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CHAP. IX.

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

Ver. 1

NOW

' in the twelfth 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.

2

1. xiv. I For the LORD will have Mercy on Jacob, and will yet chuse Ifrael, and fet them in their own

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

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

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

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

whelmed us, the Stream had gone 4 Then the Waters had over

over our Soul.

over our Soul.
s Then the proud Waters had gone

6 Bleffed be the LORD who hath not given us as a Prey to their Teeth.

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

The Jews gathered themselves together in their Citics, 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 Houfe, 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 those that hated them.

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

7 And Parshandatha, and Dalphon, and Aspatha.

Rrrr

And

8 And Poratha, and Adaliah, and Aridatha.

9 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 thofe that were flain in Shufhan the Palace, was brought before the King.

12 And the King faid unto Either the Queen, The Jews have flain and deftroyed five hundred Men in Shufhan 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 Requeft further? and it fhall be done.

13 Then faid Efther, If it pleafe 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 fo 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 Shufhan; but on the Prey they laid not their Hand.

16 But the other Jews that were in the King's Provinces, gathered themselves 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, refted 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 Fcafting 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.

zo 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 should keep the fourteenth Day of the Month Adar, and the fifteenth Day of the fame yearly:

22 As the Days wherein the Jews refted from their Enemies, and the Month which was turned unto them from Sorrow to Joy, and from Mourning into a good Day: that they should 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 deftroy 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 thefe Days fhould be remembred, and kept throughout every Generation, every Family, every Province, and every City; and that thefe Days of Purim should 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 Sced, the Matters of the Faftings and their Cry.

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32 And the Decree of Efther confirmed these Matters of Purim, and it was written in the Book.

CHAP. X.

■ Abafuerus his Greatness. 3 Mordecai's Advancement.

Ver. 1 ND the King Ahafuerus laid a Tribute upon the Land, and upon the Ifles of the Sea.

2 And all the Acts of his Power, and of his Might, and the Declaration of the Greatnefs of Mordecai, whereunto the King advanced him, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Media and Perfia?

3 For Mordecai the Jew was next unto King Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews, and accepted of the Multitude of his Brethren, feeking the Wealth of his People, and fpeaking Peace to all his Seed.

RULERS

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RULERS and KINGS of the Hebrew Nation, from their Deliverance out of Egypt, to the Babylonish Captivity.

I. MOSES. Being taken out of the Waters by Pharaob's Daughter, is bred up in the Court, and inftructed in all the Learning of the Egyptians.

When he was forty Years old he quits Egypt, and goes into the Land of Midian, where he keeps Sheep. After forty Years God appears to him, and commands him to return to Egypt, and to demand from the King the Deliverance of the Ifraelites; which Pharaob refufing is punished with ten feveral Plagues: After many Signs and Miracles wrought by him, the Ifraelites march out of Egypt; Pharaoh and his whole Army pursuing them, are drowned in the Red Sea.

He conducts the Ifraelites forty Years in the Wilderness, who are fubfifted every Day by miraculous Bread and Water. He receives the ten Commandments in Mount Sinai, his Face is eradiated with Celestial Glory; has only a View of the promifed Land from a high Mountain, and dies 120 Years old.

II. JOSHUA is appointed to be Captain of the Lord's Hoft. He conquers all the Land of Canaan, at his Prayer the Sun ftands ftill, he dies in Peace, being 100 Years old.

After Joshua's Death, the People falling into Idolatry are firft rebuked by an Angel, and feverely punifhed by Invafions from feveral Nations; but from

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