¹Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus (this is Ahasuerus who reigned from India even to Ethiopia, over 127 provinces),
  ²that in those days, when the King Ahasuerus sat on the throne of his kingdom in the palace-fortress in Susa,
  ³in the third year of his reign, he made a feast for all his officials and his servants. The army officers of Persia and Media, and the nobles and leaders of the provinces were before him.
  ⁴He displayed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the honor of his excellent majesty many days, even 180 days.
 

⁵When those days were completed, the king made a seven-day feast for all the people who were present in Susa the palace-fortress, both great and small, in the court of the garden of the king’s palace.
  ⁶There were hangings of white, green, and blue material, fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and marble pillars. The couches were of gold and silver on a mosaic pavement of porphyry, marble, mother-of-pearl, and other precious stones.
 

⁷Drinks were served in golden vessels of various kinds, including royal wine in abundance according to the bounty of the king.
  ⁸And the drinking was according to this command: no one was to be compelled. For the king had instructed all the officials of his house to do as every man desired.
  ⁹Also Vashti the queen made a feast for the women in the royal house that belonged to King Ahasuerus.
 

¹⁰On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha and Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcass, the seven eunuchs who served in the presence of Ahasuerus the king,
  ¹¹to bring Vashti the queen before the king with the royal crown, in order to show the people and the officials her beauty; for she was beautiful.
  ¹²But Queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s command delivered by the eunuchs. Then the king was very angry, and his anger burned in him.
 

¹³Then the king said to the wise men who knew the times (for it was the king’s custom to consult those who knew law and justice;
  ¹⁴and the next to him were Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucan, the seven officials of Persia and Media Who See The Kings Face and sat first in the kingdom),
  ¹⁵“According to law, what is to be done with Queen Vashti, because she has not obeyed the command of King Ahasuerus delivered by the eunuchs?”
 

¹⁶Then Memucan said in the presence of the king and the officials, “Vashti the queen has not done wrong to just the king, but also to all the leaders and to all the people who are in all the provinces of the King Ahasuerus.
  ¹⁷For this deed of the queen will become known to all women, causing them to look upon their husbands with contempt, since they will say, ‘King Ahasuerus commanded Vashti the queen to be brought in before him, but she didn’t come.’
  ¹⁸This very day the noble women of Persia and Media who have heard of the queen’s deed will say the same thing to all the king’s officials, which will bring about no end of contempt and wrath.
 

¹⁹“If it please the king, let a royal command go out from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes so that it cannot be altered, that Vashti may never again come before King Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal position to another who is better than she.
  ²⁰So when the king’s decree that he will make is proclaimed throughout all his kingdom, though it is vast, all the wives will give their husbands honor, from the greatest to the least.”
 

²¹This advice was good in the eyes of the king and the officials, and the king did according to the word of Memucan;
  ²²for he sent letters into all the king’s provinces, into every province in its own script and to every people in their own language, that every man should be a governor in his own house and speak the language of his own people.
 

¹After these things, when the wrath of King Ahasuerus had abated, he remembered Vashti and what she had done, and what was decreed against her.
  ²Then the king’s servants who attended him said, “Let a search be made for beautiful young virgins for the king.
  ³And let the king appoint overseers in all the provinces of his kingdom so that they can gather together all the beautiful young virgins to the palace-fortress of Susa, to the house of the women, to the custody of Hegai, the king’s eunuch who is in charge of the women. Let cosmetics be given them,
  ⁴and let the young woman who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti.” This advice pleased the king, and so that is what he did.
 

⁵There was a certain Jew in the palace-fortress of Susa whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite
  ⁶who had been carried away from Jerusalem among the captives who had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away.
  ⁷He was bringing up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle’s daughter, for she had neither father nor mother. The young woman had a beautiful figure and was lovely to look at, and when her father and mother were dead, Mordecai took her for his own daughter.
 

⁸So it came to pass, when the king’s command and his decree was heard and when many young women were gathered together to the palace-fortress of Susa to the custody of Hegai, that Esther was taken into the king’s house, under the authority of Hegai who was in charge of the women.
  ⁹The young woman was pleasing in his eyes, and she found favor with him. So he quickly gave her cosmetics and her portions of food, and seven chosen young women who were given to her out of the king’s house. He moved her and her young women to the best place in the house of the women.
 

¹⁰Esther had not made known her people or her relatives, because Mordecai had commanded her not to make it known.
  ¹¹And every day Mordecai walked in front of the court of the house of the women, to find out how Esther was doing and what was happening to her.
 

