Vingt-et-un Esther 006

001 That night the king didn't manage to get to sleep. So he had them bring him the register of significant events, the annals, and they gave a reading of them before him.

002 They found the revelations mentioned in them, which were made by Mordecai on the subject of Bigthan and Teresh, the king's two eunuchs who guarded the entrance and had wanted to lay hands on King Ahasuerus.

003 The king asked: "What mark of honour and greatness has been granted to Mordecai for this?" "Absolutely nothing has been granted to him," the king's young servants answered.

004 The king asked then: "So who's in the courtyard?" - Haman had made his appearance in the inner courtyard of the palace to ask the king to have Mordecai hanged on the gallows that he had prepared for him.

005 The king's servants answered him: "It's Haman who is standing in the courtyard." "Let him come in!" the king ordered.

006 As soon as Haman came in, the king asked him: "How should we treat a man who the king wants to honour?" Haman said to himself: "Who else but me would the king want to honour?"

007 and he answered him: "If the king wants to honour a man,

008 he needs to take a royal garment that the king has already worn, as well as a horse that the king has already ridden and whose head they've put down a royal crown on.

009 He needs to entrust the garment and the horse to one of the king's most illustrious princes, put the outfit on the man who the king wants to honour, lead him, mounted on the horse, to the square of the city and shout ahead of him: 'This is how we act for the man who the king wants to honour!'"

010 The king said to Haman: "Hurry and take the garment and the horse, as you said, and do all that for the Jew Mordecai who is sitting at the king's gate, without neglecting any of all that you've mentioned!"

011 So Haman took the garment and the horse, put the outfit on Mordecai and lead him, mounted on the horse, to the square of the city shouting ahead of him: "This is how we act for the man who the king wants to honour!"

012 Afterwards Mordecai returned to the king's gate, whereas Haman hastened to go back home over and over, in an attitude of morning and with his head covered.

013 When he exposed all that had happened to him to his wife Zeresh and all his friends point by point, his advisors and his wife Zeresh said to him: "If this Mordecai before whom you began your downfall is a Jew, you won't be able to do anything against him: you will only be able to lose the game against him."

014 They were still speaking with him when the king's eunuchs arrived. They hastened to lead Haman to the banquet that Esther had prepared.

Vingt-et-un Esther 007

001 The king and Haman wended to the banquet given at Queen Esther's place.

002 On that second day, the king said to Esther again, while they were drinking wine: "What's the object of your request? It will be granted to you. What do you desire? Even if you demand half the kingdom, you'll obtain it."

003 Queen Esther answered: "If I've found favour in your eyes, my king, and if you see fit to, grant me my life, that is my request, and save my people, that is my desire!"

004 Indeed, we've been sold, my people and me, to be exterminated, massacred, eliminated. If only we had been sold to become slaves and handmaids, I'd have kept silence, though the adversary wouldn't know how to compensate for the loss caused to the king that way."

005 Doing the talking, King Ahasuerus asked Queen Esther: "Who and where is the one who has planned to act in that manner?"

006 Esther answered: "The man who is our adversary, our enemy, he's Haman, the miserable one who is here!" Haman trembled with terror before the king and the queen.

007 In his anger, the king got up and left the banquet to go into the garden of the palace. As for Haman, he stayed there to beg Queen Esther for his life, for he saw well that the loss of him was decided in the king's mind.

008 When the king returned from the garden of the palace, entering the banquetting hall, he found him slumpled against the seat occupied by Esther, and he said: "Will he even violate the queen in my presence in the palace?" As soon as this word got out of the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face.

009 Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs, said before the king : "There's a gallows prepared by Haman for Mordecai who had spoken for the king's good. It is erected in Haman's house and twenty-five meter high." The king ordered: "Do hang Haman on it!"

010 Thus, they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai, and the king's anger subsided.

Vingt-et-un Esther 008

001 On the same day, King Ahasuerus gave the property of Haman, the adversary of the Jews, to Queen Esther and Mordecai had to present himself before him, for she had revealed what he was to Esther.

