Esther · 32 verses
Esther 9
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The chapter
What happens here
Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.
The king asks Esther what further she requests, and she asks for another day of killing—and for the already dead sons of Haman to be hanged.
The day turnsvv. 1–10
The thirteenth of Adar arrives with the king’s command ready to be executed, but the enemies’ plan has gone awry: the Jews overpower those who hate them. Across the provinces, fear does much of the clearing of the way; officials help the Jews because fear of Mordecai has fallen on them, while Mordecai’s power and fame continue to spread. In Susa, five hundred men are killed, including Haman’s ten sons. The curious refrain is not about what was taken, but what was left untouched: “they did not lay a hand on the plunder.”
Esther asks for tomorrowvv. 11–19
The king receives the tally from Susa and reports it to Esther, adding the remarkably open invitation, “What further do you request? It will be fulfilled.” Esther requests another day for the Jews in Susa to carry out the edict, and asks that the bodies of Haman’s ten sons be hanged. The king commands it; the ten are hanged. On the following day, three hundred more are killed in Susa, while the Jews elsewhere kill 75,000, and again no plunder is touched. Then the violence acquires a calendar: villages rest on the fourteenth, Susa on the fifteenth, and both days become days of feasting and joy.
Purim is put into writingvv. 20–32
Mordecai now turns the two days into an annual observance, with feasting, joy, gifts, and gifts to the poor. The reason given reaches back to Haman’s plot: he cast the Pur, the lot, to crush and destroy the Jews, but the wicked scheme came back upon his own head, and upon the heads of his sons. Esther and Mordecai write with full authority to confirm the second letter, while the people bind themselves, their descendants, and all who join them to keep the days at their appointed time. Esther’s decree confirms the regulations, and the business of remembering ends in a written record.
The text
Read it
Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.
Esth 9:1On the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, the king’s command and edict were to be executed. On this day the enemies of the Jews had hoped to overpower them, but their plan was overturned and the Jews overpowered those who hated them.
Esth 9:2In each of the provinces of King Xerxes, the Jews assembled in their cities to attack those who sought to harm them. No man could withstand them, because the fear of them had fallen upon all peoples.
Esth 9:3And all the officials of the provinces, the satraps, the governors, and the king’s administrators helped the Jews, because the fear of Mordecai had fallen upon them.
Esth 9:4For Mordecai exercised great power in the palace, and his fame spread throughout the provinces as he became more and more powerful.
Esth 9:5The Jews put all their enemies to the sword, killing and destroying them, and they did as they pleased to those who hated them.
Esth 9:6In the citadel of Susa, the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men,
Esth 9:7including Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha,
Esth 9:10They killed these ten sons of Haman son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews, but they did not lay a hand on the plunder.
Esth 9:11On that day the number of those killed in the citadel of Susa was reported to the king,
Esth 9:12who said to Queen Esther, “In the citadel of Susa the Jews have killed and destroyed five hundred men, including Haman’s ten sons. What have they done in the rest of the royal provinces? Now what is your petition? It will be given to you. And what further do you request? It will be fulfilled.”
Esth 9:13Esther replied, “If it pleases the king, may the Jews in Susa also have tomorrow to carry out today’s edict, and may the bodies of Haman’s ten sons be hanged on the gallows.”
Esth 9:14So the king commanded that this be done. An edict was issued in Susa, and they hanged the ten sons of Haman.
Esth 9:15On the fourteenth day of the month of Adar, the Jews in Susa came together again and put to death three hundred men there, but they did not lay a hand on the plunder.
Esth 9:16The rest of the Jews in the royal provinces also assembled to defend themselves and rid themselves of their enemies. They killed 75,000 who hated them, but they did not lay a hand on the plunder.
Esth 9:17This was done on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, and on the fourteenth day they rested, making it a day of feasting and joy.
Esth 9:18The Jews in Susa, however, had assembled on the thirteenth and the fourteenth days of the month. So they rested on the fifteenth day, making it a day of feasting and joy.
Esth 9:19This is why the rural Jews, who live in the villages, observe the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a day of joy and feasting. It is a holiday for sending gifts to one another.
