Targum Sheni Esther

1 In five places Scripture uses the words “It came to pass in the days of,” and they are language of woe. These are they: “It came to pass in the days of Amraphel.” And what woe was there in the days of Amraphel? Kings gathered together, and there had been no strife or war in the world until Amraphel came. “It came to pass in the days when the judges ruled.” Every kind of woe was in their days. And what was the woe? There was a famine in the land, as it is written, “There was a famine in the land.” “It came to pass in the days of Ahaz.” There was woe in his days. And what was the woe? As it is written, “Rezin king of Aram came up,” and what is written after it? “Let us go up against Judah.” From this you learn that in every place where “It came to pass in the days of” is written, it is language of woe. “It came to pass in the days of Jehoiakim.” There was woe in his days, as it is written, “I looked at the earth, and it was formless and empty.” Yet from the days of the world, from the earliest years, whenever trouble came upon the people of the house of Israel, they would pray before their Father in heaven, and he would answer them, as it is written, “And it shall be that before they call I will answer, and while they are yet speaking I will hear.” There was woe in his days. He is Ahasuerus, one of the ten kings who have reigned and are yet to reign in the world. These are the ten kings. The first kingdom is the one in which the LORD of hosts reigned; may his kingdom soon be revealed over us. The second is Nimrod’s, the third is King Pharaoh’s, the fourth is Israel’s, the fifth is that of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the sixth is that of Ahasuerus, the seventh is that of Greece, the eighth is that of Rome, the ninth is that of the son of David, the Messiah, and the tenth is the one in which the King of kings, the LORD of hosts, will reign again; may his kingdom soon be revealed over all the inhabitants of the earth. When the kingdom of Babylon was about to be destroyed from the earth and its dominion was about to pass from it, people did not know whom they should set over themselves as king. When Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon died and his son Evil-merodach rose up in his place, the people of his province did not want him. They answered him, “Your father Nebuchadnezzar did not live among human beings, so how can we set you up as king over us? Your father Nebuchadnezzar might turn back and come upon us and kill us.” When Evil-merodach heard these words that the people of his province were saying to him, he answered them, “Nebuchadnezzar is dead and driven from the world, and still you do not believe it?” They answered, “Your father Nebuchadnezzar shook the whole earth and all the kings who were on it, as Scripture states plainly about him: ‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms?’” What did Evil-merodach do at that hour? He went into the king’s treasuries and brought out from there chains of iron and bronze, put them on the heels of his father Nebuchadnezzar, dragged him out, and brought him up out of his grave, for so Scripture states plainly about him: “But you are cast out of your grave like a loathsome branch.” When the people of his province saw that Evil-merodach had done the will of his Father in heaven, they all rose up in great joy, clothed Evil-merodach in the fine royal purple, and gave him great honor and surpassing greatness. Then Daniel, the man greatly beloved, answered and said to him, “Evil-merodach, look: in all the days of your father Nebuchadnezzar no prisoner ever went out from his prison house, for so Scripture states plainly about him: ‘He did not open the house to his prisoners.’ When the Jews became liable to punishment, your father Nebuchadnezzar grew strong and went up against them. He laid waste the land of Israel, plundered the city of Jerusalem, burned the sanctuary with fire, exiled the people of the house of Israel and brought them to Babylon. He exiled with them Jehoiachin, king of the house of Judah, and kept him bound in the prison house for thirty-seven years, because he had not taken upon himself the will of his Father in heaven. Nebuchadnezzar also grew proud in his heart and said, ‘There is no king or ruler but me,’ for so Scripture states plainly about him: ‘He said, “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.”’” At that hour Evil-merodach did the will of his Father in heaven. He went into the prison house and brought out from there Jehoiachin son of Josiah, king of the tribe of the house of Judah, and all the prisoners went out with him. What did Evil-merodach do at that hour? He went into the king’s treasuries and brought out from there all the finest oils and every kind of spice. He bathed him, anointed him and clothed him in royal garments, and Jehoiachin ate bread before him continually all the days of his life. Then Darius the Mede received the kingdom. He is Ahasuerus son of Cyrus the Persian king, son of Darius the Median king. He is Ahasuerus who ordered wine to be brought from a hundred and twenty-seven provinces for the hundred and twenty-seven kings who reclined before him, so that each man might drink the wine of his own province and not be harmed. He is Ahasuerus whose counsels are corrupt and whose decrees are never set right. He is Ahasuerus the perverse king. He is Ahasuerus who ordered Queen Vashti to be brought in naked before him, and she did not come. He is Ahasuerus the foolish and arrogant king, who said, “Let my kingdom be abolished, but let my decree not be abolished.” He is Ahasuerus in whose days the children of Israel were sold for nothing, without money, for so Scripture states plainly: “You were sold for nothing.” He is Ahasuerus who ordered cedars to be brought from Lebanon and gold from Ophir, and they were not brought. He is Ahasuerus in whose days the faces of the house of Israel turned black like the bottom of a cooking pot. He is Ahasuerus in whose days there was fulfilled upon the house of Israel what is written in the book of the law of Moses: “In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were evening!’” He is Ahasuerus. Of five people Scripture writes “he is,” and they are called wicked, and of five people Scripture writes “he is,” and they are called righteous: “Abram, he is Abraham”; “he is Aaron and Moses”; “he is Moses and Aaron”; David, “he was the youngest”; and “he is Uzziah.” These are the five righteous. And the five wicked: the first is Nimrod, of whom it is written, “He was a mighty hunter”; “he is Esau, the father of Edom”; “he is Dathan and Abiram”; “he is King Ahaz”; and he is Ahasuerus. Because of what he said and what he did, his days were shortened. Yet he reigned from India to Ethiopia, from India in the west to Ethiopia in the east, over a hundred and twenty-seven provinces. He is Ahasuerus who killed his wife for the sake of his friend. He is Ahasuerus who killed his friend for the sake of his wife. He is Ahasuerus who reigned from India to Ethiopia. But are India and Ethiopia not near to each other? Rather, just as he ruled over India and Ethiopia, which were near to him, so he ruled over a hundred and twenty-seven provinces and their governorships. In the same way you find that King Solomon ruled over the whole region beyond the River, from Tiphsah to Gaza. But were Tiphsah and Gaza not near to each other? Rather, just as he ruled over Tiphsah and Gaza, which were near to each other, so he ruled over the whole world. There are four who ruled from one end of the world to the other, two from the nations and two from Israel. Solomon and Ahab were from Israel; of Ahab it is written, “There is no nation or kingdom.” And Nebuchadnezzar and Ahasuerus were from the nations. But the kingdom of Ahasuerus was cut short, and he ruled only over a hundred and twenty-seven provinces. For the Holy One, blessed be he, said, “He is destined to give it to Esther, who is a descendant of Sarah, who lived a hundred and twenty-seven years, and she will reign over a hundred and twenty-seven provinces.” In those days, when King Ahasuerus sat on his royal throne in the citadel of Susa. This is what is written: “He removes kings and sets up kings.” From the beginning of the world the firstborn used to receive pre-eminence and honor. And so you find that when Cain killed his brother Abel, the world was not built up from either of them, neither from Cain nor from Abel, but from Seth, and pre-eminence was given to Seth, for so it is written, “For God has appointed for me,” though he was the third. Seth handed it down to Enosh, and Enosh to Kenan, until it came to Noah, and Noah handed it down to Shem. Shem had five sons, and he did not give pre-eminence to the first or to the second but to Arpachshad, as it is written, “The sons of Shem: Elam, Asshur and Arpachshad.” Pre-eminence was given to Arpachshad because Abraham was destined to arise from him. Abraham gave it to Isaac, Isaac to Jacob, Jacob to Judah, Judah to Perez, and Perez to Hezron, until it came to Zedekiah. When Zedekiah went into exile, Nebuchadnezzar took it from him. Then the Holy One, blessed be he, considered in his heart and said, “All the days that the kingdom was entrusted to the hands of my children, it rolled along with them: one wicked man arose and then one righteous, one ran up a debt and another paid it off. Now that the kingdom has been taken from my children, let the kingdom pass over to Elam, who is the grandson of Shem. It was for Israel’s sake that the kingdom was given to Arpachshad, from whom Israel arose; and now that Israel has sinned, let the kingdom pass over to Elam,” as it is written, “And I was in the citadel of Susa, which is in the province of Elam,” and, “I will set my throne in Elam.” In the days of Ahasuerus, too, the children of Israel were like a dove standing at the mouth of its nest. It could not go into the nest because of the snake that was sitting in the nest, and it could not fly away outside because of the hawk that wanted to snatch it. So the children of Israel were saying, “If we go to Media, Haman is there and will kill us; and if we stay in the citadel of Susa, we are handed over into his hands,” so as to fulfill what is written, “You will be in dread night and day, and you will have no assurance of your life.” But the Holy One, blessed be he, remembers for them the merit of Abraham, as it is written, “Then I will remember my covenant with Abraham,” and again it is written, “Yet for all that, when they are …” From this you know that the Holy One, blessed be he, shares the affliction of the house of Israel and keeps watch over them in their four exiles, as it is written, “In all their affliction he was afflicted.” He is Ahasuerus who ordered the house of the sanctuary to be built, but the LORD did not let it succeed in his hand, and he did not build it. He is Ahasuerus in whose days the work on the house of our great God stopped, and it remained stopped until the second year of King Darius. Because he did this, his days were shortened, and he did not reign over the whole world, but only from India in the west to Ethiopia in the east, over a hundred and twenty-seven provinces. 2 In those days, when King Ahasuerus sat on the glorious throne of his kingdom that had been prepared for him in the fortress of Susa, it was a throne that was neither his nor his fathers’, but the throne of King Solomon, which Hiram king of Tyre had fashioned with great skill. He was Solomon, the great king, whom the Holy One, blessed be He, made king from one end of the world to the other. He chose him before he was born; from his mother’s womb He loved him. He revealed hidden mysteries to him and showed him deep secrets; He gave him knowledge and wisdom and understanding of heart from the very beginning. He would look into the parties to a lawsuit when they came before him for judgment, so that they could not speak false words before him, because he knew the innocent from the guilty. Splendor and majesty were poured out on him, and the crown of the kingdom was set on his head. He clothed him with grace and kindness, as He had clothed David his father all his days. He was thirteen years old on the first day he received the kingdom. They called him Jedidiah because he was beloved of the King of kings, the LORD of hosts, for so Scripture states plainly: “He sent word through Nathan the prophet, and he named him Jedidiah.” They called him Solomon because of the peace that there was in his days, for so Scripture states plainly: “Judah and Israel lived in safety.” They called him Ben because he built the Temple of the LORD of hosts, for so it is written: “I have built you an exalted house.” They called him Ithiel because the Memra of God was his support, for so it is written: “He was wiser than all people.” They called him Jakeh because he was master and ruler over all the peoples of the east and the west, for so it is written: “Solomon sat on the throne of David his father.” All the kings feared him; the nations and languages alike obeyed him. Demons and evil spirits, wild beasts and ghosts were handed over into his power. The spirits brought up to him all the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky. Cattle and wild animals alike came up of their own accord to the slaughterhouse, to be taken from among them for Solomon’s table. He grew rich and strong and acquired great wealth, silver and gold in great abundance. He interpreted proverbs, disclosed hidden things and made known secrets without end. His enemies and adversaries became his friends, and all the kingdoms obeyed him. They all rose up to see his face and longed to hear the words of his knowledge. The High and Exalted One raised him up for the sake of the deeds of David his father. His fame spread among the kingdoms, and his might among the wise. He was blameless and upright and turned away from evil. He knew the mysteries of heaven and was wise. His kingdom was stronger than all the kingdoms, and his understanding greater than all the sons of Mahol. When they heard the report of him and the words of his knowledge, they all came together to ask after his welfare. All the kings loved him; all the rulers trembled before him. They brought their sons and daughters to him to be servants running before him. They wished to sit before him and longed to hear the words of his wisdom. When his mouth opened to speak, they knelt before him. The rich who were to come in before him, and the commanders, scorned all their fortresses; they came to hate their own places and provinces, and came to hear the words of wisdom and the sweetness of his mouth, how he gave praise to the Lord of kings. Opening his mouth with the trumpet, he exalted and praised the Great King. To him was given the great key by which all the gates of wisdom and understanding of heart are opened. He knew and understood the speech of the birds, and of the cattle and the wild animals as well. Gazelles and deer ran before him, and lions and leopards of every kind. He was wiser in languages than all the nations, and he understood every house of study. All the kingdoms and all the kings trembled before him. Terror seized all the rulers, and to him was given the crown of the chief of conquerors, who laid subjection on all people. He was the head of all the kings, and no kingdom raised arms against its neighbor. All the kings and all the provinces trembled before him. He revealed secrets and knew all the secrets of human beings. Because he did and gave charity and performed acts of kindness from the very beginning, he was worthy to be king in this world, and he is worthy of the world to come as well. He was Solomon, the great king, who made a great royal throne overlaid with fine gold of Ophir, set with beryl and inlaid with marble, and studded with emeralds, rubies, crystals, pearls and every kind of precious stone. None like it had been made for any king, and none of the kings could fashion a throne to match it. And this was the workmanship of his throne. Twelve golden lions stood on it, and facing them twelve golden eagles, a lion facing an eagle and an eagle facing a lion, set opposite one another. The right paw of the golden lion faced the left wing of the golden eagle, and the left wing of the golden eagle faced the right paw of the golden lion. The lions numbered seventy-two in all, and the eagles seventy-two. The top of the throne above, where the king’s seat was, was round. It had six steps, for so it is written: “The king made a great ivory throne, and the throne had six steps.” On the first step lay a golden ox, and facing it a golden lion. On the second step lay a golden bear, and facing it lay a golden lamb. On the third step lay a golden leopard, and facing it lay a golden kid. On the fourth step lay a golden eagle, and facing it a golden peacock. On the fifth step lay a golden cat, and facing it a golden rooster. On the sixth step lay a golden hawk, and facing it a golden songbird. On the top of the throne stood a golden dove holding a hawk in its claw. In the same way all the nations and languages are