2. The Jews assembled in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Xerxes to kill those who were planning to harm them. No one could stand up against them, because all the people were terrified of them.
3. All the officials of the provinces, the satraps, the governors, and the king’s treasurers assisted the Jews because they were terrified of Mordecai.
4. Mordecai was an important man in the king’s palace. Moreover, his reputation was spreading to all the provinces, since Mordecai was becoming more and more powerful.
5. Then with their swords, the Jews attacked all their enemies, killing them, destroying them, and doing whatever they pleased to those who hated them.
6. In the fortress of Susa the Jews killed and wiped out 500 men.
7. They also killed Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha,
8. Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha,
9. Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai, and Vaizatha.
10. These were the ten sons of Haman, who was the son of Hammedatha and the enemy of the Jews. But the Jews did not seize any of their possessions.
11. On that day the number of those killed in the fortress of Susa was reported to the king.
12. So the king said to Queen Esther, “In the fortress of Susa the Jews have killed and wiped out 500 men and Haman’s 10 sons. What must they have done in the rest of the king’s provinces! Now, what is your request? It will be granted to you. And what else would you like? It, too, will be granted.”
13. Esther said, “If it pleases you, Your Majesty, allow the Jews in Susa to do tomorrow what was decreed for today. Let them hang Haman’s ten sons on poles.”
14. The king commanded this, issuing a decree in Susa. And so they hung Haman’s ten sons ⌊on poles⌋.
15. The Jews in Susa also assembled on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and killed 300 men in Susa, but they did not seize any of their possessions.
16. The other Jews who were in the king’s provinces had also assembled to defend and free themselves from their enemies. They killed 75,000 of those who hated them, but they did not seize any of their possessions.
17. This was on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar. On the fourteenth they rested and made it a day of feasting and celebration.
18. But the Jews in Susa had assembled on the thirteenth and fourteenth. They rested on the fifteenth and made it a day of feasting and celebration.
19. That is why the Jews who live in the villages and in the unwalled towns make the fourteenth day of the month of Adar a holiday for feasting and celebration. They also send gifts of food to one another.
20. Now, Mordecai wrote these things down and sent official letters to all the Jews in all the provinces of King Xerxes, near and far.
21. He established the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar as days they must observe every year.