Esth 9:20Mordecai recorded these events and sent letters to all the Jews in all the provinces of King Xerxes, both near and far,
Esth 9:21to establish among them an annual celebration on the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar
Esth 9:22as the days on which the Jews gained rest from their enemies and the month in which their sorrow turned to joy and their mourning into a holiday. He wrote that these were to be days of feasting and joy, of sending gifts to one another and to the poor.
Esth 9:23So the Jews agreed to continue the custom they had started, as Mordecai had written to them.
Esth 9:24For Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them and had cast the Pur (that is, the lot) to crush and destroy them.
Esth 9:25But when it came before the king, he commanded by letter that the wicked scheme which Haman had devised against the Jews should come back upon his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.
Esth 9:26Therefore these days are called Purim, from the word Pur. Because of all the instructions in this letter, and because of all they had seen and experienced,
Esth 9:27the Jews bound themselves to establish the custom that they and their descendants and all who join them should not fail to celebrate these two days at the appointed time each and every year, according to their regulation.
Esth 9:28These days should be remembered and celebrated by every generation, family, province, and city, so that these days of Purim should not fail to be observed among the Jews, nor should the memory of them fade from their descendants.
Esth 9:29So Queen Esther daughter of Abihail, along with Mordecai the Jew, wrote with full authority to confirm this second letter concerning Purim.
Esth 9:30And Mordecai sent letters with words of peace and truth to all the Jews in the 127 provinces of the kingdom of Xerxes,
Esth 9:31in order to confirm these days of Purim at their appointed time, just as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had established them and had committed themselves and their descendants to the times of fasting and lamentation.
Esth 9:32So Esther’s decree confirmed these regulations about Purim, which were written into the record.
01 — Also here
Who else the chapter reaches
Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.
Named in the Hebrew or Greek somewhere in this chapter, under a form the English renders differently — the registry's Ludim against the translation's Ludites — so there is no word in the sentence to hang the link on.
Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.
02 — Read alongside
Where this is echoed
Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 165 passages were voted onto 25 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.
- 16Esther 8:11By these letters the king permitted the Jews in each and every city the right to assemble and defend themselves, to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the forces of any people or province hostile to them, including women and children, and to plunder their possessions.
- 1Esther 3:13And the letters were sent by couriers to each of the royal provinces with the order to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the Jews—young and old, women and children—and to plunder their possessions on a single day, the thirteenth day of Adar, the twelfth month.
- 22Psalms 30:11You turned my mourning into dancing; You peeled off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,
- 25Psalms 7:16His trouble recoils on himself, and his violence falls on his own head.
- 1Esther 8:12The single day appointed throughout all the provinces of King Xerxes was the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar.
- 2Esther 8:17In every province and every city, wherever the king’s edict and decree reached, there was joy and gladness among the Jews, with feasting and celebrating. And many of the people of the land themselves became Jews, because the fear of the Jews had fallen upon them.
- 41 Chronicles 11:9And David became greater and greater, for the LORD of Hosts was with him.
- 42 Samuel 3:1Now the war between the house of Saul and the house of David was protracted. And David grew stronger and stronger, while the house of Saul grew weaker and weaker.
- 12Esther 5:6And as they drank their wine, the king said to Esther, “What is your petition? It will be given to you. What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be fulfilled.”
- 12Esther 7:2and as they drank their wine on that second day, the king asked once more, “Queen Esther, what is your petition? It will be given to you. What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be fulfilled.”
- 16Esther 9:2In each of the provinces of King Xerxes, the Jews assembled in their cities to attack those who sought to harm them. No man could withstand them, because the fear of them had fallen upon all peoples.
- 3Ezra 8:36They also delivered the king’s edicts to the royal satraps and governors of the region west of the Euphrates, who proceeded to assist the people and the house of God.
- 10Esther 5:11Haman recounted to them his glorious wealth, his many sons, and all the ways the king had honored and promoted him over the other officials and servants.
- 16Leviticus 26:7–8You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall by the sword before you.
- 29Esther 9:20Mordecai recorded these events and sent letters to all the Jews in all the provinces of King Xerxes, both near and far,
- 31Esther 4:3In every province to which the king’s command and edict came, there was great mourning among the Jews. They fasted, wept, and lamented, and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.
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