Ester 9

ARC · Chapter 9/10

¹E no mez duodecimo, que é o mez d'adar, no dia treze do mesmo mez em que chegou a palavra do rei e a sua ordem para a executar, no dia em que os inimigos dos judeos esperavam assenhorear-se d'elles, succedeu o contrario, porque os judeos foram os que se assenhorearam dos seus aborrecedores.

²Porque os judeos nas suas cidades, em todas as provincias do rei Assuero, se ajuntaram para pôr as mãos n'aquelles que procuravam o seu mal: e nenhum parou diante d'elles; porque o seu terror caiu sobre todos aquelles povos.

³E todos os maioraes das provincias, e os satrapas, e os governadores, e os que faziam a obra do rei, exaltavam os judeos porque tinha caido sobre elles o temor de Mardoqueo.

⁴Porque Mardoqueo era grande na casa do rei, e a sua fama sahia por todas as provincias; porque o homem Mardoqueo se ia engrandecendo.

⁵Feriram pois os judeos a todos os seus inimigos, ás cutiladas da espada, e da matança e da destruição: e fizeram dos seus aborrecedores o que quizeram.

⁶E na fortaleza de Susan mataram e destruiram os judeos quinhentos homens;

⁷Como tambem a Parsandatha, e a Dalphon, e a Aspatha,

⁸E a Poratha, e a Adalia, e a Aridatha,

⁹E a Pharmasta, e a Arisai, e a Aridai, e a Vaizatha:

¹⁰Os dez filhos d'Haman, filho d'Hammedatha, o inimigo dos judeos, mataram, porém ao despojo não estenderam a sua mão.

¹¹No mesmo dia veiu perante o rei o numero dos mortos na fortaleza de Susan.

¹²E disse o rei á rainha Esther: Na fortaleza de Susan mataram e destruiram os judeos quinhentos homens, e os dez filhos d'Haman; nas mais provincias do rei que fariam? qual é pois a tua petição, e dar-se-te-ha; ou qual é ainda o teu requerimento? e far-se-ha.

¹³Então disse Esther: Se bem parecer ao rei, conceda-se tambem ámanhã aos judeos que se acham em Susan que façam conforme ao mandado d'hoje: e enforquem os dez filhos d'Haman n'uma forca.

¹⁴Então disse o rei que assim se fizesse; e deu-se um edicto em Susan, e enforcaram os dez filhos d'Haman.

¹⁵E ajuntaram-se os judeos que se achavam em Susan tambem no dia quatorze do mez d'adar, e mataram em Susan a trezentos homens: porém ao despojo não estenderam a sua mão.

¹⁶Tambem os demais judeos que se achavam nas provincias do rei se ajuntaram para se pôrem em defeza da sua vida, e tiveram repouso dos seus inimigos; e mataram dos seus aborrecedores setenta e cinco mil; porém ao despojo não estenderam a sua mão.

¹⁷Succedeu isto no dia treze do mez d'adar: e repousaram no dia quatorze do mesmo, e fizeram d'aquelle dia dia de banquetes e d'alegria.

¹⁸Tambem os judeos, que se achavam em Susan se ajuntaram nos dias treze e quatorze do mesmo: e repousaram no dia quinze do mesmo, e fizeram d'aquelle dia dia de banquetes e d'alegria.

¹⁹Os judeos porém das aldeias, que habitavam nas villas, fizeram do dia quatorze do mez d'adar dia d'alegria e de banquetes, e dia de folguedo, e de mandarem presentes uns aos outros.

²⁰E Mardoqueo escreveu estas coisas, e enviou cartas a todos os judeos que se achavam em todas as provincias do rei Assuero, aos de perto, e aos de longe,

²¹Ordenando-lhes que guardassem o dia quatorze do mez d'adar, e o dia quinze do mesmo, todos os annos,

²²Conforme aos dias em que os judeos tiveram repouso dos seus inimigos; e ao mez que se lhes mudou de tristeza em alegria, e de luto em dia de folguedo; para que os fizessem dias de banquetes e d'alegria, e de mandarem presentes uns aos outros, e aos pobres dadivas.

