Daily Text and Bible Reading: Friday, June 7 [Press play below]

5.1 On the third day Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner courtyard of the king’s house, opposite the king’s house, while the king was sitting on his royal throne in the royal house opposite the entrance.
5.2 As soon as the king saw Queen Esther standing in the courtyard, she gained his favor, and the king held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. Esther then approached and touched the top of the scepter.
5.3 The king asked her: “What is the matter, Queen Esther? What is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it will be granted you!”
5.4 Esther replied: “If it pleases the king, let the king along with Haman come today to the banquet that I have prepared for him.”
5.5 So the king said to his men: “Tell Haman to come quickly, as Esther requests.” So the king and Haman went to the banquet that Esther had prepared.
5.6 During the banquet of wine, the king said to Esther: “What is your petition? It will be granted you! And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it will be done!”
5.7 Esther answered: “My petition and my request is,
5.8 If I have found favor with the king and if it pleases the king to grant my petition and to act on my request, let the king and Haman come to the banquet that I will hold for them tomorrow; and tomorrow I will do as the king says.”
5.9 On that day Haman went out joyful and with a cheerful heart. But when Haman saw Mordecai in the king’s gate and noticed that he did not rise and tremble in his presence, Haman was filled with rage against Mordecai.
5.10 However, Haman restrained himself and went to his house. Then he sent for his friends and Zeresh his wife.
5.11 Haman boasted about his glorious wealth, his many sons, and how the king had promoted him and had exalted him over the princes and the servants of the king.
5.12 Haman added: “What is more, Queen Esther invited no one else but me to accompany the king to the banquet she prepared. I am also invited tomorrow to be with her and the king.
5.13 But all of this fails to satisfy me as long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting in the king’s gate.”
5.14 So Zeresh his wife and all his friends said to him: “Have a stake put up, 50 cubits high. And in the morning tell the king that Mordecai should be hanged on it. Then go with the king to enjoy yourself at the banquet.” This suggestion seemed good to Haman, so he had the stake put up.

6.1 That night the king could not sleep. So he said to bring the book of the historical records of the times, and it was read to the king.
6.2 There it was found written what Mordecai had reported concerning Bigthana and Teresh, two court officials of the king, doorkeepers, who had plotted to do away with King Ahasuerus.
6.3 The king asked: “What honor and recognition has been given to Mordecai for this?” To this the king’s personal attendants said: “Nothing has been done for him.”
6.4 Later the king said: “Who is in the courtyard?” Now Haman had come into the outer courtyard of the king’s house to speak to the king about having Mordecai hanged on the stake that he had prepared for him.
6.5 The king’s attendants said to him: “It is Haman standing in the courtyard.” So the king said: “Have him come in.”
6.6 When Haman came in, the king said to him: “What should be done for the man whom the king wishes to honor?” Haman said in his heart: “Whom would the king wish to honor more than me?”
6.7 So Haman said to the king: “For the man whom the king wishes to honor,
6.8 let them bring royal attire that the king wears and a horse on which the king rides, with the royal headdress on its head.
6.9 Then let the attire and the horse be put into the charge of one of the king’s noble princes, and they should clothe the man whom the king wishes to honor and have him ride on the horse in the public square of the city. They should call out before him: ‘This is what is done for the man whom the king wishes to honor!’”
6.10 At once the king said to Haman: “Quick! Take the attire and the horse, and do what you just said for Mordecai the Jew who is sitting in the king’s gate. Do not leave out anything that you have said.”
6.11 So Haman took the attire and the horse, and he clothed Mordecai and made him ride in the public square of the city and called out before him: “This is what is done for the man whom the king wishes to honor!”
6.12 Afterward Mordecai returned to the king’s gate, but Haman hurried to his house, mourning with his head covered.
6.13 When Haman related to his wife Zeresh and to all his friends everything that had happened to him, his wise men and his wife Zeresh said to him: “If Mordecai, before whom you have started to fall, is of Jewish descent, you will not prevail against him; you will surely fall before him.”
6.14 While they were still speaking with him, the king’s court officials arrived and quickly took Haman to the banquet that Esther had made.

