5. The Jews struck down all their enemies with the sword, killing and destroying, and they did whatever they wished to those who hated them.
6. In the citadel at Shushan the Jews killed and destroyed 500 people,
7. including Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha,
8. Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha,
9. Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai and Vaizatha,
10. the 10 sons of Haman, the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews. They slew them but did not lay their hands on the plunder.
11. On that day the number of those that were killed in the citadel at Shushan was brought to the king’s attention.
12. Then the king said to Queen Esther, “The Jews have killed and destroyed 500 men in the citadel of Shushan, including Haman’s ten sons. What have they done, in the rest of the king’s provinces? Now what is your request? It shall be granted to you. What other petition do you have? It shall be done.”
13. “If it please the king,” Esther said, “let the Jews in Shushan be allowed to carry out today’s edict tomorrow also, and let Haman’s ten sons be hanged on the gallows.”
14. The king commanded that this be done. A decree was issued in Shushan and they hanged Haman’s 10 sons.
15. The Jews in Shushan gathered together on the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and they killed 300 men in Shushan, but they did not put their hands on the plunder.
16. Meanwhile the rest of the Jews who were in the king’s provinces gathered together to protect themselves and to get relief from their enemies. They killed 75,000 of their enemies, but they did not lay their hands on the plunder.
17. This happened on the thirteenth day of Adar and on the fourteenth day they rested, making it a day of feasting and gladness.
18. But the Jews that were in Shushan had assembled on the thirteenth and on the fourteenth and on the fifteenth they rested, making it a day of feasting and gladness.
19. That is why the rural Jews—those living in unwalled villages—make the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of gladness and feasting, a day of sending presents of food to one another.
20. Mordecai recorded these events and he sent letters to all the Jews throughout the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far,