Esther 9

KJV · Chapter 9/10

¹Now in the twelfth month, that 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, in the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to have power over them, (though it was turned to the contrary, that the Jews had rule over them that 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 fell upon all people.

³And all the rulers of the provinces, and the lieutenants, and the deputies, and officers of the king, helped the Jews; because the fear of Mordecai fell upon them.

⁴For Mordecai was great in the king’s house, and his fame went out throughout all the provinces: for this man Mordecai waxed greater and greater.

⁵Thus the Jews smote all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, and slaughter, and destruction, and did what they would unto those that hated them.

⁶And in Shushan the palace the Jews slew and destroyed five hundred men.

⁷And Parshandatha, and Dalphon, and Aspatha,

⁸And Poratha, and Adalia, and Aridatha,

⁹And Parmashta, and Arisai, and Aridai, and Vajezatha,

¹⁰The ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews, slew they; but on the spoil laid they not their hand.

¹¹On that day the number of those that were slain in Shushan the palace was brought before the king.

¹²And the king said unto Esther the queen, The Jews have slain and destroyed five hundred men in Shushan the palace, and the ten sons of Haman; what have they done in the rest of the king’s provinces? now what is thy petition? and it shall be granted thee: or what is thy request further? and it shall be done.

¹³Then said Esther, If it please the king, let it be granted to the Jews which are in Shushan to do to morrow also according unto this day’s decree, and let Haman’s ten sons be hanged upon the gallows.

¹⁴And the king commanded it so to be done: and the decree was given at Shushan; and they hanged Haman’s ten sons.

¹⁵For the Jews that were in Shushan gathered themselves together on the fourteenth day also of the month Adar, and slew three hundred men at Shushan; but on the prey they laid not their hand.

¹⁶But the other Jews that were in the king’s provinces gathered themselves together, and stood for their lives, and had rest from their enemies, and slew of their foes seventy and five thousand, but they laid not their hands on the prey,

¹⁷On the thirteenth day of the month Adar; and on the fourteenth day of the same rested they, and made it a day of feasting and gladness.

¹⁸But the Jews that were at Shushan assembled together on the thirteenth day thereof, and on the fourteenth thereof; and on the fifteenth day of the same they rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness.

¹⁹Therefore the Jews of the villages, that dwelt in the unwalled towns, made the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of gladness and feasting, and a good day, and of sending portions one to another.

²⁰And Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters unto all the Jews that were in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, both nigh and far,

²¹To stablish this among them, that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly,

²²As the days wherein the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning into a good day: that they should make them days of feasting and joy, and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor.

²³And the Jews undertook to do as they had begun, and as Mordecai had written unto them;

²⁴Because Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had devised against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast Pur, that is, the lot, to consume them, and to destroy them;

²⁵But when Esther came before the king, he commanded by letters that his wicked device, which he devised against the Jews, should return upon his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.

²⁶Wherefore they called these days Purim after the name of Pur. Therefore for all the words of this letter, and of that which they had seen concerning this matter, and which had come unto them,

²⁷The Jews ordained, and took upon them, and upon their seed, and upon all such as joined themselves unto them, so as it should not fail, that they would keep these two days according to their writing, and according to their appointed time 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 memorial 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.

³⁰And he sent the letters unto all the Jews, to the hundred twenty and seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, with words of peace and truth,

³¹To confirm these days of Purim in their times appointed, according as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had enjoined them, and as they had decreed for themselves and for their seed, the matters of the fastings and their cry.

³²And the decree of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim; and it was written in the book.

📖 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

Esther 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.
Esther 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.
Esther 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.
Esther 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.
Esther 9:5The Jews decisively win the armed confrontation, completely reversing the outcome Haman had originally planned.
Esther 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.
Esther 9:7The specific list of Haman’s ten sons, killed together with the other enemies in Shushan, begins here.
Esther 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.
Esther 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.
Esther 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.
Esther 9:11The king receives the official casualty report that very same day, showing how quickly information circulated within the capital itself.
Esther 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.
Esther 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.
Esther 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.
Esther 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.
Esther 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.
Esther 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.
Esther 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.
Esther 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.
Esther 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.
Esther 9:21Mordecai formally establishes that the two days, the fourteenth and fifteenth of Adar, should be celebrated every year from that point on.
Esther 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.
Esther 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.
Esther 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.
Esther 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.
Esther 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.
Esther 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.
Esther 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.
Esther 9:29Esther and Mordecai together sign a second official letter, reinforcing with all possible authority the definitive institution of the feast of Purim.
Esther 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.
Esther 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.
Esther 9:32The book of Esther explains here its own origin: the written record that officially confirms the details of the feast of Purim.