Esther, chapters 15 & 16
NOTE. The portions of the Book of Esther commonly included in the Apocrypha
are extracts from the Greek version of the book, which differs substantially from
the Hebrew text (translated in The New English Bible: Old Testament). In
order that they may be read in their original sequence, the whole of the Greek
version is here translated, those portions which are not normally printed in the
Apocrypha being enclosed in square brackets, with the chapter and verse numbers
in italic figures. The order followed is that of the Greek text, but the chapter and
verse numbers are made to conform to those of the Authorized Version. Proper
names are given in the form in which they occur in the Greek version.
15 ON THE THIRD DAY Esther brought her prayers to an end. She took off
the clothes she had worn while she worshipped and put on all her splendour.
When she was in her royal robes and had invoked the all-seeing God, her
preserver, she took two maids with her; on one she leaned for support, as
befitted a fine lady, while the other followed, bearing her train. She was
blushing and in the height of her beauty; her face was as cheerful as it was
lovely, but her heart was in the grip of fear. She passed through all the doors
and reached the royal presence. The king was seated on his throne, in the
full array of his majesty. He was all gold and precious stones, an awe-
inspiring figure. He looked up, his face glowing with regal dignity, and
glanced at her in towering anger. The queen fell, changing colour in a faint,
and swooned on the shoulder of the maid who went before her.
Then God changed the spirit of the king to gentleness, and in deep con-
cern he leapt from his throne and took her in his arms until she came o her-
self. He soothed her with reassuring words: 'Esther, what is it? Have no
fear of me, your loving husband; you shall not die, for our order is only for
our subjects. Come to me.' And the king lifted his golden sceptre and laid
it upon her neck; then he kissed her and said, 'You may speak to me.' She
answered, 'I saw you, my lord, looking like an angel of God and I was
awestruck at your glorious appearance; your countenance is so full of
grace, my lord, that I look on you in wonder.' But while she was speaking
she fell down in a faint; the king was distressed, and all his attendants com-
forted her.
5 [Then the king said, 'What is your wish, Queen Esther? What is your
request? Up to half my empire, it shall be given you.' 'Today is a special
day for me', said Esther. 'If it please your majesty, will you come, and
Haman with you, to a banquet which I shall give today?' The king ordered
Haman to be sent for in haste, so that Esther's wish might be fulfilled; and
they both went to the banquet to which Esther had invited them. Over the
wine the king said to her, 'What is it, Queen Esther? Whatever you ask for
shall be yours.' Esther said, 'This is my humble request: if I have won your
majesty's favour, will your majesty and Haman come again tomorrow to
the banquet which I shall give for you both, and tomorrow I will do as I
have done today.'
So Haman went out from the royal presence in good spirits and well
pleased with himself. But when he saw Mardochaeus the Jew in the king's
courtyard, he was filled with rage. He went home, and called for his friends
and his wife Zosara, and held forth to them about his wealth and the
honours with which the king had invested him, how he had made him first
man in the empire. 'Queen Esther', he said, 'invited no one but myself
to accompany the king to her banquet; and I am invited again for tomorrow.
Yet all this is no pleasure to me so long as I see that Jew Mardochaeus in
the courtyard.' Then his wife Zosara and his friends said to him: 'Have a
gallows put up, seventy-five feet high, and in the morning speak to the
king and have Mardochaeus hanged upon it. Then you can go with the
king to the banquet and enjoy yourself.' Haman thought this an excellent
plan, and the gallows was made ready.
6 THAT NIGHT the Lord kept sleep from the king, so he ordered his
private secretary to bring the court chronicle and read it to him. He
found written there the record about Mardochaeus, how he had given
information about the two royal eunuchs who, while they were on guard,
had plotted violence against King Artaxerxes. Whereupon the king said,
'What honour or favour did we confer on Mardochaeus for this?' The
king's courtiers who were in attendance replied, 'You have done nothing
for him.' While the king was inquiring about the service that Mardochaeus
had rendered, Haman appeared in the courtyard. 'Who is that in the court?'
asked the king. Now Haman had just come in to recommend to the king
that Mardochaeus should be hanged on the gallows which he had pre-
pared; so the king's servants said, 'It is Haman standing in the court.'
