| 1:6 |
White and violetblue linen hangings were fastened with fine white and purple linen cords to silver rods on marble columns. Gold and silver couches were arranged on a mosaic pavement of red feldspar, marble, mother-of-pearl, and precious stones. |
| 1:7 |
BeveragesDrinks were served in an array of gold goblets, each with a different design. Royal wine flowed freely, according to the king’s bounty. |
| 1:8 |
andThe nodrinking restraint was placedaccording onto theroyal drinking.decree: “There are no restrictions.” The king had ordered every wine steward in his household to serve aswhatever much as each person wanted. |
| 1:10 |
On the seventh day, when the king was feeling good from the wine, Ahasuerus commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, Abagtha, Zethar, and Carkas, — the seven eunuchs who personally served him, — |
| 1:19 |
“If it meets the king’s approval, he should personally issue a royal decree. Let it be recorded in the laws of Persiathe Persians and Mediathe Medes, so that it cannot be revoked: Vashti is not to enter King Ahasuerus’s presence, and her royal position is to be given to another woman who is more worthy than she. |
| 1:20 |
The decree the king issues will be heard throughout his vast kingdom, so all women will honor their husbands, from the leastgreatest to the greatestleast.” |
| 2:2 |
The king’s personal attendants suggested, “Let a search be made for beautiful young womenvirgins for the king. |
| 2:3 |
Let the king appoint commissioners in each province of his kingdom, so that they may assemblegather all the beautiful young womenvirgins to the harem at the fortress of Susa. Put them under the caresupervision of Hegai, the king’s eunuch, whokeeper is in charge of the women, and give them the required beauty treatments. |
| 2:6 |
HeKish had been taken into exile from Jerusalem with the other captives when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon took King Jeconiah of Judah into exile. |
| 2:7 |
Mordecai was the legal guardian of his cousin Hadassah (that is, Esther), because she didn’thad haveno a father or mother. The young woman had a beautiful figure and was extremely good-looking. When her father and mother died, Mordecai had adopted her as his own daughter. |
| 2:8 |
When the king’s command and edict became public knowledge, and when many young women were gathered at the fortress of Susa under Hegai’s care.supervision, Esther was also taken to the palace, andinto placed under the caresupervision of Hegai, whokeeper was in charge of the women. |
| 2:10 |
Esther did not reveal her ethnicethnicity background or her birthplacefamily background, because Mordecai had ordered her not to make them known. |
| 2:14 |
She would go in the evening, and in the morning she would return to a second harem under the supervision of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch inShaashgaz, chargekeeper of the concubines. She never went to the king again, unless he desired her and summoned her by name. |
| 2:15 |
Esther was the daughter of Abihail, the uncle of Mordecai who had adopted her as his own daughter. When her turn came to go to the king, she did not ask for anything except what Hegai, the king’s trustedeunuch, officialkeeper in charge of the haremwomen, suggested. Esther wongained approvalfavor in the sighteyes of everyone who saw her. |
| 2:16 |
She was taken to King Ahasuerus in the royal palace in the tenth month, the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign. |
| 2:17 |
The king loved Esther more than all the other women. She won more favor and approval from him than did any of the other young womenvirgins. He placed the royal crown on her head and made her queen in place of Vashti. |
| 2:19 |
When the youngvirgins women were assembledgathered together for a second time, Mordecai was sitting at the King’s Gate. |
| 2:20 |
Esther still haddid not revealedreveal her birthplacefamily background or her ethnic backgroundethnicity, as Mordecai had directed. She obeyed Mordecai’s orders, as she always had while he raised her. |
| 2:21 |
During those days while Mordecai was sitting at the King’s Gate, Bigthan and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs who guarded the king’s entrance, became infuriated and planned to assassinate King Ahasuerus. |
| 3:4 |
When they had warned him day after day and he still would not listen to them, they told Haman in order to see if Mordecai’s actions would be tolerated, since he had told them he was a Jew. |
| 3:6 |
And when he learned of Mordecai’s ethnic identity, Hamanit decidedseemed notrepugnant to Haman to do away with Mordecai alone. He planned to destroy all of Mordecai’s people, the Jews, throughout Ahasuerus’s kingdom. |
| 3:7 |
In the first month, the month of Nisan, in King Ahasuerus’s twelfth year, Purthe (pur — that is, the lot) — was cast before Haman for each day in each month, and it fell on the twelfth month, the month Adar. |
| 3:8 |
Then Haman informed King Ahasuerus, “There is one ethnic group, scattered throughout the peoples in every province of your kingdom, yetkeeping livingthemselves in isolationseparate. Their laws are different from everyone else’s and they do not obey the king’s laws. It is not in the king’s best interest to tolerate them. |
| 3:9 |
If the king approves, let an order be drawn up authorizing their destruction, and I will pay 375 tons of silver to the accountantsofficials for deposit in the royal treasury.” |
| 3:10 |
The king removed his signet ring from his fingerhand and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of the Jewish peopleJews. |
