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man the Agagite, and his Device that he had devifed against the Jews.

4 Then the King held out the golden Sceptre towards Efther. So Efther arofe, and ftood before the King,

mitteth himself unto thee, thou art the Helper of the Fatherless.

15 Break thou the Arm of the Wicked, and the evil Man: Seek out

his Wickedness 'till thou find none.

16 The LORD is King for ever and ever: the Heathen are punished out of the Land.

17 LORD, thou hast heard the Defire of the Humble: thou wilt pre

pare their Heart, thou wilt cause thine Ear to hear.

18 To judge the fatherless and the may no more opprefs. oppreffed, that the Man of the Earth

5 And faid, If it please the King, if I have found Favour in his Sight, and the Thing feem right before the King, and I be pleafing in his Eyes, let it be written to reverfe the Letters devifed by Haman, which he wrote to destroy the Jews which are in all the King's Provinces.

6 For how can I endure to fee the Evil that shall come unto my People? or how can I endure to see the Destruction of my Kindred?

7 Then the King faid unto the Queen,and to Mordecai the Jew, Behold, I have given Efther the Houfe of Haman, and him they have hanged upon the Gallows, because he laid his Hand upon the Jews. 8 Write ye alfo for the Jews, as it liketh you, in the King's Name, and feal it with the King's Ring: for the Writing which is written in the King's Name, and fealed with the King's Ring, may no Man reverse.

9 Then were the King's Scribes called in the third Month, and it was written (according to all that Mordecai commanded) unto the Jews, and to the Lieutenants, and the Deputies, and Rulers of the Provinces, which are from India unto Ethiopia, an hundred and

Pfal. xci. 1 He that dwelleth in

the fecret Place of the most High,

fhall abide under the Shadow of the

Almighty.

2 I will fay of the LORD, He is GOD in him will I truft. my Refuge, and my Fortress, my

3 Surely he fhall deliver thee from the Snare of the Fowler: and from the noifom Peftilence.

5 Thou shalt not be afraid for

the Terror by Night: nor for the
Arrow that fieth by Day.
walketh in Darkness: nor for the
Destruction that wasteth at noon
Day.

6 Nor for the Pestilence that

side, and Ten Thoufand at thy right 7 A Thousand fhall fall at thy Hand: but it fhall not come nigh thee.

behold, and fee the Reward of the 8 Only with thine Eyes fhall thou Wicked.

9 Because thou haft made the moft High, thy Habitation: LORD which is my Refuge, even the

15 He hall call upon me, and I

will anfwer him: I will be with him

honour him.
in Trouble, I will deliver him, and

16 With long Life will I fatisfy him, and fhew him my Salvation.

twenty

twenty feven Provinces, and unto every People after their Language, and to the Jews according to their Writing, and according to their Language.

10 And he wrote in the King Ahafuerus Name, and fealed it with the King's Ring, and fent Letters by Poft on Horfeback, and Riders on Mules, Camels, and young Dromedaries:

11 Wherein the King granted the Jews, which were in every City, to gather themfelves together, and to ftand for their Life, to destroy, to flay, and to cause to perish all the Power of the People and Province, that would affault them, both little ones, and Women, and to take the Spoil for a Prey.

12 Upon one Day, in all the Provinces of King Ahafuerus, namely upon the thirteenth Day of the twelfth Month, which is the Month Adar.

13 The Copy of the Writing, for a Commandment to be given in every Province, was published unto all People, and that the Jews fhould be ready against that Day, to avenge themselves on their Enemies.

14 So the Pofts went out, being haftned, and preffed on by the King's Commandment; and the Decree was given at Shufhan the Palace.

15 And Mordecai went out from the Prefence of the King, in Royal Apparel of blew and white, and with a great Crown of Gold, and with a Garment of fine Linen, and Purple; and the City of Shufhan rejoiced and was glad: 16 The Jews had Light and Gladness, and Joy, and Honour.

17. And in every Province, and in every City, whither foever the King's Commandment and his Decree came, the Jews had Joy and Gladnefs, a Feast and a good Day: and MANY of the PEOPLE of the LAND became Jews; for the FEAR of the Jews fell upon THEM.

• Pfal. xl. I waited patiently for the LORD, and he inclined unto me, and heard my Cry.

horrible Pit, out of the miry Clay, 2 He brought me up alfo out of an and fet my Feet upon a Rock, and established my Goings.

3 And he hath put a new Song in my Mouth, even Praife unto our Gop: many fhall fee it, and fear, and truft in the LORD.

CHAP.

.

CHAP. IX.

The Jews (the Rulers for fear of Mordecai helping them) flay their Enemies with the ten Sons of Haman. 12 Abafuerus at the Requeft of Efther granteth another Day of Slaughter, and Haman's Sons to be hanged. 20 The two Days of Purim are made Festival.

W in

Ver, 1 No twelfth Ntwelfth Month (that is the Month Adar) on the thirteenth Day of the fame, when the King's Commandment and his Decree drew near to be put in Execution, in the Day that the Enemies of the Jews hoped to have Power over them, though it was turned to the contrary, that the Jews had Rule over them that hated them.

t

* xiv. 1 For LORD will have

Mercy on Jacob, and will yet chufe

Land: and the Strangers fhall be joined with them, and they fhall cleave to the Houfe of Jacob.

