10 the ten sons of Haman, the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews. But they did not lay their hands on the plunder.
11 That day, the number of those killed in the citadel of Susa was reported to the king.
12 And the king said to Queen Esther, “In the citadel of Susa, the Jews have killed and destroyed five hundred men and the ten sons of Haman. What have they done in the rest of the king’s provinces? Now, what is your request? It shall be granted to you. And what is your further petition? It shall be done.”
13 Esther replied, "If it pleases the king, let the Jews in Susa be allowed to act again tomorrow according to today's decree, and let the ten sons of Haman be hanged on the gallows."
14 So the king commanded that it be done. A decree was issued in Susa, and they hanged the ten sons of Haman.
15 The Jews in Susa gathered together again on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar, and they killed three hundred men in Susa. But they did not lay their hands on the plunder.
16 Meanwhile, the rest of the Jews in the king’s provinces gathered to defend themselves and rid themselves of their enemies. They killed seventy-five thousand of their enemies but did not lay their hands on the plunder.
17 This happened on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, and on the fourteenth day, they rested and made it a day of feasting and joy.
18 But the Jews in Susa gathered on the thirteenth and fourteenth days and rested on the fifteenth day, making it a day of feasting and joy.
19 That is why the rural Jews who live in villages observe the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a day of joy and feasting, a day for giving gifts to one another.
20 Mordecai recorded these events and sent letters to all the Jews throughout the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far,
21 to establish among them that they should celebrate the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar every year,
22 as the days when the Jews gained relief from their enemies, and as the month that was turned for them from sorrow to joy and from mourning to a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and joy, and send gifts of food to one another and gifts to the poor.
23 So the Jews agreed to continue the celebration they had started, doing what Mordecai had written to them.
24 For Haman, the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted to destroy them. He cast the pur—that is, the lot—to crush and annihilate them.
25 But when the matter came before the king, he ordered by letter that the wicked scheme Haman had devised against the Jews should return on his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.
26 That is why these days were called Purim, from the word pur. Therefore, because of everything written in this letter, and because of what they had witnessed and what had happened to them,
27 the Jews established and agreed, for themselves, their descendants, and all who might join them, that they would not fail to celebrate these two days every year, in the prescribed manner and at the appointed time.