Book of Esther - Ferrar Fenton Bible Translation page 897
The Psalms, Solomon and Sacred Writers
S0 a Decree was issued in Shushan, and the ten sons of Hamzm were hung up. '1`hejews also who were at Shushan collected on that day, and slew in Shushzm three hundred persons, but laid not their hands upon their property. And the rest ofthe ]ews who were
in the Royal Provinces collected and stood for their lnves, and for peace from their enemies, and killed seve¤ty—five thousand of their haters, but did not seize their property, on the thirteenth dey of the month of Adar, but rested on the fourteenth, and made it a day of festivity and rejoicing. The jews in Shushan, however, collected on the thirteenth and fourteenth of it, but rested on the hfteenth, and made that a day of festivity end pleasure. Conse- quentlv he scattered jews who resided in the scattered villages make the fourteenth day of the month Adar a delight and estivity, and a good day, and send presents to their neighbours. Wye §F2asi uf Qihxrim Qppuintzh in il;2 Sziuz. 20 Mordecai afterwards recorded these events, and sent letters to all the jews who were in the whole of the Dominions of King Khushrush,
21 near or far, to ordain to them to celebrate the fourteenth day of the 22 month of Adar, and the fifteenth day of it, from year to year, as days upon which safety came to the jews from their enemies, and as the month which was turned from agony to delight for them, and from de- spair to be a pleasant day, and to make them days of festivity and delight, and for sending presents everyone to his neighbour, and gifts to the poor. The jews consequently undertook
to continue it, as they had begun to do, and as Mordecai had written to them, for Haman·ben-Hammadatha, the Agagite, the oppressor of all the jews, had plotted against the jews to exterminate them, and he had thrown the arrow, (that was his lot), to defeat and exterminate them. However, when it came to be dis- covered, the King commanded by letters to turn the wicked plot, that
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he had contrived against the jews, upon his own head, and they hung him and his sons on a Gallows. They consequently name those
1 from the word for an Arrow. Therefore on the receipt of these letters, and an account of what they had experienced, and what had occurred to them, the jews decreed and imposed upon them- selves and on their descendants and all who joined them, that they would not omit to do year by year on these two days as the letters directed. And that those days should be remembered and practised from generation to generation, in every family, province, and town, and that these days of Purim should not be omitted amongst the jews, nor the memory of them cease from their race. ®stly2r ®¤n5rms il): feast uf Qlxxrim. Esther, the Queen, also, wrote
with full authority to confirm the 26 28
second Decree of Purim; and sent 30 letters to all the jews of the hundred and twenty-seven provinces of the Empire of Khushrush, as messages of peace and security. And confirmed the fixed days of Purim as Mordecai and Queen Esther had appointed to them; and which they had taken upon the souls of themselves and their race, with acts of fasting and crying,-—·So the Command of Esther confirmed the affairs of the Purim, and it was recorded in this book. GSI}: Qirzaturzs uf mnrhrcai.
King Khushrush afterwards laid a
tax on the land and the isles of the sea. And as to all the result of his
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authority and power, and the wide greatness of Mordecai, how great he was with the King, they are recorded in the history of the events of the days of the Kings of Media and Persia. For Mordecai the jew was second 3 to King Khushrush, and great among the jews, and delightful to the man of his countrymen. He sought to benefit his People, and made safety for all his race. from the Per- an arrow.——F. F. Tim END or rua Boox os Esrnaa, 897
