ESTHER.
Chapter 9.
Therefore in the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which we said now before to be called Adar, when slaying was made ready to all the Jews by Haman, and their enemies setted treason to their blood, on the contrary, the Jews now began to be the higher part, and to avenge them of their adversaries. 
And the Jews were gathered together by all cities, castles or burg towns, and places, to stretch forth hand against their enemies and pursuers; and no man was hardy to against-stand them, for the dread of their greatness had pierced all peoples. 
For why both the judges, dukes, and procurators of provinces, and each dignity, that were sovereigns of all places and works, enhanced the Jews, for the dread of Mordecai was upon them, 
whom they knew to be a prince of the king’s palace, and to be able to do full much; and the fame of his name increased each day, and flew by the mouths of all men. 
Therefore the Jews smote their enemies with great vengeance, and killed them, and yielded to their enemies that, that they had made ready to do to them, 
in so much, that also in the city of Susa the Jews killed five hundred men, without the ten sons of Haman of the kindred of Agag, the enemy of Jews, of the which sons these be the names; 
Parshandatha, Dalphon, and As-patha, 
and Poratha, and Adalia, and Aridatha, 
and Parmashta, and Arisai, and Aridai, and Vajezatha. 
And when the Jews had slain the sons of Haman, they would not touch the preys of the chattels, or substance, of them. 
And anon the number of them, that were slain in the city of Susa, was told to the king. 
And he said to the queen, The Jews have slain five hundred men in the city of Susa, and the ten sons of Haman; how great slaying guessest thou, that they haunt in all provinces? what askest thou more? and what wilt thou, that I command to be done? 
To whom Esther answered, If it pleaseth the king, power be given to the Jews, that as they have done today in Susa, so do they also tomorrow, and that the bodies of the ten sons of Haman be hanged up in gibbets. 
And the king commanded, that it should be done so; and anon the behest of the king hanged in Susa, and the bodies of the ten sons of Haman were hanged up. 
Therefore when the Jews were gathered together, in the fourteenth day of the month of Adar, or March, three hundred men were slain in Susa, and the Jews took not away the chattel of those men. 
But also by all the provinces, that were subject to the lordship of the king, Jews stood for their lives, when their enemies and pursuers were slain, in so much, that five and seventy thousand of slain men were filled, and no man touched anything of the chattels of them. 
Certainly the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, or March, was the day of slaying with all them, and in the fourteenth day they ceased to slay; and that day they ordained to be solemn, so that therein in each time afterward, they should give attention to meats, yea, to joy, and to feasts. 
And those Jews, that used, or haunted, the slaying in the city of Susa, lived in slaying in the thirteenth and fourteenth days of the same month. But in the fifteenth day they ceased to slay; and therefore they ordained the same day to be solemn of feasts and of gladness. 
And these Jews, that dwelled in burg towns not walled, and in villages, deemed the fourteen day of the month of Adar to be solemn of feasts, and of joy, so that they be joyful therein, and send, each to other, parts of their feasts, and of their meats. 
And Mordecai wrote all these things, and he sent all these things written by letters to the Jews, that dwelled in all the provinces of the king, as well to Jews dwelling nigh as far, or both in nigh set and afar, 
that they should receive and hold for their feast days the fourteenth and the fifteenth days of the month of Adar, and evermore when the year turneth again, to hallow these days with solemn honour; 
for in those days the Jews avenged themselves of their enemies, and then their mourning and their sorrow were turned into gladness and joy; and therefore these days should be days of feasts, and of gladness, and that they should send, each to other, parts of meats, and give little gifts to poor men. 
And the Jews received into a solemn custom all those things, which they began to do in that time, and which things Mordecai had command-ed by letters to be done. 
For Haman, the son of Hamme-datha, of the kindred of Agag, the enemy and adversary of Jews, thought evil against them, to slay them, and to do them away, and he cast pur, that is to say in our language, lot, to do it. 
And after this Esther entered in to the king, and besought, that the enforcings or endeavours of Haman should be made void by the letters of the king, and that the evil, which he had thought against the Jews, should turn again into his head. Forsooth they hanged on the cross both him and his sons. 
And from that time these days were called Purim, that is, of lots, for pur, that is, lot, was sent, or cast, into a vessel; and the Jews received upon themselves, and upon their seed, and upon all men that would be coupled to their religion, all things that were done, and be contained in the volume of the epistle, that is, of this book, 
and which things they suffered, and which things were changed after-ward, so that it be not leaveful to any man to pass these two days without solemnity, which days the scripture witnesseth, and certain times ask, while the years come continually one after another. 
These be the days, which never any forgetting shall do away, but by all generations all the provinces, that be in all the world, shall hallow them; neither there is any city, in which the days of Purim, that is, of lots, shall not be kept of the Jews, and of the generation of them, which is bound to these ceremonies. 
And Esther, the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai, the Jew, wrote also the second epistle, that this solemn day should be hallowed afterward with all busyness. 
And they sent their letter to those Jews, that dwelled in an hundred and seven and twenty provinces of king Ahasuerus, that they should have peace, and receive the truth, 
and that they should keep the days of lots, and hallow them with joy in their time, as Mordecai and Esther had ordained; and they received the rules for the fastings, and the solemn cries, and the days of lots, to be kept of themselves and of their seed, 
and they received all things that be contained in the story of this book, that is called Esther. 
