meta: {"file": "/data/tomer/Sefaria-Export/txt/Tanakh/Writings/Esther/English/The Rashi Ketuvim by Rabbi Shraga Silverstein.txt"}
text: Esther
  אסתר
  The Rashi Ketuvim by Rabbi Shraga Silverstein
  
  
  Esther
  
  
  
  
  
  	And it was in the days of Achashverosh [(a king of Paras, who ruled under Koresh at the end of seventy years of the Babylonian exile)]; he is Achashverosh [i.e., he persists in his evil from beginning to end]. He rules [(in his own right, not being of the royal seed)] from Hodu to Kush, one hundred and twenty-seven provinces [i.e., just as he reigned (with "tight" authority) from Hodu to Kush, which were right next to each other, so he ruled over one hundred and twenty-seven provinces.)]
  	In those days, when Achashverosh sat on the throne of his kingdom [(i.e., when he had consolidated his kingdom)], which was in Shushan, the capital,
  	In the third year of his reign, he made a feast for all his officers and servants, the host of Paras and Madai; the regents and the princes of the provinces before him,
  	showing them the wealth of the honor of his kingdom and the splendor of the glory of his greatness, [the feast lasting] many days, one hundred and eighty days.
  	And, at the consummation of these days, the king made for all the people who were found in Shushan the capital, from great to small, a feast for seven days, in the courtyard of the garden of the orchard of the king.
  	Chur, carpas, and tcheleth [(types of colored vestments)] embroidered with cords of fine linen and purple, [he spread] on rods of silver and pillars of marble. [(For seating at the feast, he set up)] divans of gold and silver on paving of bahat, shesh, dar, and sochareth [(costly stones)].
  	And the drinking was in vessels of gold, and in vessels of different kinds, and royal wine in abundance, according to the (lavish) hand of the king.
  	And the drinking was according to [each man's] practice; there was no constraint. For thus had the king ordained for every head [of staff] (in) his house, to do according to the will of each man.
  	Also Vashti the queen made a feast for the women in the royal quarters of King Achashverosh.
  	On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was good with wine, he said to Mehuman, Bizetha, Charvona, Bigtha, Avagtha, Zethar and Charcas, the seven eunuchs who attended the presence of King Achashverosh,
  	To bring Vashti, the queen, before the king, with the crown of kingdom, to show the peoples and the princes her beauty (for she was of a beautiful appearance).
  	And Queen Vashti refused to come at the word of the king by the eunuchs. And the king was extremely wroth, and his wrath burned in him.
  	And the king said to the sages, the knowers of the times; for this was the way of the king, [to take counsel of] all knowers of ordinance and judgment —
  	and the closest to him [(in taking counsel)]: Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, Memuchan, the seven princes of Paras and Madai, who attended upon the king, who sat first in the kingdom —
  	by ordinance, what to do with Queen Vashti for not doing the bidding of the king by the eunuchs.
  	And Memuchan said before the king and the princes: Not against the king alone did Vashti sin, but against all the princes and all the peoples which are in all the land of King Achashverosh.
  	For the act of the queen [(in defying the king)] shall go forth to all the women to demean their husbands in their eyes, saying: King Achashverosh bade that Vashti, the queen, be brought before him, and she would not come.
  	And this day, the princesses of Paras and Madai, who heard of the queen's act shall relate (it) to all the princes of the king, and therein lies [much] shame and anger.
  	If it finds favor with the king, let a royal decree [(of revenge, ordering the execution of Vashti)] go forth before him, and let it [(the decree)] be entered in the ordinances of Paras and Madai [(to apply to all women who thus demean their husbands)] — for Vashti did not come before King Achashverosh [(wherefore she was executed)]. And let the king give her queenship to her neighbor, who is better than she.
  	
  And the thing found favor in the eyes of the king and the princes, and the king did according to the counsel of Memuchan.
  	And he sent letters to all the provinces of the king, to each province according to its writing, and to each people according to its tongue, that each man rule in his house and speak in the tongue of his people [(and not hers, if her language differs from her husband's)].
  
