Sep 24 Est 6-10
The King
Honors Mordecai
6 That
night the king could not sleep. So one was commanded to bring the book of the
records of the chronicles; and they were read before the king. 2 And it was found written
that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs, the
doorkeepers who had sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus. 3 Then the king said, “What
honor or dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this?”
And the king’s servants who attended him said, “Nothing has been
done for him.”
4 So the
king said, “Who is in the court?” Now Haman had just entered
the outer court of the king’s palace to suggest that the king hang Mordecai on
the gallows that he had prepared for him.
5 The
king’s servants said to him, “Haman is there, standing in the court.”
And the king said, “Let him come in.”
6 So Haman
came in, and the king asked him, “What shall be done for the man whom the king
delights to honor?”
Now Haman thought in his heart, “Whom would the king delight to
honor more than me?” 7 And Haman answered the
king, “For the man whom the king delights to honor, 8 let a royal robe be brought
which the king has worn, and a horse on which the king has ridden, which has a
royal crest placed on its head. 9 Then let this robe and
horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king’s most noble princes, that he
may array the man whom the king delights to honor. Then parade him on horseback
through the city square, and proclaim before him: ‘Thus shall it be done to the
man whom the king delights to honor!’”
10 Then the
king said to Haman, “Hurry, take the robe and the horse, as you have suggested,
and do so for Mordecai the Jew who sits within the king’s gate! Leave nothing
undone of all that you have spoken.”
11 So Haman
took the robe and the horse, arrayed Mordecai and led him on horseback through
the city square, and proclaimed before him, “Thus shall it be done to the man
whom the king delights to honor!”
12 Afterward
Mordecai went back to the king’s gate. But Haman hurried to his house, mourning
and with his head covered. 13 When Haman told his wife
Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened to him, his wise men
and his wife Zeresh said to him, “If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to
fall, is of Jewish descent, you will not prevail against him but will surely
fall before him.”
14 While
they were still talking with him, the king’s eunuchs came, and
hastened to bring Haman to the banquet which Esther had prepared.
Haman
Hanged Instead of Mordecai
7 So the
king and Haman went to dine with Queen Esther. 2 And on the second day, at
the banquet of wine, the king again said to Esther, “What is your
petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your
request, up to half the kingdom? It shall be done!”
3 Then
Queen Esther answered and said, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king,
and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my
people at my request. 4 For we have been sold, my
people and I, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. Had we been
sold as male and female slaves, I would have held my tongue, although the enemy
could never compensate for the king’s loss.”
5 So King
Ahasuerus answered and said to Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, who
would dare presume in his heart to do such a thing?”
6 And
Esther said, “The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman!”
So Haman was terrified before the king and queen.
7 Then the
king arose in his wrath from the banquet of wine and went into
the palace garden; but Haman stood before Queen Esther, pleading for his life,
for he saw that evil was determined against him by the king. 8 When the king returned from
the palace garden to the place of the banquet of wine, Haman had fallen across
the couch where Esther was. Then the king said, “Will he also
assault the queen while I am in the house?”
As the word left the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s
face. 9 Now
Harbonah, one of the eunuchs, said to the king, “Look! The gallows, fifty
cubits high, which Haman made for Mordecai, who spoke good on the king’s
behalf, is standing at the house of Haman.”
Then the king said, “Hang him on it!”
10 So they
hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king’s
wrath subsided.
Esther
Saves the Jews
8 On that
day King Ahasuerus gave Queen Esther the house of Haman, the enemy of the Jews.
And Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had told how he was
related to her. 2 So the king took off his
signet ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai; and Esther
appointed Mordecai over the house of Haman.
3 Now
Esther spoke again to the king, fell down at his feet, and implored him with
tears to counteract the evil of Haman the Agagite, and the scheme which he had
devised against the Jews. 4 And the king held out the
golden scepter toward Esther. So Esther arose and stood before the king, 5 and said, “If it pleases
the king, and if I have found favor in his sight and the thing seems right
to the king and I am pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to revoke the
letters devised by Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to
annihilate the Jews who are in all the king’s provinces. 6 For how can I endure to see
the evil that will come to my people? Or how can I endure to see the
destruction of my countrymen?”
7 Then King
Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and Mordecai the Jew, “Indeed, I have given
Esther the house of Haman, and they have hanged him on the gallows because
he tried to lay his hand on the Jews. 8 You yourselves write a
decree concerning the Jews, as you please, in the king’s name, and
seal it with the king’s signet ring; for whatever is written
in the king’s name and sealed with the king’s signet ring no one can revoke.”
9 So the
king’s scribes were called at that time, in the third month, which is the
month of Sivan, on the twenty-third day; and it was written,
according to all that Mordecai commanded, to the Jews, the satraps, the
governors, and the princes of the provinces from India to Ethiopia, one hundred
and twenty-seven provinces in all, to every province in its
own script, to every people in their own language, and to the Jews in their own
script and language. 10 And he wrote in the name of
King Ahasuerus, sealed it with the king’s signet ring, and
sent letters by couriers on horseback, riding on royal horses bred from swift
steeds.[a]
11 By these
letters the king permitted the Jews who were in every city to
gather together and protect their lives—to destroy, kill, and annihilate all
the forces of any people or province that would assault them, both little
children and women, and to plunder their possessions, 12 on one day in all the
provinces of King Ahasuerus, on the thirteenth day of the
twelfth month, which is the month of Adar.[b] 13 A copy of the document was
to be issued as a decree in every province and published for all people, so
that the Jews would be ready on that day to avenge themselves on their
enemies. 14 The
couriers who rode on royal horses went out, hastened and pressed on by the
king’s command. And the decree was issued in Shushan the citadel.
