Esther - The Poetry of Purim
Esther Chapter 9, Poetically Re-arranged by Thomas
1 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.
2The 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.
3And 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
They rested and made it
A day of feasting and gladness.
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 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 came before the king,
He commanded by letter
That this 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,