Ifrael, and fet them in their own

Pfal. cxxiv. 1 If it had not been the LORD, who was on our Side, now may Ifrael say:

2 If it had not been the LORD, who against us. was on our Side, when Men rose up

3 Then they had fwallowed us up quick, when their Wrath was kindled against us.

Then the Waters had overwhelmed us, the Stream had gone

over our Soul.

s Then the proud Waters had gone over our Soul.

6 Bleffed be the LORD who hath

not given us as a Prey to their Teeth.

7 Our Soul is escaped as a Bird out of the Snare of the Fowlers, the Saare is broken, and we are escaped.

2 The Jews gathered themselves together in their Cities, throughout all the Provinces of the King Ahafuerus, to lay Hand on fuch as fought their Hurt; and no Man could withstand them: for the fear of them fell upon all People.

8 Our Help is in the Name of the LORD, who made Heaven and Earth.

3 And all the Rulers of the Provinces, and the Lieutenants, and the Deputies, and Officers of the King helped the Jews: because the Fear of Mordecai fell upon them.

4 For Mordecai was great in the King's House, and his Fame went out throughout all the Provinces: for this Man Mordecai waxed greater and greater.

5 Thus the Jews fmote all their Enemies with the Stroke of the Sword, and Slaughter, and Destruction, and did what they would unto thofe that hated them.

6 And in Shushan the Palace the Jews flew and destroyed five hundred Men.

And Parfhandatha, and Dalphon, and Aspatha.

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And

8 And Poratha, and Adaliah, and Aridatha.

And Permafhta, Arifai, and Aridai, and Vajezatha.

10 The ten Sons of Haman the Son of Hammedatha, the Enemy of the Jews, flew they; but on the Spoil laid they not their Hand.

11 On that Day, the Number of those that were flain in Shufhan the Palace, was brought before the King.

Iz And the King faid unto Efther the Queen, The Jews" have flain and deftroyed five hundred Men in Shushan the Palace, and the ten Sons of Haman; what have they done in the rest of the King's Provinces? now what is thy Petition? and it fhall be granted thee: or what is thy Request further? and it fhall be done.

13 Then faid Efther, If it please the King, let it be granted to the Jews which are in Shufhan, to do to Morrow alfo according unto this Days Decree, and let Haman's ten Sons be hanged upon the Gallows.

14 And the King commanded it so to be done; and the Decree was given at Shufhan, and they hanged Haman's ten Sons.

15 For the Jews that were in Shufhan, gathered themfelves together on the fourteenth Day alfo of the Month Adar, and flew three hundred Men at Shushan; but on the Prey they laid not their Hand.

16 But the other Jews that were in the King's Provinces, gathered themfelves together and flood for their Lives, and had Reft from their Enemies, and flew of their Foes feventy and five thoufand, but they laid not their Hands on the Prey.

17 On the thirteenth Day of the Month Adar, and on the fourteenth Day of the fame, rested they, and made it a Day of Feafting and Gladness.

18 But the Jews that were at Shufhan, affembled on the thirteenth Day thereof, and on the fourteenth thereof; and on the fifteenth Day of the fame they refted, and made it a Day of Feafting and Gladness.

19 Therefore the Jews of the Villages, that dwelt in the unwalled Towns, made the fourteenth Day of the Month Adar, a Day of Gladnefs and Feafting, and a good Day, and of fending Portions one to another.

20 And Mordecai wrote thefe Things, and fent Letters unto all the Jews that were in all the Provinces of the King Ahasuerus, both nigh and far.

21 To stablish this among them, that they fhould keep the fourteenth Day of the Month Adar, and the fifteenth Day of the fame yearly:

22 As the Days wherein the Jews reited from their Enemies, and the Month which was turned unto them from Sorrow to Joy, and from Mourning into a good Day: that they fhould make them Days of Feafting and Joy, and of fending Portions one to another, and Gifts to the Poor.

23 And the Jews undertook to do as they had begun, and as Mordecai had written unto them.

24 Because Haman the Son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the Enemy of all the Jews, had devised against the Jews to destroy them, and had caft Pur (that is the Lot) to confume them, and to destroy them.

25 But when Efther came before the King, he commanded by Letters, that his wicked Device which he devised against the Jews, fhould return upon his own Head, and that he and his Sons fhould be hanged on the Gallows.

26 Wherefore they called thefe Days Purim, after the Name of Pur: therefore for all the Words of this Letter, and of that which they had feen concerning this Matter, and which had come unto them,

27 The Jews ordained, and took upon them, and upon their Seed, and upon all fuch as joined themselves unto them, fo as it fhould not fail, that they would keep these two Days according to the Writing, and according to their appointed Time every Year.

28 And that these Days fhould be remembred, and kept throughout every Generation, every Family, every Province, and every City; and that thefe Days of Purim fhould not fail from among the Jews, nor the Memorial of them perifh from their Seed.

29 Then Efther the Queen, and Mordecai the Jew, wrote with all Authority, to confirm this fecond Letter of Purim.

30 And he fent the Letters unto all the Jews, to the hundred twenty and feven Provinces of the Kingdom of Ahafuerus, with Words of Peace and Truth.

31 To confirm thefe Days of Purim in their Times appointed, according as Mordecai the Jew, and Efther the Queen had enjoyned them, and as they had decreed for themfelves, and for their Seed, the Matters of the Faftings and their Cry.

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32 And

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