jews
perished; for no one resisted, through fear
of them.
3 For the chiefs of the local governors,
and the princes and the royal scribes,
honored the Jews; for the fear of Mordecai was
upon them.
4 For the order of the king was in force,
that he should be celebrated in allthe kingdom.
6 In the city Susa the Jews killed five
hundred men,
7 including Pharsannes, Delphon,
Phasga,
8 Pharadatha, Barea, Sarbaca,
9 Marmasima, Ruphaeus, Arsaeus, and
Zabuthaeus,
10 the ten sons of Haman the son of
Hammedatha the Bugaean, the enemy of
the Jews; and they plundered their
property on the same day.
11 The number of those who perished in
Susa was reported to the king.
12 Then the king said to Esther, “The Jews
have slain five hundred men in the city
Susa. What do you think they have done in
the rest of the country? What more do you
ask, that it may be done for you?”
13 Esther said to the king, “Let it be
granted to the Jews to do the same to them
tomorrow. Also, hang the bodies of the ten
sons of Haman.”
14 He permitted it to be done; andhe gave
up to the Jews of the city the bodies of the
sons of Haman to hang.
15 The Jews assembled in Susa on the
fourteenth day of Adar and killed three
hundred men, but plundered no property.
16 The rest of the Jews who were in the
kingdom assembled, and helped one another,
and obtained rest from their enemies;
for they destroyed fifteen thousand
of them on the thirteenth day of Adar, but
took no spoil.
17 They rested on the fourteenth of the
same month, and kept it as a day of rest
with joy and gladness.
18 The Jews in the city of Susa assembled
also on the fourteenth day and rested; and
they also observed the fifteenth with joy
and gladness.
19 On this account then, the Jews dispersed
in every foreign land keep the fourteenth
of Adar as a† holy day with joy, each
sending gifts of food to his neighbor.
20 Mordecai wrote these things in a book
and sentthem to the Jews, as many as were
in the kingdom of Ahasuerus, both those
who were near and those who were far
away,
21 to establish these as joyful days and to
keep the fourteenth and fifteenth of Adar;
22 for on these days the Jews obtained
rest from their enemies; and in that
month, which was Adar, in which a change
was made for them from mourning to joy,
and from sorrow to a holiday, to spend the
whole of it in good days of‡ feasting and
gladness, sending portions to their friends
and to the poor.
23 And the Jews consented to this as
Mordecai wrote to them,
24 showing how Haman the son of
Hammedatha the Macedonian fought
against them, how he made a decree and
cast§ lots to destroy them utterly;
25 also how he went in to the king, telling
him to hang Mordecai; but all the calamities
he tried to bring upon the Jews came
upon himself, and he was hanged, along
with his children.
26 Therefore these days were called
Purim, because of the lots (for in their
language they are called Purim) because
of the words of this letter, and because of
all they suffered on this account, and all
that happened to them.
27 Mordecai established it, and the Jews
took upon themselves, upon their offspring,
and upon those who were joined to
them to observe it, neither would they on
any account behave differently; but these
days were to be a memorial kept in every
generation, city, family, and province.
28 These days of Purim shall be kept forever,
and their memorial shall not fail in
any generation.
29 Queen Esther the daughter of Aminadab
and Mordecai the Jew wrote all that
they had done, and gave the confirmation
of the letter about Purim.
31 Mordecai and Esther the queen established
this decision on their own, pledging
their own well-being to their plan.
32 And Esther established it by a
command forever, and it was written for a
memorial.