  
  
  	After these things, as the wrath of King Achashverosh abated, he remembered Vashti [and her beauty] and what she had done, and what had been decreed upon her [(and he was sad.)]
  	And the young men of the king, his servants, said to him: Let there be sought for the king maidens, virgins, of beautiful appearance.
  	And let the king appoint appointees [(each of whom generally knows the beautiful women in his province)] in all the provinces of his kingdom to gather every maiden who is a virgin and of beautiful appearance to Shushan, the capital, to the harem, to Haigeh, the king's eunuch, keeper of the women, to provide their ointments.
  	And the maiden who finds favor in the eyes of the kind shall reign in place of Vashti. And the thing was good in the eyes of the king, and he did so.
  	And a man of Judah [i.e., one of those exiled with the kings of Judah] was in Shushan; and his name was Mordecai the son of Yair the son of Shimmi the son of Kish, a Benjamite,
  	who was exiled from Jerusalem with the exile which was exiled with Yechanyah, king of Judah, which was exiled by Nevuchadnezzar, king of Bavel.
  	And he had raised Hadassah — she is Esther — his uncle's daughter, for she had no father and mother. And the maiden was beautiful of form and beautiful of appearance, and when her father and mother had died, Mordecai had taken her for himself as a daughter [i.e., for a wife].
  	And it was, when the king's edict and his ordinance were heard, and when many maidens were gathered into Shushan, the capital, to Haigai, that Esther was taken to the house of the king, to Haigai, the keeper of the women.
  	And the maiden was good in his eyes, and she found favor before him, and he rushed [(more than for all the others)] to provide her with her ointments and her potions and with the seven maidens allotted her from the king's house; and he transformed her and her maidens to the finest in the harem.
  	Esther did not reveal her people or her kindred, for Mordecai had charged her not to do so, [(hoping that they regard her as a commoner and send her away. For if it were known that she was a descendant of King Saul, they would certainly not let her go.)]
  	And every day Mordecai would walk in the courtyard of the harem to know how Esther fared and what would be done with her, [(Mordecai the tzaddik realizing that something of this nature could have befallen one so saintly as Esther only to render her an instrument in the salvation of Israel)].
  	And when there arrived the turn of each maiden to come to King Achashverosh, after the expiration of twelve months, according to the ordinance of the women — for this was the complement of the days of their anointing, six months with oil of myrrh and six months with spices and with the women's ointments —
  	with this, the maiden would come to the king. Anything that she asked for [e.g., music and other entertainment] was given her to take with her from the harem to the house of the king.
  	In the evening she would come, and in the morning she would return to the second harem, to Sha'ashgaz, the king's eunuch, keeper of the concubines. She would not come again to the king unless the king desired her and she were called by name.
  	And when there arrived the turn of Esther, the daughter of Avichayil, the wife of Mordecai, who had taken her for himself as a daughter, to come to the king, she requested nothing, but only what Haigai, the king's eunuch, the keeper of the women, had said. And Esther found favor in the eyes of all who saw her.
  	And Esther was taken to King Achashverosh, to his palace, in the tenth month, the month of Teveth, in the seventh year of his reign.
  	And the king loved Esther more than all the women [(the non-virgins, whom he also gathered)], and she found favor and grace before him more than all the virgins. And he placed the crown of kingdom upon her head, and he made her queen in place of Vashti.
  	And the king made a great feast for all his princes and his servants, the feast of Esther, and he granted a (tax) remission to the provinces, and he gave gifts according to the (lavish) hand of the king [(in her honor — all this, to induce her to reveal her kindred, but still,)],
  	when virgins were gathered a second time — Mordecai was sitting in the king's gate [(and "sending signals" to her to remain firm in her resolve)] —
  	Esther did not reveal her kindred and her people, as Mordecai had charged her. And the word of Mordecai, Esther obeyed, as she had in being reared by him.
  	In those days, when Mordecai sat in the king's gate, Bigthan and Teresh, two of the king's chamberlains, of the keepers of the door, were angered, and they sought to send a hand against King Achashverosh [i.e., to poison him].
  	And the thing became known to Mordecai [(They spoke before him in Tarsian, not realizing that Mordecai [(who had sat on the Sanhedrin) was conversant in seventy languages)], and he told Esther the queen; and Esther told it to the king in the name of Mordecai.
  	And the thing was sought out, and it was found (to be true), and both of them were hanged on a tree. And it [(Mordecai's benefaction)] to the king)] was recorded in the book of chronicles before the king.
  
