The Book of Esther

Chapter 1
1 It was in the days of Ahasuerus that Ahasuerus who was reigning over 127 provinces from India unto Cush.
2 In those days when king Ahasuerus sat on his royal throne in the castle of Susa,
3 he gave a banquet in the third year of his reign for all his chief officials and courtiers: the retinue of Persia and Media, the highborn and the chiefs of the provinces who were before him,
4 when he showed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the esteem and beauty of his greatness, for many days 180 days.
5 And when these days were fulfilled, the king gave a seven-day banquet in the court of the king’s garden pavilion for all the people found in the castle of Susa, from the greatest unto the smallest.
6 Awnings of pale cotton and blue wool were held with cord lines of fine linen and purple material on silver ring-bands and marble columns. There were couches of gold and silver on a pavement of porphyry, marble, mother-of-pearl and black marble.
7 Drinks were served in gold vessels, some vessels being diverse from other vessels, and the royal wine was abundant, according to the means of the king.
8 Yet drinking was according to this edict: There was to be no bother, for the king had made this deliberation to every wine steward of his household to serve according to each man’s approval.
9 Queen Vashti too gave a banquet for the women at the royal house of king Ahasuerus.
10 On the seventh day, when the king’s heart was cheerful with wine, he ordered Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, Abagtha, Zethar and Carkas (the seven eunuchs ministering in the presence of king Ahasuerus),
11 to bring queen Vashti before the king, with the royal diadem, to show off her loveliness to the peoples and the chief officials, for she was good-looking in appearance.
12 But queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s order that was conveyed by means of the eunuchs. The king was exceedingly wrathful, and his fury blazed up in him.
13 So the king asked the wise men who had knowledge of precedents, for this was the royal practice before all those having knowledge of edict and adjudication.
14 The ones next to him were Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena and Memucan, seven chief officials of Persia and Media, who were seeing the royal presence and were sitting first in the kingdom.
15 He asked: According to the edict, what should be done to queen Vashti because she did not obey king Ahasuerus’ order by means of the eunuchs?
16 Memucan then replied before the king and the chief officials: It was not the king himself alone whom queen Vashti has degraded, but all chief officials and all peoples in all provinces of king Ahasuerus.
17 For the affair of the queen shall go forth to all the wives and cause them to despise their spouses in their own eyes when they say that king Ahasuerus himself ordered to bring queen Vashti before him, but she did not come.
18 So this very day the chief ladies of Persia and Media, who have heard of the queen’s affair, shall cite it to all the king’s chief officials, and there will be an infestation of contempt and wrath.
19 If it seems good to the king, a royal decree may go forth from before him, and it may be written into the edicts of Persia and Media so that it cannot be revoked, that Vashti must never again enter into the presence of king Ahasuerus, and that the king shall bestow her royal position upon an associate of hers who is better than she.
20 When the king’s rescript, that he must execute, is announced in all his kingdom, vast as it is, then all wives shall render esteem to their spouses from the greatest unto the smallest.
21 The proposal was good in the eyes of the king and the chief officials, and the king did according to Memucan’s proposal.
22 He sent letters to all the king’s provinces, to each province in its own provincial writing, and to each people in its own popular tongue, so that every man should be in control of his household and speak the tongue of his own people.

Chapter 2
1 After these things, when king Ahasuerus’ fury had subsided, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and that a severance decree was issued against her.
2 So the king’s retainers who were ministering to him said: Let them seek out maidens for the king, virgins and good-looking in appearance.
3 May the king look after supervisors in all provinces of his kingdom, and let them convene every maiden virgin, good-looking in appearance, at the castle of Susa at the house of women under the hand of Hegai, the king’s eunuch who is in charge of the women; and let them be provided with their beauty-treatments.
4 Then let the maiden who is well pleasing in the king’s eyes be queen instead of Vashti. The proposal was good in the king’s eyes, and he did so.
5 There was in the castle of Susa a Jewish man. His name was Mordecai son of Jair son of Shimei son of Kish, a Benjamite man,
6 whose family had been carried away from Jerusalem with the deportation that had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had deported.
7 And Mordecai had become foster father to Hadassah, that is Esther, his uncle’s daughter, for she had no father or mother. The maiden had a lovely shape and was good-looking in appearance. At the death of her father and her mother Mordecai took her to himself as a daughter.