²³E se encarregaram os judeos de fazerem o que já tinham começado, como tambem o que Mardoqueo lhes tinha escripto.

²⁴Porque Haman, filho d'Hammedatha, o agagita, inimigo de todos os judeos, tinha intentado destruir os judeos; e tinha lançado pur, isto é, a sorte, para os assolar e destruir.

²⁵Mas, vindo isto perante o rei, mandou elle por cartas que o seu mau intento, que intentara contra os judeos, se tornasse sobre a sua cabeça; pelo que o enforcaram a elle e a seus filhos n'uma forca.

²⁶Por isso áquelles dias chamam purim, do nome pur; pelo que tambem por causa de todas as palavras d'aquella carta, e do que viram sobre isso, e do que lhes tinha succedido,

²⁷Confirmaram os judeos, e tomaram sobre si, e sobre a sua semente, e sobre todos os que se achegassem a elles, que não se deixaria de guardar estes dois dias conforme ao que se escrevêra d'elles, e segundo o seu tempo determinado, todos os annos.

²⁸E que estes dias seriam lembrados e guardados por cada geração, familia, provincia, e cidade, e que estes dias de purim não traspassariam d'entre os judeos, e que a memoria d'elles nunca teria fim entre os de sua semente.

²⁹Depois d'isto escreveu a rainha Esther, filha d'Abigail, e Mardoqueo o judeo, com toda a força, para confirmarem segunda vez esta carta de purim.

³⁰E mandaram cartas a todos os judeos, ás cento e vinte e sete provincias do reino d'Assuero, com palavras de paz e fidelidade,

³¹Para confirmarem estes dias de purim nos seus tempos determinados, como Mardoqueo, o judeo, e a rainha Esther lhes tinham estabelecido, e como elles mesmos já o tinham estabelecido sobre si e sobre a sua semente, ácerca do jejum e do seu clamor.

³²E o mandado d'Esther estabeleceu os successos d'aquelle purim: e escreveu-se n'um livro.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

On the day set for the extermination of the Jews, they successfully defend themselves and defeat their enemies throughout the empire. Haman's ten sons are killed, and the Jews establish the feast of Purim to celebrate this deliverance every year.

Explanation

What was planned as a day of massacre turns into the opposite: the Jews, now authorized and prepared, decisively defeat their attackers. It's worth noting that the text explicitly points out that they did not take any plunder, even though they were authorized to do so—a detail suggesting that their motivation was defense and justice, not greed or profitable revenge. The establishment of the feast of Purim, celebrated over two days with banquets, joy, and generosity toward the poor, turns a story of mortal danger into a lasting tradition of gratitude. To this day, Jews around the world celebrate Purim by reading the book of Esther aloud.

Fun facts

The feast of Purim is still celebrated today on the Jewish calendar, usually in February or March, with a public reading of the book of Esther, costumes, gifts to the poor, and exchanges of food gifts.
The Jews' repeated refusal to take plunder from their defeated enemies, mentioned three times in the chapter, deliberately contrasts with the story of King Saul, who disobeyed God by taking plunder from the Amalekites—Haman's ancestors—centuries earlier.