7.1 So the king and Haman came in to Queen Esther’s banquet.
7.2 The king said to Esther again on the second day during the banquet of wine: “What is your petition, Queen Esther? It will be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it will be done!”
7.3 Queen Esther answered: “If I have found favor with you, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be granted as my petition, and my people as my request.
7.4 For we have been sold, I and my people, to be annihilated, killed, and destroyed. If we had simply been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept silent. But the distress is not proper, for it will be damaging to the king.”
7.5 King Ahasuerus then said to Queen Esther: “Who is this, and where is the man who has dared to do such a thing?”
7.6 Esther said: “The adversary and enemy is this evil Haman.” Haman became terrified because of the king and the queen.
7.7 The king rose up in a rage from the banquet of wine and went into the palace garden, but Haman stood up to plead with Queen Esther for his life, for he realized that the king was determined to punish him.
7.8 The king returned from the palace garden to the house of the wine banquet and saw that Haman had thrown himself on the couch where Esther was. The king exclaimed: “Is he also going to rape the queen in my own house?” As soon as these words left the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face.
7.9 Harbona, one of the king’s court officials, now said: “Haman also prepared a stake for Mordecai, whose report saved the king. It is standing at Haman’s house, 50 cubits high.” At that the king said: “Hang him on it.”
7.10 So they hanged Haman on the stake that he had prepared for Mordecai, and the king’s rage subsided.

8.1 On that day King Ahasuerus gave the house of Haman, the enemy of the Jews, to Queen Esther; and Mordecai came in before the king, because Esther had revealed how he was related to her.
8.2 Then the king removed his signet ring that he had taken away from Haman and gave it to Mordecai. And Esther put Mordecai in charge of the house of Haman.
8.3 Moreover, Esther spoke again to the king. She fell down at his feet and wept and pleaded with him to undo the harm done by Haman the Agagite and his scheme against the Jews.
8.4 The king held the golden scepter out to Esther, at which Esther rose and stood before the king.
8.5 She said: “If it pleases the king and if I have his favor, and if it seems proper to the king and I am pleasing in his eyes, let an order be written to annul the documents of that schemer Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews in all the king’s provinces.
8.6 For how can I bear to look upon the disaster that will come upon my people, and how can I bear to see the destruction of my relatives?”
8.7 So King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew: “Look! I have given the house of Haman to Esther and have had him hanged on the stake, because of his plot to attack the Jews.
8.8 You may now write in the king’s name whatever you see fit in behalf of the Jews and seal it with the king’s signet ring, for a decree that is written in the king’s name and sealed with the king’s signet ring cannot be revoked.”
8.9 So the secretaries of the king were summoned at that time in the third month, that is, the month of Sivan, on the 23rd day, and they wrote all that Mordecai commanded to the Jews, as well as to the satraps, the governors, and the princes of the provinces from India to Ethiopia, 127 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 language.
8.10 He wrote it in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed it with the king’s signet ring and sent the written documents by the hand of couriers on horses; they rode on swift post-horses, bred for royal service.
8.11 In these documents the king granted permission to the Jews in all the different cities to gather together and defend their lives and to annihilate, kill, and destroy any forces of any people or province that might attack them, including women and children, and to seize their possessions.
8.12 This was to occur on the same day in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, on the 13th day of the 12th month, that is, the month of Adar.
8.13 The text of the document was to be issued as law throughout all the provinces. It was to be proclaimed to all the peoples, so that the Jews would be ready on that day to take vengeance on their enemies.
8.14 The couriers riding the post-horses used in the royal service went out urgently and speedily at the king’s order. The law was also issued in Shushan the citadel.
8.15 Now Mordecai left the king’s presence in royal apparel of blue and white, wearing a great golden crown and a fine-fabric cloak of purple wool. And the city of Shushan shouted for joy.
8.16 For the Jews there was relief and rejoicing and exultation and honor.
8.17 And in all the provinces and all the cities, wherever the decree of the king and his law reached, the Jews were rejoicing and exulting, holding banquets and celebrations. Many of the peoples of the land were declaring themselves Jews, for the dread of the Jews had fallen upon them.

