24 September - Esther 6-10

Jude Thu Sep 06, 2018 7:48 am

My soul doth magnify my YAH, and my spirit hath rejoiced in EL my Saviour; For HE that is mighty hath done to me great things; and Holy is HIS Name. Now unto HIM who is ever present in my helpless estate; who is able to keep me from falling and to present me faultless before the presence of His Glory with exceeding joy, unto the King Eternal, Immortal, Invisible, the only wise EL our Saviour be honour and glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and for ever Halleluyah!

ESTHER 6

1On that night the sleep of the sovereign fled, and he commanded to bring the book of the records of the annals. And they were read before the sovereign.

2And it was found written that Mordeḵai had told of Big̅thana and Teresh, two of the sovereign’s eunuchs, the doorkeepers who had sought to lay hands on Sovereign Aḥashwĕrosh.

3Then the sovereign said, “What has been done in value or in greatness to Mordeḵai for this?” And the sovereign’s servants who attended him said, “Naught has been done for him.”

4And the sovereign said, “Who is in the court?” Now Haman had come into the outer court of the sovereign’s palace to speak to the sovereign to impale Mordeḵai on the stake that he had prepared for him.

5And the sovereign’s servants said to him, “Look, Haman is standing in the court.” And the sovereign said, “Let him come in.”

6And when Haman came in, the sovereign asked him, “What is to be done for the man whom the sovereign delights to value?” Now Haman thought in his heart, “Whom would the sovereign delight to value more than me?”

7And Haman answered the sovereign, “For the man whom the sovereign delights to value,

8let a royal robe be brought which the sovereign has worn, and a horse on which the sovereign has ridden, one with a royal crest placed on its head.

9“And let this robe and horse be given into the hand of one of the sovereign’s most noble princes. Let them dress the man whom the sovereign delights to value. And make him ride on horseback through the city square, and proclaim before him, ‘Thus it is done to the man whom the sovereign delights to value!’ ”

10And the sovereign said to Haman, “Hurry, take the robe and the horse, as you have spoken, and do so for Mordeḵai the Yehuḏite who sits in the sovereign’s gate. Let no word fail of all that you have spoken.”

11And Haman took the robe and the horse, and robed Mordeḵai and led him on horseback through the city square, and proclaimed before him, “Thus it is done to the man the sovereign delights to value.”

12Then Mordeḵai went back to the sovereign’s gate. But Haman hurried to his house, mourning and with covered head.

13And when Haman related to his wife Zeresh and all his friends all that had befallen him, his wise men and his wife Zeresh said to him, “If Mordeḵai, before whom you have begun to fall, is from the seed of the Yehuḏim, you are not going to prevail against him but certainly fall before him.”

14While they were still speaking with him, the sovereign’s eunuchs came, and hurried to bring Haman to the feast which Estĕr had prepared.

ESTHER 7

1And the sovereign and Haman came in, to drink with Sovereigness Estĕr.

2And again on the second day, at the feast of wine, the sovereign said to Estĕr, “What is your petition, Sovereigness Estĕr? And it is given to you. And what is your request? Up to half my reign, and it is done!”

3And Sovereigness Estĕr answered and said, “If I have found favour in your eyes, O sovereign, and if it pleases the sovereign, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request.

4“For we have been sold, my people and I, to be cut off, to be slain, and to be destroyed. And if we had been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept silent, although the adversary could not make up for the sovereign’s loss.”

5Then Sovereign Aḥashwĕrosh asked Sovereigness Estĕr, “Who is he, and where is he, whose heart is set to do so?”

6And Estĕr said, “The adversary and enemy is this evil Haman!” Then Haman was afraid before the sovereign and sovereigness.

7And the sovereign, arising in his wrath from the feast of wine, went into the palace garden. And Haman remained before Sovereigness Estĕr, pleading for his life, for he saw that evil had been decided against him by the sovereign.

8And when the sovereign returned from the palace garden to the place of the feast of wine, Haman was falling on the couch where Estĕr was. Then the sovereign said, “Also to ravish the sovereigness while I am in the house?” As the word left the sovereign’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face.

9And Ḥarḇonah, one of the eunuchs, said to the sovereign, “Also, see the stake, fifty cubits high, which Haman made for Mordeḵai, who spoke good on behalf of the sovereign, is standing at the house of Haman.” And the sovereign said, “Impale him on it!”

10And they impaled Haman on the stake that he had prepared for Mordeḵai, and the sovereign’s wrath abated.

ESTHER 8

1On that day Sovereign Aḥashwĕrosh gave to Sovereigness Estĕr the house of Haman, the adversary of the Yehuḏim. And Mordeḵai came before the sovereign, for Estĕr had explained what he was to her.

2And the sovereign took off his signet ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordeḵai. And Estĕr appointed Mordeḵai over the house of Haman.

3And Estĕr spoke to the sovereign again, and fell down at his feet and begged him with tears to put an end to the evil of Haman the Ag̅ag̅ite, and his plot which he had plotted against the Yehuḏim.

4And the sovereign held out the golden sceptre toward Estĕr. And Estĕr arose and stood before the sovereign,

5and said, “If it pleases the sovereign, and if I have found favour in his sight and the matter is right before the sovereign and I am pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to bring back the letters, the plot by Haman, son of Hammeḏatha the Ag̅ag̅ite, which he wrote to destroy the Yehuḏim who are in all the sovereign’s provinces.

6“For how could I bear to see the evil coming to my people? Or how could I bear to see the destruction of my relatives?”

