13. Esther said to the king, "Give the Jews leave to do likewise tomorrow so that they may hang Haman’s ten sons."
14. The king ordered that this be done, and he allowed the Jews in the city to hang the bodies of Haman’s ten sons.
15. The Jews in Susa joined together again on the fourteenth day of Adar. They killed three hundred people, but they didn’t take anything the people owned.
16. The rest of the Jews throughout the kingdom also came together and helped each other. They found rest from their enemies, for they had destroyed fifteen thousand of them on the thirteenth of Adar, and they didn’t take anything their enemies owned.
17. They rested on the fourteenth day of the same month. They spent it as a day of rest, with joy and celebration.
18. The Jews in Susa joined together for self-defense on the fourteenth day and did not rest. But they rested on the fifteenth day with joy and celebration.
19. This is why Jews out in the country celebrate the fourteenth of Adar as a holiday, sending gifts of food to their neighbors, but those who live in the big cities celebrate the fifteenth of Adar as a holiday, sending gifts of food to their neighbors.