'Call him', said the king. Then the king said to Haman, 'What shall I do
for the man I wish to honour?' Haman said to himself, 'Whom would the
king wish to honour but me?' So he said to the king, 'For the man whom the
king wishes to honour, let the king's attendants bring a robe of fine linen
from the king's own wardrobe and a horse from the king's own stable. Let
both be delivered to one of the king's most honourable Friends, and let
him robe the man whom the king loves and mount him on a horse, and
let him proclaim through the city: "This shall be the lot of any man whom
the king honours."' Then the king said to Haman, 'An excellent sug-
gestion! Do all this for Mardochaeus the Jew who serves in the courtyard.
Let nothing that you have said be omitted.' So Haman took the robe and
put it on Mardochaeus, and mounted him on the horse; then he went
through the city, proclaiming: 'This shall be the lot of any man whom the
king wishes to honour.'
Then Mardochaeus returned to his courtyard, and Haman hurried
off home with his head veiled in mourning. He told his wife Zosara
and his friends what had happened to him. They replied, 'If Mardo-
chaeus is a Jew, and you have been humiliated before him, you are a
lost man. You cannot get the better of him, because the living God is on
his side.'
While they were still talking with Haman, the king's eunuchs arrived
and hurried him away to the banquet which Esther had prepared.
7 So the king and Haman went to the queen's banquet. Again on that
second day, over the wine, the king said, 'What is it, Queen Esther? What
is your request? What is your petition? You shall have it, up to half my
empire.' Queen Esther answered: 'If I have won your majesty's favour,
my request is for my life, my petition is for my people. For it has come
to my ears that we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed,
plundered, and enslaved, we and our children, male and female. Our
adversary is a disgrace to the king's court.' The king said, 'Who is it that
has dared to do such a thing?' 'Our enemy', said Esther, 'is this wicked
Haman.' Haman stood dumbfounded before the king and queen. The
king rose from the banquet and went into the garden, and Haman began
to plead with the queen, for he saw that things were going badly for him.
When the king returned to the banqueting hall from the garden, Haman
in his entreaties had flung himself across the queen's couch. The king
exclaimed, 'What! You assault the queen in my own house?' At those
words Haman turned away in despair. Then Bugathan, one of the
eunuchs, said to the king, 'Look! Haman has prepared a gallows
for Mardochaeus, the man who reported the plot against the king, and
there it stands, seventy-five feet high, in Haman's compound.' 'Have
Haman hanged on it', said the king. So Haman was hanged on the gallows
that he himself had prepared for Mardochaeus. After the king's
rage died down.
8 That day King Artaxerxes gave Esther all that had belonged to Haman
the persecutor; and Mardochaeus was called into the king's presence,
for Esther had told him how he was related to her. Then the king took
off his signet-ring, which he had taken back from Haman, and gave it
to Mardochaeus. And Esther put Mardochaeus in charge of Haman's
estate.
Once again Esther spoke before the king, falling at his feet and pleading
with him to avert the calamity planned by Haman and to frustrate his plot
against the Jews. The king stretched out the golden sceptre to Esther, and
she rose and stood before the king. 'May it please your majesty,' she said;
if I have won your favour, let an order be issued recalling the letters which
Haman sent in pursuance of his plan to destroy the Jews in your empire.
How can I bear to see the downfall of my people? How escape myself
when my country is destroyed?' Then the king said to Esther: 'I have
given Haman's property to you, and hanged him on the gallows because
he threatened the lives of the Jews. If you want anything further, you may
draw up an order in my name, in whatever terms you think fit, and seal it
with my signet. An order written at the king's direction and sealed with the
royal signet cannot be contravened.'
And so, on the seventy-third day of the first month, Nisan, in the same
year, the king's secretaries were summoned; and the Jews were informed in
writing of the instructions given to the administrators and chief governors
in the provinces, from India to Ethiopia, a hundred and twenty-seven pro-
vinces, to each province with his signet, and dispatched by courier. By
these documents the king granted permission to the Jews in every city to
observe their own laws and to defend themselves, and to deal as they would
with their opponents and enemies, throughout the empire of Artaxerxes,
on a given day, the thirteenth of the twelfth month, Adar.]
