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who for these thirty days now have not been move from the place where he sat, he was excalled unto him? ceedingly angry:

12 And when Mardochai had heard this, 13 He sent word to Esther again, saying: Think not that thou mayest save thy life only, because thou art in the king's house, more than all the Jews:

14 For if thou wilt now hold thy peace, the Jews shall be delivered by some other occasion: and thou, and thy father's house shall perish. And who knoweth whether thou art not therefore come to the kingdom, that thou mightest be ready in such a time as this?

15 And again Esther sent to Mardochai in these words:

16 Go, and gather together all the Jews whom thou shalt find in Susan, and pray ye for me. Neither eat, nor drink for three days and three nights and I with my handmaids will fast in like manner, and then I will go in to the king, against the law, not being called, and expose myself to death and to danger.

17 So Mardochai went, and did all that Esther had commanded him.

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ND on the third day Esther put on her royal apparel, and stood in the inner court of the king's house, over-against the king's hall: now he sat upon his throne in the hall of the palace, over-against the door of the house.

2 And when he saw Esther the queen standing, she pleased his eyes, and he held out toward her the golden sceptre, which he held in his nand: and she drew near, and kissed the top of

nis sceptre.

3 And the king said to her: What wilt thou, queen Esther? what is thy request? if thou shouldst even ask one half of the kingdom, it shall be given to thee.

10 But dissembling his anger, and returning into his house, he called together to him his friends, and Zares his wife:

11 And he declared to them the greatness of his riches, and the multitude of his children, and with how great glory the king had advanced him above all his princes and servants.

12 And after this he said: Queen Esther also hath invited no other to the banquet with the king, but me: and with her I am also to dine to-morrow with the king.

13 And whereas I have all these things, I think I have nothing, so long as I see Mardochai the Jew sitting before the king's gate.

14 Then Zares his wife, and the rest of his friends answered him: Order a great beam to be prepared, fifty cubits high, and in the morning speak to the king, that Mardochai may be hanged upon it, and so thou shalt go full of joy with the king to the banquet. The counsel pleased him, and he commanded a high gibbet to be prepared.

CHAP. VI.

The king hearing of the good service done him by Mar dochai, commandeth Aman to honour him next to the king, which he performeth.

THAT night the king passed without sleep,

and he commanded the histories and chronicles of former times to be brought him. And when they were reading them before him, 2 They came to that place where it was written, how Mardochai had discovered the treason of Bagathan and Thares the eunuchs, who sought to kill king Assuerus.

3 And when the king heard this, he said: What honour and reward hath Mardochai received for this fidelity? His servants and ministers said to him: He hath received no reward at all. 4 And the king said immediately: Who is in the court? for Aman was coming in to the inner court of the king's house, to speak to the king, that he might order Mardochai to be hanged upon the gibbet which was prepared for him. 5 The servants answered: Aman standeth in the court. And the king said: Let him come in. 6 And when he was come in, he said to him: 6 And the king said to her, after he had drunk What ought to be done to the man whom the wine plentifully: What dost thou desire should king is desirous to honour? But Aman thinkbe given thee? and for what thing askesting in his heart, and supposing that the king thou? although thou shouldst ask the half of would honour no other but himself, my kingdom, thou shalt have it.

4 But she answered: If it please the king, I beseech thee to come to me this day, and Aman with thee to the banquet which I have prepared. 5 And the king said forthwith: Call ye Aman quickly, that he may obey Esther's will. So the king and Aman came to the banquet which the queen had prepared for them.

7 And Esther answered: My petition and request is this:

8 If I have found favour in the king's sight, and if it please the king to give me what I ask, and to fulfil my petition: let the king and Aman come to the banquet which I have prepared them, and to-morrow I will open my mind to the king. 9 So Aman went out that day joyful and merry. And when he saw Mardochai sitting before the gate of the palace, and that he not only did not rise up to honour him, but did not so much as

A. M. 3495.- A. M. 3495.

Ch. 6. v. 3. No reward at all. He received some presents from the king, chap. 12. 5.; but these were so inconsiderable in the opinion of the courtiers, that they esteemed them as nothing at all.

a

7 Answered: The man whom the king desireth to honour,

8 Ought to be clothed with the king's apparel, and to be set upon the horse that the king rideth 9 And let the first of the king's princes and upon, and to have the royal crown upon his head, nobles hold his horse, and going through the Thus shall he be honoured, whom the king hath street of the city, proclaim before him and say. mind to honour.

10 And the king said to him: Make haste and take the robe and the horse, and do as thou hast spoken to Mardochai the Jew, who sitteth before the gates of the palace. Beware thou pass over any of those things which thou hast spoken. 11 So Aman took the robe and the horse, and arraying Mardochai in the street of the city, and

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setting him on the horse, went before him, and ON

proclaimed: This honour is he worthy of, whom the king hath a mind to honour.