destined to be handed over into the hand of Israel. At the top of the throne stood a golden lampstand, furnished with all its fittings: its lamps, its knobs, its tongs, its firepans, its cups and its flowers. On one side of the lampstand stood seven golden branches, on which were portrayed the seven fathers of the world, and these are their names: Adam the first man, Noah, Shem the Great, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, with Job among them. On the other side of the lampstand stood other branches, on which were portrayed the seven devout men of the world, and these are their names: Levi, Kohath, Amram, Moses and Aaron, Eldad and Medad, with Haggai the prophet among them. On the top of the lampstand was set a bowl full of pure olive oil, from which the lamp of the Temple was lit. Beneath it was set a great golden basin full of pure olive oil, from which oil was drawn for the lamps of the lampstand, and on it was portrayed Eli the high priest. Two golden spouts came out of the great basin, on which were portrayed the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas. And within the golden spouts that came out of the great basin were portrayed the two sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu. There were two golden seats, one for the high priest and one for the deputy of the priests. Above the throne were set seventy golden thrones, on which sat the seventy members of the Sanhedrin, judging cases before King Solomon. Two dolphins sat by King Solomon’s two ears, so that he would not be startled. Above the throne were set twenty-four golden vines, which made a shade for King Solomon. Whenever King Solomon wished to go anywhere he pleased, the throne went beneath him on its bases. He would set his foot on the first step, the golden ox, and it stretched out its foreleg to the second step, and so from the second to the third, from the third to the fourth, from the fourth to the fifth and from the fifth to the sixth. From the sixth step the eagles came down, took hold of him, lifted him up and seated him on the top of his throne. And one silver serpent lay on its bases. When the kings heard the report of King Solomon’s throne, they gathered and all came together, bowed down and fell before him, and said, “No throne like this has been made for any king, and no nation can fashion one like it.” When the kings saw the splendor of the king’s throne, they gave honor to the One who created the whole world. When the king went up and sat on the royal throne, the great eagle would turn, take the royal crown and set the crown on King Solomon’s head. After that the great serpent would spring out through the machinery, and the lions and eagles would rise up through the machinery and spread a shade over King Solomon’s head. The golden dove would come down from the pillar, open the ark, take the scroll of the Law and place it in King Solomon’s hands, to fulfill what Moses said: “It shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, so that the days of his life may be long over his kingdom, he and his sons, in the midst of Israel.” When the high priest came to ask after King Solomon’s welfare, all the elders sat at the right of the throne and at its left, judging the cases of the people. When the witnesses came in to testify before King Solomon, the machinery would sound and the wheel would turn: the oxen lowed, the lions roared, the bears lunged, the lambs bleated, the leopards growled, the young ones cried, the cats screeched, the peacocks wailed, the roosters crowed, the hawks swooped and the birds shrieked, to seize the hearts of the witnesses so that they would not give false testimony. And the witnesses would say in their hearts, “Let us give true testimony, or else the world will be uprooted because of us.” The lions would scatter spices when King Solomon went up to sit on his throne. And no other king had a throne like the king’s throne. When Israel incurred guilt, the wicked Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, grew strong and came up against them. He laid waste the land of Israel, plundered the city of Jerusalem, burned the Temple with fire, and exiled the people of the house of Israel, bringing them to Riblah in the land of Hamath. Along with them he carried off the throne of King Solomon into exile. When the wicked Nebuchadnezzar wanted to go up and sit on it, he did not know that the machinery would rise against him. He set his foot on the first step, and a golden lion stretched out its right paw and struck him on his left hip, and he was lame from it until the day of his death. After Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came Alexander of Macedon, who captured the throne of King Solomon and carried it to Egypt. When Shishak king of Egypt saw the splendor of the throne, which was more glorious than any throne of the kings, he longed to go up and sit on it, and he did not know that the machinery would rise against him. He set his foot on the first step, and a golden lion stretched out its right paw and struck him on his left hip, and he was called the lame Pharaoh until the day of his death. When Anipernes, son of King Antiochus, came up against the land of Egypt and laid it waste, he captured the throne of King Solomon and brought it away in ships, and a leg of the throne, with its golden chain, slipped loose. All the craftsmen of the world and all the smiths came to repair the leg, and they have not been able to repair it to this day. When his reign came to an end and Cyrus the Persian rose after him, Cyrus earned the right to sit on it because he had busied himself with the Temple. This is the throne of King Solomon, whose like no king ever had. In the third year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign the house of Israel wept and lamented, saying, “Woe to us! The enemy has overpowered us. He has plundered our land, laid waste our province, driven us into exile, and done to us what was not right. He bound our elders in chains and drove our nobles into exile; he killed our young men with the sword and carried our little ones into captivity; he took from us the crown of our glory.” When the kings of the house of David arose, they reigned over the whole world. After David rose Solomon his son, whom the Holy One, blessed be he, made king over the wild beasts, over the birds of the sky, over all the earth, and over demons, spirits and liliths. He knew the speech of all of them, and they understood his speech, for so it is written, “He spoke of trees.” When King Solomon’s heart was merry with wine, he sent and invited all the kings of the East and the West who were his neighbors in the land of Israel, and he hosted them in the hall of his royal palace. Another time, when King Solomon’s heart was merry with wine, he ordered that the harps, cymbals, drums and lyres on which his father David used to play be brought in. Another time, when King Solomon’s heart was merry with wine, he ordered that the wild beasts, the birds of the sky, the creeping things of the earth, and the demons, spirits and liliths be brought to dance before him, to show his greatness to all the kings who were his guests. The king’s scribes called them by their names, and all of them gathered and came to him without being bound, without being forced, and without anyone leading them. At that moment the wild rooster was looked for among the birds and could not be found. The king gave orders concerning it, that it be brought, and in his anger he meant to destroy it. The wild rooster answered before King Solomon and said to him, “Hear my words, my lord the king. Turn your ear and listen to what I have to say. Is it not three months now that I have been taking counsel and weighing my plans, and my words are true? I have eaten no food and drunk no water, because I was looking and flying through the whole world, saying, ‘Which country is there that does not obey my lord the king?’ I looked and saw a country in the land of the East; Kitor is the name of its city. Its dust is more precious than gold, and silver lies like dung in its streets. Trees have stood planted there since the beginning of the world, and they drink water from the Garden of Eden. Great multitudes live there with crowns on their heads, planted there from the Garden of Eden. They do not know how to fight in battle, and they cannot shoot with the bow. But truly I saw one woman who rules over all of them, and her name is the Queen of Sheba. Now, if it pleases you, my lord, I will gird my loins like a warrior and go to the city of Kitor, to the land of Sheba. I will bind their kings in chains and their rulers in iron fetters and bring them to my lord the king.” The proposal pleased the king. The king’s scribes were summoned, and they wrote a letter and tied the letter to the wing of the wild rooster. It rose and went up into the heights of the sky, whirled aloft, gathered its strength and flew among the birds, and they flew after it, and they went to the city of Kitor, to the land of Sheba. In the morning the Queen of Sheba went out to worship the sea, and the birds darkened the sun. She took hold of her clothes and tore them, and she was utterly astonished. While she was utterly astonished, the wild rooster came down to her, and she saw that a letter was tied to its wing. She untied it and read it, and this is what was written in it: “From me, King Solomon: peace to you, and peace to your nobles. You know that the Holy One, blessed be he, has made me king over the wild beasts, over the birds of the sky, and over demons, spirits and liliths, and that all the kings of the East and the West, of the South and the North, come and ask after my welfare. Now, if you are willing to come and ask after my welfare, I will show you great honor, more than all who are guests before me. But if you are not willing to come and ask after my welfare, I will send against you kings, legions and horsemen, for King Solomon has these: the wild beasts are his kings, the birds of the sky are his horsemen, his armies are the spirits, and the demons and liliths are his legions. They will strangle you in your beds inside your houses; the wild beasts will kill you in the field; the birds of the sky will eat the flesh off your bodies.” When the Queen of Sheba heard the words of the letter, she again took hold of her clothes and tore them. She sent for her elders and her nobles and said to them, “Do you not know what King Solomon has sent me?” They answered her, “We do not know King Solomon, and we take no account of his kingdom.” But she did not trust them and did not listen to their words. She sent for all the ships of the sea and loaded them with gifts, pearls and precious stones. She sent him six thousand boys and girls, all born in the same hour, all of the same height, all of the same build, and all dressed in garments of purple. She wrote a letter and sent it by their hands to King Solomon, from the city of Kitor to the land of Israel, a journey of seven years: “Now, by the prayer and petition that I make before you, I will come to you at the end of three years.” At the end of three years the Queen of Sheba came to King Solomon. When King Solomon was told that the Queen of Sheba had arrived, he sent Benaiah son of Jehoiada out to meet her. He was like the dawn that breaks in the morning, like the morning star that shines and stands out among the stars, and like the lily that stands by streams of water. When the Queen of Sheba saw Benaiah son of Jehoiada, she climbed down from her mount. Benaiah said to the Queen of Sheba, “Why have you climbed down from your mount?” She answered him, “Are you King Solomon?” He answered, “I am not King Solomon, only one of his servants who stand before him.” At once she turned and spoke a proverb to her nobles: “If you have not seen the lion, you have seen its lair; and if you have not seen King Solomon, you have seen the beauty of a man who stands before him.” Benaiah son of Jehoiada brought her before King Solomon. When King Solomon heard that she had come to him, King Solomon rose and went and sat in a house of glass. She thought in her heart that the king was sitting in water, and she lifted her skirts to cross over, and he saw that there was hair on her legs. King Solomon said, “Your beauty is the beauty of women, but your hair is the hair of a man. Hair is becoming to a man but shameful to a woman.” The Queen of Sheba answered and said to him, “My lord king, I will put three riddles to you. If you solve them for me, I will know that you are a wise man; if not, you are like the rest of humankind.” She answered and said to him, “What is a wooden well with iron buckets that draw up stones and pour out water?” He answered and said to her, “A tube of kohl.” She answered and said, “What is it that comes out of the ground as dust, feeds on the dust of the earth, pours out like water, and looks toward the house?” He answered and said to her, “Naphtha.” She answered and said to him, “What is it that goes like a herald at the head of them all, cries out with a loud and bitter cry, and has a head like a bulrush? It is praise to the free and disgrace to the poor, praise to the dead and disgrace to the living, joy to the birds and distress to the fish.” He answered and said to her, “Flax.” She answered and said to him, “I did not believe the reports. Happy are your people, and happy are these servants of yours!” Then he brought her into the inner chamber of the royal palace. When the Queen of Sheba saw the greatness and the glory of King Solomon, she gave praise to the One who had created him and said, “Blessed be the LORD your God, who delighted in you and set you on the throne of his kingdom to do righteousness and justice.” She gave the king a very great amount of fine gold, and the king gave her everything she desired. When the kings of the east and the west, the north and the south, heard of his fame, they all trembled together, and they came from their own lands with great honor and great dignity, bringing gold and silver, precious stones and pearls. When Israel had become guilty, the prophet Jeremiah prophesied many prophecies to them about themselves, but they would not accept them from him. Then the Holy Spirit drew him away and led him to the land of Benjamin, as it is written, “Jeremiah went out from Jerusalem to go to the land of Benjamin.” As long as the prophet Jeremiah was inside Jerusalem, he kept asking for mercy from his Father in heaven, so that the city of Jerusalem was not handed over to the Chaldeans and they did not destroy it. But once the prophet Jeremiah was in the land of the tribe of Benjamin, the king of Babylon grew strong and came up against them. He destroyed the land of Israel, plundered the city of Jerusalem, and burned the Temple with fire. While the wicked Nebuchadnezzar was still staying at Antioch, which is Riblah, he sent Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, against Jerusalem, and they broke down the walls of the city of Jerusalem. When the prophet Jeremiah came and saw the city of Jerusalem destroyed, with the Chaldean armies surrounding it, he cried out with a loud voice and wept a great and bitter weeping. He answered and said, “You enticed me, LORD, and I was enticed; you led me astray, LORD, and I was led astray; you overpowered me and prevailed.” When Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon heard that the city of Jerusalem had been conquered, he gathered all the Chaldean armies, came, and stood over the Temple, shaking his head and gesturing with his hand, because he knew what had become of Sennacherib’s camp in the end, when an angel was sent against them from on high and killed a hundred and eighty-five thousand horsemen among them, and no one was left in Sennacherib’s camp but Sennacherib himself. Then a heavenly voice went out again and said to him, “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, rise, go, and stay at Riblah in the land of Hamath.” He shook the arrows; he consulted the teraphim. He shot an arrow toward the west, and it turned back and fell inside Jerusalem. He shot an arrow toward the east, and it turned back and fell inside Jerusalem. He shot toward guilty Rome, may it soon be uprooted from the world, and it turned back and fell inside Jerusalem. So he rose and sent his officers against Jerusalem, and these are their names: Nergal-sharezer, Samgar-nebo, Rab-saris, and Rab-mag. Then he rose, went after his officers, and entered the Temple. He answered and spoke this way: “You are the great God who stirred us up and brought us against your city and against your temple.” When the entrance of the Temple saw the unclean people standing in front of it, it shut itself and would not open. Then the Chaldean armies came, bringing with them three hundred and sixty camels loaded with iron axes, and the outer gates of the Temple swallowed them up. Even then the gates would not let themselves be opened, until he came, slaughtered a pig, sprinkled its blood on the Temple, and defiled it. Once it had been defiled, it opened by itself, and the wicked Nebuchadnezzar entered the Temple and went and