  
  
  	After these things [(i.e., after this "cure" having been created for the salvation of Israel)], King Achashverosh elevated Haman [(the "malady" for which the "cure" was pre-created)], the son of Hamdatha, the Agagite, and he exalted him, and he placed his seat above (that of) all the officers that were with him.
  	And all the servants of the king, who were in the king's gate, bowed down and prostrated themselves to Haman, for thus had the king decreed for him [(Haman having declared himself a god)], wherefore Mordecai would not bow down and would not prostrate himself.
  	And the servants of the king in the king's gate said to Mordecai: Why do you transgress the king's command?
  	And it was, as they said (it) to him day by day, and he would not pay heed to them, that they told it to Haman, to see if the words of Mordecai [(that, being a Jew, he would never bow down)] would stand; for he had told them that he was a Jew.
  	And Haman saw that Mordecai did not bow down and prostrate himself to him, and Haman was filled with wrath.
  	And it was demeaning in his eyes to send forth his hand against Mordecai alone, for they had told him (of) the people of Mordecai; and Haman sought to destroy all the Jews in the entire kingdom of Achashverosh, the people of Mordecai.
  	In the first month, the month of Nissan, in the twelfth year of King Achashverosh, he [i.e., he whose function it was] cast the pur — that is, the lot — before Haman [(to determine which day would be most propitious for his undertaking)], from day to day, and from month to month, to the twelfth month, the month of Adar.
  	And Haman said to King Achashverosh: There is one people scattered and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom; and their ordinances are different from (those of) any people, and the ordinances of the king, they do not observe [i.e., they do not pay taxes], and the king gains nothing by abiding them.
  	If it pleases the king, let it be written [i.e., let letters be written to the princes of the provinces] to destroy them, and ten thousand talents of silver will I deposit with the doers of the work to bring to the treasuries of the king.
  	And the king removed his ring from his hand, and he gave it to Haman the son of Hamdatha, the Agagi, oppressor of the Jews.
  	And the king said to Haman: The silver is given to you, and the people, to do with it as you wish.
  	And the scribes of the king were called on the first month, on the thirteenth day thereof, and it was written according to all that Haman had commanded to the satraps of the king and to the governors of each province and to the princes of each people; each province according to its script, and each people according to its tongue. In the name of King Achashverosh was it written, and it was sealed with the king's ring.
  	And the letters were sent by couriers to all the king's provinces; to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all of the Jews, young and old, little children and women, in one day, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, and to plunder their spoils.
  	The burden of the letter — that it be promulgated in every province, (and made) manifest to all the peoples, to be in readiness for this day.
  	The couriers rushed out at the king's word, and the ordinance [(to be in readiness for the thirteenth of Adar)] was proclaimed [(on that day)] in Shushan, the capital, and the king and Haman sat down to drink, and the [Jews of the] city of Shushan desponded.
  
  
  
