Comment

Comment by Pam Vredenburg on November 4, 2012 at 3:14pm

Esther 8-10

Amplified Bible (AMP)

8 On that day King Ahasuerus gave the house of Haman, the Jews’ enemy, to Queen Esther. And Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had told what he was to her.

² And the king took off his [signet] ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman.

³ And Esther spoke yet again to the king and fell down at his feet and besought him with tears to avert the evil plot of Haman the Agagite and his scheme that he had devised against the Jews.

⁴ Then the king held out to Esther the golden scepter. So Esther arose and stood before the king.

⁵ And she said, If it pleases the king and if I have found favor in his sight and the thing seems right before the king and I am pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the king’s provinces.

⁶ For how can I endure to see the evil that shall come upon my people? Or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?

⁷ Then the King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, Behold, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and him they have hanged upon the gallows because he laid his hand upon the Jews.

⁸ Write also concerning the Jews as it pleases you in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s [signet] ring—for writing which is in the king’s name and sealed with the king’s ring no man can reverse.

⁹ Then the king’s scribes were called, in the third month, the month of Sivan, on the twenty-third day, and it was written according to all that Mordecai commanded to the Jews, to the chief rulers, and the governors and princes of the provinces from India to Ethiopia, 127 provinces, to every province in its own script and to every people in their own language and to the Jews according to their writing and according to their language.

¹⁰ He wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed it with the king’s ring and sent letters by messengers on horseback, riding on swift steeds, mules, and young dromedaries used in the king’s service, bred from the [royal] stud.

¹¹ In it the king granted the Jews who were in every city to gather and defend their lives; to destroy, to slay, and to wipe out any armed force that might attack them, their little ones, and women; and to take the enemies’ goods for spoil.

¹² On one day in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar,

¹³ A copy of the writing was to be issued as a decree in every province and as a proclamation to all peoples, and the Jews should be ready on that day to avenge themselves upon their enemies.

¹⁴ So the couriers, who were mounted on swift beasts that were used in the king’s service, went out, being hurried and urged on by the king’s command; and the decree was released in Shushan, the capital.

¹⁵ And Mordecai went forth from the presence of the king in royal apparel of blue and white, with a great crown of gold and with a robe of fine linen and purple; and the city of Shushan shouted and rejoiced.

¹⁶ The Jews had light [a dawn of new hope] and gladness and joy and honor.

¹⁷ And in every province and in every city, wherever the king’s command and his decree came, the Jews had gladness and joy, a feast and a holiday. And many from among the peoples of the land [submitted themselves to Jewish rite and] became Jews, for the fear of the Jews had fallen upon them.

Comment by Pam Vredenburg on November 4, 2012 at 3:13pm

9 Now in the twelfth month, the month of Adar, on the thirteenth day of Adar when the king’s command and his edict were about to be executed, on the [very] day that the enemies of the Jews had planned for a massacre of them, it was turned to the contrary and the Jews had rule over those who hated them.

² The Jews gathered together in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus to lay hands on such as sought their hurt; and no man could withstand them, for the fear of them had fallen upon all the peoples.

³ And all the princes of the provinces and the chief rulers and the governors and they who attended to the king’s business helped the Jews, because the fear of Mordecai had fallen upon them.

⁴ For Mordecai was great in the king’s palace; and his fame went forth throughout all the provinces, for the man Mordecai became more and more powerful.

⁵ So the Jews smote all their enemies with the sword, slaughtering and destroying them, and did as they chose with those who hated them.

⁶ In Shushan, the capital itself, the Jews slew and destroyed 500 men.

⁷ And they killed Parshandatha,

⁸ Dalphon, Aspatha, Poratha, Adalia,

⁹ Aridatha, Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai,

¹⁰ And Vaizatha, the ten sons of Haman son of Hammedatha, the Jews’ enemy; but on the spoil they laid not their hands.

¹¹ On that day the number of those who were slain in Shushan, the capital, was brought before the king.

¹² And the king said to Esther the queen, The Jews have slain and destroyed 500 men in Shushan, the capital, and the ten sons of Haman. What then 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 request further? It shall be done.

¹³ Then said Esther, If it pleases the king, let it be granted to the Jews which are in Shushan to do tomorrow also according to this day’s decree, and let [the dead bodies of] Haman’s ten sons be hanged on the gallows.

¹⁴ And the king commanded it to be done; the decree was given in Shushan, and they hanged [the bodies of] Haman’s ten sons.

¹⁵ And the Jews that were in Shushan gathered together on the fourteenth day also of the month of Adar and slew 300 men in Shushan, but on the spoil they laid not their hands.

¹⁶ And the other Jews who were in the king’s provinces gathered to defend their lives and had relief and rest from their enemies and slew of them that hated them 75,000; but on the spoil they laid not their hands.

¹⁷ This was done on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, and on the fourteenth day they rested and made it a day of feasting and gladness.

¹⁸ But the Jews who were in Shushan [Susa] assembled on the thirteenth day and on the fourteenth, and on the fifteenth day they rested and made it a day of feasting and gladness.

¹⁹ Therefore the Jews of the villages, who dwell in the unwalled towns, make the fourteenth day of the month of Adar a day of gladness and feasting, a holiday, and a day for sending choice portions to one another.

²⁰ And Mordecai recorded these things, and he sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of the King Ahasuerus, both near and far,

²¹ To command them to keep the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and also the fifteenth, yearly,

²² As the days on which the Jews got rest from their enemies, and as the month which was turned for them from sorrow to gladness and from mourning into a holiday—that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days of sending choice portions to one another and gifts to the poor.

²³ So the Jews undertook to do as they had begun and as Mordecai had written to them—

²⁴ Because Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them and had cast Pur, that is, the lot, [to find a lucky day] to crush and consume and destroy them.

²⁵ But when Esther brought the matter before the king, he commanded in writing that Haman’s wicked scheme which he had devised against the Jews should return upon his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.

²⁶ Therefore they called these days Purim, after the name Pur [lot]. Therefore, because of all that was in this letter and what they had faced in this matter and what had happened to them,

²⁷ The Jews ordained and took it upon themselves and their descendants and all who joined them that without fail every year they would keep these two days at the appointed time and as it was written,

²⁸ That these days should be remembered (imprinted on their minds) and kept throughout every generation in every family, province, and city, and that these days of Purim should never cease from among the Jews, nor the commemoration of them cease among their descendants.

²⁹ Then Queen Esther, the daughter of Abihail, with Mordecai the Jew, gave full power [written authority], confirming this second letter about Purim.

³⁰ And letters were sent to all the Jews, to the 127 provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, in words of peace and truth,

³¹ To confirm that these days of Purim should be observed at their appointed times, as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had commanded [the Jews], and as they had ordained for themselves and for their descendants in the matter of their fasts and their lamenting.

³² And the command of Esther confirmed these observances of Purim, and it was written in the book.

Comment by Pam Vredenburg on November 4, 2012 at 3:12pm

10 King Ahasuerus laid a tribute (tax) on the land and on the coastlands of the sea.

² And all the acts of his power and of his might, and the full account of the greatness of Mordecai to which the king advanced him, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Media and Persia?

³ For Mordecai the Jew was next to King Ahasuerus and great among the Jews, and was a favorite with the multitude of his brethren, for he sought the welfare of his people and spoke peace to his whole race.