Verse-by-verse explanation

Ester 9:1On the very day set for the destruction of the Jews, the situation completely reverses, and it is they who end up gaining the advantage over those who hated them. The same day Haman planned for extermination becomes the day the Jewish people’s fortune turns around.
Ester 9:2On the appointed day, the Jews organize to defend themselves, and the very fear their enemies felt kept many of them from even attempting to attack.
Ester 9:3The empire’s own local authorities end up helping the Jews, moved by the respect and fear they already felt for Mordecai’s position of power.
Ester 9:4Mordecai’s political turnaround was already known throughout the empire, and his growing influence helped protect the Jews even before any fighting took place.
Ester 9:5The Jews decisively win the armed confrontation, completely reversing the outcome Haman had originally planned.
Ester 9:6In the capital Shushan alone, five hundred enemies die in the fighting, a number that gives a real sense of the scale of violence on that day.
Ester 9:7The specific list of Haman’s ten sons, killed together with the other enemies in Shushan, begins here.
Ester 9:8Three more of Haman’s sons are individually named in the list of the dead, a rare instance of attention to specific names within a battle account.
Ester 9:9The last four sons of Haman complete the list of ten names, entirely wiping out the direct male line of the enemy of the Jews.
Ester 9:10Despite the decree’s own authorization to plunder the enemies’ goods, the Jews deliberately choose not to take any spoil, a detail repeated in every mention of plunder in the chapter.
Ester 9:11The king receives the official casualty report that very same day, showing how quickly information circulated within the capital itself.
Ester 9:12Surprised by the scale of the fighting in the capital alone, the king asks Esther if she has any further request, offering for the fourth time to grant her whatever she wants.
Ester 9:13Esther asks for a second day of fighting in Shushan and also requests that the bodies of Haman’s ten sons, already dead, be publicly hung on the gallows as a visible sign that justice had been done.
Ester 9:14The king grants the request without hesitation, and the bodies of Haman’s ten sons are publicly displayed on the very gallows originally prepared for Mordecai.
Ester 9:15On the second authorized day of fighting, three hundred more enemies die in Shushan, and once again the Jews avoid taking any plunder from the defeated.
Ester 9:16Outside the capital, the number of enemies killed reaches seventy-five thousand across the whole empire, a result far greater than what was recorded in Shushan alone.
Ester 9:17Outside the capital, the fighting takes place on a single day, and rest and celebration already begin the very next day, the fourteenth of Adar.
Ester 9:18Since Shushan had two days of fighting, celebration there only begins a day after the other provinces, a difference in dates that explains why the feast of Purim is still celebrated on different days depending on the city.
Ester 9:19In the rural villages, the celebration includes the specific custom of exchanging food gifts among neighbors, a tradition that continues to this day in the Jewish feast of Purim.
Ester 9:20Mordecai takes on the role of officially recording these events and instituting the annual celebration, sending letters to Jews throughout the empire, near and far.
Ester 9:21Mordecai formally establishes that the two days, the fourteenth and fifteenth of Adar, should be celebrated every year from that point on.
Ester 9:22It is out of this reversal, the month that turned from sorrow to joy, that the annual celebration known as Purim is established, with feasting, gladness, and the exchange of gifts among the Jews and also with the poor.
Ester 9:23The people gladly accept the institution of the new feast, adopting both what they had already begun celebrating spontaneously and Mordecai’s formal instructions.
Ester 9:24The text once again sums up the origin of the feast’s name: the drawing of lots, or ‘Pur,’ that Haman had used to choose the date of the extermination became the very name of the celebration of victory.
Ester 9:25The final summary highlights the book’s central irony: the evil Haman plotted against others ended up falling back exactly upon him and his own family.
Ester 9:26The text explains that these days came to be called “Purim” because of the term “Pur,” the lot Haman had cast at the beginning to choose the day of the extermination. The feast’s name thus preserves the memory of the very plan that failed.
Ester 9:27The commitment to celebrate Purim extends not only to the Jews of that generation, but also to their descendants and to anyone who might join the Jewish people in the future.
Ester 9:28The text insists on the permanence of this celebration through every future generation, a commitment that has in fact held: Purim is still celebrated today.
Ester 9:29Esther and Mordecai together sign a second official letter, reinforcing with all possible authority the definitive institution of the feast of Purim.
Ester 9:30The second letter is sent to the same hundred and twenty-seven provinces mentioned since the book’s very first verse, closing a complete geographic circle.
Ester 9:31The letter also confirms specific days of fasting, tying the joyful celebration of Purim to the memory of the three-day fast Esther had requested before risking her life before the king.
Ester 9:32The book of Esther explains here its own origin: the written record that officially confirms the details of the feast of Purim.