  	And Mordecai knew all that had been done [i.e., that this had been "acquiesced in on High" because the Jews had bowed down to the idol in the days of Nevuchadnezzar and had partaken of the feast of Achashverosh]. And Mordecai tore his garments and clothed himself in sack and ashes; and he went out in the midst of the city, and he cried out a great and bitter cry.
  	And he came until before the king's gate, it being disrespectful to come to the king's gate dressed in sack.
  	And in every province, wherever the king's word and his edict arrived, there was great mourning for the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; sack and ashes covered the multitude.
  	And the maidens of Esther and her eunuchs came and told her; and the queen was greatly shaken, and she sent garments to clothe Mordecai and to remove his sack from him, but he did not accept them.
  	And Esther called to Hathach, one of the eunuchs of the kings, whom he had set before her, and she dispatched him to Mordecai to know "what is this and for what is this?"
  	And Hathach went out to Mordecai to the city thoroughfare before the king's gate.
  	And Mordecai told him all that had befallen him, of the sum stipulated by Haman to be deposited in the king's treasuries for the destruction of the Jews.
  	And the copy of the writ of ordinance, which had been issued in Shushan to destroy them, he gave him to show to Esther, and to tell her, and to charge her to come to the king to make supplication of him and to entreat him for her people.
  	And Hathach came, and he told Esther the words of Mordecai.
  	And Esther said to Hathach to relate to Mordecai:
  	All the servants of the king and the people of the king's provinces know that any man or woman who comes to the king, to the inner court, without being bidden, his penalty is one — to be killed (unless the king hold out to him the golden sceptre, that he may live), and I have not been called to come to the king these thirty days.
  	And they told Mordecai the words of Esther.
  	And Mordecai said to return (answer) to Esther: Do not think to yourself that [(by not taking the risk of approaching the king)] you can escape [(on the day of the massacre)] in the king's palace more than all the (other) Jews.
  	For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, and you and your father's house will go lost. And who knows if next year at this time [(when the massacre is to occur)] you will attain to the [degree of] queenliness [(in the king's eyes that you possess now — he might not even desire you then!)]
  	And Esther said to return (answer) to Mordecai:
  	Go, gather all of the Jews that are found in Shushan, and fast for me. Do not eat and do not drink three days, night and day. Also I and my maidens will fast thus. And thus shall I come to the king, not as ordained [i.e., without being summoned], and as I have [begun] to go lost, I shall go lost [i.e., I am prepared to die.]
  	And Mordecai transgressed [(by fasting on the first day of Pesach, the fifteenth of Nissan, the decree being issued on the thirteenth of Nissan, and the fast spanning the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth of Nissan)], and he did according to all that Esther charged him.
  
  
  
  	And it was on the third day, that Esther clothed herself in royal [vestments], and she stood in the inner court of the palace, opposite the king's chamber. And the king was sitting on the royal throne in the king's chamber opposite the chamber door.
  	And it was, when the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, that she found favor in his eyes, and the king held out to Esther the golden sceptre which was in his hand, and Esther drew near, and she touched the head of the sceptre.
  	And the king said to her: What troubles you, Queen Esther, and what is your request? Until half the kingdom, and it shall be given you.
  	And Esther said: If it finds favor with the king, let the king and Haman come today to the feast that I have made for him.
  	And the king said: Hasten Haman to do as Esther bids. And the king and Haman came to the feast which Esther had made.
  	And the king said to Esther in the feast of the wine [(the wine being the "feature" of the feast)]: What is your petition, and it shall be granted you. And what is your request? Until half the kingdom, and it shall be done.
  	And Esther answered, and she said: My petition and my request:
  	If I have found favor in the eyes of the king, and if it pleases the king to grant my petition and to do as I request, let the king and Haman come to the feast that I shall make for them; and tomorrow I shall do as the king bids [(i.e., to reveal to you my people and my kindred)].
  	And Haman went out that day, happy and glad of heart. But when Haman saw Mordecai in the king's gate, neither rising nor stirring before him, Haman was filled with wrath against Mordecai.
  	But Haman suppressed [his anger (fearing to take revenge without royal authority)], and when he came home, he sent and had brought to him his loved ones and Zeresh his wife.
  	And Haman recounted to them the glory of his wealth, the abundance of his children, and all of the king's exalting him and raising him above the (other) ministers and servants of the king.
  	And Haman said: Also, Queen Esther did not bring with the king to the feast that she made anyone but me; and tomorrow, too, I am invited by her with the king.
  	And all this is worthless to me whenever I see Mordecai the Jew sitting in the king's gate.
  	And Zeresh his wife and all his loved ones said to him: Let them make a gallows fifty cubits high, and in the morning tell the king, and let them hang Mordecai on it; and come with the king to the feast in gladness. And the thing found favor with Haman, and he made the gallows.
  
  
  