16 THE FOLLOWING IS A COPY if this letter:
Artaxerxes the Great King to the governors of the one hundred and
twenty-seven provinces, from India to Ethiopia, and to those who are
of our allegiance, greeting.
Many who have been honoured only too often by the lavish generosity
of their benefactors have grown arrogant and not only attempt to
ill-treat our subjects but, unable to carry the favours heaped upon them-
selves, even plot mischief against those who grant them. Not content
with destroying gratitude in men, they are carried away by the insolence
of those who are strangers of good breeding; they even suppose that they
will escape the justice of all-seeing God, who is no friend to evil-doers.
And often, when the king's business has been entrusted to those he
counts his friends, they have, by their plausibility, made those in
supreme authority partners in shedding innocent blood and involved
them in irreparable misfortunes, for their malevolence with its mis-
leading sophistries has imposed upon the sincere goodwill of their rulers.
The evil brought about by those who wield power unworthily you can
observe, not only in records of tradition and history but also in your
familiar experiences, and apply the lesson to the future. Thus we shall
peacefully free this realm from disturbance for the benefit of all, making
no changes but always deciding matters which come under our notice
with firmness and equity. Now Haman son of Hamadathus, a Mace-
donian, an alien in fact with no Persian blood, a man with nothing of our
kindly nature, was accepted by us and enjoyed so fully the benevolence
with which we treat every nation that he has proclaimed our Father,
and all along received obeisance from everyone as second only to our
royal throne. But this man in his unbridled arrogance planned to deprive
us of our empire and our life by using fraud sand tortuous cunning to
bring about the destruction of Mardochaeus, our constant benefactor
who had saved our life, and of Esther, our blameless consort, together
with their whole nation. For he thought that by these methods he would
catch us defenceless and would transfer to the Macedonians the sove-
reignty now held by the Persians. But we find that the Jews, whom this
triple-dyed villain had consigned to extinction, are no evil-doers; they
order their lives by the most just of laws, and are children of the living
God, most high, most mighty, who maintains the empire in most
wonderful order, for us as for our ancestors.
You will therefore disregard the letter sent by Haman son of Hama-
dathus, because he, the contriver of all this, has been hanged aloft at
the gate of Susa with his whole household, God who is Lord of all having
speedily brought upon him the punishment that he deserves. Copies of
this letter are to be posted up in all public places. Permit the Jews to
live under their own laws, and give them every assistance so that on the
thirteenth day of Adar, the twelfth month, on that very day, they may
avenge themselves on those who were ranged against them in the time
of their oppression. For God, who has all things in his power, has made
this a day not of their ruin, but of joy, for his chosen people. Therefore you
also must keep it with all good cheer, as a notable day among your feasts
of commemoration, so that henceforth it may be a standing symbol of
deliverance to us and our loyal Persians, but a reminder of destruction to
those who plot against us. Any city or country whatsoever which does
not act upon these orders shall incur our wrath and be wiped out with
fire and sword. No man shall set foot in it even the beasts and birds
shall shun it for all time.
8 [Let copies be posted up conspicuously throughout the empire, so
that the Jews may be prepared by that day to fight against their enemies.
Mounted messengers set out with all speed to do what the king com-
manded; and the decree was posted up also in Susa.
Mardochaeus left the king's presence in royal robes, wearing a golden
crown and a turban of the fine linen dyed purple, and all Susa rejoiced to see
him. For the Jews there was light and gladness in every province and every
city. Wherever the decree was posted up there was joy and gladness for the
Jews, feasting and merriment. And many of the Gentiles were circumcised
and professed Judaism, because they were afraid of the Jews.
9 ON THE THIRTEENTH DAY of the twelfth moth, Adar, the decree
drawn up by the king arrived. On that very day the enemies of the Jews
perished. No one offered resistance, because they were afraid of them. The
leading provincial governors, the princes, and the royal secretaries paid
all respects to the Jews, because fear of Mardochaeus weighed upon them.
For they had received the king's decree that his name should be honoured
throughout the empire. In the city itself the Jews slaughtered five
hundred men, including Pharsanestan, Delphon Phasga, Pharadatha,
Barsa, Sarbacha, Mrmasima, Ruphaeus, Arsaeus, and Zabuthaeus, the
ten sons of Haman son of Hamadathus, the Bugaean, the Jews' great
enemy; and that day they took plunder.