| 3:13 |
Letters were sent by couriers to each of the royal provinces telling the officials to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the Jewish people — young and old, women and children — and plunder their possessions on a single day, the thirteenth day of Adar, the twelfth month. |
| 4:2 |
He went only went as far as the King’s Gate, since the law prohibited anyone wearing sackcloth from entering the King’s Gate. |
| 4:3 |
There was great mourning among the Jewish people in every province where the king’s command and edict camereached. They fasted, wept, and lamented, and many lay onin sackcloth and ashes. |
| 4:4 |
Esther’s female servants and her eunuchs came and reported the news to her, and the queen was overcome with fear. She sent clothes for Mordecai to wear so that he couldwould take off his sackcloth, but he did not accept them. |
| 4:5 |
Esther summoned Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs assignedwho toattended her, and dispatched him to Mordecai to learn what he was doing and why. |
| 4:11 |
“All the royal officials and the people of the royal provinces know that one law applies to every man or woman who approaches the king in the inner courtyard and who has not been summoned — the death penalty. Only— ifunless the king extends the gold scepter, willallowing that person to live. I have not been summoned to appear before the king for the last 30thirty days.” |
| 4:14 |
If you keep silent at this time, liberationrelief and deliverance will come to the Jewish people from another place, but you and your father’s housefamily will be destroyed. Who knows, perhaps you have come to your royal position for such a time as this.” |
| 4:16 |
“Go and assemble all the Jews who can be found in Susa and fast for me. Don’t eat or drink for three days, daynight or nightday. I and my female servants will also fast in the same way. After that, I will go to the king even if it is against the law. If I perish, I perish.” |
| 4:17 |
So Mordecai went and did everything Esther had orderedcommanded him. |
| 5:1 |
On the third day, Esther dressed up in her royal clothing and stood in the inner courtyard of the palace facing it. The king was sitting on his royal throne in the royal courtroom, facing its entrance. |
| 5:2 |
As soon as the king saw Queen Esther standing in the courtyard, she wongained hisfavor approvalwith him. The king extended the gold scepter in his hand toward Esther, and she approached and touched the tip of the scepter. |
| 5:5 |
The king commandedsaid, “Hurry, and get Haman so we can do as Esther has requested.” So the king and Haman went to the banquet Esther had prepared. |
| 5:8 |
If I have found favor in the kingeyes approves of methe king, and if it pleases the king to grant my petition and perform my request, may the king and Haman come to the banquet I will prepare for them. Tomorrow I will do what the king has asked.” |
| 5:14 |
His wife Zeresh and all his friends told him, “Have them build a gallows 75seventy-five feet hightall. Ask the king in the morning to hang Mordecai on it. Then go to the banquet with the king and enjoy yourself.” The advice pleased Haman, so he had the gallows constructed. |
| 6:2 |
They found the written report of how Mordecai had informed on Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs who guarded the king’s entrance, when they planned to assassinate King Ahasuerus. |
| 6:8 |
Have them bring a royal garment that the king himself has worn and a horse the king himself has ridden, which has a royal diademcrown on its head. |
| 6:9 |
Put the garment and the horse under the charge of one of the king’s most noble officials. Have them clothe the man the king wants to honor, parade him on the horse through the city square, and proclaimcall out before him, ‘This is what is done for the man the king wants to honor.’” |
| 6:11 |
So Haman took the garment and the horse. He clothed Mordecai and paraded him through the city square, cryingcalling out before him, “This is what is done for the man the king wants to honor.” |
| 6:12 |
Then Mordecai returned to the King’s Gate, but Haman, overwhelmed, hurried off for home, mournful and with his head covered. |
| 6:14 |
While they were still speaking with him, the king’s eunuchs of the king arrived and rushed Haman to the banquet Esther had prepared. |
| 7:3 |
Queen Esther answered, “If I have obtainedfound yourfavor approvalwith you, myYour kingMajesty, and if the king is pleased, spare my life—; this is my request;. andAnd spare my people—; this is my desire. |
| 7:4 |
For my people and I have been sold out to destruction, death, and exterminationannihilation. If we had merely been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept silent. Indeed, the trouble wouldn’t be worth burdening the king.” |
| 7:7 |
AngeredThe byking this,arose thein kinganger aroseand went from where they were drinking wine and went to the palace garden. Haman remained to beg Queen Esther for his life because he realized the king was planning something terrible for him. |
| 7:8 |
Just as the king returned from the palace garden to the housebanquet of wine drinkinghall, Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was reclining. The king exclaimed, “Would he actually violate the queen while I am in the palacehouse?” As soon as the statement left the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face. was covered. |
| 7:9 |
Harbona, one of the royalking’s eunuchs, said:, “There is a gallows 75seventy-five feet tall at Haman’s house that he made for Mordecai, who gave the report that saved the king.” The king commandedsaid, “Hang him on it.” |