sat in the court of Zechariah son of Jehoiada the high priest. There the wicked Nebuchadnezzar saw his blood seething on the ground, and he asked the elders of Israel, “Whose blood is this?” They answered him, “There was a prophet among us who used to rebuke us, and we would not accept it from him. We rose up and killed him in the Temple.” When Nebuchadnezzar heard this, he said to them, “Go, bring me four thousand young priests.” And he slaughtered them over that blood. Even so it was not swallowed up by the ground until Nebuchadnezzar rebuked it and said, “Shall I destroy your whole nation because of you?” After that it was swallowed up. When the high priest saw that the priests had been killed, he put on his robe, fastened on his ephod, took the keys of the Temple in his hand, and went up and stood on the roof of the sanctuary. He answered and spoke this way: “The house is given back and returned to its Master, and we will no longer be its keepers.” Then he threw himself into the fire and burned. When the rest of the priests saw the high priest burning in the fire, they too took their harps and their lyres and all their instruments of music, fell into the fire, and burned. When the wicked Nebuchadnezzar sought to enter the Holy of Holies, the gates of the sanctuary shut and would not open by themselves until a heavenly voice came out of the high heavens and said to him, “Open your doors, Lebanon.” After that it opened by itself, and the wicked and unclean Nebuchadnezzar entered the Holy of Holies, the place that is the glory of the King of all the worlds, the LORD of hosts. He saw that the holy vessels which the priests and the kings of the house of David had used were swallowed up before him. He flew into a great rage and came out from there in alarm. He carried out a great slaughter and took a great host of captives. He led the people of Israel out bound in iron chains and drove them along naked, carrying sand on their necks. The prophet Jeremiah went with them until he reached the graves of the fathers, and he cried out and wept. He answered and spoke this way: “Our fathers who love us, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, rise from your graves and see the people of the house of Israel going into captivity and walking into exile.” The Holy Spirit answered and spoke to him this way: “I have already told you, Jeremiah the prophet, that I have taken away my peace.” He rose from the graves of the fathers and went and fell upon the graves of the mothers. He answered and spoke this way: “Our mothers who love us, Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel and Leah, rise from within your graves and see your sons and your daughters going into captivity and walking into exile barefoot.” The Holy Spirit answered and spoke this way: “I have already said, ‘A voice is heard in Ramah.’” He rose from the graves of the mothers and went and fell upon the graves of the prophets. He answered and spoke this way: “Prophets who love us, Moses, Aaron and Samuel, rise from within your graves and see the people of Israel, whom you led in truth, going into captivity and walking into exile barefoot.” The Holy Spirit answered and spoke this way: “I have already told you, Jeremiah the prophet, ‘Even if Moses, Aaron and Samuel stood before me.’” He rose from the graves of the prophets and went and fell upon the graves of the mourners. He answered and spoke this way: “Feed me the mourners’ bread and give me the cup of consolation to drink, for I am mourning over the people of the house of Israel, who are going into captivity and walking into exile.” The Holy Spirit answered and spoke this way: “Do not enter the house of mourning.” So the prophet Jeremiah lamented, wept and wailed over the house of Israel as they went into captivity and walked into exile naked, carrying sand on their necks, they and their kings, their princes and their rulers, until they reached a place called Beth-kuru, where the captors brought out their clothes and dressed them. Jeremiah answered and said to the wicked Nebuchadnezzar and to all the Chaldean armies who had come with him, “Beware that you do not go off after your idols and praise them and say, ‘It is a slain people we have slain, and a captive people we have taken captive.’” They drove them on and went until they reached that province. There the prophet Jeremiah wept and groaned, and two tears fell from his eyes, and they became two springs of water there that remain to this day. When they came and reached the rivers of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar answered and said to the Israelites, “Let those singers who used to sing before your great Master in Jerusalem come and sing before me.” When the Levites heard this, they took their lyres and hung them on the willows that stand by the rivers of Babylon, as it is written, “By the rivers of Babylon … on the willows.” The Levites answered and said to Nebuchadnezzar, “If we had done the will of our Father in heaven and sung praise before him in Jerusalem, he would not have handed us over into your hand. Now how can we sing the praise of our Master before you? For so Scripture states plainly: ‘How shall we sing the song of the LORD?’” When Nebuchadnezzar heard this, he answered and spoke this way: “Kill them, because they have disobeyed the king’s decree.” Pelatiah son of Jehoiada answered and said to him, “If an owner entrusts his flock to a shepherd, and a wolf comes and takes a sheep from the shepherd, from whom is it to be required?” He answered and said to him, “It is to be required from the shepherd.” He answered and said to him, “Let your ears take in what your own mouth has said.” So the king gave orders, and they brought in King Zedekiah, took the chains of iron and bronze off him, and changed his prison clothes. 3 In the third year of the reign of Ahasuerus he made a banquet. And why did he make a banquet? Some say that his provinces rebelled against him, and he went and subdued them, and after he had subdued them he came back and made a banquet. Others say it was his festival day, and he sent letters to all the provinces to come and celebrate before him. He sent and invited all the princes of the provinces to come and rejoice with him. And one hundred and twenty-seven kings came before him, every one of them wearing a royal crown on his head, and they were provided for from the king’s treasuries, eating and drinking and rejoicing in the king’s presence. The nobles and the princes of the provinces were before him, and some of the princes of Israel were there too; and because they saw the vessels of the Temple there, they wept and mourned there. 4 It is not written “that he showed his wealth,” but “when he showed the wealth”: he showed the wealth. The wealth he showed belonged to the Temple. Flesh and blood has no wealth of its own; all wealth belongs to the Holy One, blessed be he, for so it is written, “Mine is the silver and mine is the gold, says the LORD of hosts.” Every day for one hundred and eighty days he showed them six treasuries. And how do we know that he showed them six treasuries every day? Because it is written, “the riches of the glory of his kingdom, the honor of the splendor of his greatness”: that makes six. When the house of Israel saw the vessels of the Temple there, they would not recline at table before him. So they told the king, “The Jews will not recline at table, because they see the vessels of the Temple.” And the king said, “Set another table for them by themselves.” 5 When those days were over, the king said, “Now I will make a banquet for the people of my own city, and I will bring them into the court of the garden that is planted with fruit trees and spice trees.” What did he do? He bent one tree toward another and made arches, and he broke down the spice trees and seated the guests on them, and he set precious stones and pearls before them, and trees that gave shade. 6 Between one tree and the next, curtains of fine linen were spread, white, sapphire, green and blue, fastened with cords wrapped in purple and hung on hooks, with many round silver rings on pillars of marble that was red, green, gleaming, polished and white. On them he set couches spread with fine wool, laid on bedsteads with canopy rods of fine gold, their legs of silver resting on a pavement inlaid with crystal and marble and with mother-of-pearl from the cities on the coast of the Great Sea, and these were set in rows around them on every side. 7 They drank from vessels of gold and vessels of silver. Whoever drank from a cup did not drink from it a second time; instead they took that cup away and brought out another, new one. There were jugs and cups there, no two of them alike; that is why it is written, “and the vessels were different from one another”: vessel differed from vessel. But when they brought out the vessels of the Temple and the nations of the world poured wine into them, their brightness changed, and that is why it is written, “and the vessels were different from one another.” And the king’s wine was older than the man who drank it. How was it older than the man who drank it? Because they would ask a man, “How old are you?” and he would say, “Forty years old,” and so for every man. That is why it is written, “and royal wine in abundance, as befitted the king’s bounty.” 8 They drank according to custom, and no one came to harm. And why did no one come to harm? Because of the Persians’ cup. This is how the Persians did it: they would bring them a great cup that held four or five hemyonim, and it was called the pitka. They would make every man drink from it and would not let him go until he had drained it in one draft. The cupbearer who poured for the Persians grew very rich. How did he grow rich? He would pour for a man, and since no one could be found who could drink it, they would signal to the cupbearer, “Take it away from me, and so many zuz are yours,” because no one could be found who could drink it. But Ahasuerus ordered that these cups were not to be brought in for drinking, and that each man should drink as much as he wished. That is why it is written, “And the drinking was according to the law.” 9 Queen Vashti too made a banquet for the women. She poured them dark wine, and she seated them inside the palace in order to show them the king’s wealth. And why did she seat them there? In order to show them the king’s wealth. They would ask her, “Where does the king sleep?” And she would show them, because women want to know everything. She would say to them, “Here the king reclines, here he eats, here he drinks, and here he sleeps.” That is why it is written, “in the royal house.” 10 On the seventh day, when the heart of the king and of the one hundred and twenty-seven kings who wore royal crowns was merry, a quarrel broke out and they argued among themselves; with the wine in them they turned to lewd talk. The kings of the west said, “Our women are the most beautiful,” and all the others said, “Ours are the most beautiful.” King Ahasuerus too, with the wine in him, spoke up and said to them, “There are no women in the world as beautiful as the Babylonian women. If you do not believe me, there is one Babylonian woman who lives inside my royal palace. I will send and call her before me and before you, and you will see that she is more beautiful than all of them.” At that moment King Ahasuerus sent seven eunuchs to her. 11 He said to them, “Go and say to Queen Vashti: Rise from your royal throne and strip yourself naked, and put the crown on your head, a gold cup in your right hand and a gold jug in your left, and come before me and before the one hundred and twenty-seven crowned kings, so that they may see that you are more beautiful than all women.” 12 Queen Vashti answered the seven eunuchs, “Shame on you! Go and tell your master, the fool, that you are fools like him. I am Queen Vashti, a daughter of kings, of the kings of Babylon from of old. My father drank wine in front of a thousand guests, and the wine never led him astray into saying improper words like yours.” At that moment they went and told the king what Queen Vashti had sent back to him. When the king heard these words, he was furious, and his anger burned within him. Again he sent to her by the seven royal eunuchs who attended him in the kingdom: “Now go and say to Queen Vashti: If you do not obey my words and come before me and before these kings, I will kill you and destroy your beauty.” The king’s nobles went and told her, but she paid them no heed. Instead she answered them, “Go and tell the foolish king, whose counsel is corrupt and whose decrees are not right: Am I not Queen Vashti, daughter of Evil-merodach and granddaughter of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon? From the day I was born until now no one has seen my body except you, O king, alone. If I come before you and before the one hundred and twenty-seven crowned kings, they will kill you and take me for their wife.” Then the chief lady of the Persians answered Queen Vashti, “Even if the king kills you and destroys your beauty, do not disgrace your own name and the name of your fathers in public, and do not show your body to anyone but the king alone.” At that moment, when the king’s nobles told the king that Queen Vashti had refused to come as the king had commanded by the eunuchs, the king was furious and his rage overpowered him. 13 Then the king said to the wise men who knew the times, for this was how the king’s business was laid before all who knew decrees and laws. 14 Some were close to him in counsel and some were distant. Those close to him were Carshena from Africa, Shethar from India, Admatha from Edom, Tarshish from Egypt, Meres from Meres, Marsena, and Memucan from Jerusalem, the seven princes of Persia and Media, who saw the king’s face and sat in the kingdom. 15 And the king said to them, “Take counsel: what shall we do to Queen Vashti, because she did not carry out the command of King Ahasuerus that he sent by the eunuchs?” 16 Then Memucan spoke, who is Daniel. And why was he called Memucan? Because when the tribe of the house of Judah went into exile to Babylon, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah went into exile with them, and Daniel was in the exile too, and miracles and mighty deeds were done through him. And it was through Daniel again that heaven decreed that Queen Vashti should be put to death. That is why he was called Memucan. Memucan set out his words before the king and the rulers, for this was the king’s rule: when they gave counsel, the junior rulers gave their counsel before him first, and if the counsel was good, they acted on it; and if the counsel was not good, they took the counsel of the senior men. Memucan was the most junior of them all, and he gave his counsel before the king first. Memucan had married a Persian woman who was richer than he was, and she would speak with him only in her own language. So Memucan said to himself, “Now a pretext has been found to bring the women to heel, so that they will honor their husbands.” Then Memucan said before the peoples and the rulers, “Queen Vashti has wronged not the king alone, but all the peoples and rulers in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus. 17 For the queen’s conduct will become known to all the women, every one of them, so that they will look on their husbands with contempt, and every wife will say to her husband, ‘Are you perhaps more important than King Ahasuerus? He said that Queen Vashti should come before him, and she would not come.’ 18 This very day the noblewomen of Persia and Media who have heard what the queen did will tell it to all the king’s rulers, and there will be contempt enough to stir up anger against him.” When Memucan made this decree, he feared for his life, and he said, “Perhaps the king will not carry out the decree, and when Vashti comes back in and hears this decree I have made against her, she will pass harsh sentences on me and have me killed. Instead I will see to it that King Ahasuerus gives his word that Vashti shall not come before him, and I will bind him to it with an oath of the Persians, which they dread to break.” 19 So Memucan said, “If it pleases the king, let this decree go out, and let it be written and sworn among the decrees of the Persians and the Medes, never to be annulled, that Vashti shall not come before King Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal position to another who is better than she. 20 Let the king’s decree that he makes be proclaimed throughout his whole kingdom, for it is vast, and all the women will give honor to their husbands, from the rich to the poor, from the great to the small.” 21 The proposal pleased the king and the rulers, and the king did as Memucan said. 22 The king sent letters to all the king’s provinces, to every province in its own script and to every people in its own language, that every man should be honored in his own house. And because Memucan’s wife would not speak with him, it was written in a single letter that every man should be honored in his own house and spoken to in his own language.