¹²Now when the turn came for each young woman to go in to King Ahasuerus, after it had been done to her according to the law of the women for 12 months (for this is the way the days of their purification were accomplished: six months with oil of myrrh and six months with sweet fragrances and with preparations for beautifying women),
  ¹³then the young woman came to the king like this: she was given whatever she desired to take with her out of the house of the women to the king’s house.
  ¹⁴In the evening she would go in, and on the next day she would return to a second house for women, under the authority of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch who was in charge of the concubines. She never went to the king again unless the king desired her and she was called by name.
 

¹⁵Now when the turn of Esther, the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her for his daughter, came to go in to the king, she required nothing but what Hegai, the king’s eunuch who was in charge of the women, advised. Esther obtained favor in the eyes of all those who saw her.
 

¹⁶So Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus in his royal house in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.
  ¹⁷The king loved Esther more than all the other women, and she obtained more favor and kindness from him than did any of the other virgins. So he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti.
  ¹⁸Then the king made a great banquet—Esther’s banquet—for all his officials and his servants, and he proclaimed a holiday in the provinces and gave gifts according to the king’s bounty.
 

¹⁹When the virgins were gathered together the second time, Mordecai was sitting in the king’s gate.
  ²⁰Esther had not yet made known her relatives or her people, as Mordecai had commanded her; for Esther obeyed Mordecai like she did when she was brought up by him.
 

²¹In those days, while Mordecai was sitting in the king’s gate, two of the king’s eunuchs, Bigthan and Teresh, who were doorkeepers, were angry, and sought to assassinate King Ahasuerus.
  ²²This thing became known to Mordecai, who told Esther the queen, and Esther informed the king in Mordecai’s name.
  ²³When this matter was investigated and it was found to be so, they were both hanged on a tree; and in the presence of the king it was written in the scroll of the Events of the Days.
 

¹After these things King Ahasuerus promoted Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him and set his seat of honor above all the officials who were with him.
  ²All the king’s servants^a who were at the king’s gate kneeled and bowed down to Haman, for the king had commanded that concerning him. But Mordecai did not kneel or bow down.
  ³Then the king’s servants who were in the king’s gate said to Mordecai, “Why do you disobey the king’s command?”
  ⁴Now it came to pass, when they spoke daily to him and he did not listen to them, that they told Haman to see whether Mordecai’s reason would stand; for he had told them that he was a Jew.
 

⁵When Haman saw that Mordecai did not kneel or bow down to him, Haman was filled with rage.
  ⁶But he thought it beneath him to put forth his hand against Mordecai alone, for they had made known to him Mordecai’s people. So Haman sought to destroy all the Jews who were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even all the people of Mordecai.
 

⁷In the first month, which is the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast Pur (that is, they cast the lot), before Haman from day to day, and from month to month. And the lot fell on the twelfth month, which is the month Adar.
  ⁸Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, “There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom. Their laws are different from those of other people, and they do not keep the king’s laws, so it is not in the king’s best interest to allow them to remain.
  ⁹If it pleases the king, let it be written that they be destroyed, and I will pay 10,000 talents of silver into the hands of those who are in charge of the king’s business, to bring it into the king’s treasuries.”
 

¹⁰The king took his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews.
  ¹¹The king said to Haman, “The silver is given to you, the people also, to do with them as it seems good in your eyes.”
 

¹²Then the king’s scribes were called in on the first month, on the thirteenth day of the month, and all that Haman commanded was written to the king’s satraps and to the governors who were over every province and to the leaders of every people, to every province in its own script and to every people in their own language. It was written in the name of King Ahasuerus, and it was sealed with the king’s ring.
  ¹³Letters were sent by couriers into all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to kill and to cause to perish all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to seize their goods as plunder.
 

¹⁴A copy of the document, to be issued as a decree in every province, was proclaimed to all the peoples, to be ready for that day.
  ¹⁵The couriers went forth in haste at the king’s command, and the decree was given out in the palace-fortress of Susa. The king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Shushan was thrown into confusion.
 

¹Now when Mordecai learned all that had been done, Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the middle of the city and cried out with a loud and bitter cry.
  ²And he went as far as the king’s gate, for no one was allowed to enter the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth.
  ³And in every province, wherever the king’s command and his decree reached, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing, and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.
 

⁴And Esther’s young women and her eunuchs came and told her this, and the queen was exceedingly grieved. She sent garments to clothe Mordecai so that he would take off his sackcloth, but he would not accept them.
  ⁵Then Esther called for Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs whom he had appointed to attend her, and commanded him to go to Mordecai, to find out what this was, and why it was.
  ⁶So Hathach went out to Mordecai, to the city square that was in front of the king’s gate.
  ⁷Mordecai told him of all that had happened to him and the exact sum of the money that Haman had promised to pay into the king’s treasuries for the destruction of the Jews.
 