15 So
Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal apparel of blue and
white, with a great crown of gold and a garment of fine linen and purple; and
the city of Shushan rejoiced and was glad. 16 The Jews had light and
gladness, joy and honor. 17 And in every province and
city, wherever the king’s command and decree came, the Jews had joy and
gladness, a feast and a holiday. Then many of the people of the land became
Jews, because fear of the Jews fell upon them.
The Jews
Destroy Their Tormentors
9 Now in
the twelfth month, that is, the month of Adar, on the
thirteenth day, the time came for the king’s command and his
decree to be executed. On the day that the enemies of the Jews had hoped to
overpower them, the opposite occurred, in that the Jews themselves overpowered
those who hated them. 2 The Jews gathered together
in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus to lay hands on
those who sought their harm. And no one could withstand them, because fear of
them fell upon all people. 3 And all the officials of
the provinces, the satraps, the governors, and all those doing the king’s work,
helped the Jews, because the fear of Mordecai fell upon them. 4 For Mordecai was great
in the king’s palace, and his fame spread throughout all the provinces; for
this man Mordecai became increasingly prominent. 5 Thus the Jews defeated all
their enemies with the stroke of the sword, with slaughter and destruction, and
did what they pleased with those who hated them.
6 And in
Shushan the citadel the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men. 7 Also Parshandatha, Dalphon,
Aspatha, 8 Poratha,
Adalia, Aridatha, 9 Parmashta,
Arisai, Aridai, and Vajezatha— 10 the ten sons of Haman the
son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews—they killed; but they did not lay a
hand on the plunder.
11 On that
day the number of those who were killed in Shushan the citadel was brought to
the king. 12 And the
king said to Queen Esther, “The Jews have killed and destroyed five hundred men
in Shushan the citadel, and the ten sons of Haman. What have they done in the
rest of the king’s provinces? Now what is your petition? It
shall be granted to you. Or 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 again tomorrow according to today’s decree, and let Haman’s ten
sons be hanged on the gallows.”
14 So the
king commanded this to be done; the decree was issued in Shushan, and they
hanged Haman’s ten sons.
15 And the
Jews who were in Shushan gathered together again on the
fourteenth day of the month of Adar and killed three hundred men at Shushan;
but they did not lay a hand on the plunder.
16 The
remainder of the Jews in the king’s provinces gathered together and protected
their lives, had rest from their enemies, and killed seventy-five thousand of
their enemies; but they did not lay a hand on the plunder. 17 This was on
the thirteenth day of the month of Adar. And on the fourteenth of the
month[c]they
rested and made it a day of feasting and gladness.
The Feast
of Purim
18 But the
Jews who were at Shushan assembled together on the thirteenth day, as
well as on the fourteenth; and on the fifteenth of the month[d] they
rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness. 19 Therefore the Jews of the
villages who dwelt in the unwalled towns celebrated the fourteenth day of the
month of 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 all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, 21 to establish among them
that they should celebrate yearly the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the
month of Adar, 22 as the
days on which the Jews had rest from their enemies, as the month which was
turned from sorrow to joy for them, and from mourning to a holiday; that they
should make them days of feasting and joy, of sending presents to one another
and gifts to the poor. 23 So the Jews accepted the
custom which 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 annihilate them, and had cast Pur (that is, the lot), to
consume them and destroy them; 25 but when Esther[e] came
before the king, he commanded by letter that this[f] wicked
plot which 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 So they
called these days Purim, after the name Pur. Therefore, because of all the
words of this letter, what they had seen concerning this matter, and what had
happened to them, 27 the Jews
established and imposed it upon themselves and their descendants and all who
would join them, that without fail they should celebrate these two days every
year, according to the written instructions and according to
the prescribed time, 28 that these
days should be remembered and kept throughout every
generation, every family, every province, and every city, that these days of
Purim should not fail to be observed among the Jews, and that the
memory of them should not perish among their descendants.
29 Then
Queen Esther, the daughter of Abihail, with Mordecai the Jew, wrote with full
authority to confirm this second letter about Purim. 30 And Mordecai sent
letters to all the Jews, to the one hundred and twenty-seven provinces of the
kingdom of Ahasuerus, with words of peace and truth, 31 to confirm these days of
Purim at their appointed time, as Mordecai the Jew and Queen
Esther had prescribed for them, and as they had decreed for themselves and
their descendants concerning matters of their fasting and lamenting. 32 So the decree of Esther
confirmed these matters of Purim, and it was written in the book.
Mordecai’s
Advancement
10 And King
Ahasuerus imposed tribute on the land and on the islands of
the sea. 2 Now all
the acts of his power and his might, and the account of the greatness of
Mordecai, to which the king advanced him, are they not written
in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia? 3 For Mordecai the Jew was second
to King Ahasuerus, and was great among the Jews and well received by the
multitude of his brethren, seeking the good of his people and speaking peace to
all his countrymen.[g]
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