  	On that night, the sleep of the king wandered [(miraculously)], and he asked that there be brought the book of chronicles; and they were read before the king.
  	And it was found written what Mordecai had related of Bighthana and Teresh, the two eunuchs of the king, of his chamberlains, who sought to assassinate King Achashverosh.
  	And the kind said: What glory and greatness has been accorded Mordecai for this? And the youths of the king, his servants, said: Nothing has been accorded him.
  	And the king asked: Who is in the court? And Haman had come to the outer palace court to tell the king to hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him.
  	And the king's youths said to him: Behold, Haman is standing in the court.
  	And Haman came in, and the king said to him: What should be done with the man whose glory the king desires? And Haman thought in his heart: Whom does the king wish to exalt more than I?
  	And Haman said to the king: The man whose glory the king desires,
  	Let there be brought the royal robes wherein the king is clothed, and the horse whereon the king rides, and let the royal crown be placed upon his head.
  	And let the robes and the horse be handed over to one of the most noble princes of the king [(Haman not mentioning the crown, having sensed the king's abhorrence of his crown being worn on a man's head)], and let them apparel the man whose glory the king desires, and let them ride him on the horse in the city thoroughfare, and call out before him: "Thus shall be done with the man whose glory the king desires!"
  	And the king said to Haman: Quickly, take the apparel and the horse, as you have spoken, and do thus to Mordecai, the Jew, who sits in the king's gate. Let fall nothing of all that you have spoken.
  	And Haman took the robes and the horse, and he appareled Mordecai, and he rode him through the city thoroughfare, calling before Him: "Thus shall be done with the man whose glory the king desires!"
  	And Mordecai returned [(to his sack and to his fasting)] to the king's gate, and Haman hastened to his house, mourning and with covered head.
  	And Haman related to Zeresh, his wife, and to all his loved ones all that had befallen him. And his sages and Zeresh, his wife, said to him: If of the seed of the Jews is Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, you shall not prevail against, him, but fall, shall you fall, before him. [She said: This nation (Israel) is compared to the stars and to the dust. When they fall, they fall to the very dust; and when they rise, they rise to the stars [and your falling will be commensurate with their rising (a "double" falling, as it were)].
  	While they were yet speaking with him, the king's eunuchs arrived, and they hurried to bring Haman to the feast that Esther had made.
  
  
  
  	And the king and Haman came to drink with Queen Esther.
  	And the king said to Esther also the second day of the feast of wine: What is your petition, Queen Esther, and it will be granted you. And what is your request? Until half the kingdom, and it shall be done.
  	And Queen Esther answered and she said: If I have found favor in your eyes, O king, and if it pleases the king, grant me my life as my petition [i.e., that I not be killed on the thirteenth of Adar, upon which you decreed destruction for my people and my kindred], and my people as my request [(that they not be killed)].
  	For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, killed, and annihilated. And if we had been sold as man-servants and maid-servants, I would have kept still; but the oppressor takes no account of the king's loss. [If he really intended your benefit, he would have advised you to sell them for slaves or to keep them and their seed as slaves for yourself.]
  	And King Achashverosh had said [(to Esther, in the beginning, through an intermediary)] and [now that he had learned that she was of royal lineage], he said [(directly)] to Queen Esther: Who is this, and where is he, who has presumed to do thus?
  	And Esther said: A man who is an oppressor and a foe, this wicked Haman! And Haman was confounded before the king and the queen.
  	And the king arose in his anger from the feast of wine to the palace garden, and Haman stood to beg his life of Queen Esther; for he saw that evil [i.e., hatred and the thirst for revenge] had been consummated against him by the king.
  	And the king returned from the palace garden to the house of the wine-feast; and Haman was fallen [(an angel had pushed him)] on the divan where Esther reclined. And the king said: Did you also come to ravish the queen with me in the palace? The word went forth from the king's mouth, and Haman's face was shrouded.
  	And Charvonah, one of the eunuchs, said before the king: [(Not only has Haman committed this outrage against the king, but)] behold, too, the gallows which Haman made for Mordecai, who spoke in the king's behalf [(and saved him from being poisoned)], standing in Haman's house, fifty cubits high. And the king said: Hang him upon it!
  	And they hanged Haman upon the gallows that he had readied for Mordecai, and the king's wrath abated.
  
  
  