⁸He also gave him a copy of the written decree for their destruction that had been issued in Shushan, so that he could show it to Esther and to explain it to her, and to command her to go to the king to make supplication to him and to make a request before him for her people.
  ⁹And Hathach came and told Esther what Mordecai had said.
 

¹⁰Then Esther spoke to Hathach, and commanded him to go to Mordecai and say:
  ¹¹“All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that if any man or woman goes into the inner court to the king without being called, there is but one law for him: he is to be put to death, unless the king holds out the golden scepter to him so that he may live. But as for me, I have not been called to come in to the king for 30 days.”
  ¹²And they told to Mordecai Esther’s words.
 

¹³Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not think to yourself that in the king’s house you will escape any more than all the other Jews.
  ¹⁴For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Who knows? Perhaps you have come into your royal position for such a time as this?”
 

¹⁵Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai,
  ¹⁶“Go, gather together all the Jews who are present in Susa, and fast for me, and do not eat or drink three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast the same way. Then I will go in to the king, even though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.”
  ¹⁷So Mordecai went away and did everything just as Esther had commanded him.
 

¹Now it came to pass on the third day that Esther put on her royal clothing and stood in the inner court of the king’s house, next to the king’s house. The king sat on his royal throne in the royal house, next to the entrance of the house.
  ²When the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court 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.
 

³Then the king asked her, “What is it, queen Esther? What is your request? It will be given to you, even to the half of the kingdom.”
 

⁴Esther said, “If it seems good to the king, let the king and Haman come today to the banquet that I have prepared for him.”
 

⁵Then the king said, “Bring Haman quickly, so that it may be done as Esther has said.” So the king and Haman came to the banquet that Esther had prepared.
 

⁶The king said to Esther at the banquet of wine, “What is your petition? It will be granted you. What is your request? Even to the half of the kingdom it will be performed.”
 

⁷Then Esther answered and said, “My petition and my request is this:
  ⁸If I have found favor in the eyes of the king, and if it please the king to grant my petition and to do what I request, let the king and Haman come to the banquet that I will prepare for them, and tomorrow I will do as the king has asked.”
 

⁹Then Haman went out that day joyful and with a merry heart. But when Haman saw Mordecai in the king’s gate, that he didn’t stand up or move for him, he was filled with wrath against Mordecai.
  ¹⁰Nevertheless Haman restrained himself and went home, and sent for and brought together his friends and Zeresh his wife.
  ¹¹Then Haman recounted to them the glory of his riches, the multitude of his children, all the things in which the king had promoted him, and how he had advanced him above the officials and servants of the king.
  ¹²Haman also said, “Even Esther the queen let no one but me come in with the king to the banquet that she had prepared, and also tomorrow I am invited by her together with the king.
  ¹³Yet all this is worth nothing to me so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.”
 

¹⁴Then Zeresh his wife and all his friends said to him, “Let a stake 50 cubits high^a be set up, and in the morning speak to the king about hanging Mordecai on it. Then go in merrily with the king to the banquet.” This was good in the eyes of Haman, so he had the stake set up.
 

¹On that night, the king could not sleep. He commanded to bring the scroll of the records of the Events of the Days, and they were read to the king.
  ²It was found written that Mordecai had told about Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs who were doorkeepers, who had tried to lay hands on King Ahasuerus.
  ³And the king said, “What honor and great thing has been done to Mordecai for this?” Then the king’s servants who attended him said, “Nothing has been done for him.”
 

⁴And the king said, “Who is in the court?” Now Haman had come into the outer court of the king’s house to speak to the king about impaling Mordecai on the stake that he had set up for him.
 

⁵The king’s servants said to him, “Behold, Haman is standing in the court.” And the king said, “Have him come in.”
 

⁶So Haman came in, and the king said to him, “What should be done for the man whom the king delights to honor?” Now Haman said in his heart, “Who would the king delight to honor more than me?”
  ⁷Haman said to the king, “For the man whom the king delights to honor,
  ⁸let them bring royal clothing that the king himself has put on, and a horse that the king rides on, which has a royal crown placed on its head.
  ⁹And let the clothing and the horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king’s most noble officials, that they may array the man whom the king delights to honor with them, and have him ride on horseback through the city square and proclaim before him, ‘This is what is done for the man whom the king delights to honor!’”
 

