7 In the first month, which is the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, ^xthey cast Pur (that is, they cast lots) before Haman day after day; and they cast it month after month till the twelfth month, which is ^ythe month of Adar.

13 Letters were sent ⁱby couriers to all the king’s provinces with instruction ^jto destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all Jews, young and old, women and children, ^kin one day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, ^land to plunder their goods.

12 ^jon one day throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar.

The Jews Destroy Their Enemies

1 ^sNow in the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, ^ton the thirteenth day of the same, ^uwhen the king’s command and edict were about to be carried out, ^jon the very day when the enemies of the Jews hoped to gain the mastery over them, the reverse occurred: the Jews gained mastery over those who hated them.

15 The Jews who were in Susa gathered also on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and they killed 300 men in Susa, but they laid no hands on the plunder.

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

19 Therefore the Jews of the villages, who live in ⁱthe rural towns, hold the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a day for gladness and feasting, as ^ja holiday, and ^kas a day on which they send gifts of food to one another.

21 obliging them to keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar and also the fifteenth day of the same, year by year,