9.1 On the 13th day of the 12th month, that is, the month of Adar, when the king’s word and his law were to be carried out, on the day when the enemies of the Jews hoped to overpower them, the opposite happened, and the Jews defeated those who hated them.
9.2 The Jews gathered together in their cities in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus to lay hands on those seeking to harm them, and not a man could stand against them, for the dread of them had fallen upon all the peoples.
9.3 And all the princes of the provinces, the satraps, the governors, and those handling the business of the king were supporting the Jews, for they were in fear of Mordecai.
9.4 Mordecai had become powerful in the king’s house, and his fame was spreading throughout all the provinces, because Mordecai was steadily growing more powerful.
9.5 The Jews struck down all their enemies with the sword, killing and destroying them; they did whatever they wanted to those hating them.
9.6 In Shushan the citadel the Jews killed and destroyed 500 men.
9.7 Also, they killed Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha,
9.8 Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha,
9.9 Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai, and Vaizatha,
9.10 the ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews. But after they killed them, they did not seize any plunder.
9.11 On that day the number of those killed in Shushan the citadel was reported to the king.
9.12 The king said to Queen Esther: “In Shushan the citadel the Jews have killed and destroyed 500 men and the ten sons of Haman. What, then, have they done in the rest of the king’s provinces? What is your petition now? It will be granted you. And what is your further request? It will be done.”
9.13 Esther replied: “If it pleases the king, let the Jews who are in Shushan be permitted to act tomorrow also according to today’s law; and let the ten sons of Haman be hanged on the stake.”
9.14 So the king gave orders for that to be done. A law was issued in Shushan, and the ten sons of Haman were hanged.
9.15 The Jews in Shushan gathered together again on the 14th day of the month of Adar and killed 300 men in Shushan, but they did not seize any plunder.
9.16 The rest of the Jews in the provinces of the king also gathered together and defended their lives. They got rid of their enemies, killing 75,000 of those who hated them; but they did not seize any plunder.
9.17 That was on the 13th day of the month of Adar, and they rested on the 14th day and made it a day of feasting and of rejoicing.
9.18 The Jews in Shushan gathered together on the 13th day and on the 14th day, and they rested on the 15th day and made it a day of feasting and rejoicing.
9.19 That is why the rural Jews inhabiting the cities of the outlying districts made the 14th day of the month of Adar a day of rejoicing and feasting, a day of celebration, and a time to send portions of food to one another.
9.20 Mordecai recorded these events and sent official letters to all the Jews in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far.
9.21 He instructed them to observe the 14th day of the month of Adar, as well as the 15th day, each and every year,
9.22 because on those days the Jews rested from their enemies and in that month their grief was changed to rejoicing and their mourning to a day of celebration. They were to observe them as days of feasting and rejoicing and as a time to send portions of food to one another and gifts to the poor.
9.23 And the Jews agreed to continue the celebration that they had started and to do what Mordecai wrote to them.
9.24 For Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had schemed against the Jews to destroy them, and he had cast Pur, that is, the Lot, to throw them into a panic and to destroy them.
9.25 But when Esther came in before the king, he gave orders in writing: “Let his evil scheme against the Jews come back on his own head”; and they hanged him and his sons on the stake.
9.26 That is why they called these days Purim, after the name of the Pur. Therefore, because of all that was written in this letter and what they saw concerning this matter and what had come upon them,
9.27 the Jews obligated themselves and their descendants and all those joining them to celebrate these two days without fail and to carry out what was written concerning them at the appointed time each and every year.
9.28 These days were to be remembered and observed in every generation, by each family, each province, and each city; and these days of Purim should not cease among the Jews, and their commemoration should not come to an end among their descendants.
9.29 Then Queen Esther, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew wrote with full authority to confirm a second letter about Purim.
9.30 He sent official letters to all the Jews in the 127 provinces, the realm of Ahasuerus, in words of peace and truth
9.31 to confirm the observance of the days of Purim at their appointed times, just as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had instructed them to do and just as they had obligated themselves and their descendants to carry out, including the fasting and supplication.
9.32 And the command of Esther confirmed these matters concerning Purim, and it was recorded in a book.

10.1 King Ahasuerus imposed forced labor on the land and the islands of the sea.
10.2 And all his powerful and mighty accomplishments, as well as the detailed account of Mordecai’s greatness to which the king exalted him, are they not written in the book of the history of the times of the kings of Media and Persia?
10.3 For Mordecai the Jew was second only to King Ahasuerus. He was great among the Jews and respected by the multitude of his brothers, working for the good of his people and advocating the welfare of all their descendants.