The Return · c. 474–473 BC
Chapter 13
Purim
The Jews had light, gladness, joy, and honor.
For parents
This chapter tells how, on the day set for their destruction, the Jews of the Persian kingdom kill their enemies: five hundred men and Haman’s ten sons in Susa, three hundred more the next day, and seventy-five thousand in the provinces (Esther 9:1–16). At Esther’s request the bodies of Haman’s ten sons are hanged (9:13–14). The king’s decree lets the Jews destroy the forces of any people that would attack them, “their little ones and women” (8:11). The king’s letter says Haman was hanged with his whole family and it threatens any city that disobeys with spear and fire (Greek Esther 8:13). It is told plainly, with no gory detail.
was dead. They had hanged him on the he had made ready for , and the king’s fury had calmed.
That same day, King gave Queen the house of Haman, the Jews’ enemy. Mordecai came before the king, because Esther had told the king how Mordecai was related to her. He was her cousin, and he had brought her up as his own daughter, because she had no father or mother.
The king took off his ring, the one he had taken from Haman, and handed it to Mordecai. Then Esther put Mordecai in charge of Haman’s house.
Esther spoke to the king once more. She fell down at his feet, weeping, and begged him to stop the evil that Haman the had started, the plan he had made against the Jews.
The king held out the golden toward Esther, and she got up and stood before him.
“If it pleases the king,” she said, “if he looks on me with favor, if the king thinks it right, and if I please him, let orders be written to undo the letters Haman thought up. Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite wrote them to destroy the Jews who live in all the king’s provinces. How can I stand to see the harm that would come to my people? How can I stand to see my own relatives destroyed?”
Then King Ahasuerus answered Queen Esther and Mordecai the Jew. “See, I have given Esther Haman’s house, and they have hanged him on the gallows, because he went after the Jews. Now you may write to the Jews too, whatever you like, in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s ring. No one can undo a letter that is written in the king’s name and sealed with the king’s ring.”
Then the king’s were called in. It was the twenty-third day of , the third month. They wrote down everything Mordecai ordered. The letters went to the Jews, and to the governors, officials and princes of the provinces from India to , one hundred twenty-seven provinces. Each province got the letters in its own kind of writing, and each people in its own language. The Jews got them in their own writing and their own language too.
The letters were written in King Ahasuerus’ name and sealed with the king’s ring. Riders on horseback carried them, riding the king’s own horses, bred for speed.
In those letters the king let the Jews in every city band together and defend their lives. They could destroy, kill and wipe out all the forces of any people or province that would attack them, their little ones and women, and they could plunder their possessions. It was to be on one day in all King Ahasuerus’ provinces: the thirteenth day of , the twelfth month.
A copy of the letter was sent out to all the peoples, so that the decree would be announced in every province. This is what it said:
“From the great King Ahasuerus, to the rulers of the provinces in one hundred twenty-seven regions, from India to Ethiopia, and to all who are loyal to us: greetings.
“Many people are honored again and again by the great kindness of those who do them good, and then they begin to aim higher than they should. They don’t only try to hurt our subjects. They can’t handle their good fortune, so they even plot against the very people who were good to them. They would wipe out all thankfulness among people. They are puffed up by the boasting of men who have nothing to do with what is good, and they think they will escape the punishment of God, who sees everything and hates sin.
“Many officials have been trusted to look after their friends’ affairs, and bad advice has often led them to share the guilt of killing innocent people. It has brought them disasters that can never be put right. With clever lies, evil men have fooled rulers who meant well. Old stories show this, but you can see it even better right in front of you. Look at the wicked things done by worthless men who held power they did not deserve. It is right to think ahead, so that we can keep the kingdom at peace for everyone. To do that, we make the changes that are needed and always judge fairly the cases that come before us.
“Haman son of Hammedatha was a . He was really a foreigner with no blood, and he was nothing like us in our gentle way of ruling. We welcomed him as our guest. He was shown so much of the kindness we show everyone that he was called our father, and everyone honored him as the man next to the royal throne. But pride overcame him. He tried to take away our kingdom and our life. With all kinds of cunning tricks, he asked for the destruction of Mordecai, the man who saved us and has always done us good. He asked the same for Esther, the blameless queen of our kingdom, and for their whole nation. He thought that this way he would catch us defenseless and hand the rule of the Persians over to the Macedonians.
“This most wicked man handed the Jews over to be destroyed. But we find that they are not wrongdoers. They live by the fairest laws. They are children of the living God, the Most High and mighty, who keeps the kingdom in the best order for us, as he did for our ancestors. So you should not obey the letter sent by Haman son of Hammedatha, because the man who did these things has been hanged with his whole family at the gates of . Almighty God has quickly given him the punishment he deserved.
“Post a copy of this letter openly everywhere. Let the Jews live by their own laws and customs, and help them. Then on that very day, the thirteenth of Adar, the twelfth month, they can defend themselves against those who attack them in their time of trouble. The chosen people were to be destroyed, but instead Almighty God has given them this time of gladness. So you too must keep a special day among your great feasts, with every kind of celebration. That way, now and in time to come, it will be a day of rescue for us and for all who wish the Persians well, and a reminder of destruction for those who plotted against us.
“Every city and province that does not do this will be wiped out, all of it, by spear and fire, as punishment. No one will be able to set foot there, and even wild animals and birds will hate it forever.”
Copies were to be posted where everyone could see them, all through the kingdom. All the Jews were to be ready for that day, to fight their enemies and take revenge on them.
So the riders on the royal horses rode out in a hurry, pushed on by the king’s command. The order was also given out in the fortress of Susa.
Mordecai went out from the king wearing royal clothes of blue and white, a great crown of gold, and a robe of fine linen and purple. The city of Susa shouted for joy.