002 The king took off his ring, the one that he had taken back from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. Esther, for her part, designated him as responsible for Haman's property.

003 Then Esther pursued her advocacy before the king. She threw herself at his feet, crying and begging him to the wickedness of Haman, the Agagite, and his plans agains the Jews.

004 The king extended the ceptre made of gold to her. Then she got back up and it was standing before the king

005 that she said to him: "If you see fit to, my king, and if I've found favour before you, if it appears suitable to you and if I'm agreeable to you, you ought to let them write to revoke the letters conceived by Haman, son of Hammedatha, the Agagite. He had written them out with the aim of getting rid of the Jews who are in all the king's provinces.

006 How could I bear to witness the misfortune that would strike my people, the disappearence of my family?"

007 King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and the Jew Mordecai: "I've already given Haman's property to Esther and Haman has been hanged on a gallows for attempting to lay hands on the Jews.

008 So write what you want to concerning the Jews! Do it in the name of the king and affix the royal stamp on your letters! Indeed, no document written in the name of the king and bearing the royal stamp can be revoked."

009 Then they convened the king's secretaries, on the twenty-third day of the third month, i.e. the month of Sivan, and they wrote a message which was completely true to Mordecai's orders and dispatched to the Jews, the satrapes, the governors and the chiefs of one hundred twenty-seven provinces that was covering a territory stretching from India to Ethiopia, to each province in its script and each people in its language, even to the Jews in their script and language.

010 They wrote the message in the name of King Ahasuerus and they affixed the king's stamp on it. They sent the letters through the agency of mounted couriers who mounted royal harnesses, thoroughbreds.

011 In the message, the king was authorising the Jews, whatever city they might live in, to assemble and defend their lives, exterminating, massacring and eliminating all the armed groups from a people or a province that would attack them, even the children and women, and to carry out the pillage of their goods.

012 This authorisation concerned all the provinces of King Ahasuerus but was valid for one single day: the thirteenth of the twelfth month, i.e. the month of Adar.

013 A copy of the document was to be given to each province for a commandment and conveyed to all the peoples in order that the Jews might be ready for that day, for the vengeance on their enemies.

014 Mounted on the royal harnesses, the couriers left without any delay, by the king's order. The edict was also proclaimed in Susa, the capital.

015 Mordecai went out of the king's place, wearing a blue and white royal garment, a big crown made of gold and a coat made of fine linen and purple, in the middle of the cries of joy and delight of the city of Susa.

016 The Jews were radiant with joy, filled with delight and showered with marks of honour.

017 In each province and city, everywhere the king's message arrived, which had the force of law, the Jews devoted themselves to joy and delight over and over, with banquets and celebrations. Moreover, many members of the other peoples of the country became Jewish over and over, because they were so afraid of them.

Vingt-et-un Esther 009

001 On the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, i.e. the month of Adar, the day when the king's message that had the force of law should have entered into force, the day when the enemies of the Jews had hoped to dominate over them, it was the contrary that happened: it was the turn for the Jews to dominate those who hated them.

002 They assembled in their respective cities, in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, to lay hands on those who wished them harm. No-one offered resistance to them, because all the other peoples were so afraid of them.

003 Moreover, all the provincial chiefs, the satraps, the governors and the king's offcials supported the Jews over and over, because they were so afraid of Mordecai.

004 Indeed, Mordecai played an important role at the palace and his reputation reached all the provinces for he exerted an growing influence.

005 The Jews struck all their enemies with the sword, killing and getting rid of them. He treated those who hated them at their pleasure.

006 In Susa, the capital, they killed and got rid of five hundred men,

007 not counting Parshadatha, Dalphon, Aspatha,

008 Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha,

009 Parmatha, Arisai, Aridai and Vaizatha,

010 the ten sons of Haman, son of Hammedatha, the adversary of the Jews. By way of contrast, they didn't indulge in any pillage.