¹⁰Then the king said to Haman, “Hurry and take the clothing and the horse as you have said, and do this for Mordecai the Jew who sits at the king’s gate. Do not leave out anything of all that you have spoken.”
  ¹¹Then Haman took the clothing and the horse and clothed Mordecai, and had him ride through the city square, crying out before him, “This is what is done for the man whom the king delights to honor!”
 

¹²Then Mordecai returned to the king’s gate, but Haman hurried to his house, mourning and having his head covered.
  ¹³Then Haman recounted to Zeresh his wife and all his friends everything that had happened to him. And his wise men and Zeresh his wife said to him, “If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of Jewish descent, you will not prevail against him, but you will surely fall before him.”
  ¹⁴While they were still talking with him, the king’s eunuchs came and hurried to bring Haman to the banquet that Esther had prepared.
 

¹So the king and Haman went in to the banquet with Esther the queen.
  ²And on the second day at the banquet of wine, the king again said to Esther, “What is your petition, queen Esther? It will be granted you. What is your request? Even to the half of the kingdom it will be done.”
 

³Then Esther the queen answered, “If I have found favor in your eyes, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given to me—this is my petition. And my people—this is my request.
  ⁴For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed and to perish. But if we had merely been sold for male and female slaves, I would have kept silent, for then our distress would not be worth troubling the king.”
 

⁵Then King Ahasuerus said to Esther the queen, “Who is he, and where is he who dared in his heart to do this?”
 

⁶Esther said, “The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman!” Then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen.
  ⁷The king arose in his wrath from the banquet of wine and went into the palace garden, but Haman stayed to make a request for his life to Esther the queen, for he saw that harm had been determined against him by the king.
  ⁸Then the king returned out of the palace garden into the place of the banquet of wine, and Haman had just fallen upon the couch where Esther was. Then the king said, “Will he even violate the queen in front of me in my own house?” As the words went out of the king’s mouth, the guards covered Haman’s face.
 

⁹Then Harbonah, one of the eunuchs who attended the king, said, “Behold, a 75-foot high stake that Haman has made for Mordecai, who spoke good on behalf of the king, is standing at Haman’s house.” The king said, “Impale him on it!”
 

¹⁰So they impaled Haman on the stake that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king’s wrath was abated.
 

¹On that day, King Ahasuerus gave the house of Haman, the enemy of the Jews, to Esther the queen. And Mordecai came into the presence of the king, for Esther had told what he was to her.
  ²The king took off his signet ring, which he had taken back from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman.
 

³Then Esther spoke again before the king and fell down at his feet and wept and begged him to put a stop to the evil plan of Haman the Agagite and his plot that he had plotted against the Jews.
  ⁴Then the king held out to Esther the golden scepter. So Esther arose and stood before the king.
 

⁵Then she said, “If it pleases the king and if I have found favor in his eyes, and the thing seem right to the king, and I am pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the king’s provinces.
  ⁶For how can I bear to see the evil that would come to my people? How can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?”
 

⁷Then King Ahasuerus said to Esther the queen and to Mordecai the Jew, “See, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and him they have impaled him on the stake because he had stretched out his hands against the Jews.
  ⁸So you write in the king’s name to the Jews whatever is good in your eyes, and seal it with the king’s ring; for a writing that is written in the king’s name and sealed with the king’s ring cannot be revoked.”
 

⁹Then the king’s scribes were called at that time, in the third month (that is the month Sivan), on the twenty-third day of the month; and it was written according to all that Mordecai commanded to the Jews, and to the satraps and the governors and officials of the provinces from India to Ethiopia, 127 provinces, to every province in its own script and to every people in their own language, and to the Jews in their script and in their language.
 

¹⁰And he wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed it with the king’s signet ring, and he sent letters by courier on horseback, riding on royal horses that were bred from swift steeds.
 

¹¹In those letters, the king granted the Jews who were in every city the right to gather themselves together and to defend their lives, to destroy, to kill, and to wipe out every armed force of any people and province who would assault them, even their little ones and women, and to plunder their possessions
  ¹²on a single day in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar.
 

¹³A copy of what was written was to be issued as law in every province, and was proclaimed to all the peoples, and the Jews were to be ready on that day to avenge themselves on their enemies.
  ¹⁴So the couriers who rode on swift horses went out, hastened and pressed on by the king’s commandment. The decree was given out in the palace-fortress of Susa.
 

¹⁵And Mordecai went out from the king’s presence in royal clothing of blue and white, and with a great crown of gold and with a robe of fine linen and purple; and the city of Susa shouted and was glad.
  ¹⁶For the Jews there was light, and gladness, and joy, and honor.
  ¹⁷And in each and every province and in each and every city, wherever the king’s commandment and his decree came, there was gladness and joy for the Jews, 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.
 