1 After these things, when the great anger of King Ahasuerus had died down, he sent for all his nobles and said to them, “It is not Queen Vashti I am angry with; I am angry with you. I said something while I was drunk, but why did you sentence Queen Vashti to death and have me strike her name from the kingdom? I will kill you too and strike your names from the kingdom.” 2 The king’s young men and his attendants spoke. Because he had killed the wise men, the king remembered Vashti, what she had done and what he had decreed against her, that she had not deserved a sentence of death, but that it had come from heaven, so that the line of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon would come to an end. So the king’s young men, his officials and his attendants said, “Let beautiful young virgins, lovely to look at, be sought for the king. 3 Let the king appoint trustworthy officials in all the provinces of the king’s realm, and let them gather all the beautiful young virgins to the fortress of Susa, to the house of the women, in the charge of Shaashgaz the king’s eunuch, who keeps the women, and let their beauty treatments be given them. 4 And let the girl who pleases the king reign in place of Vashti.” The suggestion pleased the king, and he did so. 5 There was a Jewish man in the fortress of Susa named Mordecai. Why was he called a Jewish man? Because he feared sin, and David prophesied about him when he said, “Shall a man die in Israel this day?” And who was that man? He was Mordecai son of Jair, son of Shimei, son of Shemida, son of Baanah, son of Elah, son of Micah, son of Mephibosheth, son of Jonathan, son of Saul, son of Kish, son of Abiel, son of Zeror, son of Becorath, son of Aphiah, son of Shaharith, son of Uzziah, son of Shishak, son of Michael, son of Eliel, son of Ammihud, son of Shephatiah, son of Pethuel, son of Pithon, son of Malluch, son of Jerubbaal, son of Jeroham, son of Hananiah, son of Zabdi, son of Elpaal, son of Shimri, son of Zebadiah, son of Meremoth, son of Hushim, son of Shehorah, son of Gazzah, son of Bela, son of Benjamin, the son of Jacob the firstborn, who was named Israel. And why was Mordecai called the son of Shimei? Shimei cursed David king of Israel and said to King David, “Get out, you wicked man, you man who deserves to die!” Abishai son of Zeruiah answered and said to David, “Let me go and take Shimei’s head off.” But King David looked by his gift of prophecy and saw that Mordecai was destined to descend from him. When King David saw this, he gave a command to his son Solomon. He said to his son Solomon, “Once Shimei has stopped having children, kill him, so that he may gain merit and enter the world to come.” For from him came a righteous son through whom miracles and mighty acts were done for Israel in their four exiles, and that is Mordecai, pure myrrh, son of Jair, son of Shimei, son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin. Shimei deserved to be put to death by law, as it is written in the law of Moses, “You shall not insult the true judge, and you shall not curse a ruler of your people,” and he had cursed David king of Israel. But David spared him and did not kill him, because he saw that these two righteous ones would descend from him and that the house of Israel would be redeemed through them. 6 Mordecai and Esther were from Jerusalem, among the exiles carried away with Jeconiah, king of the tribe of the house of Judah. Mordecai came back and went up with the people who volunteered to go up and build the house of the sanctuary a second time, and Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon exiled him again, a second time. And even in the land of his exile his spirit never stopped working miracles and mighty acts. 7 He was bringing up Hadassah, that is, Esther. Her name was Hadassah, like the myrtle, because just as the scent of the myrtle is sweet throughout the world, so Esther did good deeds throughout the world. As her name was, so were her deeds. She was called Hadassah in the Hebrew language. And why was she called Hadassah? Because the righteous are compared to the myrtle, as the prophet Isaiah prophesied when he said, “Instead of the thornbush the cypress will come up, and instead of the brier the myrtle will come up.” What is the thornbush? It is a thorn, and instead of the thorn the cypress will come up, and instead of Mordecai the righteous, Haman the wicked will go up to the gallows. The brier is a nettle, and instead of the nettle the myrtle will come up, and instead of Vashti, Esther will reign. It was for Esther’s sake that Mordecai went into exile, for he said, “It is better for me to go and bring up Esther than for her to stay in the land of Israel.” She was called by the name of the morning star, in Greek Astera. And she was called Hadassah, a name for the righteous, for so it says of Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, “And he was standing among the myrtles that were in the exile, in the deep,” and the deep is Babylon, as it is written, “who says to the deep, ‘Be dry.’” Esther was called Hadassah after the myrtle, for just as the myrtle does not dry up in summer or winter, so the righteous have a share in this world and in the world to come. This Esther was the daughter of Mordecai’s uncle. She was the same Esther in her youth and in her old age, and she never stopped doing good deeds. She had no father or mother. The girl was lovely in form, beautiful and graceful to look at, and when her father and mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter. 8 When the king’s order and his decree were made known, and many girls were gathered to the fortress of Susa in the charge of Hegai, the king’s eunuch, who kept the women, Mordecai heard that virgins were being sought. So he took Esther and hid her from King Ahasuerus’s officials, who had gone out to look for virgins, so that they would not come and take her away. He hid her in a room inside another room so that the king’s messengers would not see her. Whenever the messengers passed by, the daughters of the nations would dance and show off their beauty at the windows, and the king’s messengers went out and brought many virgins from the provinces. But the king’s messengers knew about Esther, and when they saw that she was not among these virgins, they said to one another, “We are wearing out our eyes in the provinces for nothing. Right here in our own province there is a girl more lovely in form, more beautiful and graceful to look at, than all the virgins we have brought.” When Esther was sought and could not be found, they told King Ahasuerus. When the king heard it, he wrote in an edict that any virgin who hid from his messengers came under a single sentence: she was to be put to death. When Mordecai heard the order, he was afraid, and he brought Esther, his uncle’s daughter, out into the street. So Esther was taken to the king’s house in the charge of Hegai, who kept the women. 9 The girl pleased him and won his favor, and he quickly gave her the beauty treatments and the portions of food meant for her, and seven maids chosen from the king’s house to be given to her. The portions given to Esther she gave to the Gentile maids to eat, because Esther would not taste the wine of the king’s house. And he moved her and her maids to the best place in the house of the women. 10 Esther did not tell anyone her people or her ancestry, because Mordecai had told her not to. Why did he tell her not to reveal her people? Mordecai thought it over and said to himself, “Vashti kept her dignity and refused to come and show her beauty to the king and the officials, and he passed a harsh sentence on her and killed her.” And why did Esther not reveal her ancestry? In case the king grew angry with her, killed her and destroyed the people she came from. That was why he told her not to reveal her people or her ancestry. 11 Every day Mordecai walked back and forth in front of the courtyard of the house of the women, to find out how Esther was and what miracles were being done through her. 12 When each girl’s turn came to go in to King Ahasuerus, after she had completed twelve months under the regulations for the women, for that was how the days of their beauty treatments were completed: she was perfumed for six months with oil of myrrh and for six months with spices and the women’s cosmetics. 13 This was how the girl went in before the king to the house of Ahasuerus: whatever she asked for was given her to take with her from the house of the women to the king’s house. 14 In the evening she would go in, and in the morning she would come back to the house of the women a second time, into the charge of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch, who kept the women. Her name was written down, and she did not go in to the king again unless the king wanted her and called for her by name. 15 When the turn came for Esther daughter of Abihail, the daughter of Mordecai’s uncle, whom he had taken as his own and raised faithfully as his daughter, to go in to King Ahasuerus, she asked for nothing except what Hegai, the king’s eunuch, who kept the women, advised. And Esther won grace and favor in the eyes of everyone who saw her. 16 Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus, to his royal house, to the palace, in the tenth month, the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign. 17 The king loved Esther more than all the other women, and she won more grace and favor from him than all the virgins. He set the royal crown on her head and made her queen in place of Vashti. 18 Then the king gave a great banquet for all his officials and servants, the banquet of Esther, and he gave gifts to the provinces. He said to her, “Please tell me, what is your people? Are they Jews? And what is your ancestry?” She said to him, “I do not know my people or my ancestry, because when I was a little girl my father and mother died and left me.” When Ahasuerus heard what she said, he went and granted a remission of taxes to the whole world and gave gifts to the provinces, because he thought it over and said to himself, “I will do good to all the nations and kingdoms, because Esther’s people are among them.” 19 When virgins were gathered a second time: and why were they gathered a second time? Esther was living in the king’s palace, and the king loved her more than all the women and had set the royal crown on her head. So why were these virgins gathered a second time? Because the king’s officials said, “If you want Esther to reveal her people and her ancestry to you, make her jealous with other women, and she will reveal her people and her ancestry to you.” That is why it says “a second time.” When the virgins were gathered a second time, Mordecai was sitting at the gate of the king’s house. 20 Esther still did not reveal her people or her ancestry, as Mordecai had told her. Even when the virgins were gathered, she revealed nothing, but Esther did just as Mordecai had told her. This Esther was modest in her youth, and when she came to the throne, she came to it with modesty. That is why Scripture says, “Esther did what Mordecai told her, just as when she was being brought up by him.” 21 In those days, while Mordecai was sitting at the gate of the king’s house, Bigthan and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs who guarded the vessels, became angry and sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus and kill him. They made a plan together and put a venomous snake in the gold cup Ahasuerus drank from, so that when the king wanted to drink from it they would hand it to him, and the snake would bite him and kill him. 22 Then the matter was revealed by the holy spirit, and Mordecai went and told Queen Esther, and Esther told the king in Mordecai’s name. 23 The matter was investigated and found to be true, and both of them were hanged on a gallows, and it was written in the book of the chronicles in the king’s presence.

1 After these events King Ahasuerus promoted Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, son of Sada, son of Koza, son of Eliphalot, son of Deyos, son of Deyosis, son of Paros, son of Maadan, son of Balaqan, son of Antimiros, son of Hadros, son of Shegar, son of Negar, son of Parmashta, son of Vaizatha, son of Amalek, son of the concubine of Eliphaz the firstborn of Esau. He promoted him, raised him up, and set his seat above all his nobles and his servants. 2 All the king’s servants at the gate of the king’s palace knelt and bowed down to Haman, because the king had commanded it concerning him. But Mordecai would not kneel before him or ask after his welfare. 3 The king’s servants who sat at the gate of the king’s palace said to Mordecai, “What greatness do you have beyond us, that they kneel and bow down before Haman and you do not kneel before him? Why do you break the king’s command?” Mordecai answered them, “You fools without understanding, hear a word from me and give me a fitting answer. Is there a human being who is proud and haughty, who is born of a woman, whose days are few, whose birth brings weeping and wailing, distress and groaning, whose days are all full of rage, and whose end is to return to dust, and I should bow down before him? I bow down to no one but the living and enduring God, who is One in heaven. He is a fire that consumes fire. He hangs the earth on his arm and stretches out the sky by his might. When he wishes, he darkens the sun; when he wills, he lights up the darkness. In his wisdom he hedged in the great sea with sand. In his rebuke he gave the water a taste like salt and the scent of its waves like wine. He binds it as with chains and shuts it up in the storehouses of the deep so that it will not rise up over the dry land; it roars but does not cross the deep. By the Memra he created the sky beneath him like a cloud spread out in the air, like mist upon a cloud, sheltering like a tent over the face of the earth. By his strength he carries what is above and what is below. Before him run the sun and the moon, the Pleiades, the stars, and the constellations. They do not stop for an hour or take any rest, but all of them run like messengers to the right and to the left to do the will of the one who created them. He is the one it is right to praise and to bow down before.” They answered Mordecai, “But we find that your fathers bowed down before Haman’s fathers.” Mordecai answered them, “Who is it that bowed down before Haman’s fathers?” They said to him, “Did your father Jacob not bow down before his brother Esau, who is Haman’s father?” He said to them, “I am of the line of Benjamin. When Jacob bowed down before Esau, Benjamin had not yet been born, and he never bowed down before anyone in all his days. That is why the Eternal One of the world kept him safe in his mother’s womb, until the time when they would go up to the land of Israel, and the Temple would stand in his land, and his Shekhinah would dwell within his borders, and the whole house of Israel would rejoice there, and the nations would kneel and bow down in his land. So I will not kneel and bow down before this wicked Haman, this enemy.” 4 When they had spoken to him day after day and he would not listen to them, they told Haman, to see whether Mordecai’s words would hold, because he had told them that he was a Jew. 5 When Haman saw that Mordecai was not willing to kneel and bow down before him, Haman was filled with rage against Mordecai. 6 But it seemed a small thing in his eyes to lay a hand on Mordecai alone, because they had told him that Mordecai was a Jew. So Haman sought to wipe out all the Jews in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, the people of Mordecai. 7 In the first month, which is the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, a word was cast, that is, the lot, before Haman, from day to day and from month to month, until the twelfth, which is the month of Adar. 8 Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, “There is a certain people, the Jews, scattered and wandering among the nations in every province of your kingdom. They are proud and arrogant. They gather lukewarm water in Tebeth and sit by cool water jars in Tammuz. Their customs differ from those of every people and their laws from those of every province. They do not live by our laws, they have no wish for our customs, and they do not do the king’s service. When they see us they spit on the ground, and they look on us as something unclean. When we go out to make proclamations and announcements and to carry out the king’s service, some of them climb up on walls, break through fences, slip into inner rooms, and come out brazen. When we run to seize them, they turn and stand there with flashing eyes, grinding their teeth and stamping their feet, and they frighten us, so that we cannot catch them. They do not give us their daughters, and they do not take our daughters for themselves. Whoever of them is taken to do the king’s service idles the day away. On a day when they want to buy from us, they tell us it is a permitted day; and on a day when we want to buy from them, they shut the markets against us and tell us it is a forbidden day. In the first hour they say, ‘We are reciting the Shema.’ In the second, ‘We are saying our prayers.’ In the third they say, ‘We are eating our bread.’ In the fourth they say, ‘We are blessing the God of heaven, who gave us bread and water.’ In the fifth they go out, and in the sixth they come back. In the seventh their wives go out to meet them and say, ‘We have brought you crushed beans, because the service of the wicked king has worn you out.’ They go into their synagogue, read from their books, and translate their prophets. They curse our king and call down ruin on our rulers, and they say, ‘This is the day on which the great God rested.’ Their menstrual impurity lasts seven days, and their wives go out in the middle of the night and defile the water. At eight days they cut off the foreskin of their sons and have no pity on them, and they say, ‘This is so that we will be different from the nations.’ At thirty days they call it a month, and they say, ‘One is short and one is full.’ In the month of Nisan they keep eight festival days. They light lamps, scour their houses, and sweep the leaven away to make room for the unleavened bread, and they say, ‘This is the day on which our fathers were redeemed from Egypt,’ and they call it the day of Passover. They go into their synagogue, read from their books, translate their prophets, and say, ‘As the leaven is swept away to make room for the unleavened bread, so may this wicked kingdom be swept away from among us, and so may deliverance come to us from this foolish king.’ In the month of Sivan they keep two festival days. They go into the synagogues, recite the Shema, and pray. They read in the Law and translate their prophets. They curse our king and call down ruin on our rulers, and they call it the day of the Assembly. They climb up to the roof of the house of their God, throw down apples, and gather them up, and they say, ‘As these apples are gathered up, so may their sons be gathered up from among us.’ And they say, ‘This is when the Law was given to our fathers on Mount Sinai.’ When the time comes round, they call the first of Tishri the head of the year. They go into their synagogues, read from their books, and translate their prophets. They curse our king and call down ruin on our rulers. They blow trumpets and say, ‘On the day when our fathers are remembered before our Father in heaven, may our remembrance come in for good, and the remembrance of our enemies come in for evil and bitterness.’ On the ninth of the month they slaughter cattle and geese, and they eat and drink and indulge themselves, they and their wives, their sons and their daughters. The tenth of the month they call the Great Fast, and they fast, they and their wives, their sons and their daughters. Even their grandchildren fast; they afflict them and have no pity on them. And they say, ‘On this day our sins are forgiven. Our sins are gathered up and added to the sins of our enemies.’ They go into their synagogues, read from their books, and translate their prophets. They curse our king and call down ruin on our rulers, and they say, ‘So may this kingdom be wiped from the world.’ They ask for mercy and plead that the king may die and his rule be broken. On the fifteenth of the month they put up booths on the roofs of their houses. They go out to our orchards, strip our palm branches, pick our citrons, cut down our willows, lay waste our orchards, and tear up our hedges, and they have no pity. They make themselves hosannas and say, ‘We are doing what the king does when he draws up his battle lines.’ They go into the synagogue, pray and rejoice, and go round and round with the hosannas, singing and leaping like young goats, and we do not know whether they are cursing us or blessing us. They call it the Festival of Booths, and they do not do the king’s service. They tell us, ‘This day is forbidden to us,’ and they idle the year away, so that they do no work for the king with their hands. At fifty years they call it the Jubilee. At seven years they call it the Release. At twelve months they call it a year. At thirty days they call it a month and make it a festival. At seven days they call it the Sabbath and make it a day of rest, my lord king. When their kingdom still stood over them, a king rose up over them whose name was David. He plotted evil plans against us and sought to wipe us out and destroy us from the world. He killed two parts of us and spared one, and the part he spared he forced into slavery. That is what is written: ‘He measured them with a cord and laid them down on the ground.’ After him one of our kings rose up, whose name was Nebuchadnezzar. He marched up against them, destroyed their Temple, plundered their city, and carried them off into exile. Yet even now they have not given up their arrogance, and they say, ‘We are the children of fathers famous from of old. We do not serve kings or bow down to them, and we do not obey rulers.’ Their letters go out and reach every place, asking for mercy before God that the king may die and our rule be broken, and we do not even know it. When their fathers went down to Egypt, they went down only seventy persons, and when they came up from there, they came up six hundred thousand. Now that they are in exile they have nothing, yet they say, ‘We are the children of the pious and the good from of old,’ and there are no beggars and peddlers like them in the world. This people is scattered among the cities. Some of them sell wax and some hang up lamps. Whatever they sell, they sell by cheating, and whatever they buy, they buy at the bare price. So now, if my lord the king is willing, I will pay ten thousand talents of silver from my treasury into your treasury, because they do not live by the king’s laws and do not do the king’s service. It is not worth my lord the king’s while to let them live. 9 “But if it pleases the king, let a decree be written to destroy them, and I will weigh out ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who do the king’s work, to be brought into the king’s treasuries, a mina for every one of the six hundred thousand whose fathers came up from their slavery to the Egyptians.” 10 The king took his signet ring off his hand and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the oppressor of the Jews. 11 The king said to Haman, “The silver is given to you, and the people as well, to do with them whatever seems good to you.” But you, King Ahasuerus, have acted neither like a buyer nor like a seller. A buyer gives money and a seller takes money. You are neither a buyer nor a seller, for you gave your signet ring to Haman and said to him, “The silver is given to you, and the people as well, to do with them whatever seems good to you.” In you this verse has come true: “A gold ring in a pig’s snout,” gold rings in a pig’s nostril. Just as rings do not suit a pig, so kingship does not suit you, and you are like a beautiful woman who has turned away from good sense. 12 The king’s scribes were summoned in the first month, on the thirteenth of the month, which is the month of Nisan, and everything Haman commanded concerning the Jews was written to the king’s dignitaries, to his princes in every province, and to all his rulers of every people, to each province in its own script and to each people in its own language. It was written in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed with the king’s signet ring. 13 The letters were sent by couriers to all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, to annihilate, to kill, and to destroy all the Jews, young and old, children and women, in a single day, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, and to plunder their houses as well. 14 The text of the decree was made known and the matter was settled for every province, and it was made public to all the peoples, so that they would be ready for that day for all of this. This is to show you that measure for measure never fails. You see that because Joseph’s brothers sold him into a foreign land, their descendants were sold into a foreign land. But Benjamin had no part with his brothers, and so redeemers for Israel came from his descendants: Mordecai and Esther. 15 The couriers went out, driven and pressed on by the king’s word, and the decree was published in Susa the citadel. The king and Haman sat down to eat and drink, and the city of Susa was weeping.

1 Righteous Mordecai knew by the holy spirit everything that had been done: how the King sent word from his palace by his righteous servants to Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi, who sat in the Chamber of Hewn Stone and prophesied there about the great wall of Jerusalem, after they had prophesied seventy-two towers for it. Wicked Ahasuerus sent and brought one hundred and twenty-seven scribes from the one hundred and twenty-seven provinces, each man with his scroll in his hand and his writing tablet in his hand. They sat at the gates of Susa and wrote, and they sent out a harsh decree against the Jews and against their laws. The first letter they wrote for them in the king’s name, sealed it with the signet ring of King Ahasuerus, and sent it by the couriers. This is what was written in the letter and in the dispatches: “From me, King Ahasuerus, to all the peoples, nations and languages who live in all the earth: may your peace increase. I make known to you that a certain man came to us who is not from our place and not from our province. He came to join us and to help us prevail over our enemies. We looked into him, and his name is Haman, son of King Agag, son of Amalek the great, son of Reuel, son of Eliphaz the firstborn of Esau, a son of rulers, a man of property and rich in lands. He asked of me a small and trifling request, and he told me about the Jews, about their ways and about their laws, which are not fit. He said that when they came out of Egypt they numbered six hundred thousand, with vessels of silver, a vessel for every man; and this people I have sold to be killed. Now I, King Ahasuerus, have rejoiced greatly and my mind is well pleased; I took the silver from him and sold the people to him to be killed. Now eat and drink and be glad, as I eat and drink and am glad. Whoever handles the bow, take up the bow, and whoever handles the sword, take up the sword; go out and overpower them on the fourteenth and fifteenth of the month that is called Adar in our language. Do not spare their kings or their rulers or their nobles or their little children, but kill them, and let every man plunder their goods for himself. From me, King Ahasuerus, to all the peoples, nations and languages, to every single place and every single province, to every tribe and every family and every town: wherever a Jewish servant or a Jewish maidservant is found, its leaders shall be seized at the doors of their houses, because they did not accept the king’s decree. For I, King Ahasuerus, want no Jew to be found on the face of the land of my kingdom.” When righteous Mordecai saw the decree that had been issued and the letter that had been sealed, he tore his clothes in front and behind, covered himself with sackcloth, rolled himself in ashes, raised his voice and said, “Woe, how great is the decree that the king and Haman have issued against us! He did not decree against half and spare half, nor against a third or a fourth; he decreed against the whole vine, to uproot it and destroy it from its roots.” When the people of the house of Israel saw righteous Mordecai, who was great and honored among them all, they gathered and came to him until they were a very great multitude, beyond counting. Mordecai stood up on his feet in the middle of the assembly and spoke to them: “People of the house of Israel, beloved and precious before your Father in heaven, do you not know what has happened, and have you not heard what the king and Haman have decreed against us, to wipe us off the face of the earth and to destroy us from under the heavens? We have no king to lean on, and no prophet to ask mercy for us. We have no place to flee to and no province where we can escape. In every place it has been written against us, and to every province it has been sent against us. We have become like sheep that have no shepherd, like a ship at sea that has no pilot, like orphans who have no father and whose mother died while they were still nursing.” At that hour they brought the ark out to the gates of Susa, and on it they brought out the book of the Law wrapped in sackcloth and sprinkled with ashes, and they read from it: “When you are in distress and all these things have come upon you, for the LORD your God is a merciful God.” Mordecai stood up on his feet in the middle of the assembly and spoke: “People of the house of Israel, beloved and precious, let us stand and learn from the people of Nineveh. When the prophet Jonah son of Amittai was sent to them to overturn the city of Nineveh, the king rose from his glorious throne, took off his crown, covered himself with sackcloth and rolled in ashes, and made a proclamation in Nineveh: ‘By decree of the king and his nobles: you shall not let man or beast, herd or flock, go out to graze, and they shall not drink water.’ And they turned from their evil ways and from the robbery in their hands, and he turned back, by his Memra, from the evil he had planned to do to them, and did not do it. We too will do as they did: we will decree fasts and proclaim a fast day, for we have been exiled from Jerusalem.” When the house of Israel became guilty, a voice from heaven came and called to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and said to him, “Nebuchadnezzar, Chaldean king, rise and go up against Jerusalem, lay it waste, and burn the sanctuary with fire.” At that same hour Nebuchadnezzar shook his head and wrung his hands back and forth, because he knew what had happened in the end to the army of Sennacherib, when an angel was sent against them from the heights of heaven and killed one hundred and eighty-five thousand of them, and no one was left of Sennacherib’s army but himself alone. When Mordecai remembered this, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, sat in the dust and began to shed tears. And at the start of his weeping he said, “Woe to you, children of Israel, because of this sentence that has gone out against you.” Then he went out into the middle of the city and cried out with a loud and very bitter cry. 2 He came as far as the gate of the king’s palace, because a decree had been issued that no one might come to the gate of the king’s house dressed in sackcloth. A man of the house of Israel went to a gentile and said to him, “I beg you, let me and my sons and my wife be your slaves, only let us escape this killing.” The gentile said to the Israelite, “Have you not seen what is written in the edict that King Ahasuerus published, that any gentile who is found with a Jew at his side will be killed as he is?” Then the Israelite went home in great distress. At that hour what is written in the book of the Law of Moses was fulfilled for the house of Israel: “There you will be sold to your enemies as male and female slaves, and no one will buy you.” Every day each person would go and read the edict that King Ahasuerus had published, and from it they knew how much rest was left to them in the world. Then what is written in the book of the Law of Moses was fulfilled for the house of Israel: “Your life will hang in doubt before you, you will be in dread night and day, and you will have no assurance of your life. In the morning you will say, ‘When will it be evening?’ and in the evening you will say, ‘When will it be morning?’ because of the dread in your hearts that you will feel and the sights your eyes will see.” 3 In every province and every place, and at every time that the king’s word and his decree arrived, there was heavy mourning among the Jews, with fasting and weeping and lamenting, and many made their beds of sackcloth and dust. 4 Esther’s young women and her eunuchs came and told her, and the queen trembled greatly. She sent clothes to dress Mordecai and to take his sackcloth off him, but he would not accept them. 5 Esther called Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs who attended her, and sent him with orders to Mordecai to find out what this was and why it was. 6 Hathach went out to Mordecai, to the open square of the city in front of the gate of the king’s house. 7 Mordecai told him everything that had happened to him, and the exact sum of silver that Haman had promised to weigh out to the king’s treasury in exchange for the Jews, to destroy them. 8 He also gave him a copy of the written edict published in Susa to destroy them, for him to show to Esther and explain to her, and to charge her to go in to the king, to plead with him and make request before him for her people. 9 Hathach came and told Esther what Mordecai had said. 10 Esther spoke to Hathach and gave him orders for Mordecai: 11 “All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that if any man or woman goes in to the king in the inner palace without being called, there is one law for him: to be put to death, unless the king holds out the golden scepter to him, and then he lives. And I, for thirty days now, have been praying that the king will not ask for me, so that he will not make me sin. For when I was being brought up in your house, you used to tell me that any daughter of Israel who is taken captive and goes into a gentile’s house of her own will has no share or inheritance among the tribes of Israel.” Because Hathach was the messenger between Esther and Mordecai, Haman’s anger burned against him and he killed him. 12 Esther’s words were reported to Mordecai in writing. 13 Mordecai gave word to answer Esther: “Perhaps you imagine and say to yourself, ‘I have been raised up to royalty to be queen.’ Perhaps you think in your heart and say, ‘I have no need to ask mercy for the house of Israel.’ If the foot of a single Jew is hurt, do not think to yourself that in the king’s house you will escape any more than all the Jews. It was Saul, your father’s father, who brought this evil on Israel; for if he had carried out what the prophet Samuel told him, wicked Haman of the seed of the house of Amalek would not have come out against us. This son of Hammedatha would not have come out against us, nor bought us for ten thousand talents of silver from the hands of King Ahasuerus, and the Holy One, blessed be he, would not have handed Israel over into the hands of two wicked men. For at the very beginning no one came against the house of Israel but Amalek, the forefather of wicked Haman, who made war with Joshua son of Nun at Rephidim; and through the prayer that Moses our teacher prayed, the memory of the house of Amalek was blotted out. So rise and ask mercy from your Father in heaven for the people of the house of Israel, for he who brought judgment on those of old will bring judgment on those who came after. Whom is wicked Haman stronger than, and whose decree stands firmer than his? Than Amalek, his father’s father, who came against the house of Israel and whom the Holy One, blessed be he, drove away? Whom is he stronger than? Than the thirty-one kings who came against the house of Israel, when Joshua son of Nun went out against them by the word of heaven and killed them? Whom is he stronger than? Than Sisera? Sisera came against the house of Israel with nine hundred chariots of iron and shut up the water cisterns from the house of Israel, so that their wives could not immerse themselves and go to their husbands, and they would not be fruitful and multiply in the world; and the Holy One, blessed be he, handed him over into the hand of a woman, and she killed him. Whom is he stronger than? Than the sons of the giant, who came and made war with the house of Israel and were handed over into the hand of David and the hands of his servants, and they killed them? So do not hold back your mouth from prayer or your lips from asking mercy, for by the merit of our fathers Israel was saved from slaughter. He who has done miracles for Israel in every age will hand our enemy over into our hands, and we will do to him as we please. Do not imagine to yourself that in the king’s house you will escape any more than all the Jews. Remember instead that you are one of the descendants of Saul king of Israel. The king of Israel was told to wipe out the memory of the house of Amalek from under the heavens, but he spared Agag, the king of Amalek, and kept him with him; on that very night a woman conceived by him, and from his offspring Haman arose, who has sought to buy all the Jews and uproot them. Because your father spared Agag their king, it became a stumbling block for him. When Pharaoh rose up against the house of Israel in the land of Egypt and enslaved them, the Holy One, blessed be he, brought plagues on the Egyptians, each different from the other, and brought the house of Israel out with their heads held high. The Egyptians rose up and pursued them, and when Israel saw the Egyptians they prayed before their Father in heaven, and he redeemed them, split the sea before them and brought them across on dry ground, and Pharaoh’s chariots and his army he sank in the sea. Now you and your father’s house, stand up for the house of Israel. Again, when the nations gathered against the house of Israel at the valley of the Arnon, it was the Holy One, blessed be he, who signaled to the mountains, and the mountains closed together one against the other and covered the nations, while the house of Israel passed over on the level ground above, and all who were in the strongholds were killed before them. Now you and your father’s house, stand up for Israel. Again, when Sisera came and pursued them with nine hundred chariots of iron, the stars came down from heaven and fought against Sisera. Great is the hope of the house of Israel, and mighty is their Redeemer. 14 For if you keep silent at this time, their Holy One and Redeemer will make deliverance spring up for them from another place, as at every hour he makes deliverance spring up for them; but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether it was so that the sins of your father’s house might be forgiven that you have come near to the kingdom?” 15 Esther gave word to answer Mordecai: 16 “Go, gather all the Jews who are in Susa the citadel, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days and three nights. I and my young women will fast as you do, and then I will go in to the king, though I have not been summoned. And if we perish in this world for your sake, I will have a share in the world to come. Let the bridegroom come out of his bedroom bound in sackcloth, and the bride from her wedding canopy with her head sprinkled with ashes. Let people and animals, herds and flocks, taste nothing, and separate the infants from their mothers’ breasts.” At that hour they searched through the assembly and found twelve thousand chosen young priests. They put rams’ horns in their right hands and the Torah in their left, and they wept and cried out, and they said toward heaven, “God of Israel, here is the Torah you gave us, and here is your beloved people being wiped out of the world. Who will stand and read in it and speak of your name? The sun and the moon will darken their light and not shine, for they were created only for the sake of your people.” They fell on their faces and said, “Answer us, our Father, answer us; answer us, our King, answer us.” The horns sounded with them, and the people answered after them, until the hosts of heaven wept and the fathers stirred in their graves. 17 Mordecai went away and did everything that Esther had commanded him.

