Bible In A Year

¹> Save me, God, by your name. Vindicate me in your might.

²Hear my prayer, God. Listen to the words of my mouth.

³For strangers have risen up against me. Violent men have sought after my soul. They haven't set God before them. Selah.

⁴Behold, God is my helper. The Lord is the one who sustains my soul.

⁵He will repay the evil to my enemies. Destroy them in your truth.

⁶With a free will offering, I will sacrifice to you. I will give thanks to your name, Yahweh, for it is good.

⁷For he has delivered me out of all trouble. My eye has seen triumph over my enemies.

¹On that night the king couldn't sleep; and he commanded to bring the book of records of the chronicles, and they were read before the king. ²It was found written that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king's chamberlains, of those who kept the threshold, who had sought to lay hands on the king Ahasuerus. ³The king said, What honor and dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this? Then the king's servants who ministered to him said, "Nothing has been done for him." ⁴The king said, "Who is in the court?" Now Haman was come into the outward court of the king's house, to speak to the king to hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him. ⁵The king's servants said to him, Behold, Haman stands in the court. The king said, Let him come in. ⁶So Haman came in. The king said to him, What shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honor? Now Haman said in his heart, To whom would the king delight to do honor more than to myself? ⁷Haman said to the king, For the man whom the king delights to honor, ⁸let royal clothing be brought which the king uses to wear, and the horse that the king rides on, and on the head of which a crown royal is set: ⁹and let the clothing and the horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king's most noble princes, that they may array the man therewith whom the king delights to honor, and cause him to ride on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaim before him, Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor. ¹⁰Then the king said to Haman, Make haste, and take the clothing and the horse, as you have said, and do even so to Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the king's gate: let nothing fail of all that you have spoken. ¹¹Then took Haman the clothing and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and caused him to ride through the street of the city, and proclaimed before him, Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor. ¹²Mordecai came again to the king's gate. But Haman hurried to his house, mourning and having his head covered. ¹³Haman recounted to Zeresh his wife and all his friends everything that had happened to him. Then his wise men and Zeresh his wife said to him, If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, be of the seed of the Jews, you shall not prevail against him, but shall surely fall before him. ¹⁴While they were yet talking with him, came the king's chamberlains, and hurried to bring Haman to the banquet that Esther had prepared.

¹So the king and Haman came to banquet with Esther the queen. ²The king said again to Esther on the second day at the banquet of wine, What is your petition, queen Esther? and it shall be granted you: and what is your request? even to the half of the kingdom it shall be performed. ³Then Esther the queen answered, If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request: ⁴for we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had been sold for bondservants and bondmaids, I had held my peace, although the adversary could not have compensated for the king's damage. ⁵Then spoke the king Ahasuerus and said to Esther the queen, Who is he, and where is he, that dared presume in his heart to do so? ⁶Esther said, An adversary and an enemy, even this wicked Haman. Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen. ⁷The king arose in his wrath from the banquet of wine [and went] into the palace garden: and Haman stood up to make request for his life to Esther the queen; for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king. ⁸Then the king returned out of the palace garden into the place of the banquet of wine; and Haman was fallen on the couch whereon Esther was. Then said the king, Will he even force the queen before me in the house? As the word went out of the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face. ⁹Then said Harbonah, one of the chamberlains who were before the king, Behold also, the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman has made for Mordecai, who spoke good for the king, stands in the house of Haman. The king said, Hang him thereon. ¹⁰So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king's wrath pacified.

¹On that day did the king Ahasuerus give the house of Haman the Jews' enemy to Esther the queen. Mordecai came before the king; for Esther had told what he was to her. ²The king took off his ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman. ³Esther spoke yet again before the king, and fell down at his feet, and begged him with tears to put away the mischief of Haman the Agagite, and his device that he had devised against the Jews. ⁴Then the king held out to Esther the golden scepter. So Esther arose, and stood before the king. ⁵She said, If it please the king, and if I have found favor in his sight, and the thing seem right before the king, and I be pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the king's provinces: ⁶for how can I endure to see the evil that shall come to my people? or how can I endure to see the destruction of my relatives? ⁷Then the king Ahasuerus said to Esther the queen and to Mordecai the Jew, See, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and him they have hanged on the gallows, because he laid his hand on the Jews. ⁸Write you also to the Jews, as it pleases you, in the king's name, and seal it with the king's ring; for the writing which is written in the king's name, and sealed with the king's ring, may no man reverse. ⁹Then were the king's scribes called at that time, in the third month Sivan, on the three and twentieth [day] of it; and it was written according to all that Mordecai commanded to the Jews, and to the satraps, and the governors and princes of the provinces which are from India to Ethiopia, one hundred twenty-seven provinces, to every province according to the writing of it, and to every people after their language, and to the Jews according to their writing, and according to their language. ¹⁰He wrote the name of king Ahasuerus, and sealed it with the king's ring, and sent letters by post on horseback, riding on swift steeds that were used in the king's service, bred of the stud: ¹¹in which the king granted the Jews who were in every city to gather themselves together, and to stand for their life, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all the power of the people and province that would assault them, [their] little ones and women, and to take the spoil of them for a prey, ¹²on one day in all the provinces of king Ahasuerus, [namely], on the thirteenth [day] of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar. ¹³A copy of the writing, that the decree should be given out in every province, was published to all the peoples, and that the Jews should be ready against that day to avenge themselves on their enemies. ¹⁴So the posts who rode on swift steeds that were used in the king's service went out, being hurried and pressed on by the king's commandment; and the decree was given out in Shushan the palace. ¹⁵Mordecai went forth from the presence of the king in royal clothing of blue and white, and with a great crown of gold, and with a robe of fine linen and purple: and the city of Shushan shouted and was glad. ¹⁶The Jews had light and gladness, and joy and honor. ¹⁷In every province, and in every city, wherever the king's commandment and his decree came, the Jews had gladness and joy, a feast and a good day. Many from among the peoples of the land became Jews; for the fear of the Jews was fallen on them.

