The Scriptures 1998

Esther 9:20-32 The Scriptures 1998 (ISR98)

20. And Mordeḵai wrote these matters and sent letters to all the Yehuḏim who were in all the provinces of Sovereign Aḥashwĕrosh, both near and far,

21. to establish among them, to observe the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Aḏar, yearly,

22. as the days on which the Yehuḏim had rest from their enemies, as the month which was turned from sorrow to joy for them, and from mourning to a good day, that they should make them days of feasting and joy, of sending portions to one another and gifts to the poor.

23. And the Yehuḏim undertook to do as they had begun, and as Mordeḵai had written to them,

24. because Haman, son of Hammeḏatha the Ag̅ag̅ite, the adversary of all the Yehuḏim, had plotted against the Yehuḏim to destroy them, and had cast Pur – that is, the lot – to crush them and to destroy them.

25. But when she came before the sovereign, he commanded by letter that his evil plot which Haman had plotted against the Yehuḏim should return on his own head, and that he and his sons should be impaled on the stake.

26. Therefore 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 come upon them,

27. the Yehuḏim established and imposed it upon themselves and upon their seed and all who should join them, that without fail they should observe these two days every year, according to their writing and at their appointed time,

28. and that these days should be remembered and observed throughout every generation, every clan, every province, and every city, and that these days of Purim should not fail from among the Yehuḏim, and that the remembrance of them should not cease from their seed.

29. And Sovereigness Estĕr, the daughter of Aḇiḥayil, with Mordeḵai the Yehuḏite, wrote with all authority to confirm this second letter about Purim.

30. And Mordeḵai sent letters to all the Yehuḏim, to the hundred and twenty-seven provinces of the reign of Aḥashwĕrosh, words of peace and truth,

31. to establish these days of Purim at their appointed times, as Mordeḵai the Yehuḏite and Sovereigness Estĕr had established for them, and as they had established for themselves and their seed concerning matters of their fastings and lamenting.

32. And the decree of Estĕr established these matters of Purim, and it was written in the book.