When the number of those killed in Susa was reported to the king, he
said to Esther, 'In the city of Susa the Jews have killed five hundred men.
What do you suppose they have done in the surrounding country? What-
ever further request you have will be granted.' Esther answered him, 'Let
the Jews be allowed to do the same tomorrow, and hang up the bodies of
Haman's ten sons.' The king consented; he handed over the bodies of
Haman's sons to the Jews of the city to be hung up. The Jews in Susa
assembled on the fourteenth day of Adar also, and killed three hundred,
but they took no plunder.
The rest of the Jews in the empire rallied together in self-defence, and
so were quit of their enemies; for they slaughtering fifteen thousand of
them on the thirteenth of Adar; but they took no plunder. On the four-
teenth they rested , and made that day a day of rest, with rejoicing and
merriment. The Jews in the city of Susa had assembled also on the four-
teenth day with rejoicing and merriment. That is why Jews who are dis-
persed over the remoter parts keep the fourteenth day of Adar as a holiday
with rejoicing and merriment, sending presents of food to one another;
but those who live in the principal cities keep the fifteenth of Adar as a
holiday, sending presents of food to one another.
Then Mardochaeus wrote down the whole story in a book and sent it
to all the Jews in the empire of Artaxerxes, far and near, ordering them to
establish these holidays, and to keep the fourteenth and fifteenth of Adar,
because these were the days on which the Jews were quit of their enemies,
and to keep the whole month of Adar, in which came the great change
from sorrow to joy and from mourning to holiday, as a time for feast-
ing and merriment, days for sending presents of food to friends and to
the poor.
So the Jews formally accepted the account which Mardochaeus wrote:
how Haman son of Hamadathus, the Bugaean, fought against them; how
he cast lots to decide the date of their destruction; how he came before the
king with a proposal to hang Mardochaeus; and how all the evils which he
had plotted against the Jews recoiled upon his own head, and he and his sons
were hanged. This is why these days were named 'Purim', which in the
Jews' language means 'lots'. Because of all that was recorded in this letter
——all that they had experienced, all that had happened——Mardochaeus
directed that this festival should be observed, and the Jews undertook, on
behalf of themselves, their descendants, and all who should join them, to
do so without failing. These were to be the days of commemoration, duly cele-
brated age after age in every town, family, and province. These days of
Purim were to be kept for all time, and the commemoration was never to
cease throughout all ages.
Queen Esther daughter of Aminadab, and Mardochaeus the Jew,
recorded in writing all that they had done, and confirmed the regulations
for Purim. They made themselves responsible for this decision and staked
their life upon the plan. Esther established it for all time by her decree,
and it was put on record.
10 The king made decrees for the empire by land and sea. His strength and
courage, his wealth and the splendour of his empire, are recorded in the
annals of the kings of the Persians and Medes. Mardochaeus acted for
King Artaxerxes; he was a great man in the empire and honoured by the
Jews. His way of life won him the affection of his whole nation.]
MARDOCHAEUS SAID, 'All this is God's doing. For I have been
reminded of the dream i had about these things; not one of the visions I saw
proved meaningless. There was the little spring which became a river, and
there was light and sun and water in abundance. The river is Esther, whom
the king married and made queen; the two draons are Haman and myself;
the nations are those who gathered to wipe out the Jews; my nation is
Israel, which cried aloud to God and was delivered. The Lord has delivered
his people, he has rescued us from all these evils. God performed great
miracles and signs such as have not occurred among the nations. He made
ready two lots, one for the people of God and one for all the nations; then
came the hour and the time for these two lots to be cast, the day of decision
by God before all the nations; he remembered his people and gave the
verdict for his heritage.
'So they shall keep these days in the month of Adar, the fourteenth and
fifteenth of that month, by gathering with joy and gladness before God
from one generation of his people to another, for ever.'
11 IN THE FOURTH YEAR of the reign of Ptolemy and Cleopatra, Dositheus,
who said that he was a levitical priest, and Ptolemaeus his son, brought the
foregoing letter about Purim, which they said was authentic and had been
translated by Lysimachus son of Ptolemaeus, a resident in Jerusalem.
The New English Bible (with Apocrypha)
Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, 1970
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