1 On the third day, when Esther had kept three fasts, one fast after another, she rose from the dust and the ashes, her body bent over and not upright. She adorned herself as queens adorn themselves: she put on a royal garment embroidered with the fine gold of Ophir, a robe of fine silk set with precious stones and pearls that had been brought from the province of Africa; she set a fine crown of gold on her head and put shoes of refined gold on her feet. After that Esther prayed, and this is what she said: “You are the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the God of my father Benjamin. It is not because I am pleasing in your sight that I am going in before this foolish king, but so that your people, the house of Israel, will not perish from this world. For it was for the sake of Israel that you created the whole world, and if Israel perishes from the world, who will say before you ‘Holy, holy, holy’ three times every day? As you saved Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah from the furnace of blazing fire, and Daniel from the lions’ den, save me from the hand of this foolish king, and grant me grace and kindness in his eyes.” Esther spoke her words in pleading and set out her prayer with supplications: “I beg you, you who hear prayers, hear my prayer at this time. We have been exiled and driven from our land, and because of our sins you handed us over, so that the word that is written might be fulfilled in us: ‘There you will be offered for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, and no one will buy.’ And here we are, being sold, and no one buys. A decree has gone out to kill us, and all of us are handed over to the sword, to slaughter and to utter destruction together. The descendants of Abraham are dressed in sackcloth and have thrown ashes on their heads. If the fathers have sinned, how have the children sinned? If we are wiped out, who will give thanks before you? If the little children have sinned before you, how have the infants at the breast sinned? Those who lived in Jerusalem stir in their graves, because you have handed their children over to be carried off. You make us pass away like the clouds of the sky; how few are the days of our joy! You have handed us over to wicked Haman, and to our enemies to be carried off. I recall before you the deeds of mercy, beginning with Abraham: you tested him with every trial, you examined him, and he was found faithful. Help and support the children of your beloved ones, whom you brought in with the seal of the covenant. Demand from Haman the disgrace done to us, and punishment from the son of Hammedatha. Exact it from him by the hands of your people, for he sought to destroy us all together. He is an enemy and an oppressor of your people, and he has become a torment to them in all their places. You made an everlasting covenant with us; by the binding of Isaac, raise us up. Haman offered the king money to buy us for ten thousand talents. Hear our voice and answer us, and bring us out of distress into relief. Break the mighty, break Haman, and let him never rise from his fall.” Esther cried out with a great cry and wailed a bitter wail. With weeping and tears she spoke her words, and with supplications she set out her prayer. Her throat was parched because of her mouth, and her eyes grew dim because of her tears. Esther thought in her heart and said, “Perhaps I will go in before the king and he will not receive me. Here I am, going in before the king to plead for mercy for my inheritance. May the angel of mercy receive me and bring grace and kindness in with me. May the merit of Abraham go in before me, may the binding of Isaac raise me up, may the grace of Jacob be given to my mouth and the kindness of Joseph to my tongue. Happy is the person who trusts in him; no one who trusts in him is put to shame. May he stretch out to me his right hand and his left, with which he created the whole world. All Israel, ask for mercy for me, for it is on your behalf that I pray and ask for mercy; whenever a person makes supplication before the Holy One, blessed be he, his prayer is heard in the hour of his distress. Let us look at the deeds of our fathers and do as they did, and he will grant what we ask. Abraham’s left hand held Isaac’s neck and his right hand was on the knife, to do the will of your Memra gladly, and he did not hold back from your errand. You opened the firmament window after window to make room for the angels on high, who cried out bitterly and said, ‘Woe to the world if he does this!’ I call out before you; answer me, for you answer everyone who is hard pressed and everyone in distress, and you see the anguish of the soul. You are called merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in kindness and truth, forgiving the wicked and the guilty, keeping covenant and kindness for those who love you and keep the commandments of the Torah, to a thousand generations, and also for our own fathers; this is the covenant that you made with them. You heard Jonah. The dove is weeping and sits like a woman on the birthstool. Hear our voice and answer us, and bring us out of trouble into relief. Three days I have fasted before you, matching the three days that Abraham traveled to bind his son on top of the altar before you; and you made a covenant with him and said, ‘Whenever your children come into distress, I will remember for them the binding of Isaac their father and redeem them.’ And again I have fasted three days, matching the three days that Israel stood at the foot of Mount Sinai and said, ‘All that the LORD has spoken we will do and accept.’ So redeem them from this distress.” Esther answered and said, “God, Lord of hosts, who tests hearts and minds, remember at this hour the merit of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Let me not be turned away from my request or held back from my petition.” Then she stood in the gate of the inner palace of the king, facing the king’s palace, and the king was sitting on his royal throne in the royal palace, facing the king’s gate. 2 When the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, she won grace and kindness before him. Haman, the king’s executioner, sought to kill Esther, but the king held out the golden scepter to Esther, and Esther came near and touched the tip of the scepter. 3 The king said to her, “What is the matter, Queen Esther? What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, I will give it to you.” 4 Esther said, “If it pleases the king, let the king and Haman come today to the banquet that I will make for you.” 5 The king said, “Summon Haman, so that we may do as Esther has said.” So the king and Haman came to the banquet that Esther had made. 6 While they were drinking, the king said to Esther, “What is your wish, Esther? I will give it to you. What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, I will do it.” 7 Esther answered and said, “My wish and my request are this.” 8 The queen answered and said, “You are the king. If I have found kindness and mercy before you, and if it pleases the king to grant my wish and to do what I request, let the king and Haman come to the banquet that I will make for you, and tomorrow I will do as the king has said.” Esther invited Haman to the banquet for three reasons. The first reason: Esther knew that Haman had seen how Hathach went back and forth on errands between Esther and Mordecai, and Esther said, “I will invite Haman to the banquet.” The second reason: to root the hatred out of his heart, and also to stir up jealousy between Ahasuerus and Haman, so that the king would say, “What is this, that of all my officials Esther invited no one to the banquet but Haman?” The third reason: Esther said, “The eyes of the whole house of Israel are fixed on me, expecting me to ask King Ahasuerus to have Haman killed. Instead I will invite him to the banquet, so that the hearts of the children of Israel will be turned, and they will turn to their Father in heaven and ask him for mercy.” 9 Haman went out that day glad and in good spirits. But when Haman saw Mordecai sitting in the king’s gate, neither rising nor stirring for him, Haman was filled with rage against Mordecai. 10 Haman burned with anger, but he went into his house, and he sent for his friends and Zeresh his wife and had them brought. 11 Haman told them about the splendor of his wealth and the great number of his sons, and all the ways the king had promoted him, and how he had raised him above all the officials and servants of the king. 12 And Haman said, “What is more, Esther invited no one but me to come with the king to the banquet she made, and tomorrow too I am invited with the king. 13 Yet all this does me no good as long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting in the king’s gate.” 14 Zeresh his wife and all his friends said to him, “If it pleases you, let us tell you one thing: how punishment can be carried out on Mordecai. This Jewish man is one of the righteous who were created in the world. If you kill him with the sword, the sword has turned back before and would fall on us. If we throw him to be stoned, David once stoned Goliath the Philistine. If we cast him into a bronze bull, Manasseh once broke it open and came out of it. Throw him into the sea, and the Israelites once split it and crossed through the middle of it. Shut him up in the furnace of blazing fire, and Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah once uprooted it and came out of it. Let him be thrown into the lions’ den, and the lions once did not harm Daniel. Let him be thrown to the dogs, and the mouths of the dogs were once shut in the land of Egypt. Let us banish him to the wilderness, and in the wilderness they once multiplied and grew many. What death can we bring on him, and what single sentence can be carried out on him? Let us throw him into prison, and Joseph was once made a ruler out of prison. Let a knife be set to his throat, and the knife was once turned away from Isaac’s throat. Let us put out his eyes and let him go, and he would kill many of us, as Samson killed. We do not know what punishment to carry out on this man. Let a great gallows be made for him, and let his blood be poured out at the door of his house; let his body be thrown on the gallows, and let all his companions and friends see him. Heaven and earth together are listening for the gallows that Haman has prepared for Mordecai. Go early in the morning before the king and ask him about this gallows.” In that very hour Haman son of Hammedatha neither lay down nor rested until he had gone and brought the carpenters and the smiths: carpenters to make the gallows, and smiths to make the iron fittings. Haman’s sons were dancing and celebrating, and Zeresh his wife was playing the lyre. Wicked Haman spoke up and said, “I will pay the carpenters their wages, and for the smiths I will set out a feast at this gallows.” In that hour wicked Haman stood up to try the gallows against his own height. A voice came out from the highest heavens and said to him, “It suits you, wicked Haman; it fits you well, son of Hammedatha.” The thing pleased Haman, and he made the gallows for himself.

