Esther

In the first month—it [is] the month of Nisan—in the two and tenth year of King Ahasuerus, [they] cast Pur (that [is], the lot) before the face of Haman from day to day and from month to month, [until month] two [and] ten, it [is] the month of Adar.

“Go, gather all the Jews who are found in Susa, and fast over me, and you⁺ shall not eat and you⁺ shall not drink [for] three days, night and day. Also I and my young women will fast likewise, and with this I will go to the king, which [is] not according to the law. And if I perish, I perish!”

And all this, none of it is equal to me with every time that I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the gate of the king.”

And it was found written that Mordecai had declared concerning Bigthan and Teresh, two eunuchs of the king, from the keepers of the threshold, who sought to stretch out a hand against King Ahasuerus.

And the king said, “What honor and greatness has been done for Mordecai over this?” And the young men of the king who attended him said, “Not a thing has been done with him.”

And Mordecai wrote these words, and he sent letters to all the Jews who [were] in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, those near and those far away,

to establish for them to be keeping the four [and] tenth day [of] the month of Adar, and the five [and] tenth day of it, in every year and year,

as the days on which the Jews had rest on them from their enemies, and the month that was turned for them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning to a good day, to make them days of feasting and joy, and [for] sending portions, each man to his neighbor, and gifts to the needy.

for Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them, and had caused to fall Pur (that [is], the lot) to throw them into confusion and to destroy them.

For Mordecai the Jew [was] second to King Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews and was favored by the multitude of his brothers, seeking good for his people and speaking peace to all his seed.