Old/New Testament
Victory for the Jews
9 The order the king had commanded was to be done on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month. That was the month of Adar. That was the day the enemies of the Jews had hoped to defeat them. But that was changed. So the Jews themselves defeated those who hated them. 2 The Jews met in their cities in all the empire of King Xerxes. They met in order to attack those who wanted to harm them. And no one was strong enough to fight against them. This was because all the other people living in the empire were afraid of the Jews. 3 And all the important men of the areas, the governors, captains of the soldiers, and the king’s officers helped the Jews. They helped because they were afraid of Mordecai. 4 Mordecai was very important in the king’s palace. He was famous in all the empire. This was because he was becoming a leader of more and more people.
5 And, with their swords, the Jews defeated all their enemies, killing and destroying them. And the Jews did what they wanted with those people who hated them. 6 In the palace at Susa, they killed and destroyed 500 men. 7 They also killed these men: Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha, 8 Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha, 9 Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai and Vaizatha. 10 They were the ten sons of Haman, son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews. But the Jews did not take their belongings.
11 And on that day the number of the men killed in the palace at Susa was reported to the king. 12 The king said to Queen Esther, “The Jews have killed and destroyed 500 men in the palace at Susa. And they have also killed Haman’s ten sons. What have they done in the rest of the king’s empire! Now what else are you asking? I will do it! And what else do you want? It will be done.”
13 Esther answered, “If it pleases the king, give the Jews who are in Susa permission to do this. Let them do again tomorrow what the king ordered for today. And let the bodies of Haman’s ten sons be hanged on the platform built for hanging people to death.”
14 So the king ordered that it be done. A law was given in Susa, and the bodies of the ten sons of Haman were hanged. 15 The Jews in Susa came together. It was on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar. And they killed 300 men in Susa. But they did not take their belongings.
16 At that same time, the other Jews in the king’s empire also met. They met in order to protect themselves and get rid of their enemies. And they killed 75,000 of those who hated them. But they did not take their belongings. 17 This happened on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar. And on the fourteenth day the Jews rested. They made it a day of joyful feasting.
The Feast of Purim
18 But the Jews in Susa met on the thirteenth and fourteenth days of the month of Adar. Then they rested on the fifteenth day. They made it a day of joyful feasting.
19 This is why the Jews who live in the country and small villages celebrate on the fourteenth day. They keep the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a day of joyful feasting. And it is also a day for giving presents to each other.
20 Mordecai wrote down everything that had happened. Then he sent letters to all the Jews in all the empire of King Xerxes. He sent letters to places far and near. 21 Mordecai did this to have the Jews celebrate every year. They were to celebrate on the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar. 22 It was to celebrate a time when the Jews got rid of their enemies. They were also to celebrate it as the month their sadness was turned to joy. It was the month when their crying for the dead was turned into celebration. Mordecai wrote letters to all the Jews. He wrote to tell them to celebrate those days as days of joyful feasting. It was to be a time of giving food to each other. And it was a time of giving presents to the poor.
23 So the Jews agreed to do what Mordecai had written to them. And they agreed to hold the celebration every year. 24 Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, was the enemy of all the Jews. He had made an evil plan against the Jews to destroy them. And Haman had thrown the pur (that is, the lot) to choose a day to ruin and destroy the Jews. 25 But when the king learned of the evil plan, he sent out written orders. This was so the evil plans Haman had made against the Jews would be used against him. And those orders said that Haman and his sons should be hanged on the platform for hanging. 26 So these days were called Purim. The name Purim comes from the word “pur” (the lot). 27 And so the Jews set up this custom. They and their descendants would celebrate these two days every year. The Jews and all those who join them are to celebrate these two days. They should do it without fail every year. They should do it in the right way and at the time Mordecai had ordered them in the letter. 28 These two days should be remembered and celebrated from now on in every family. And they must be celebrated in every area and every city. These days of Purim should never stop being celebrated by the Jews. And the descendants of the Jews should always remember to celebrate these two days of Purim.
29 So Queen Esther daughter of Abihail, along with Mordecai the Jew, wrote this second letter about Purim. Using the power they had, they wrote to prove the first letter was true. 30 And Mordecai sent letters to all the Jews in the 127 areas of the kingdom of Xerxes. Mordecai wrote a message of peace and truth. 31 He wrote to set up these days of Purim. They are to be celebrated at their chosen times. Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had sent out the order for the Jews. They had set up for themselves and their descendants these two days. They set them up so the Jews would give up eating and cry loudly. 32 Esther’s letter showed that these practices about Purim were correct. They were written down in the records.
The Greatness of Mordecai
10 King Xerxes made people pay taxes. Even the cities far away on the seacoast had to pay taxes. 2 And all the great things that Xerxes did are written down. They tell of his power and strength. They are written in the record books of the kings of Media and Persia. Also written in those record books are all the things that Mordecai did. The king had made Mordecai a great man. 3 Mordecai the Jew was second in importance to King Xerxes. He was the most important man among the Jews. And his fellow Jews respected him very much. They respected Mordecai because he worked for the good of his people. And they respected him because he spoke up for the safety of all the Jews.
Stephen’s Speech
7 The high priest said to Stephen, “Are these things true?”
2 Stephen answered, “Brothers and fathers, listen to me. Our glorious God appeared to Abraham, our ancestor. Abraham was in Mesopotamia before he lived in Haran. 3 God said to Abraham, ‘Leave your country and your relatives. Go to the land I will show you.’[a] 4 So Abraham left the country of Chaldea and went to live in Haran. After Abraham’s father died, God sent him to this place where you now live. 5 God did not give Abraham any of this land, not even a foot of it. But God promised that he would give him and his descendants this land. (This was before Abraham had any descendants.) 6 This is what God said to him: ‘Your descendants will be strangers in a land they don’t own. The people there will make them slaves. And they will do cruel things to them for 400 years. 7 But I will punish the nation where they are slaves. Then your descendants will leave that land. Then they will worship me in this place.’[b] 8 God made an agreement with Abraham; the sign for this agreement was circumcision. And so when Abraham had his son Isaac, Abraham circumcised him when he was eight days old. Isaac also circumcised his son Jacob. And Jacob did the same for his sons, the 12 ancestors[c] of our people.
9 “These sons became jealous of Joseph. They sold him to be a slave in Egypt. But God was with him. 10 Joseph had many troubles there, but God saved him from all those troubles. The king of Egypt liked Joseph and respected him because of the wisdom that God gave him. The king made him governor of Egypt. He put Joseph in charge of all the people in his palace.
11 “Then all the land of Egypt and of Canaan became so dry that nothing would grow there. This made the people suffer very much. The sons could not find anything to eat. 12 But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent his sons, our ancestors, there. This was their first trip to Egypt. 13 Then they went there a second time. This time, Joseph told his brothers who he was. And the king learned about Joseph’s family. 14 Then Joseph sent some men to invite Jacob, his father, to come to Egypt. He also invited all his relatives (75 persons altogether). 15 So Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and his sons died. 16 Later their bodies were moved to Shechem and put in a grave there. (It was the same grave that Abraham had bought in Shechem from the sons of Hamor for a sum of money.)
17 “The number of people in Egypt grew large. There were more and more of our people there. (The promise that God made to Abraham was soon to come true.) 18 Then a new king began to rule Egypt. He did not know who Joseph was. 19 This king tricked our people and was cruel to our ancestors. He forced them to put their babies outside to die. 20 This was the time when Moses was born. He was a fine child. For three months Moses was cared for in his father’s house. 21 When they put Moses outside, the king’s daughter took him. She raised him as if he were her own son.
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.