¹Now in the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, on the thirteenth day of the month, when the king’s command and his decree were about to be carried out, on the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to overpower them, just the opposite happened: the Jews overpowered those who hated them.
  ²The Jews gathered together in their cities throughout all the provinces of the King Ahasuerus to lay hands on those who wanted to harm them. And no one could stand against them, because the fear of them had fallen on all the people.
 

³And all the officials of the provinces, the satraps, the governors and those who were doing the king’s business helped the Jews, because the fear of Mordecai had fallen on them.
  ⁴For Mordecai was great in the king’s house, and his fame went out throughout all the provinces; for the man Mordecai grew greater and greater.
 

⁵The Jews struck all their enemies with the stroke of the sword; even killing and destroying them, and did as they pleased with those who hated them.
  ⁶In the palace-fortress of Susa the Jews killed and destroyed 500 men.
  ⁷And they killed Parshandatha, and Dalphon, and Aspatha,
  ⁸and Poratha, and Adalia, and Aridatha,
  ⁹and Parmashta, and Arisai, and Aridai, and Vaizatha,
  ¹⁰the ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews. But they didn’t lay their hand on the plunder.
 

¹¹On that day, the number of those who were killed in the palace-fortress of Susa was reported to the king.
  ¹²And the king said to Queen Esther, “The Jews have killed and destroyed 500 men in the palace-fortress of Susa, including the ten sons of Haman; what then have they done in the rest of the king’s provinces! Now what is your petition? It will be granted you. And what further is your request? It also will be done.”
 

¹³Then Esther said, “If it pleases the king, let the Jews who are in Shushan be permitted to do also tomorrow according to this day’s decree, and let Haman’s ten sons be impaled on stakes.”
  ¹⁴So the king commanded that to be done. A decree was issued in Susa, and they impaled Haman’s ten sons.
  ¹⁵The Jews who were in Susa also gathered together on the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and killed 300 men in Susa; but they didn’t lay their hand on the plunder.
 

¹⁶And the rest of the Jews, who were in the king’s provinces, had gathered together to defend their lives and had rest from their enemies. And they killed 75,000 of those who hated them, but they didn’t lay their hand on the plunder.
  ¹⁷This was done on the thirteenth day of the month Adar; and on the fourteenth day of that month they rested and made it a day of feasting and gladness.
 

¹⁸But the Jews who were in Susa assembled together on the thirteenth and on the fourteenth days of the month; and on the fifteenth day of that month they rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness.
  ¹⁹This is why the Jews in the villages, who live in the unwalled towns, make the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of gladness and feasting, a good day, and a day of sending presents of food to one another.
 

²⁰And Mordecai wrote these things down and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, both near and far,
  ²¹to establish for them that they should keep the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month Adar always, year after year,
  ²²because in those days the Jews obtained rest from their enemies, and it was a month that was turned for them from sorrow to gladness and from mourning into a good day. They were to be days of feasting and gladness, and of sending presents of food to one another, and gifts to the needy.
 

²³And the Jews took it upon themselves to continue what they had begun, as Mordecai had written to them;
  ²⁴because 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 discomfort and to destroy them;
  ²⁵but when this became known to the king, he commanded by letters that his wicked plot that he had plotted against the Jews should return on his own head, and that he and his sons should be impaled on stakes.
  ²⁶Therefore they called these days “Purim,” from the word “Pur.” Therefore because of all that was written in this letter, and of what they had faced in this matter, and what had happened to them,
  ²⁷the Jews established, and took it upon themselves and on their descendants and on all those who joined themselves to them, that without fail they would keep those two days according to what was written and at the appointed time every year;
  ²⁸and that those days would be remembered and kept throughout each and every generation, every family, every province, and every city; and that these days of Purim were not to cease among the Jews, nor their memory die out among their seed.
 

²⁹Then Queen Esther, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, gave full written authority confirming this second letter about Purim.
  ³⁰He sent letters to all the Jews, to the 127 provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, in words of peace and truth,
  ³¹to establish these days of Purim at their appointed times as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had established, and as they had established for themselves and their descendants in the matter of fasting and their lamentation.
  ³²Esther’s command confirmed these matters of Purim, and it was written in a scroll.
 

¹And King Ahasuerus imposed a tax on the land and on the coastlands of the sea.
  ²And 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 Scroll of the Events of the Days of the kings of Media and Persia?
  ³For Mordecai the Jew was second only to King Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews, and favorably accepted by the multitude of his brothers, seeking the good of his people and speaking peace to all his descendants.