1 On that very night the king’s sleep fled. On that very night the deliverance of the Jews went out. On that very night Sarah was taken to the house of Abimelech. On that very night all the firstborn of the Egyptians were killed. On that very night prophecies were revealed to the prophets and dreams to those who dream visions. On that very night the whole world was shaken, the provinces and all who live in them. There was great mourning, and in all the cities lament and wailing, and in all the provinces young men were girded with sackcloth, and old men and old women beat their hearts. All of them cried out in bitterness and wailed aloud, saying, “Woe, woe, that we have seen trouble upon trouble and ruin upon ruin! We have not yet been healed of our first ruin, no cure has been given for our wound, we have not been comforted in our grief, and the ache of our hearts has not left us, for the city of our fathers lies dashed to the ground, the enemy has shut up our sanctuary, and our foes have trampled our Temple courts. Pharaoh and the Egyptians never devised such a plan against us, and the kings of the nations never plotted against us as in this plot, to be ready on this day to wipe us off the face of the earth. Revealer of secrets, reveal this secret to Mordecai: a decree of death has been decreed against the house of Israel, and we have not even been sold as male and female slaves.” On that very night the sleep of the Holy One, blessed be he, fled in the heights. If this verse were not written, it would be impossible to say it: “Then the LORD awoke as one who had been asleep,” and so on; and, “Wake up! Why do you sleep, O LORD?” Heaven forbid that there should be sleep before him! But when Israel sins, he makes himself like one who is asleep. Yet when they do his will, he neither slumbers nor sleeps, as it is written, “He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep”: the guardian of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps. On that very night the sleep of Mordecai the righteous fled, for he was awake and could not lie down, and when he lay down he could not sleep. The Israelites were gathered and sitting before him, and they said to him, “You have brought all this evil on the house of Israel. If you had stood up before the wicked Haman and knelt and bowed down to him, all this trouble would not have come upon us.” Mordecai answered the house of Israel, “On the garment the wicked Haman was wearing two images were embroidered, one on his front and one on his back. If I had stood up and bowed down to him, I would have been found worshiping idols, and you know that whoever worships idols perishes from this world and is driven out of the world to come.” And all the house of Israel fell silent before him. On that very night the sleep of the wicked Haman fled, for he was awake and could not lie down, and he did not sleep because he was preparing the gallows on which to hang Mordecai, not knowing that he was preparing it for himself. On that very night the sleep of the righteous Queen Esther fled, for she was preparing the meal to bring Haman to the banquet with the king. On that very night the sleep of the foolish King Ahasuerus fled, for he was awake and could not lie down, and when he lay down he could not sleep, because the spirit that seizes kings had seized him. So he said to all his nobles, “What I ate did me no good, and what I drank did not agree with me. The heavens thunder against me, and the highest heavens raise their voices. Is it because of the gifts I promised to remit to the provinces and did not remit to them? Or are Esther and Haman plotting to kill me? For Esther brought no one to the banquet with me but Haman alone.” On that very night the remembrance of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob came before their Father in heaven, and an angel was sent from on high, Michael, the commander of Israel’s host. He sat at the king’s head and drove his sleep from him all night long, until the king ordered the book of the records of the days to be brought before him. They read in it before the king the deeds and judgments of the former kings who had reigned before him. The angel sat above the eyes of King Ahasuerus, and the king looked and saw what looked like a man. He spoke up and said to the king, “Haman wants to kill you and reign in your place. He is coming early in the morning to ask you for the man who saved you from death, because he wants to kill him. Say to Haman, ‘What should be done for the man whom the king delights to honor?’ and see whether he asks you for anything but the royal garments and crown and the horse the king rides.” And the man who was reading in the book of records was using a reading tube. 2 As he looked he saw that it was written in the book of records that Mordecai had given information about Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s officers who guarded the king’s person, who had sought to lay their hands on King Ahasuerus to kill him. 3 The king said, “What honor and greatness has been done for Mordecai for this?” The king’s young men, his attendants, said, “Nothing has been done for him.” 4 The king said, “Who is in the court?” Now Haman had come into the outer court of the king’s palace to speak to the king about hanging Mordecai on the gallows he had prepared for him. 5 The king’s young men said to him, “Haman is standing in the court.” The king said, “Let him come in.” 6 So Haman came in, and the king said to him, “What should be done for the man whom the king delights to honor?” Haman thought in his heart and said, “Who among all the king’s servants is as honored as I am, and whom would the king want to honor more than me?” 7 Haman answered the king, “For the man whom the king delights to honor, 8 let them bring the royal garment that the king has worn and the horse that the king has ridden, and let the royal crown be set on his head. 9 Let the garment and the horse be handed over to one of the king’s noble officials, and let them dress the man whom the king delights to honor, set him on the king’s horse in the city square, and proclaim before him, ‘This is what is done for the man whom the king delights to honor.’” Then the king looked and saw Haman, and he thought in his heart and said, “Haman wants to kill me and wants to reign in my place, just as I saw in my vision.” 10 The king said to Haman, “Haman, Haman, hurry! Go into the king’s treasury and take from there one of the fine purple coverings. Take from there the fine silk garment of Frankish work set with precious stones and pearls, with a gold bell and a pomegranate hanging at its four corners on every side. Take from there the great gold crown of Macedonia that they brought me from the cities of the province on the first day I took the throne. Take from there my sword and my fine coat of mail that they brought from the land of Cush, and the two mantles, royal garments of pearl, that they brought me from the province of Africa. Then go out to the king’s stable and bring from there the horse that stands at the head of the stable, whose name is Shifargaz, which I rode on the first day I took the throne. All these articles of honor and greatness that I have named to you, go and do them for Mordecai.” Haman answered the king, “There are many Jews in Susa the citadel named Mordecai. To which of them should I go?” Ahasuerus said to him, “To Mordecai the Jew, who sits at my gate.” When Haman heard this, it distressed him greatly. His face changed, his eyes grew dark, his mouth twisted, his thoughts alarmed him, the joints of his hips gave way, and his knees knocked together. Haman answered the king, “My lord the king, there are many Mordecais in the world, and I do not know which Mordecai you mean.” The king answered Haman, “Did I not tell you, Mordecai who sits at my gate?” Haman answered the king, “My lord the king, the king’s gates are many, and I do not know which gate you mean.” The king answered Haman, “Did I not tell you, the gate through which one goes from the women’s house to the king’s house?” Haman answered the king, “That man is my enemy and the enemy of my fathers. Let ten thousand talents of silver be given to him, but let this honor not be done for him.” The king answered Haman, “Ten thousand talents of silver shall be given to him, and I am making him ruler over your whole house, and this honor shall not be withheld from him.” Haman answered the king, “Let the ten sons I have run before his throne, but let this honor not be done for him.” The king answered Haman, “You, your sons and your wife shall be slaves to Mordecai, and this honor shall not be withheld from him.” Haman answered the king, “My lord the king, he is a common man. Appoint him over one province or over one district, but let this honor not be done for him.” The king answered Haman, “I am making him ruler over provinces and regions, and all the kings of sea and land shall obey him, and this honor shall not be withheld from him.” Haman answered the king, “Let his coin and your coin go out through all the world and through every province, but let this honor not be done for him.” The king answered Haman, “The man who spoke well of the king and saved the king’s head from death, let my coin and his coin go out through all the world and through every province, and this honor shall not be withheld from him.” Haman answered the king, “Decrees and letters have been sent to every province of the king to destroy the people of Mordecai. Are they to be annulled? And how can this honor be done for him?” The king answered Haman, “The letters and decrees that I sent, I annul them, and this honor shall not be withheld from him.” A second time the king rebuked him and said to him, “Haman, Haman, quickly! Do not let a word fall of all that I have said.” 11 When the wicked Haman saw that his arguments were not accepted before the king and that none of his words were heeded, he went into the king’s treasury bent over and not upright, mourning with his head covered, his ears ringing, his eyes darkened, his mouth twisted, his heart dulled, his clothes torn, the joints of his hips giving way and his knees knocking together. He took from there the royal garment that they had brought King Ahasuerus on the first day he took the throne, and he took from there all the royal articles, every one he had been ordered to take. He came out from there in dismay and went into the king’s stable, and from there he took the horse that stood at the head of the stable, on which hung gold ornaments. He took hold of the horse’s reins and carried all the royal articles on his shoulders, with their knots tied and their clasps fastened. He went and stood over Mordecai the righteous, and he said to him, “Rise, Mordecai the righteous, son of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob! Your sackcloth and your ashes have prevailed over the ten thousand talents of silver that I promised to bring from my treasury into the king’s treasury, and they were not accepted, because you are beloved before your Father in heaven. Whenever you pray before him, he accepts your prayer and saves you from the hand of your enemies. Now rise, Mordecai the righteous, from your sackcloth and your ashes, put on the royal garment, and ride on the royal horse.” Mordecai the righteous answered Haman, “Haman the wicked, of the seed of the house of Amalek, wait one hour while I eat bread of wormwood and drink bitter water, and after that take me out and hang me on the gallows.” Haman answered Mordecai, “Rise, good seed! From your earliest days great miracles have been done for you, and the gallows I prepared, I prepared for my own ruin. Now rise, Mordecai, put on the royal garment and ride on the royal horse, for the king’s words must not be set aside.” Mordecai answered Haman, “How can one who has spent three days and three nights fasting ride on the royal horse?” When Haman heard this, he went into the king’s treasury and brought out from there all kinds of spices and fine oils. He anointed him and bathed him, dressed him in the royal garment, adorned him well with all the royal adornments, and fed him from the meal that Queen Esther had sent him, before he set him on the king’s horse. Twenty-seven thousand chosen young men were sent to him from the king’s palace, with gold cups in their right hands and gold flasks in their left, and they sang praises before Mordecai the righteous and said, “This is what is done for the man whom the King who created heaven and earth delights to honor.” When the house of Israel saw this, they walked at his right and at his left, responding and saying, “This is what is done for the man whom the King who created heaven and earth delights to honor.” Esther looked out and saw Mordecai, the son of her father’s brother, dressed in the royal garment with the royal crown set on his head, riding on the king’s horse. She gave thanks and praised the God of heaven for this deliverance, for Mordecai had put sackcloth on his body and ashes on his head like a poor and oppressed man. At the moment she saw Mordecai, the son of her father’s brother, she spoke up and said to him, “In you is fulfilled the scripture written in the holy prophets: ‘He raises the poor from the dust and the downcast in spirit from the dunghill, to seat them with rulers and make them inherit a throne of glory.’” And Mordecai also gave praise and said, “You have turned my mourning into joy. You have taken the sackcloth off me and clothed me in the royal garment. I will praise you, O LORD my God, my Redeemer, because you have not let the hearts of my enemies rejoice over me.” 12 Then Mordecai returned to the gate of the king’s palace in honor and great greatness, while Haman hurried away and went to his house mourning, with his head covered. At that hour Haman held four trades: barber, for he cut Mordecai’s hair; bath attendant, for he bathed him; groom, for he led the horse; and herald, for he proclaimed before him, “This is what is done for the man whom the king delights to honor.” 13 Haman told Zeresh his wife and all his friends everything that had happened to him. His wise men and Zeresh his wife said to him, “You have heard from of old that there were three Jewish men in the province of Babylon, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. Because they did not obey the words of Nebuchadnezzar, he threw them into the fiery furnace, and they came out of the flame of the fire without a blemish on them, but a tongue of fire came out of the furnace and consumed those who had denounced them. Now if Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of the descendants of those men or of the servants of one of them, you will not be able to stand against him, for you will surely fall before him and not rise.” 14 While they were still speaking with him, the king’s officials arrived and hurried to bring Haman to the drinking feast that Esther had prepared.

1 So the king and Haman came in to feast with Queen Esther. 2 On the second day, at the wine banquet, the king again said to Esther, “What is your request, Queen Esther? It will be granted to you. And what is your petition? Even if it is up to half the kingdom, it will be done.” 3 Queen Esther answered, “If I have found grace and mercy before you, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given to me as my request, and my people as my petition. 4 For I and my people have been sold to be wiped out, to be killed and to be destroyed. If we had only been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept silent, for the enemy is not worth troubling the king over.” 5 King Ahasuerus spoke to his interpreter, and his interpreter said to Queen Esther, “Who, then, is the man who has set his heart on doing this?” 6 Esther said, “The wicked man and the enemy is this wicked Haman. And why was he given the name Haman? Because ‘ha-man’ means ‘here is the one who’: here is the one who wanted to stretch out his hand against the nation of the Jews, who are called the children of the Lord of all, and he sought to kill them.” And Haman was seized with terror before the king and the queen. 7 The king rose in his anger from the wine banquet and went into the palace garden, and fine trees were being cut down before him, so that his anger might cool, but it did not cool. Haman stayed behind to beg Queen Esther for his life, for he saw that the king had determined evil against him. 8 When the king came back from the palace garden to the hall of the wine banquet, he looked and saw that Haman had thrown himself on the couch where Esther was sitting. The king said to him, “Do you also want to force the queen while I am with her in the palace?” The word had hardly left the king’s mouth when they covered Haman’s face. 9 Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs, spoke before the king. This Harbona is remembered for evil, but for this he is remembered for good. He had been with Haman in the plot when Haman took counsel to build a gallows for Mordecai, but when he saw that evil had been settled against Haman and his house, Harbona went and said to the king, “Haman is seeking to kill you too, O king, and to take the kingdom away from you. If you do not believe me, send and see the gallows that Haman made for Mordecai, who spoke up for the good of the king. It is standing at Haman’s house, fifty cubits high.” The king answered Mordecai, “Hang him on it.” So for Mordecai the word written in the Holy Scriptures came true: “When a man’s ways please the LORD, even his enemies make peace with him.” The king spoke again to Mordecai: “Mordecai the Jew, who saved the king from being killed, rise, go, take Haman, the wicked enemy, the oppressor of the Jews, and hang him on the gallows he prepared for himself. Pass harsh sentences on him and do with him whatever you see fit.” At that very hour Mordecai went out from the king’s presence and took Haman from the gate of the king’s palace. Mordecai said to Haman, “Come with me, Haman, you hater, you wicked enemy, oppressor of the Jews, and we will hang you on the gallows you prepared for yourself.” Before they raised him onto the gallows, the wicked Haman answered the righteous Mordecai, “I beg you, righteous Mordecai, do not hang me the way they hang common men. I would not bear the mighty of the world beside me, and the nobles of the province were made to serve me. I made kings tremble at the word of my mouth, and I terrified provinces with the speech of my lips. I am Haman, the king’s viceroy; my name was the Father of the King. I tremble before you, righteous Mordecai. Do not do to me what I planned to do to you. Spare my honor; do not kill me and destroy me as Agag my forefather was destroyed. You are good, Mordecai; act as your goodness bids and do not take a life. Do not kill me, for there are no murderers among you. Do not hold against me the hatred of Agag, do not nurse against me the jealousy of Amalek as if I were an enemy in your heart, and do not keep a grudge against me as Esau my forefather kept one and took revenge. Great miracles have been done for you, as they were done for your fathers when they crossed the sea. My eyes are too dim to look at you, and I cannot open my mouth before you, because I took counsel against you with my friends and with Zeresh my wife. I beg you, spare my life, my lord, righteous Mordecai. Do not blot out my name all at once, as the name of Amalek my forefather was blotted out, and do not hang my gray head on the gallows. If you are set on killing me, cut off my head with the king’s sword, by which all the nobles of the province are put to death.” Haman began to cry out and weep, but Mordecai would not turn his ear to him. When Haman saw that his words were not heeded, he raised a lament and wept over himself in the middle of the palace garden. He spoke up and said, “Listen to me, you trees and all you plants that have been planted since the days of creation, for the son of Hammedatha is about to go up to the Alexandria of Bar Pandera.” All the trees gathered and took counsel: whichever of them was fifty cubits tall, Haman would be hanged on its top. The vine said, “I am short. I cannot have him hanged on my top, for from me they take the wine for the drink offerings.” The wild fig tree said, “Let him be hanged on my top? I cannot have him hanged on my top, for I am sweet.” The fig tree said, “Let him be hanged on my top? I cannot have him hanged on my top, for from me they take the firstfruits, and with me Adam and Eve were clothed.” The olive tree said, “Let him be hanged on my top? I cannot have him hanged on my top, for from me they take the oil for the lampstand. The Knower of secrets created me to pay off the debt of Obadiah the prophet. Take the carob, and let him be hanged on its top.” The palm tree said before its Keeper, “All human beings know that this is the wicked Haman, the grandson of Agag the Amalekite. Let all kings acknowledge before you that you are God and there is none beside you. It is fitting for you to redeem the children as you redeemed their fathers.” The Holy One, blessed be he, answered it, “Well spoken! Everything you have said is right. You are released from the plan to hang him on your top, for I count you the companion of the congregation of Zion.” The citron said, “Let him be hanged on my top? I cannot have him hanged on my top, for all the people come to me to take my fruit and give praise before you.” The myrtle opened its mouth: “Let him be hanged on my top? I cannot have him hanged on my top, for over me they say ‘gladness and joy,’ and besides, I am a partner of the citron.” The oak cried out, “Let him be hanged on my top? I cannot have him hanged on my top, for Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, is buried beneath me.” The terebinth called out, “Let him be hanged on my top? I cannot have him hanged on my top, for Absalom the son of David was hung on my top.” The pomegranate said, “Let him be hanged on my top? I cannot, for the righteous are compared to me.” Then the cedar said, “Listen to me. Hang the wicked Haman and his ten sons on me, on the gallows he prepared for himself, for so the scripture states plainly:” 10 So they hanged him on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai, and the anger of the King of kings subsided.