| 8:3 |
Then Esther addressed the king again. She fell at his feet, wept, and begged him to revoke the evil of Haman the Agagite, and his plot he had devised against the Jews. |
| 8:5 |
She said, “If it pleases the king, and I have found approvalfavor beforewith him, if the matter seems right to the king and I am pleasing in his sighteyes, let a royal edict be written. Let it revoke the documents the scheming Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the king’s provinces. |
| 8:7 |
King Ahasuerus said to Esther the Queenqueen and to Mordecai the Jew, “Look, I have given Haman’s estate to Esther, and he was hanged on the gallows because he attacked the Jews. |
| 8:8 |
YouWrite may write in the king’s name whatever pleases you concerning the Jews, and seal it with the royal signet ring. A document written in the king’s name and sealed with the royal signet ring cannot be revoked.” |
| 8:9 |
On the twenty-third day of the third month (— that is, the month Sivan), — the royal scribes were summoned. Everything was written exactly as Mordecai orderedcommanded for the Jews, to the satraps, the governors, and the officials of the 127 provinces from India to Cush. The edict was written for each province in its own script, for each ethnic group in its own language, and to the Jews in their own script and language. |
| 8:10 |
Mordecai wrote in King Ahasuerus’s name and sealed the edicts with the royal signet ring. He sent the documents by mounted couriers, who rode fast horses bred fromin the royal racingstables. mares. |
| 8:15 |
Mordecai went from the king’s presence clothed in royal purpleblue and white, with a great gold crown and a purple robe of fine linen. The city of Susa shouted and rejoiced, |
| 8:17 |
In every province and every city, whereverwhere the king’s command and hisedict law reached, joygladness and rejoicingjoy took place among the Jews. There was a celebration and a holiday. And many of the ethnic groups of the land professed themselves to be Jews because fear of the Jews had overcome them. |
| 9:2 |
In each of King Ahasuerus’s provinces the Jews assembled in their cities to attack those who intended to harm them. Not a single person could withstand them; terrorfear of them fell on every nationality. |
| 9:3 |
All the officials of the provinces, the satraps, the governors, and the royal civil administrators aided the Jews because they werefeared afraid of Mordecai. |
| 9:6 |
In the fortress of Susa the Jews killed and destroyed 500five hundred men, |
| 9:10 |
They killed these 10ten sons of Haman son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews. However, they did not seize any plunder. |
| 9:12 |
The king said to Queen Esther, “In the fortress of Susa the Jews have killed and destroyed 500five hundred men, including Haman’s 10ten sons. What have they done in the rest of the royal provinces? Whatever you ask will be given to you. Whatever you seek will also be done.” |
| 9:13 |
Esther answered, “If it pleases the king, may the Jews who are in Susa also have tomorrow to carry out today’s law, and may the bodies of Haman’s 10ten sons be hung on the gallows.” |
| 9:14 |
The king gave the orders for this to be done, so a law was announced in Susa, and they hung the bodies of Haman’s 10ten sons. |
| 9:15 |
The Jews in Susa assembled again on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and killed 300three hundred men in Susa, but they did not seize any plunder. |
| 9:16 |
The rest of the Jews in the royal provinces assembled, defended themselves, and gotgained ridrelief offrom their enemies. They killed 75,000seventy-five thousand of those who hated them, but they did not seize any plunder. |
| 9:21 |
He ordered them to celebrate the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar every year |
| 9:22 |
because during those days the Jews gotgained ridrelief offrom their enemies. That was the month when their sorrow was turned into rejoicing and their mourning into a holiday. They were to be days of feasting, rejoicing, and of sending gifts to one another and to the poor. |
| 9:24 |
For Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them. He cast the Purpur (— that is, the lot) — to crush and destroy them. |
| 9:26 |
For this reason these days are called Purim, from the word Purpur. Because of all the instructions in this letter as well as what they had witnessed and what had happened to them, |
| 9:29 |
Queen Esther, daughter of Abihail, along with Mordecai the Jew, wrote this second letter with full authority to confirm the letter about Purim. |
| 9:30 |
He sent letters with messagesassurances of peace and faithfulnesssecurity to all the Jews who were in the 127 provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, |
| 9:31 |
in order to confirm these days of Purim at their proper time just as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther the queen had established them and just as they had committed themselves and their descendants to the practices of fasting and lamentation. |
| 10:2 |
All of his powerful and magnificent accomplishments and the detailed account of Mordecai’s great rank towith which the king had honored him, have they not been written in the Book of the Historical RecordsEvents of the Kings of Media and Persia? |
| 10:3 |
Mordecai the Jew was second only to King Ahasuerus,. He was famous among the Jews, and highly popularesteemed withby many of his relatives. He continued to seekpursue goodprosperity for his people and to speak for the welfarewell-being of all his descendants. |