8 Now it came to be, when the king’s decree and his edict was announced and when many maidens were brought together at the castle of Susa under the hand of Hegai, then Esther was also taken to the king’s house under the hand of Hegai who was in charge of the women.
9 The maiden was well pleasing in his eyes, and she obtained kindness before him, so that he speeded up her beauty-treatments and her assigned rations, and he provided her with the seven selected maidens, assigned to her from the king’s house. Then he let her and her maidens occupy the best quarters in the house of the women.
10 Esther had not told about her people or her kindred, for Mordecai had enjoined on her that she should not tell.
11 Every day Mordecai was walking about before the court of the house of the women so as to know of Esther’s well-being and what was being done with her.
12 When a maiden’s turn was attained and the maiden had to come to king Ahasuerus at the end of the women’s twelve months’ regimen prescribed for her, since in this way the days of her beauty-treatments were fulfilled: six months with oil of myrrh and six months with aromatics and with beauty-treatments of the women
13 when after this the maiden was coming to the king, then anything she asked for was given to her to come with her from the house of the women to the king’s house.
14 She would be entering in the evening, and she would be returning in the morning to the second house of the women under the hand of Shaashgaz the king’s eunuch, the guardian of the concubines. She would not come again to the king unless the king had taken delight in her and she had been called by name.
15 When the turn was attained for Esther (whom Mordecai had taken to himself as a daughter she was the daughter of his uncle Abihail) to come to the king, she did not seek permission for anything save what Hegai the king’s eunuch, the guardian of the women, had advised. Esther had been obtaining favor in the eyes of all those seeing her;
16 so when Esther was taken to king Ahasuerus at his royal house in the tenth month (that is, the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign),
17 the king loved Esther more than all the other women. She obtained more favor and kindness before him than all the other virgins, so that he placed the royal diadem on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti.
18 Then the king gave a great banquet for all his chief officials and his courtiers, the banquet of Esther; and he granted a rest day for the provinces and distributed helpings according to the means of the king.
19 When diverse virgins were brought together, Mordecai was sitting in the king’s gateway.
20 Esther was not telling about her kindred or her people just as Mordecai had enjoined on her; for Esther was obeying Mordecai’s order just as before when she had been a foster child under his care.
21 In those days when Mordecai was sitting in the king’s gateway, Bigthan and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs of the guardians of the threshold, were wrathful and sought out to lay hand on king Ahasuerus.
22 Yet the plot became known to Mordecai, and he told it to queen Esther. In Mordecai’s name, Esther reported it to the king.
23 When the plot was sought out and was found to be true, then the two of them were hanged on the gallows, and it was written on the scroll of records of the days before the king.

Chapter 3
1 After these things king Ahasuerus magnified Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite; he advanced him and put his covered seat above all the other chief officials who were with him.
2 All the king’s courtiers in the king’s gateway were bowing down and prostrating themselves before Haman; for so were the instructions the king had given concerning him. As for Mordecai, he did neither bow down nor prostrate himself.
3 So the king’s courtiers in the king’s gateway said to Mordecai: For what reason are you trespassing the king’s instruction?
4 Then it came to be, when they had spoken to him day after day and he had not hearkened to them, that they told Haman in order to see whether Mordecai’s affairs would persist; for he had professed to them that he was a Jew.
5 When Haman saw that Mordecai was not bowing down nor prostrating himself before him, Haman was filled with fury.
6 But it was despicable in his eyes to lay hand on Mordecai alone (for they had told him about Mordecai’s people); so Haman sought out to exterminate all the Jews, Mordecai’s people, who were in the entire kingdom of Ahasuerus.
7 In the first month, that is, the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of king Ahasuerus, someone cast pur (that is, the lot) before Haman from day to day and from month to month, to the twelfth, that is, the month of Adar.
8 Then Haman said to king Ahasuerus: There is a certain people dispersed and parted among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom; and their edicts are diverse from any other people. They are not obeying the king’s edicts, and for the king it is not appropriate to tolerate them.
9 If it seems good to the king, it may be written to destroy them; and for the hands of those doing the work I shall weigh out ten thousand silver talents to bring to the king’s storerooms.
10 So the king withdrew his ring from his hand and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the foe of the Jews.