12 And Mardochai returned to the palace gate: and Aman made haste to go to his house, mourn ing and having his head covered:

13 And he told Zares his wife, and his friends all that had befallen him. And the wise men whom he had in counsel, and his wife answered him: If Mardochai be of the seed of the Jews, before whom thou hast begun to fall, thou canst not resist him, but thou shalt fall in his sight. 14 As they were yet speaking, the king's eunuchs came, and compelled him to go quickly to the banquet which the queen had prepared. CHAP. VII.

Esther's petition for herself and her people: Aman is hanged upon the gibbet he had prepared for Mar

dochai.

So the king and Aman went in, to drink with

the queen.

2 And the king said to her again the second day, after he was warm with wine: What is thy petition, Esther, that it may be granted thee? and what wilt thou have done: although thou ask the half of my kingdom, thou shalt have it. 3 Then she answered: If I have found favour in thy sight, O king, and if it please thee, give me my life for which I ask, and my people for which I request.

4 For we are given up, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. And would God we were sold for bond-men and bond-women: the evil might be borne with, and I would have mourned in silence: but now we have an enemy, whose cruelty redoundeth upon the king. 5 And king Assuerus answered and said: Who is this, and of what power, that he should do these things?

6 And Esther said: It is this Aman that is our adversary and most wicked enemy. Aman hearing this was forthwith astonished, not being able to bear the countenance of the king and of the queen.

7 But the king being angry rose up, and went from the place of the banquet into the garden set with trees. Aman also rose up, to entreat Esther the queen for his life, for he understood that evil was prepared for him by the king.

8 And when the king came back out of the garden set with trees, and entered into the place of the banquet, he found Aman was fallen upon the bed on which Esther lay, and he said: He will force the queen also in my presence, in my own house. The word was not yet gone out of the king's mouth, and immediately they covered his face.

9 And Harbona, one of the eunuchs that stood waiting on the king, said: Behold the gibbet which he hath prepared for Mardochai, who spoke for the king, standeth in Aman's house, being fifty cubits high. And the king said to him: Hang him upon it.

10 So Aman was hanged on the gibbet which he had prepared for Mardochai: and the king's wrath ceased.

b that day king Assuerus gave the house of Aman, the Jews' enemy, to queen Es ther, and Mardochai came in before the king. For Esther had confessed to him that he was her uncle.

2 And the king took the ring which he had commanded to be taken again from Aman, and gave it to Mardochai. And Esther set Mardochai over her house.

3 And not content with these things, she fell down at the king's feet and wept, and speaking to him besought him, that he would give orders that the malice of Aman the Agagite, and his most wicked devices which he had invented against the Jews, should be of no effect. 4 But he, as the manner was, held out the golden sceptre with his hand, which was the sign of clemency: and she arose up and stood before him 5 And said: If it please the king, and if I have found favour in his sight, and my request be not disagreeable to him, I beseech thee, that the former letters of Aman the traitor and enemy of the Jews, by which he commanded that they should be destroyed in all the king's provinces, may be reversed by new letters.

6 For how can I endure the murdering and slaughter of my people?

7 And king Assuerus answered Esther the queen, and Mardochai the Jew: I have given Aman's house to Esther, and I have commanded him to be hanged on a gibbet, because he durst lay hands on the Jews.

8 Write ye therefore to the Jews, as it pleaseth you, in the king's name, and seal the letters with my ring. For this was the custom, that no man durst gainsay the letters which were sent in the king's name, and were sealed with his ring.

9 Then the king's scribes and secretaries were called for (now it was the time of the third month which is called Siban) the three and twentieth day of the month, and letters were written, as Mardochai had a mind, to the Jews, and to the governors, and to the deputies, and to the judg es, who were rulers over the hundred and twenty seven provinces, from India even to Ethiopia: to province and province, to people and people, according to their languages and characters, and to the Jews, according as they could read and hear.

10 And these letters which were sent in the king's name, were sealed with his ring, and sent by posts: who were to run through all the provinces, to prevent the former letters with new messages.

11 And the king gave orders to them, to speak to the Jews in every city, and to command them to gather themselves together, and to stand for their lives, and to kill and destroy all their enemies with their wives and children and all their houses, and to take their spoil.

12 And one day of revenge was appointed through all the provinces, to wit, the thirteenth of the twelfth month Adar.

13 And this was the content of the letter, that it should be notified in all lands and peoples that were subject to the empire of king Assuerus, Mardochai is advanced: Aman's letters are reversed. that the Jews were ready to be revenged of their

CHAP. VIII.

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15 And Mardochai going forth out of the palace, and from the king's presence, shone in royal apparel, to wit, of violet and sky-colour wearing a golden crown on his head, and clothed with a cloak of silk and purple. And all the city rejoiced and was glad.

