And let the king appoint local governors in all the provinces of his kingdom, and let them select fair [and] chaste young women, [and bring them] to the city Susa, into the women's apartment, and let them be consigned to the king's eunuch, the keeper of the women. And let things for purification and other attendance be given [to them].

in those days, when King Artaxerxes was on the throne in the city of Susa,

And it came to pass on the third day, when she had ceased praying, that she put off her mean dress, and put on her glorious apparel. And being splendidly arrayed, [and] having called upon God the Overseer and Preserver of all things, she took her two maids, and she leaned upon one, as a delicate female, and the other followed bearing her train. And she [was] blooming in the perfection of her beauty; and her face [was] cheerful and benevolent, but her heart [was] straitened for fear. And having passed through all the doors, she stood before the king. And he was sitting upon his royal throne, and he had put on all his glorious apparel, [covered] all over with gold and precious stones, and was very terrible. And having raised his face resplendent with glory, he looked with intense anger. And the queen fell, and changed her color as she fainted; and she bowed herself upon the head of the maid that went before [her]. But God changed the spirit of the king's gentleness, and in intense feeling he sprang from off his throne, and took her into his arms, until she recovered. And he comforted her with peaceable words, and said to her, What is [the matter], Esther? I [am] your brother; be of good cheer, you shall not die, for our command is openly declared [to you;] Draw near.

And everyone in the palace bowed down to him, for so the king had given orders to do; but Mordecai did not bow down to him.

[Thus] they spoke daily to him, but he hearkened not unto them; so they told it to Haman that Mordecai resisted the commands of the king; and Mordecai had shown to them that he was a Jew.

and took counsel to utterly destroy all the Jews who were under the rule of Artaxerxes.

And Mordecai was second to King Artaxerxes, and was a great man in the kingdom, and honored by the Jews, and passed his life beloved of all his nation. And Mordecai said, These things have been done by God. For I remember the dream which I had concerning these matters. For not one particular of them has failed. There was the little fountain, which became a river, and there was a light, and the sun, and much water. The river is Esther, whom the king married, and made queen. And the two serpents are Haman and myself. And the nations are those that combined to destroy the name of the Jews. But [as for] my nation, this is Israel, [even] they that cried to God, and were delivered: for the Lord delivered His people, and the Lord rescued us out of all these calamities; and God wrought such signs and great wonders as have not been done among the nations. Therefore did He ordain two lots, one for the people of God, and one for all the [other] nations. And these two lots came for an appointed season, and for a day of judgment before God, and for all the nations. And God remembered His people, and vindicated His inheritance. And they shall observe these days, in the month [of] Adar, on the fourteenth and on the fifteenth day of the month, with an assembly, and joy and gladness before God, throughout the generations forever among His people Israel. In the fourth year of the reign of Ptolemy and Cleopatra, Dositheus, who said that he was a priest and a Levite, and Ptolemy his son, brought in the published letter of Purim, which they said existed, and [which] Lysimachus the son of Ptolemy who was in Jerusalem, had interpreted.

And [there was] a man of the sons of Benjamin, and his name was Kish, the son of Abiel, the son of Jared, the son of Bechorath, the son of Aphiah, the son of a Benjamite, a man of might.

And King David came to Bahurim; and behold, there came out from there a man of the family of the house of Saul, and his name [was] Shimei, the son of Gera. He came forth and cursed as he went,