11 And the king said to Haman: The silver be given to you, also the people, to do with them according to what is well pleasing in your eyes.
12 Then the king’s scribes were called in the first month, on the thirteenth day of it. According to all the instructions that Haman had given, it was written to the king’s satraps, to the viceroys who were over the different provinces, and to the chief officials of the different peoples, to each province in its own provincial writing, and to each people in its own popular tongue. It was written in the name of king Ahasuerus and was sealed with the king’s ring.
13 Letters were sent by means of couriers to all the king’s provinces, to exterminate, to kill and to destroy all the Jews from youth unto old age, both little ones and women, on a single day, the thirteenth of the twelfth month (that is, the month of Adar), and to plunder the loot of them.
14 A transcript of the written text was to be promulgated as an edict in all the different provinces and was to be revealed to all the peoples, namely, to become equipped for this day.
15 The couriers rode forth posthaste by order of the king, and the edict was promulgated in the castle of Susa. Then the king and Haman sat down to drink, but Susa city was doleful.

Chapter 4
1 When Mordecai got knowledge of everything that had been done, Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes. Then he went forth into the midst of the city and cried out with a loud and bitter outcry,
2 until he came before the king’s gateway (for no one was to come into the king’s gateway in clothing of sackcloth).
3 Also, in every place of the different provinces to which the king’s order and his edict were attaining, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting and lamentation and wailing. Sackcloth and ashes became a berth for many.
4 When Esther’s maidens and her eunuchs came and told her, then was the queen in intense mental travail; then she sent clothes for Mordecai to put on and to take off his sackcloth from him; but he would not receive them.
5 Then Esther called for Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs whom he had assigned to officiate before her, and she gave him instruction about Mordecai, to get knowledge what this meant and what this was all about.
6 So Hathach went forth to Mordecai into the city square that was before the king’s gateway.
7 Then Mordecai told him all that had happened to him, and also about the exact amount of silver that Haman had promised to weigh out for the king’s storerooms against the Jews, to destroy them.
8 He also gave him a transcript of the written text of the edict that had been issued in Susa to have them exterminated. He told him to show it to Esther and to tell her and to enjoin on her to come in to the king and supplicate to him and appeal earnestly before him on behalf of her people.
9 When Hathach came back and told Esther Mordecai’s words,
10 then Esther replied to Hathach and gave him instruction for Mordecai:
11 All the king’s courtiers and the people of the king’s provinces know that for any man or woman coming in to the king into the inner court who was not called, his only edict is to be put to death, aside from the one to whom the king might hold out the golden scepter; he will stay alive. As for me, I have not been called to come in to the king for these past thirty days.
12 Hathach told Mordecai Esther’s words.
13 Then Mordecai said to reply to Esther: Do not imagine in your own soul that in the king’s house you will escape any more than all the other Jews.
14 For if you keep silence, yea silence in this crisis, sustentation and rescue shall stand up for the Jews from another place; but you and your father’s house, you shall perish. And who is there knowing whether it was for a crisis like this that you have attained to the royal position?
15 Esther said to reply to Mordecai:
16 Go, collect together all the Jews who are to be found in Susa, and fast on my behalf. Do not eat and do not drink for three days, night and day. I too with my maidens shall fast likewise. In this way I shall come in to the king, even though it is not according to the edict. And if I should perish, I shall perish.
17 Then Mordecai passed along and did all just as Esther had enjoined on him.

Chapter 5
1 It was on the third day that Esther put on royal clothing and took her stand in the inner court of the king’s house, over against the king’s house, while the king was sitting on his royal throne in the royal house, over against the portal of the house.
2 It came to be, as the king saw queen Esther standing in the court, that she obtained favor in his eyes, and the king held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. So Esther approached and touched the top of the scepter.
3 Then the king said to her: What have you to say, queen Esther? What is your urgent appeal? Even unto half of the kingship, it shall be granted to you.
4 Esther replied: If it seems good to the king, let the king come today with Haman to the banquet that I have prepared for him.
5 The king commanded: Bring Haman quickly to act at the word of Esther. So the king came with Haman to the banquet that Esther had prepared.
6 At the wine feast, the king said to Esther: What is your request? It shall be granted to you. What is your urgent appeal? Unto half of the kingship, it shall be granted to you.