  	On that day, King Achashverosh gave Queen Esther the house of Haman, oppressor of the Jews; and Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had told him what he was to her [i.e., how he was related to her].
  	And the king removed his ring, which he had taken from Haman, and he gave it to Mordecai; and Esther placed Mordecai over the house of Haman.
  	And Esther spoke once more before the king, and she fell at his feet, and she wept, and she pleaded with him to annul the evil [counsel] of Haman the Agagite and his plot which he had plotted against the Jews.
  	And the king held out to Esther the golden sceptre, and Esther arose and she stood before the king.
  	And she said: If it please the king, and if I have found favor before him, and the thing be right before the king, and it be good in his eyes, let it be written to return the letters, the plotting of Haman the son of Hamdatha the Agagite, which he wrote, to destroy all the Jews in the king's provinces.
  	For how can I see the evil that is to befall my people, and how can I bear to see the destruction of my kindred?
  	And King Achashverosh said to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew: Behold, I have given the house of Haman to Esther, and him have they hanged upon the gallows because he set his hand against the Jews.
  	And you, write about the Jews as is fit in your eyes in the name of the king, and seal it with the king's ring; for it is not [seemly] to rescind [(and thus "perjure")] the writ which is written in the king's name and sealed with the king's ring.
  	And the king's scribes were called at that time, in the third month, the month of Sivan, on the twenty-third day thereof. And it was written according to all that Mordecai commanded to the Jews, to the satraps, to the governors, and to the princes of the provinces from Hodu until Kush, one hundred and twenty-seven provinces, each province according to its script, and each people according to its tongue — and to the Jews according to their script and according to their tongue —
  	— and he wrote in the name of King Achashverosh, and he sealed it with the king's seal, and he sent letters with couriers on horseback, riders of the rechesh, the achashteranim, bred of the ramachim [i.e., riders of the swiftest animals] —
  	that the king authorized the Jews in every city to congregate and to defend their lives, to destroy, kill and annihilate the powers of any people or province that oppressed them [viz. 3:13], (even) young children and women, and to take their spoils.
  	On one day, in all the provinces of King Achashverosh, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar.
  	The burden of the letter — that it be promulgated in every province, (and made) manifest to all the peoples, and that the Jews be in readiness for this day to take revenge of their foes.
  	The couriers, riders of the rechesh, the achashteranim [viz. 10] sped out at the word of the king [(to overtake the first riders)], and the ordinance was promulgated in Shushan, the capital.
  	And Mordecai went out from before the king in royal apparel of blue and white, and with a great crown of gold, and with a wrap of fine linen and purple; and the city of Shushan exulted and rejoiced.
  	For the Jews, there was light, and joy, and rejoicing, and glory.
  	And in every province, and in every city, where the edict and the ordinance of the king arrived, joy and rejoicing for the Jews, feasting and festival; and many of the people of the land became Jews, for the awe of the Jews fell upon them.
  
  
  
