²⁴ For Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite,^(A) the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them and had cast the pur^(B) (that is, the lot^(C)) for their ruin and destruction.^(D)

²⁶ (Therefore these days were called Purim, from the word pur.^(A)) Because of everything written in this letter and because of what they had seen and what had happened to them,

⁸ He is to cast lots^(A) for the two goats—one lot for the Lord and the other for the scapegoat.^[a](B)

²¹ Then he brought forward the tribe of Benjamin, clan by clan, and Matri’s clan was taken.^(A) Finally Saul son of Kish was taken. But when they looked for him, he was not to be found.

¹³ Dispatches were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces with the order to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews^(A)—young and old, women and children—on a single day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar,^(B) and to plunder^(C) their goods.

¹⁵ The temple was completed on the third day of the month Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius.^(A)

¹⁹ That is why rural Jews—those living in villages—observe the fourteenth of the month of Adar^(A) as a day of joy and feasting, a day for giving presents to each other.^(B)