011 On the same day, the number of people killed in Susa, the capital, was conveyed to the king,

012 and the king said to Queen Esther: "In Susa, the capital, the Jews killed and got rid of five hundred men, not counting Haman's ten sons. What will they have done in the rest of my provinces? However, What's the object of your request? It will be granted to you. What do you desire? You'll obtain it."

013 Esther answered: "If you see fit to, you ought to authorise the Jews of Susa to act tomorrow again in accordance with the law in force today and hang the bodies of the ten sons of Haman on a gallows."

014 The king ordered to act in that manner. So this edict was proclaimed in Susa and they hanged the bodies of the ten sons of Haman;

015 moreover, the Jews of Susa assembled again on the fourteenth of the month of Adar and killed three hundred men in Susa. By way of contrast, they didn't indulge in any pillage.

016 As for the rest of the Jews, the ones who were in the other provinces of the king, they assembled to defend their lives and obtain rest from their enemies. They killed seventy-five thousand people among those who hated them. By way of contrast, they didn't indulge in any pillage.

017 They did this on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar and rested on the fourteenth, and they made it a day reserved for banquets and joy.

018 For the part of the Jews of Susa had assembled on the thirteenth and fourteenth day and rested on the fifteenth; so it was the very day that they reserved for banquets and joy.

019 That's why to the Jews of the countryside, the ones who live in cities devoid of walls, it's the fourteenth day of the month of Adar that is a day reserved for joy, banquets and celebration, that they send presents to each other.

020 Mordecai recorded these events in writing and sent letters to all the Jews settled in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, whether they were near of far.

021 He was prescribing them to celebrate on the fourteenth and fifteenth day of the month of Adar each year.

022 Indeed, they were the days when the Jews had obtained rest from their enemies, the month when their sadness had been transformed into joy and their mourning into celebration. So they had to make the days days reserved for banquets and joy, when they send presents to each other and make offerings to the poor.

023 The Jews commit themselves to pursue what they had already started doing and what Mordecai had prescribed to them.

024 Indeed, Haman, son of Hammedatha, the Agagite who was the adversary of all the Jews, had planned of getting rid of them and he had cast 'pur', i.e. lots, with a view to sowing discord among them and getting rid of them.

025 However, Esther had presented herself before the king, and the king had ordered in writing to have the baneful plan Haman had formed against the Jews fall back on his head and hang him on a gallows, along with his sons.

026 That is why they called these days Purim, after the word 'Pur'. That is also why, based on all the instructions from this letter, what the Jews had seen themselves and what had happened to them,

027 they made the irrevocable comitment for them, for their descendants and all those who would join them, to celebrate these two days abiding by what was prescribed and the fixed date, and doing it each year,

028 to keep the memory of the days and celebrate them from generation to generation in each family, in each province and each city, and never to let these days of Purim disappear from the middle of the Jews or their memory wear off among their descendants.

029 Queen Esther, daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew wrote a second time, with the whole authority that was theirs, to confirm the letter relating to Purim.

030 Letters were sent to all the Jews, in the one hundred twenty-seven provinces of King Ahasuerus. Bearing a message of peace and truth,

031 they were confirming the fixed date for the days of Purim by Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther, but also by the Jews themselves, for them and their descendants and contained the instructions relating to the fasts and cries that accompanied them.

032 Thus, Esther's order confirmed these instructions relating to Purim and it was recorded in a book in writing.

Vingt-et-un Esther 010

001 King Ahasuerus subjected the continental part of the country as well as the islands to fatigue duty.

002 All that he accomplished through his power and force, along with the details on the important role that he granted to Mordecaim - it is described in the annals of the kings of Medians and Persians.

003 Indeed, Mordecai the Jew was the assistant of King Ahasuerus. He played an important role for the Jews and was very much appreciated by his numerous brothers. He sought his people's happiness and contributed to the well-being of all his offspring through his words.