¹Now in the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, on the thirteenth day of the same, when the king's commandment and his decree drew near to be put in execution, on the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to have rule over them, (whereas it was turned to the contrary, that the Jews had rule over those who hated them), ²the Jews gathered themselves together in their cities throughout all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, to lay hand on such as sought their hurt: and no man could withstand them; for the fear of them was fallen on all the peoples. ³All the princes of the provinces, and the satraps, and the governors, and those who did the king's business, helped the Jews; because the fear of Mordecai was fallen on them. ⁴For Mordecai was great in the king's house, and his fame went forth throughout all the provinces; for the man Mordecai grew greater and greater. ⁵The Jews struck all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, and with slaughter and destruction, and did what they would to those who hated them. ⁶In Shushan the palace the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men. ⁷Parshandatha, and Dalphon, and Aspatha, ⁸and Poratha, and Adalia, and Aridatha, ⁹and Parmashta, and Arisai, and Aridai, and Vaizatha, ¹⁰the ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Jew's enemy, killed they; but they didn't lay their hand on the spoil. ¹¹On that day the number of those who were slain in Shushan the palace was brought before the king. ¹²The king said to Esther the queen, The Jews have slain and destroyed five hundred men in Shushan the palace, and the ten sons of Haman; what then have they done in the rest of the king's provinces! Now what is your petition? and it shall be granted you: or what is your request further? and it shall be done. ¹³Then said Esther, If it please the king, let it be granted to the Jews who are in Shushan to do tomorrow also according to this day's decree, and let Haman's ten sons be hanged on the gallows. ¹⁴The king commanded it so to be done: and a decree was given out in Shushan; and they hanged Haman's ten sons. ¹⁵The Jews who were in Shushan gathered themselves together on the fourteenth day also of the month Adar, and killed three hundred men in Shushan; but they didn't lay their hand on the spoil. ¹⁶The other Jews who were in the king's provinces gathered themselves together, and stood for their lives, and had rest from their enemies, and killed of those who hated them seventy-five thousand; but they didn't lay their hand on the spoil. ¹⁷[This was done] on the thirteenth day of the month Adar; and on the fourteenth day of the same they rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness. ¹⁸But the Jews who were in Shushan assembled together on the thirteenth [day] of it, and on the fourteenth of it; and on the fifteenth [day] of the same they rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness. ¹⁹Therefore do the Jews of the villages, who dwell in the unwalled towns, make the fourteenth day of the month Adar [a day of] gladness and feasting, and a good day, and of sending portions one to another. ²⁰Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, both near and far, ²¹to enjoin those who they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly, ²²as the days in which the Jews had rest from their enemies, and the month which was turned to them from sorrow to gladness, and from mourning into a good day; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the needy. ²³The Jews undertook to do as they had begun, and as Mordecai had written to them; ²⁴because Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast Pur, that is the lot, to consume them, and to destroy them; ²⁵but when [the matter] came before the king, he commanded by letters that his wicked device, which he had devised against the Jews, should return on his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows. ²⁶Therefore they called these days Purim, after the name of Pur. Therefore because of all the words of this letter, and of that which they had seen concerning this matter, and that which had come to them, ²⁷the Jews ordained, and took on them, and on their seed, and on all such as joined themselves to them, so that it should not fail, that they would keep these two days according to the writing of it, and according to the appointed time of it, every year; ²⁸and that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city; and that these days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor the memory of them perish from their seed. ²⁹Then Esther the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, wrote with all authority to confirm this second letter of Purim. ³⁰He sent letters to all the Jews, to the hundred twenty-seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, [with] words of peace and truth, ³¹to confirm these days of Purim in their appointed times, according as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had enjoined them, and as they had ordained for themselves and for their seed, in the matter of the fastings and their cry. ³²The commandment of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim; and it was written in the book.

¹The king Ahasuerus laid a tribute on the land, and on the isles of the sea. ²All the acts of his power and of his might, and the full account of the greatness of Mordecai, whereunto the king advanced him, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia? ³For Mordecai the Jew was next to king Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews, and accepted of the multitude of his brothers, seeking the good of his people, and speaking peace to all his seed.