1. After these things King Ahasuerus promoted Haman the son of HAMMEDATHA the Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all the princes who were with him.

2. All the king's servants who were in the king's gate bowed down, and paid homage to Haman; for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai didn't bow down or pay him homage.

3. Then the king's servants, who were in the king's gate, said to Mordecai, "Why do you disobey the king's commandment?"

4. Now it came to pass, when they spoke daily to him, and he didn't 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.

5. When Haman saw that Mordecai didn't bow down, nor pay him homage, Haman was full of wrath.

6. But he scorned the thought of laying hands on Mordecai alone, for they had made known to him Mordecai's people. Therefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews who were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even Mordecai's people.

7. In the first month, which is the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast Pur, that is, the lot, before Haman from day to day, and from month to month, and chose the twelfth month, which is the month Adar.

8. Haman said to King Ahasuerus, "There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom, and their laws are different than other people's. They don't keep the king's laws. Therefore it is not for the king's profit to allow them to remain.

9. If it pleases the king, let it be written that they be destroyed; and I will pay ten thousand 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."

10. The king took his ring from his hand, and gave it to Haman the son of HAMMEDATHA the Agagite, the Jews' enemy.

She said, "If it pleases the king, and if I have found favor in his sight, 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.

10. the ten sons of Haman the son of HAMMEDATHA, the Jews' enemy, but they didn't lay their hand on the plunder.

11. On that day, the number of those who were slain in the citadel of Susa was brought before the king.

12. The king said to Esther the queen, "The Jews have slain and destroyed five hundred men in the citadel 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 shall be granted you. What is your further request? It shall be done."

13. Then Esther said, "If it pleases the king, let it be granted to the Jews who are in Shushan to do tomorrow also according to today's decree, and let Haman's ten sons be hanged on the gallows."

14. The king commanded this to be done. A decree was given out in Shushan; and they hanged Haman's ten sons.

15. The Jews who were in Shushan gathered themselves together on the fourteenth day also of the month Adar, and killed three hundred men in Shushan; but they didn't lay their hand on the plunder.

16. The other Jews who were in the king's provinces gathered themselves together, defended their lives, had rest from their enemies, and killed seventy-five thousand of those who hated them; but they didn't lay their hand on the plunder.

17. This 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.

18. But the Jews who were in Shushan 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.

19. Therefore the Jews of 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.

20. Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, both near and far,

21. to enjoin them that they should keep the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month Adar yearly,

22. as the days in which the Jews had rest from their enemies, and the month which was turned to them from sorrow to gladness, and from mourning into a good day; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, and of sending presents of food to one another, and gifts to the needy.

23. The Jews accepted the custom that they had begun, as Mordecai had written to them;

24. because 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 consume them, and to destroy them;