1 On that day King Ahasuerus gave Queen Esther the house of Haman, the enemy of the Jews, and Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had told what he was to her. 2 The king took off his signet ring, which he had taken back from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai, and Esther put Mordecai in charge of Haman’s house. 3 Esther spoke again before the king. She fell at his feet, wept and pleaded with him to undo the evil of Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite and the scheme he had devised against the Jews. 4 The king held out the golden scepter that was in his hand to Esther, and Esther rose and went in before the king. 5 Esther said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if I have found grace and mercy before you, and the matter seems right to the king, and I am pleasing in his eyes, let a document be written to cancel the letters, the scheme of Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy all the Jews in all the king’s provinces. 6 For how can I bear to see the evil that has come upon my people, and how can I bear to look on the destruction of my kindred?” 7 King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, “You were at fault from the very start, when I asked you, ‘What nation are you from, that I may make kings and rulers from you? And what family are you from, that I may make governors and generals from you?’ and you said to me, ‘I do not know, for my father and mother died and left me a little girl.’ Now I have given Haman’s house to Esther, and they have hanged him on the gallows because he stretched out his hand against the Jews. 8 Now you write concerning the Jews whatever seems good to you, in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s ring, for a document written in the king’s name and sealed with the king’s ring cannot be revoked.” 9 The king’s scribes were summoned at that time, in the third month, the month of Sivan, on its twenty-third day. Everything Mordecai commanded was written to the Jews, to the king’s nobles, to his princes and to the governors of the provinces from India to Cush, a hundred and twenty-seven provinces, to each province in its own script and to each people in its own language, and to the Jews in their own script and their own language. 10 It was written in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed with the king’s ring, and the letters were sent by couriers on horseback, riders of swift steeds ridden bareback, and of mules born of mares. 11 In them the king allowed the Jews in every city to gather and stand up for their lives, to wipe out, kill and destroy every armed force of any people or province that oppressed them, along with their little ones and women, and to plunder their goods. 12 This was for a single day in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, the thirteenth of the twelfth month, the month of Adar. 13 The text of the written decree was published: King Ahasuerus sent a letter to the inhabitants of sea and dry land, to the rulers of the districts and to the commanders of the armies who live throughout the earth. “I have written at length to show you that, although I rule over many nations and have been made king over the inhabitants of sea and dry land, I do not grow proud in my kingship, but always conduct myself with a gentle and humble spirit, and with great peace, to bring you abundant peace. To all who live under my rule, and to all who wish to trade by sea and by land, moving from people to people and from language to language, I am the same from one end of the earth to the other. So I have written to tell you of the integrity and honesty of the Jews, for they have loved every people, honored every king and done good to the rulers of the earth. But some wicked men from among them came near the throne, and the kingdom was put into their hands. By their cunning and their lies they led the kingdom astray, and they wrote letters that are not right before Heaven, that are wicked even among human beings, and that are harmful to the kingdom. This is the request they made of the king: that righteous people be killed and a great deal of innocent blood be shed, though they had done no evil and were not liable to the death penalty. These righteous people are Esther, praised for all her beauty, and Mordecai, wise in all wisdom; no fault is found in them or in their nation. I thought to myself that it was another nation he was asking of me. I did not know that it was the Jews he was asking of me, who are called the children of the Lord of all, who created heaven and earth, who led them among great kings mightier than I and never let them be put to shame. For Haman son of Hammedatha came from India and was of the seed of the house of Amalek. He came to us and found great kindness and much praise and honor from us. We promoted him and honored him and called him the Father of the King, and he sat at the king’s right hand. Yet he did not know how to bear his honor or how to conduct himself toward the kingdom, but was plotting in his heart to kill the king and take the kingdom from him. Therefore we have hanged Haman son of Hammedatha and brought on his head all that he deserved, and the One who created heaven and earth has brought his scheme back on his own head.” 14 The couriers riding swift steeds and the officials went out, hurried and pressed on by the king’s command, and the decree was published in the citadel of Susa. 15 Mordecai went out from the king’s presence in royal clothing, glad and good-hearted, with great honor and surpassing greatness. He wore royal clothing of fine wool, linen and blue, and a necklace of fine gold of Ophir set with pearls and precious stones. Under his robe were precious stones; he wore a collar of red from the Western Sea, and beneath it a purple tunic embroidered with the likeness of every winged bird and every bird of the sky, and the tunic was worth four hundred and twenty talents of gold. A belt was fastened around his waist, set along its length with beryl stones. Red Parthian boots were on his feet, adorned with points of gold and studded with emeralds. A Median sword hung at his waist from a ring of golden chains, with the city of Jerusalem engraved on it, and on the hilt of the sword was engraved the emblem of the Median province. A Median tiara was bound on his head, dyed in many colors and made for kings. Above it was a great crown of Macedonian gold, and above the crown were phylacteries set in gold, so that all the peoples, nations and languages would know that Mordecai was a Jew, fulfilling the scripture that is written: “All the peoples of the earth shall see that the name of the LORD is called over you, and they shall be afraid of you.” As Mordecai came out of the king’s gate, the streets were spread with myrtle and the courtyards with purple, and shade was stretched out on ropes of fine linen. Young men with priestly crowns on their heads held trumpets in their hands and proclaimed, “Whoever does not greet Mordecai and the Jews shall be cut to pieces, and his house shall be made a dunghill.” Haman’s ten sons walked before the righteous Mordecai with their hands reeking, and said, “It is he who gives the Jews their reward and pays the wicked their due on their heads. As for this Haman, our foolish father, who trusted in his wealth and his honor, Mordecai the humble has broken him with fasting and prayer.” The righteous Esther was looking out from the window, for a queen could not walk with people in the street. Mordecai turned his eyes, saw her, and said, “Blessed be the LORD, who has not given me as prey to their teeth.” Esther answered, “Our help is from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.” Many people rejoiced at the downfall of the wicked Haman, giving thanks and praise for the deliverance that had come to the Jews, and praising the deliverance and the honor that had come to the righteous Mordecai at that time, as it is written: “The righteous Mordecai went out from the king’s presence in royal clothing of blue and fine wool, with a great crown of gold and a mantle of fine linen and purple, and the city of Susa shouted and rejoiced.” 16 For the Jews there was light and gladness, joy and honor. 17 In every province and in every city, wherever the king’s word and his decree reached, there was gladness and joy for the Jews, feasting and a holiday. Many of the peoples of the land became converts, because fear of the Jews had fallen on them.

1 In the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, on its thirteenth day, when the king’s word and his decree were due to be carried out, on the day the enemies of the Jews expected to rule over them, on that very day the Jews turned everything around and ruled over those who hated them. 2 The Jews assembled in their cities in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus to stretch out their hands and kill the people who sought to harm them, and no one could stand against them, because fear of them had fallen on all the peoples. 3 All the rulers of the provinces, the magistrates, the nobles, and those who carried out the king’s business praised the Jews, because fear of Mordecai had fallen on them. 4 For Mordecai was powerful in the king’s palace, and his fame went out through all the provinces, because the man Mordecai kept growing in power. 5 The Jews struck down their enemies with the blow of the sword, with slaughter and destruction, and they also did to those who hated them as they pleased, according to their own desires. 6 In the fortress of Susa the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men. 10 They killed the ten sons of Haman son of Hammedatha, who had oppressed the Jews, but they did not lay their hands on the plunder. 11 On that day the number of those killed in the fortress of Susa was brought before the king. 12 The king said to Queen Esther, “In the fortress of Susa the Jews have killed and destroyed five hundred men and the ten sons of Haman. What have they done in the rest of the king’s provinces? What is your request? It will be granted to you. What more do you ask? It will be done.” 13 Esther said, “If it pleases the king, let the Jews in Susa be allowed to act tomorrow also according to today’s decree, and let them hang the ten sons of Haman on the gallows.” 14 The king ordered it to be done, and the decree was published in Susa. Haman was hanged within three cubits, with Parshandatha a cubit away from him. Parshandatha was hanged within three cubits, with Dalphon a cubit away from him. Dalphon was hanged within three cubits, with Aspatha a cubit away from him. Aspatha was hanged within three cubits, with Poratha a cubit away from him. Poratha was hanged within three cubits, with Adalia a cubit away from him. Adalia was hanged within three cubits, with Aridatha a cubit away from him. Aridatha was hanged within three cubits, with Parmashta a cubit away from him. Parmashta was hanged within three cubits, with Arisai a cubit away from him. Arisai was hanged within three cubits, with Aridai a cubit away from him. Aridai was hanged within three cubits, with Vaizatha a cubit away from him, for he was the tenth. So the ten sons of Haman were hanged on the gallows. The gallows was sunk three cubits into the ground, and its bar stood three cubits above the ground. The length of the gallows was forty-four cubits, and with Haman hanged at the top, the whole gallows came to fifty cubits. Then Mordecai came and saw Haman and his sons hanging on the gallows, and Mordecai spoke up and said to Haman, “You planned to do evil to the people of the house of Israel, but the One who knows secrets and thoughts has brought your plan back on your own head. You wanted to kill us and wipe us out from under the wings of our Father in heaven, but now it has been done to you: they have hanged you and your sons under your own wings.” 15 The Jews in the fortress of Susa assembled again on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and killed three hundred men in Susa, but they did not lay their hands on the plunder. 16 The rest of the Jews in the provinces of King Ahasuerus assembled and stood up, became masters of their own lives, and had rest from their enemies. They killed seventy-five thousand of those who hated them, but they did not lay their hands on the plunder. These were the men the Jews killed in Susa: the enemies of Israel, who used to say to the house of Israel, “In a few days from now we will kill you and dash your children to the ground.” 17 This was on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar. On the fourteenth they rested and made it a day of rejoicing and feasting. 18 But the Jews in Susa assembled on the thirteenth and on the fourteenth, and rested on the fifteenth, and made it a day of rejoicing and feasting. 19 That is why the Jews who live in the villages and dwell in the small towns keep the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a day of rejoicing and feasting and a holiday, and send portions to one another. 20 Mordecai wrote these things down and sent a letter to all the Jews in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, near and far, 21 binding them to keep the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and its fifteenth day every year, 22 as the days on which the Jews had rest from their enemies, and the month that was turned for them from mourning to joy and from distress to a holiday. They were to make them days of feasting and rejoicing, lending portions to one another and giving gifts to the poor. 23 The Jews took upon themselves what they had begun to do and what Mordecai had written to them. 24 For Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the oppressor of the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them. He cast the lot, threw the lot, and set a limit for every lot, to destroy them and wipe them out. When people saw Haman and his sons hanging on the gallows for many days, they said, “Why has Esther broken what is written, ‘His body shall not remain all night on the gallows’?” Esther answered them, “Because King Saul killed the Gibeonite converts, his sons were hanged on the gallows from the beginning of the barley harvest until the day the rain came down, which was six months. When the house of Israel went up to appear in the Temple, the nations would ask them, ‘Why are these men hanging?’ and the house of Israel would answer, ‘Because their father stretched out his hand against the Gibeonite converts and killed them.’ How much more, then, should the wicked Haman, who sought to destroy the house of Israel, hang on the gallows, he and his sons, for all time!” 25 When Esther came before the king, she told him what is written in the book: “You shall utterly blot out the memory of the house of Amalek from under heaven.” Then Haman arose from the descendants of the house of Amalek and plotted evil against the house of Israel, but his plot came back on his own head, and they hanged him and his sons on the gallows. 26 That is why they called these days Purim, after the lot and the distress that came upon them, because of what was written and set out in this letter: what they had seen concerning this and what had happened to them. 27 The Jews confirmed and took upon themselves, upon their children, and upon all who joined them, never to cease keeping these two days as they were written and at their appointed times, every year. 28 These days are to be remembered and kept in every generation, in every family, in every province, and in every city. These days of Purim shall not pass away from among the Jews, and their remembrance shall not cease from among their descendants. 29 Queen Esther, daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew wrote with full authority to confirm this letter of Purim a second time. For if it was a leap year, they were not to read the scroll in the first Adar but in the second. 30 He sent letters to all the Jews, to the hundred and twenty-seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, in words of peace and truth, 31 to confirm these days of Purim at their appointed times, as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had confirmed them, and as they had confirmed for themselves and for their descendants the matters of fasting and affliction. 32 By the command of Esther these matters of Purim were confirmed, and it was written in the book.

1 King Ahasuerus imposed tribute on the land. When King Ahasuerus learned who Esther’s people and kindred were, he set them free throughout the world, and he subjected all the other nations and all the kingdoms, and imposed tribute on the land and on the merchants of the sea. 2 All the acts of his power and his might, and the full account of the greatness of Mordecai, whom the king promoted, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia? 3 For Mordecai the Jew was second in rank to King Ahasuerus, treasurer and elder of the Jews, and chief over all the peoples. His fame was heard from one end of the world to the other. All the kings feared him, and when they saw him they trembled before him. This Mordecai was like the planet Venus that shines among the stars, like the dawn that breaks in the morning, and like a lily that stands by streams of water. That is why he was the leader of the Jews and was welcomed by most of them, for he went seeking the good of his people and speaking peace to all his descendants.