7 Esther answered and said: My request and my urgent appeal is:
8 If I have found favor in the king’s eyes, and if it seems good to the king, to grant my request and to attend to my urgent appeal, let the king come tomorrow with Haman to the banquet that I shall prepare for them; and tomorrow I shall comply with the word of the king.
9 On that day Haman went forth rejoicing and cheerful of heart. When Haman saw Mordecai in the king’s gateway that he did not rise and did not even stir about because of him, then Haman was filled with fury against Mordecai.
10 Yet Haman checked himself and came to his house; he sent word and let his male friends and his wife Zeresh come.
11 Haman related to them the glory of his riches, his many sons and all about how the king had magnified him and how he had advanced him above all the king’s chief officials and courtiers.
12 Haman added: Indeed, queen Esther let no one save me come with the king to the banquet that she gave; and also tomorrow I am invited to come to her with the king.
13 But all of this, it is no compensation for me every time I see Mordecai the Jew sitting in the king’s gateway.
14 So his wife Zeresh with all his male friends advised him: Let them build a lofty gallows of fifty cubits, and in the morning ask the king that they should hang Mordecai on it. Then set out with the king to the banquet rejoicing. The plan seemed good before Haman, and he had the gallows built.

Chapter 6
1 During that night, sleep flitted away from the king, and he said to bring the memorial scroll of records of the days; and they were read before the king.
2 There it was found written that Mordecai had denounced Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs of the guardians of the threshold, who had sought to lay hand on king Ahasuerus.
3 The king asked: What esteem and greatness has been conferred on Mordecai for this? The king’s retainers who were ministering to him answered: Nothing was conferred on him.
4 Then the king asked: Who is in the court? (Now Haman had just entered the court outside the king’s house, to speak to the king about hanging Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him.)
5 The king’s retainers replied to him: Here is Haman standing in the court. So the king ordered: Let him enter.
6 When Haman came in, the king asked him: What ought to be done for the man in whose esteem the king has taken a delight? Now Haman said in his heart: To whom but me would the king desire to confer superlative esteem?
7 So Haman said to the king: For the man in whose esteem the king has taken a delight,
8 let them bring out royal clothing with which the king has clothed himself, and a horse on which the king has ridden, with the royal diadem that has been placed on its head.
9 Then may the clothing and horse be put at the hand of one of the king’s highborn chief officials, and let him clothe the man in whose esteem the king has taken a delight, and parade him on the horse in the city square, while proclaiming before him: Thus is it done to the man in whose esteem the king has taken a delight.
10 Then the king ordered Haman: Make haste and take the clothing and the horse, just as you have said, and deal in this way with Mordecai the Jew who is sitting in the king’s gateway. You must not omit anything of all that you have spoken.
11 So Haman took the clothing and the horse, clothed Mordecai and paraded him in the city square while he proclaimed before him: Thus is it done to the man in whose esteem the king has taken a delight.
12 Then Mordecai returned to the king’s gateway. As for Haman, he went posthaste to his house, mournful with hooded head.
13 Haman related to his wife Zeresh and to all his male friends everything that had just happened to him. His advisers and his wife Zeresh said to him: Since Mordecai, before whom you have started to fall, is from the seed of the Jews, you shall not prevail against him; indeed, you shall fall, yea fall before him.
14 While they were still speaking with him, the king’s eunuchs attained and hustled to bring Haman to the banquet that Esther had prepared.

Chapter 7
1 So the king and Haman came to feast with queen Esther.
2 Then, on the second day during the wine feast, the king asked Esther again: What is your request, queen Esther? It shall be granted to you. What is your urgent appeal? Unto half of the kingship, it shall be granted to you.
3 Queen Esther answered and said: If I have found favor in your eyes, O king, and if it seems good to the king, may my own soul be granted to me at my request, and my people’s at my urgent appeal.
4 For we have been sold, I and my people, to be exterminated, to be killed and to be destroyed. Now supposing we had been sold as male slaves and as maids, I would have kept silent, for it would not be appropriate to report such a distress, and cause trouble to the king.
5 Then king Ahasuerus inquired; he asked queen Esther: Who, then, is he? And just where is he who has filled his heart to act in this way?
