On that night the king could not sleep, so he gave orders to bring the book of the records of the chronicles; and they were read before the king.

And it was found written that Mordecai had given a report concerning Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king's eunuchs, among those who were in charge of the threshold, who had sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus.

And the king said, What honor and dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this? Then the king's servants who attended him said, Nothing has been done for him.

And the king said, Who is in the court? Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the king's house to speak to the king about hanging Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him.

And the king's servants said to him, Haman is now standing in the court. And the king said, Let him come in.

So Haman came in; and the king said to him, What shall be done for the man whom the king desires to honor? Now Haman said in his heart, Whom would the king desire to honor more than me?

And Haman said to the king, For the man whom the king desires to honor,

Let a royal robe be brought, one which the king has worn, and a horse on which the king has ridden and on whose head a royal crown has been set.

And let the robe and the horse be delivered into the hand of one of the king's most noble princes; and let them array the man whom the king desires to honor and make him ride on horseback through the street of the city; and let them proclaim before him, Thus shall it be done for the man whom the king desires to honor.

Then the king said to Haman, Quickly take the robe and the horse, as you have said, and do so to Mordecai the Jew, who sits in the king's gate. Let nothing fail of all that you have said.

Then Haman took the robe and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and made him ride through the street of the city; and he proclaimed before him, Thus shall it be done for the man whom the king desires to honor.

And Mordecai returned to the king's gate. But Haman hurried to his house, mourning and with his head covered.

And Haman recounted to Zeresh his wife and to all his friends all that had happened to him. Then his wise men and Zeresh his wife said to him, If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of the seed of the Jews, you will not prevail against him; but you shall surely fall before him.

While they were still talking with him, the king's eunuchs arrived and hurriedly brought Haman to the banquet that Esther had prepared.

So the king and Haman went in to feast with Esther the queen.

And the king said again unto Esther on the second day during the banquet of wine, What is your petition, Queen Esther? And it shall be granted to you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom it shall be done.

Then Esther the queen answered and said, If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me as my petition, and that of my people as my request;

For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. And if we had been sold as slaves, men and women, I would have remained silent, for the adversary is not worth the annoyance to the king.

Then King Ahasuerus spoke and said to Esther the queen, Who is he, and where is he, who presumes to do so?

And Esther said, An adversary and an enemy, this wicked Haman. Then Haman became terrified before the king and the queen.

And the king arose in his anger from the banquet of wine and went into the palace garden, and Haman stood up to make a request for his life to Esther the queen; for he saw that harm had been determined against him by the king.

And when the king returned from the palace garden into the house of the banquet of wine, Haman was prostrate on the couch where Esther was. Then the king said, Will he even humble the queen in front of me in this house? When the word went forth from the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face.

Then Harbonah, one of the eunuchs who were before the king, said, And also there is the gallows standing in Haman's house, fifty cubits high, which Haman has made for Mordecai, who spoke good on behalf of the king. And the king said, Hang him on it.

So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king's anger subsided.

On that day King Ahasuerus gave the house of Haman, the enemy of the Jews, to Esther the queen. And Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had disclosed what he was to her.

And the king took off his signet ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman.

And Esther spoke again before the king; and she fell down at his feet and wept and pleaded with him to overturn the evil plan of Haman the Agagite and his plot which he had plotted against the Jews.

Then the king held out the scepter of gold to Esther. So Esther arose and stood before the king.

And she said, If it please the king, and if I have found favor before him, and the thing seem right before the king, and I be pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote in order to destroy the Jews who are in all the king's provinces.

For how can I bear to see the evil that will befall my people? Or how can I bear to see the destruction of my kindred?

Then King Ahasuerus said to Esther the queen and to Mordecai the Jew, I have now given Esther the house of Haman, and him have they hanged on the gallows because he stretched out his hand against the Jews.

Write also to the Jews, as it pleases you, in the king's name, and seal it with the king's signet ring; for a decree which has been written in the king's name and sealed with the king's signet ring cannot be reversed.

Then the king's scribes were called at that time, in the third month, which is the month Sivan, on the twenty-third day of the month. And it was decreed in writing, according to all that Mordecai commanded, to the Jews and to the satraps and governors and the princes of the provinces, which are from India to Ethiopia, one hundred twenty-seven provinces, to each province in its own script and to each people in their own language, and to the Jews in their own script and in their own language.

And he wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed it with the king's signet ring; and he sent letters by couriers on horseback, riding on swift steeds that were used in the king's service, bred of the royal stud,

In which letters the king allowed the Jews that were in every city to assemble and to stand for their life, to destroy, to slay, and to annihilate all the power of the people and province that might assault them, their little ones, and their women, and to plunder their spoil,

On one day in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar.

