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AUGUST 4
they killed; but they did not lay a hand on the Pur (that is, the lot), to consume them and
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plunder. destroy them; but when Esther came before the
11 On that day the number of those who were king, he commanded by letter that this wicked
killed in Shushan the citadel was brought to plot which Haman had devised against the Jews
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the king. And the king said to Queen Esther, should return on his own head, and that he and
“The Jews have killed and destroyed five hun- his sons should be hanged on the gallows.
dred men in Shushan the citadel, and the ten 26 So they called these days Purim, after the
sons of Haman. What have they done in the name Pur. Therefore, because of all the words
rest of the king’s provinces? Now what is your of this letter, what they had seen concerning
petition? It shall be granted to you. Or what is this matter, and what had happened to them,
your further request? It shall be done.” 27 the Jews established and imposed it upon
13 Then Esther said, “If it pleases the king, let themselves and their descendants and all who
it be granted to the Jews who are in Shushan would join them, that without fail they should
to do again tomorrow according to today’s celebrate these two days every year, according
decree, and let Haman’s ten sons be hanged to the written instructions and according to the
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on the gallows.” prescribed time, that these days should be
14 So the king commanded this to be done; remembered and kept throughout every gen-
the decree was issued in Shushan, and they eration, every family, every province, and
hanged Haman’s ten sons. every city, that these days of Purim should not
15 And the Jews who were in Shushan gath- fail to be observed among the Jews, and that the
ered together again on the fourteenth day of memory of them should not perish among
the month of Adar and killed three hundred their descendants.
men at Shushan; but they did not lay a hand 29 Then Queen Esther, the daughter of
on the plunder. Abihail, with Mordecai the Jew, wrote with full
16 The remainder of the Jews in the king’s authority to confirm this second letter about
provinces gathered together and protected Purim. And Mordecai sent letters to all the
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their lives, had rest from their enemies, and Jews, to the one hundred and twenty-seven
killed seventy-five thousand of their enemies; provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, with
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but they did not lay a hand on the plunder. words of peace and truth, to confirm these
17 This was on the thirteenth day of the month days of Purim at their appointed time, as
of Adar. And on the fourteenth of the month Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had pre-
they rested and made it a day of feasting and scribed for them, and as they had decreed for
gladness. themselves and their descendants concerning
18 But the Jews who were at Shushan assem- matters of their fasting and lamenting. So the
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bled together on the thirteenth day, as well as decree of Esther confirmed these matters of
on the fourteenth; and on the fifteenth of the Purim, and it was written in the book.
month they rested, and made it a day of feast- And King Ahasuerus imposed tribute on
ing and gladness. Therefore the Jews of the 10 the land and on the islands of the sea.
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villages who dwelt in the unwalled towns cele- 2 Now all the acts of his power and his might,
brated the fourteenth day of the month of and the account of the greatness of Mordecai,
Adar with gladness and feasting, as a holiday,
and for sending presents to one another.
20 And Mordecai wrote these things and sent
letters to all the Jews, near and far, who were in
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all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, to estab- 10:3 Mordecai…was second. Mordecai
lish among them that they should celebrate joined the top echelon of Jewish international
yearly the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the statesmen like Joseph, who ranked second in
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month of Adar, as the days on which the Jews the Egyptian dynasty (Gen. 41:37–45), and
had rest from their enemies, as the month which Daniel,who succeeded in both the Babylonian
was turned from sorrow to joy for them, and (Dan. 2:46–49; 5:29) and Medo-Persian
Empires (Dan. 6:28). speaking peace. Less
from mourning to a holiday; that they should than 10 years later (ca.465 B.C.),Ahasuerus was
make them days of feasting and joy, of sending assassinated.There are no further details con-
presents to one another and gifts to the poor. cerning Esther and Mordecai. What Mordecai
23 So the Jews accepted the custom which they did for less than a decade on behalf of Israel,
had begun, as Mordecai had written to them, Jesus Christ will do for all eternity as the Prince
24 because Haman, the son of Hammedatha the of Peace (Is. 9:6,7; Zech. 9:9,10).
Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted
against the Jews to annihilate them, and had cast

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