6 Esther replied: The man, the foe and enemy, is this evil Haman. Haman was frightened before the king and the queen.
7 When the king, in his fury, arose from the wine feast to go into the garden of the pavilion, Haman stayed behind to appeal earnestly for his soul from queen Esther, for he saw that there was evil determined against him from the king.
8 Yet the king returned from the garden of the pavilion to the house of the wine feast as Haman was falling upon the couch on which Esther was. So the king shouted: Will he even molest the queen, with me in the house? As the word had come forth from the king’s mouth, they hooded Haman’s face.
9 And Harbona, one of the eunuchs before the king, said: Moreover, behold, there is standing at Haman’s house the lofty gallows of fifty cubits that Haman had prepared for Mordecai who had spoken to the good of the king. So the king ordered: Hang him on it!
10 Then they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. And the king’s fury subsided.

Chapter 8
1 On the same day king Ahasuerus gave the house of Haman, the foe of the Jews, to queen Esther. As for Mordecai, he came before the king, for Esther had told what he was to her.
2 The king took off his ring that he had reclaimed from Haman and bestowed it on Mordecai; and Esther appointed Mordecai to oversee Haman’s house.
3 Then Esther pleaded again before the king and fell down before his feet. She wept and supplicated him to avert the evil plotted by Haman the Agagite, and his devising that he had devised against the Jews.
4 When the king held out the golden scepter to Esther, then Esther arose and stood before the king,
5 and she said: If it seems good to the king, and if I have found favor before him, and the request seems right before the king, and I am well pleasing in his eyes, let a decree be written to reverse the letters, the devising of Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, those which he wrote to destroy the Jews in all the king’s provinces.
6 For how can I endure to see this evil that is coming upon my people? And how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?
7 King Ahasuerus replied to queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew: Behold, I have given Haman’s house to Esther, and they hanged him on the gallows because he put forth his hand against the Jews.
8 As for you, write on behalf of the Jews as seems best in your eyes. Write in the king’s name and seal it with the king’s ring. (For a writing which is written in the king’s name and sealed with the king’s ring can not be reversed.)
9 So the king’s scribes were called at that time, in the third month, that is, the month of Sivan, on the twenty-third day of it. All was written, just as Mordecai instructed them, to the Jews and to the satraps, the viceroys and chief officials of all the provinces, 127 provinces from India unto Cush, to each province in its provincial writing, and to each people in its popular tongue, and to the Jews in their writing and in their tongue.
10 Mordecai wrote in the name of king Ahasuerus, sealed with the king’s ring and sent letters by means of couriers on horseback, riding the stallions of the royal service, those bred of its stud-mares.
11 By these letters the king granted the Jews who were in every place, city by city, the right to assemble and to stand up for their souls, to exterminate, to kill and to destroy every armed unit of any people or province that might besiege them, their little ones or their women, and that might plunder the loot of them,
12 on a single day in all the provinces of king Ahasuerus, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, that is, the month of Adar.
13 A transcript of the written text was to be promulgated as an edict in all the different provinces and was to be revealed to all the peoples, that the Jews would be equipped for this day to avenge themselves on their enemies.
14 The couriers, riding the stallions of the royal service, rode forth, speeding up posthaste by order of the king; and the edict was promulgated in the castle of Susa.
15 As for Mordecai, he went forth from before the king in royal clothing of blue and pale cotton, wearing a magnified coronet of gold and a cloak of fine linen and purple wool. And Susa city was noisy with rejoicing.
16 For the Jews there was light with rejoicing, elation and esteem.
17 Also in every place of the different provinces and in each of the different cities to which the king’s order and his edict were attaining, there was rejoicing and elation for the Jews, with feasting and a cheerful day. And many of the peoples of the country were professing themselves Jews, for awesome fear of the Jews had fallen on them.

Chapter 9
1 In the twelfth month, that is, the month of Adar, on the thirteenth day of it, when the king’s order and his edict attained to be executed, on that day to which the enemies of the Jews had looked forward so as to domineer over them, then this was overturned, in that the Jews themselves domineered over those hating them.
2 In all the provinces of king Ahasuerus, the Jews had assembled in their cities to lay hand on those seeking to exact evil on them. No man could stand before them, for awesome fear had fallen on all the peoples.
3 All chief officials of the provinces, the satraps and the viceroys, those conducting the king’s business, were assisting the Jews; for awesome fear of Mordecai had fallen on them.