A copy of the written decree to be issued as law in every province was published to all the peoples so that the Jews would be ready for that day to avenge themselves on their enemies.

So the couriers, riding on swift steeds that were used in the king's service, went out, driven in haste by the king's command; and the decree was issued in Susa the capital.

And Mordecai went forth from the presence of the king in royal robes of blue and white, and with a large crown of gold, and with a garment of fine linen and purple; and the city of Susa shouted and rejoiced.

For the Jews there was light and joy, and gladness and honor.

And throughout every province and throughout every city, wherever the king's commandment and his decree came, there was for the Jews joy and gladness, a feast and a good day. And many from among the peoples of the land became Jews, for the fear of the Jews had fallen on them.

Now in the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, on the thirteenth day of the month, when the king's commandment and his decree were about to be executed, on the day that the Jews' enemies hoped to rule over them (but it turned out to the contrary, so that the Jews had rule over them that hated them),

The Jews assembled in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus to lay hand on those who sought their harm. And no one could withstand them, for the fear of them had fallen upon all the peoples.

And all the princes of the provinces and the satraps and the governors and those who did the king's business helped the Jews, because the fear of Mordecai had fallen upon them.

For Mordecai was great in the king's house, and his fame went forth throughout all the provinces; for the man Mordecai became greater and greater.

And the Jews struck all their enemies with the stroke of the sword and with slaughter and destruction, and they did as it pleased them to those who hated them.

And in Susa the capital the Jews slew and destroyed five hundred men.

And Parshandatha and Dalphon and Aspatha

And Poratha and Adalia and Aridatha

And Parmashta and Arisai and Aridai and Vaizatha,

The ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Jew's enemy, they slew; but they did not lay their hand on the spoil.

On that day the number of those who were slain in Susa the capital was brought before the king.

And the king said to Esther the queen, The Jews have slain and destroyed five hundred men in Susa the capital as well as the ten sons of Haman. What then have they done in the rest of the king's provinces! Now what is your petition? And it shall be granted to you. Or what is your further request? And it shall be done.

Then Esther said, If it please the king, let it be granted to the Jews who are in Susa to do tomorrow also according to this day's decree, and let Haman's ten sons be hanged upon the gallows.

And the king commanded it to be so done; and a decree was issued in Susa, and they hanged Haman's ten sons.

And the Jews who were in Susa assembled also on the fourteenth day of the month Adar and slew three hundred men in Susa, but they did not lay their hand on the spoil.

And the rest of the Jews who were in the king's provinces assembled and stood for their lives, and they had rest from their enemies. And they slew seventy-five thousand of those who hated them; but they did not lay their hand on the spoil.

This happened on the thirteenth day of the month Adar; and on the fourteenth day of the same they rested and made it a day of feasting and rejoicing.

But the Jews who were in Susa assembled on the thirteenth day of the month and on the fourteenth of the month; and on the fifteenth day of the same they rested and made it a day of feasting and rejoicing.

Therefore the Jews of the villages, who dwell in towns in the open, make the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of rejoicing and feasting, and a good day, and a day of sending portions to one another.

And Mordecai wrote these things down, and he sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far,

Enjoining them that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar and the fifteenth day of the same, year by year,

As the days on which the Jews had rest from their enemies, and as the month which was turned for them from sorrow to rejoicing and from mourning into a good day; that they should make them days of feasting and rejoicing, and of sending portions to one another and gifts to the poor.

And the Jews undertook what they had begun to do and what Mordecai had written to them to do.

For Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them and had cast Pur, that is, the lot, to vex them and destroy them;

But when  ¹Esther came before the king, he commanded by letter that his wicked plot, which he had plotted against the Jews, should return upon his own head and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.

Therefore they called these days Purim, after the name of Pur. Therefore because of all the words of this letter and what they had seen in this regard and what had happened to them,

The Jews established and made a custom for themselves and their seed and all who joined themselves to them, that they would not fail to keep these two days according to what has been written about them and according to the appointed time for them, year by year;

And that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city; and that these days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor the remembrance of them fade from their seed.

Then Esther the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew wrote with all authority to confirm this second letter of Purim.

And he sent letters to all the Jews, to the one hundred twenty-seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, that is, words of peace and truth,

Establishing these days of Purim at their appointed times, as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had established for them and as they had established for themselves and for their seed in the matter of the fastings and their cry.

And the commandment of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim; and it was written in the book.

Now King Ahasuerus laid a tribute on the land and on the coastlands of the sea.

And all the acts of his power and of his might, and the full account of the greatness of Mordecai, to which the king advanced him, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia?

For Mordecai the Jew was second to King Ahasuerus and great among the Jews and well-regarded by the multitude of his brothers, one who sought the good of his people and who spoke for the welfare of all his seed.