  	And on the twelfth month, the month of Adar, on the thirteenth day therein, on the day that the king's edict and his ordinance came into effect, on the day that the foes of the Jews hoped to prevail against them, and it was overturned, the Jews prevailing against their foes,
  	the Jews congregated in their cities in all the provinces of King Achashverosh to set their hands against those who sought their evil; and no man stood up against them, for their awe had fallen over all the peoples.
  	And all the rulers of the provinces, and the satraps, and the governors, and the king's officials exalted the Jews, for Mordecai's awe had fallen upon them.
  	For Mordecai was great in the palace of the king, and his fame spread through all the provinces, for the man Mordecai grew ever greater.
  	And the Jews smote all of their foes, with sword stroke, and slaughter and destruction; and they did as they pleased with those who hated them.
  	And in Shushan, the capital, the Jews killed, and they destroyed, five hundred men.
  	And Parshandatha, and Dalfon, and Aspatha,
  	And Poratha, and Adalya, and Aridatha,
  	And Parmashta, and Arisai, and Aridai, and Vaizatha,
  	the ten sons of Haman the son of Hamdatha, oppressor of the Jews, [(those who had written a libel against Judah and Jerusalem to halt the rebuilding of the Temple [viz. Ezra 4:6]. After the death of Koresh, when Achashverosh reigned and Haman rose to power, they wrote in the name of Achashverosh to the officers across the river to halt the building)], [("the ten sons of Haman")] they killed; and they did not stretch forth their hand to the spoils [(so that the king not begrudge them their wealth)].
  	On that day, the count of those killed in Shushan, the capital, came before the king.
  	And the king said to Queen Esther: In Shushan the capital, the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men and the ten sons of Haman. In the other provinces of the king, what did they do? Now, what is your petition, and it will be granted you; and what, further, is your request, and it will be done.
  	And Esther said to the king: If it pleases the king, let the morrow also be given to the Jews in Shushan to do according to the ordinance of this day, and let the ten [(slain)] sons of Haman be strung up on the gallows.
  	And the king ordered that this be done, and the ordinance was promulgated in Shushan, and the ten sons of Haman were strung up.
  	And the Jews who were in Shushan also congregated on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar, and they killed in Shushan three hundred men, and they did not stretch forth their hands to the spoils.
  	And the remainder of the Jews, which were in the king's provinces, congregated and stood up for their lives, and gained respite of their foes, and killed of their enemies seventy-five thousand, and they did not stretch forth their hands to the spoils,
  	on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, achieving respite on the fourteenth day thereof, and they made it a day of feasting and joy.
  	And the Jews who were in Shushan congregated on the thirteenth day thereof and on the fourteenth day thereof, achieving respite on the fifteenth day, which they made a day of feasting and joy.
  	Therefore, the Jews of the outlying towns, those who live in the unwalled cities, celebrate the fourteenth day of the month of Adar with joy and feasting and festivity, and with the sending of portions one to another [(and those who live in cities walled from the days of Joshua the son of Nun, like Shushan, celebrate the fifteenth day.)]
  	And Mordecai wrote these things [(this Megillah, as it is,)], and he sent letters to all the provinces of King Achashverosh, the near and the far,
  	To take it upon themselves to celebrate the fourteenth day of the month of Adar, and the fifteenth day therein, year after year,
  	as the days in which the Jews gained respite from their foes, and the month which was transformed for them from sorrow to joy, from mourning to festivity, to celebrate them as days of feasting and joy, and the sending of portions one to another and gifts to the poor.
  	And the Jews accepted what they had begun to do and what Mordecai had written to them.
  	For Haman the son of Hamdatha, the Agagite, oppressor of the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them, and he had cast pur, the lot, in order to confound them and destroy them.
  	And when she [(Esther)] came before the king [(to plead with him)], he said [(and he commanded)] with the letter [i.e., that letters be written to that effect], that his evil scheme which he plotted against the Jews be turned back upon his head; and they hanged him and his sons upon the gallows.
  	Therefore, they called these days "Purim," because of the "pur" [the lot]. Therefore, because of all that is written in this letter [(these days were set aside and what occurred in them recorded for future generations)], and what they [(the protagonists)] saw, to [do] this [i.e., to act as they did], and what transpired with them [(as the result of their acts)].
  	The Jews fulfilled and they accepted upon themselves and upon their seed, and upon all those who joined them [(to be proselytized)] — not to be passed over — to celebrate these two days, according to their writing [Ashurith (Hebrew script)] and according to their time, each and every year.
  	And these days are remembered [(by reading of the Megillah)] and celebrated [(by feasting, rejoicing, and festivity and by sending portions and gifts)] in each and every generation. Each family [gathers together and eats and drinks together]. And [they, likewise, accepted upon themselves that] these days of Purim shall not pass away from the midst of the Jews and (that) their remembrance [(the reading of the Megillah)] shall not cease from their children.
  	And, in the second [year] Queen Esther, the daughter of Avichayil, and Mordecai the Jew [again] wrote [to the Jews] to fulfill this letter of Purim, [recounting] all the power [of the miracle of Achashverosh, of Haman, of Mordecai, and of Esther].
  	And he sent letters to all the Jews, to a hundred and twenty-seven provinces, the kingdom of Achashverosh, words of peace and truth.
  	To fulfill these days of Purim in their times, as instituted for them by Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther, and as they fulfilled in themselves and in their seed, the words of the fasts and their outcries.
  	And the word of Esther [i.e., her request of the sages of the generation to incorporate Megillath Esther with the other chronicles], he fulfilled, and it [Megillath Esther] was written [i.e., incorporated] in the book [of Chronicles].
  
  
  
  	And King Achashverosh levied a tribute upon the land and upon the isles of the sea.
  	And the entire account of his authority and his strength, and the setting forth of the greatness of Mordecai, who was exalted by the king, are they not written in the book of chronicles of the kings of Madai and Paras.
  	For Mordecai the Jew was vice-regent to King Achashverosh, and great among the Jews, and in the good graces of most of his brethren, [(but not all of them, some of the Sanhedrin having separated themselves from him because of his having become close to the king and defaulting in his learning)], seeking the good of all his people and speaking peace to all its seed.