7And Sovereign Aḥashwĕrosh said to Sovereigness Estĕr and Mordeḵai the Yehuḏite, “Look, I have given Estĕr the house of Haman, and they have impaled him on the stake because he laid his hand on the Yehuḏim.

8“Now you write on behalf of the Yehuḏim, as it pleases you, in the sovereign’s name, and seal it with the sovereign’s signet ring. For a letter which is written in the sovereign’s name and sealed with the sovereign’s signet ring no one turns back.”

9So the sovereign’s scribes were called at that time, in the third month, which is the month of Siwan, on the twenty-third day. And it was written, according to all that Mordeḵai commanded to the Yehuḏim, and to the viceroys, and the governors, and the princes of the provinces from India to Kush, a hundred and twenty-seven provinces, to every province in its own writing, to every people in their own language, and to the Yehuḏim in their own writing, and in their own language.

10And he wrote in the name of Sovereign Aḥashwĕrosh, and sealed it with the sovereign’s signet ring, and sent letters by runners on horseback, riding on royal horses bred from speedy mares:

11That the sovereign has granted to the Yehuḏim who were in every city to be assembled and stand for their lives – to cut off, to slay, and to destroy all the power of the people or province that would distress them, little children and women, and to plunder their possessions,

12on one day in all the provinces of Sovereign Aḥashwĕrosh, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Aḏar.

13The copy of the writing to be made law in every province was announced to all the peoples, so that the Yehuḏim would be ready on that day to be avenged on their enemies.

14The runners, riding on royal horses, went out, hastened and pressed on by the sovereign’s command. And the decree was given out in the citadel of Shushan.

15And Mordeḵai went out from the presence of the sovereign wearing royal garments of blue and white, with a great crown of gold and a garment of fine linen and purple. And the city of Shushan rejoiced and was glad.

16For the Yehuḏim there was light and gladness and joy and value.

17And in every province and in every city where the sovereign’s command and decree came, the Yehuḏim had joy and gladness, a feast and a good day. And many of the people of the land were becoming Yehuḏim, for the fear of the Yehuḏim had fallen upon them.

ESTHER 9

1And in the twelfth month, that is, the month of Aḏar, on the thirteenth day, when the sovereign’s command and his decree came to be done, on the day that the enemies of the Yehuḏim had waited to overpower them, it turned around, so that the Yehuḏim overpowered those who hated them.

2The Yehuḏim assembled in their cities, throughout all the provinces of Sovereign Aḥashwĕrosh to lay hands on those who sought their evil. And no one stood against them, because fear of them fell upon all people.

3And all the officials of the provinces, and the viceroys, and the governors, and all those doing the sovereign’s work, helped the Yehuḏim, because the fear of Mordeḵai fell upon them.

4For Mordeḵai was great in the palace of the sovereign, and his report spread into all the provinces, for this man Mordeḵai became greater and greater.

5And the Yehuḏim smote all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, with slaughter and destruction, and did what they pleased to those who hated them.

6And in the citadel of Shushan the Yehuḏim slew and destroyed five hundred men.

7And they slew Parshandatha, and Dalphon, and Aspatha,

8and Poratha, and Aḏalya, and Ariḏatha,

9and Parmashta, and Arisai, and Ariḏai, and Wayezatha,

10the ten sons of Haman son of Hammeḏatha, the enemy of the Yehuḏim. But they did not lay a hand on the plunder.

11On that day the number of those who were slain in the citadel of Shushan came before the sovereign.

12And the sovereign said to Sovereigness Estĕr, “The Yehuḏim have slain and destroyed five hundred men in the citadel of Shushan, and the ten sons of Haman. What have they done in the rest of the sovereign’s provinces? And what is your petition? And it is given to you. And what is your further request? And it is done.”

13And Estĕr said, “If it pleases the sovereign, let it be given to the Yehuḏim who are in Shushan to do again tomorrow according to today’s decree, and let Haman’s ten sons be impaled on the stake.”

14And the sovereign commanded this to be done. And the decree was given in Shushan, and they impaled Haman’s ten sons.

15And the Yehuḏim who were in Shushan also assembled on the fourteenth day of the month of Aḏar and they slew three hundred men at Shushan. But they did not lay a hand on the plunder.

16And the rest of the Yehuḏim in the sovereign’s provinces assembled and stood for their lives, and to get rest from their enemies, and to slay seventy-five thousand of their enemies. But they did not lay a hand on the plunder.

17That was on the thirteenth day of the month of Aḏar, and on the fourteenth day of the month they rested and made it a day of feasting and gladness.

18But the Yehuḏim who were at Shushan assembled on the thirteenth day, as well as on the fourteenth day. And on the fifteenth day of the month they rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness.

19Therefore the Yehuḏim of the villages who dwelt in the unwalled towns were making the fourteenth day of the month of Aḏar a good day of gladness and feasting, and for sending portions to one another.

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

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

22as 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.

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

24because 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.

25But 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.

26Therefore 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,

27the 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,

28and 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.

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

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

31to 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.

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

ESTHER 10

1And Sovereign Aḥashwĕrosh laid compulsory labour on the land and the islands of the sea.

2And all the acts of his power and his might, and the exact account of the greatness of Mordeḵai, with which the sovereign made him great, are they not written in the book of the annals of the sovereigns of Media and Persia?

3For Mordeḵai the Yehuḏite was second to Sovereign Aḥashwĕrosh, and great among the Yehuḏim and pleasing to his many brothers, seeking the good of his people and speaking peace to all his seed.