16 But to the Jews a new light seemed to rise, joy, honour, and dancing.

17 And in all peoples, cities and provinces, whithersoever the king's commandments came, there was wonderful rejoicing, feasts and banquets, and keeping holy-day: insomuch that many of other nations and religion, joined themselves to their worship and ceremonies. For a great dread of the name of the Jews had fallen upon all.

CHAP. IX.

The Jews kill their enemies that would have killed them. The days of Phurim are appointed to be kept holy. So O on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which as we have said above is called Adar, when all the Jews were designed to be massacred, and their enemies were greedy after their blood, the case being altered, the Jews began to have the upper hand, and to revenge themselves

of their adversaries.

let it be granted to the Jews, to do to-morrow in Susan as they have done to-day, and that the ten sons of Aman may be hanged upon gibbets. 14 And the king commanded that it should be so done. And forthwith the edict was hung up in Susan, and the ten sons of Aman were hanged. 15 And on the fourteenth day of the month Adar the Jews gathered themselves together, and they killed in Susan three hundred men: but they took not their substance.

16 Moreover through all the provinces which were subject to the king's dominion the Jews stood for their lives, and slew their enemies and persecutors: insomuch that the number of them that were killed amounted to seventy five thousand, and no man took any of their goods. 17 Now the thirteenth day of the month Adar was the first day with them all of the slaughter, and on the fourteenth day they left off. Which they ordained to be kept holy-day, so that all times hereafter they should celebrate it with feasting, joy, and banquets.

Susan, were employed in the slaughter on the 18 But they that were killing in the city of thirteenth and fourteenth day of the same month: and on the fifteenth day they rested. And therefore they appointed that day to be a holy-day of feasting and gladness.

19 But those Jews that dwelt in towns not

2 And they gathered themselves together, in walled and in villages, appointed the fourteenth every city, and town, and place, to lay their day of the month Ådar for banquets and gladhands on their enemies, and their persecutors. ness, so as to rejoice on that day, and send one And no one durst withstand them, for the fear another portions of their banquets and meats. of their power had gone through every people. 20 And Mardochai wrote all these things, and 3 And the judges of the provinces, and the go- sent them comprised in letters to the Jews that vernors, and lieutenants, and every one in dig-abode in all the king's provinces, both those that nity, that presided over every place and work, lay near, and those afar off,

extolled the Jews for fear of Mardochai:

4 For they knew him to be prince of the palace, and to have great power: and the fame of his name increased daily, and was spread abroad through all men's mouths.

5 So the Jews made a great slaughter of their enemies, and killed them, repaying according to what they had prepared to do to them:

6 Insomuch that even in Susan they killed five hundred men, besides the ten sons of Aman the Agagite the enemy of the Jews: whose names are these:

7 Pharsandatha, and Deiphon, and Esphatha, 8 And Phoratha, and Adalia, and Aridatha, 9 And Phermesta, and Arisai, and Aridai, and Jezatha.

10 And when they had slain them, they would not touch the spoils of their goods.

11 And presently the number of them that were killed in Susan was brought to the king. 12 And he said to the queen: The Jews have killed five hundred men in the city of Susan, besides the ten sons of Aman: how many dost thou think they have slain in all the provinces? What askest thou more, and what wilt thou have me to command to be done?

13 And she answered: If it please the king,

A. M. 3496. A. C. 508.

Ch. 9. v. 1. To revenge, &c. The Jews on this occasion by authority from the king, were made executioners of the public justice, for punishing by death a crime worthy of death, viz., A malicious conspiracy for extirpating their whole nation.

21 That they should receive the fourteenth and fifteenth day of the month_Adar for holydays, and always at the return of the year should celebrate them with solemn honour:

22 Because on those days the Jews revenged themselves of their enemies, and their mourning and sorrow were turned into mirth and joy, and that these should be days of feasting and gladness, in which they should send one to another portions of meats, and should give gifts to the

poor.

23 And the Jews undertook to observe with so

lemnity all they had begun to do at that time, which Mardochai by letters had commanded to be done.

24 For Aman, the son of Amadathi of the race of Agag, the enemy and adversary of the Jews, had devised evil against them, to kill them and destroy them: and had cast Phur, that is, the lot. 25 And afterwards Esther went in to the king, beseeching him that his endeavours might be made void by the king's letters: and the evil that he had intended against the Jews, might return upon his own head. And so both he and his sons were hanged upon gibbets.

26 And since that time these days are called Phurim, that is, of Lots: because Phur, that is, the lot, was cast into the urn. And all things that were done, are contained in the volume of this epistle, that is, of this book:

27 And the things that they suffered, and that were afterwards changed, the Jews took upon

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