The Jews had light and gladness, joy and honor. In each province and each city where the king’s command and decree arrived, the Jews were glad and joyful; they held a feast and kept a holiday. Many people of other nations in the land became Jews, because they had grown afraid of the Jews.
The twelfth month came, the month of Adar. On the thirteenth day of Adar, the king’s command and decree were to be carried out. It was the day the Jews’ enemies had hoped to defeat them. But the opposite happened: the Jews defeated those who hated them.
The Jews gathered in their cities in all King Ahasuerus’ provinces to strike those who wanted to harm them. No one could hold out against them, because all the people had grown afraid of them.
All the princes of the provinces, the governors and officials, and everyone who did the king’s business helped the Jews, because they had become afraid of Mordecai. Mordecai was a great man in the king’s palace. His fame spread through all the provinces, and he grew greater and greater.
The Jews attacked all their enemies with the sword, bringing slaughter and destruction, and they did whatever they wanted to those who hated them.
The Jews killed five hundred men in the fortress of Susa. They killed Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha, Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha, Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai and Vaizatha, the ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Jews’ enemy. But they didn’t touch the plunder.
That same day the king was told the number of the dead in the fortress of Susa. He said to Queen Esther, “The Jews have struck down and destroyed five hundred men in the fortress of Susa, and Haman’s ten sons too. What must they have done in the rest of the king’s provinces! Now what do you ask for? You will have it. What else do you want? It will be done.”
Then Esther said, “If it pleases the king, give the Jews in Susa the right to do the same tomorrow, as today’s decree allows. And let Haman’s ten sons be hanged on the gallows.”
The king ordered it to be done. A decree was given out in Susa, and the bodies of Haman’s ten sons were hanged.
The Jews in Susa gathered again on the fourteenth day of Adar, and they killed three hundred men in Susa. But they didn’t touch the plunder.
The other Jews, in the king’s provinces, also gathered. They defended their lives and found relief from their enemies, and they killed seventy-five thousand of the people who hated them. But they didn’t touch the plunder.
In the provinces, all this was done on the thirteenth day of Adar. The Jews there rested on the fourteenth, and made it a day of feasting and gladness.
But the Jews in Susa had gathered on both the thirteenth and the fourteenth. So they rested on the fifteenth, and made that a day of feasting and gladness.
That is why the Jews of the villages, who live in towns without walls, make the fourteenth day of Adar a day of gladness and feasting, a holiday, and a day for sending presents of food to one another.
Mordecai put these things in writing and sent letters to all the Jews who lived in all King Ahasuerus’ provinces, near and far. He told them they must keep the fourteenth and fifteenth days of Adar every year, as the days when the Jews found relief from their enemies. It was the month when their sorrow had turned to gladness, and their mourning to a holiday. They were to keep them as days of feasting and gladness, of sending presents of food to one another, and of gifts to the needy.
The Jews accepted the custom they had begun, as Mordecai had written to them. They did this because Haman the Agagite, Hammedatha’s son, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted to destroy them. He had cast Pur, which means the , to wipe them out and destroy them. But when the king learned of it, he gave orders by letter. The wicked plan Haman had made against the Jews was to fall back on Haman himself, and he and his sons were to be hanged on the gallows.
That is why these days were named , after the word Pur. Purim means lots. Because of all this letter said, and all they had seen and been through, the Jews set up this custom. They made it a duty for themselves, their descendants and everyone who joined them. They would keep these two days every year without missing a year, as it was written and at their set time. These days were to be remembered and kept in every generation, by every family, in every province and every city. These days of Purim were never to stop among the Jews, and their descendants were never to forget them.
Then Queen Esther, Abihail’s daughter, and Mordecai the Jew wrote with all their authority to confirm this second letter about Purim. Letters went out to all the Jews in the one hundred twenty-seven provinces of Ahasuerus’ kingdom, with words of peace and truth. The letters confirmed these days of Purim at the times set for them, as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had ordered, just as they had set down rules for themselves and their descendants about their fasting and their mourning.
Esther’s command confirmed these things about Purim, and it was written down in the book.
King Ahasuerus put a tax on the land and on the islands of the sea.
All that he did by his power and his might, and the full story of how great the king made Mordecai, are written in the book of records of the kings of and Persia.
Mordecai the Jew ranked just below King Ahasuerus. He was great among the Jews, and his many fellow Jews thought well of him. He looked out for his people’s good, and spoke words of peace to all his descendants.
Back in the second year of the king’s reign, Mordecai had seen a vision in a dream. Two great came out, ready to fight, and every nation got ready for war against a nation of righteous people. The righteous cried to God. From their cry came something like a great river from a little spring. Then light came, and the sun rose.
Now Mordecai said, “These things have come from God. I remember the dream I had about all this, and not one part of it has failed to come true.
“There was the little spring that grew into a river. There was light, and the sun, and much water. The river is Esther, whom the king married and made queen. The two serpents are Haman and me. The nations are those that joined together to wipe out the name of the Jews.
“My nation is Israel, the people who cried to God and were saved, because the Lord saved his people. The Lord rescued us from all these disasters, and God did signs and great wonders that have never been done among the nations.
“So God set up two lots: one for God’s people, and one for all the other nations. These two lots came for a set time and for a day of judgment, before God and for all the nations. God remembered his people and set things right for the people who are his own.
“They will keep these days, the fourteenth and fifteenth of the month of Adar, gathering with joy and gladness before God, through all the generations, forever, among his people Israel.”
In the fourth year of the reign of and Cleopatra, Dositheus, who said he was a and a , together with his son Ptolemeus, brought this letter of Purim. They said it was genuine, and that Lysimachus son of Ptolemeus, who was in , had translated it.