4 For Mordecai’s influence was great in the king’s house, and his fame was spreading in all the provinces as the influence of the man Mordecai became towering.
5 The Jews smote all their enemies with the smiting of the sword, with killing and destruction; they did to those hating them as was acceptable to them.
6 In the castle of Susa the Jews killed and destroyed 500 men,
7 also Parshandatha, Dalphon and Aspatha,
8 Poratha, Adalia and Aridatha,
9 Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai and Vaizatha,
10 the ten sons of Haman son of Hammedatha, the foe of the Jews. They killed them, but they did not lay their hand on the plunder.
11 On the same day the number of those killed in the castle of Susa came before the king;
12 and the king said to queen Esther: In the castle of Susa alone the Jews have killed and destroyed 500 men and the ten sons of Haman. What have they done in the remainder of the king’s provinces? Now what is your request? It shall be granted to you. And what is your other urgent appeal? It shall also be done.
13 Esther answered: If it seems good to the king, let it be granted to the Jews in Susa to execute also tomorrow according to the edict for today, and let them hang the bodies of the ten sons of Haman on the gallows.
14 So the king ordered it to be done in this way; an edict was issued in Susa, and they hanged the ten sons of Haman.
15 The Jews in Susa assembled again on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and killed 300 men in Susa, but they did not lay their hand on the plunder.
16 The remainder of the Jews in the king’s provinces had assembled to stand up for their souls and to find rest from their enemies. They killed 75,000 of those hating them, but they did not lay their hand on the plunder.
17 That was on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, and they came to rest on the fourteenth day of it and made it a day of feasting and rejoicing.
18 As for the Jews in Susa, they had assembled both on the thirteenth day of it and on the fourteenth day of it; and they came to rest on the fifteenth day of it and made it a day of feasting and rejoicing.
19 Therefore the rural Jews, those dwelling in unwalled villages, were observing the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a day of rejoicing and feasting and a cheerful day for the sending of assigned shares, each man to his associate.
20 Mordecai wrote up these things and sent letters to all the Jews, those who were near and far, in all the provinces of king Ahasuerus,
21 to make it mandatory for them to keep on observing annually the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and the fifteenth day of it, in every year
22 as the days on which the Jews found rest from their enemies and as the month when it turned for them from affliction to rejoicing and from mourning to a cheerful day, to observe them as days of feasting and rejoicing and the sending of assigned shares, each man to his associate, and gifts to the needy.
23 The Jews received as custom what they had started to practice and what Mordecai had written to them.
24 For Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the foe of all the Jews, had devised against the Jews to destroy them and had cast pur (that is, the lot) to discomfit them and to destroy them.
25 But when it came before the king, he ordered with a letter that his evil devising that he had devised against the Jews should get back on his own head; and so they hanged him and his sons on the gallows.
26 Therefore they called these days Purim, by the name of the pur. Therefore because of all the instructions of this letter and of what they had faced as to this matter and of what had attained to them,
27 the Jews confirmed this and received it as custom for themselves and for their seed and for all joining them as proselytes that they should not trespass; they ought to keep on observing annually these two days in accord with their written text and at their stated time in every year.
28 These days should be remembered and observed by all, generation after generation, family after family, province after province, and city after city. These days of Purim should never pass away from the midst of the Jews, and their remembrance should not terminate among their seed.
29 Also queen Esther daughter of Abihail, along with Mordecai the Jew, wrote with full enforcement to confirm this second letter of Purim.
30 So letters were sent to all the Jews, to the 127 provinces in Ahasuerus’ kingdom, in words of peace and truth,
31 to confirm these days of Purim at their stated times just as Mordecai the Jew along with queen Esther had set these up for them, and just as they had made mandatory the instructions of fastings and their outcry for their own soul and for their seed.
32 Thus Esther’s order confirmed these details of Purim, and it was written down in a scroll.

Chapter 10
1 King Ahasuerus imposed tribute on the mainland and the islands of the sea.
2 All the achievements of his might and his masterful deeds, and the exact statement of Mordecai’s greatness whom the king had magnified, are they not written in the scroll of records of the days of the kings of Media and Persia?
3 For Mordecai the Jew was second to king Ahasuerus and towering among the Jews and held dear by many of his brothers; he sought after the good for his people and spoke up for the well-being of all his seed.