For the Jews there was radiant happiness and joyous honor. ¹ 

For Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had devised plans against the Jews to destroy them. He had cast pur (that is, the lot) in order to afflict and destroy them.

Mordecai the Jew was second only to King Ahasuerus. He was the highest-ranking ¹  Jew, and he was admired by his numerous relatives. ²  He worked enthusiastically ³  for the good of his people and was an advocate for the welfare of ⁴  all his descendants. ⁵ 

Then there was a great outcry from the people and their wives against their fellow Jews. ¹ 

In Susa the citadel the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men.

Also in those days I saw the men of Judah who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab.

The Jews struck all their enemies with the sword, bringing death and destruction, and they did as they pleased with their enemies.

So the Jews committed themselves to continue what they had begun to do and to what Mordecai had written to them.

Here is the official record of the number of people ¹  Nebuchadnezzar carried into exile: In the seventh year, ²  3,023 Jews;

King Ahasuerus replied to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, “Look, I have already given Haman’s estate to Esther, and he has been hanged on the gallows because he took hostile action ¹  against the Jews.

Throughout every province and throughout every city where the king’s edict and his law arrived, the Jews experienced happiness and joy, banquets and holidays. Many of the resident peoples ¹  pretended ²  to be Jews, because the fear of the Jews had overcome them. ³ 

In the twelfth month (that is, the month of Adar), on its thirteenth day, the edict of the king and his law were to be executed. It was on this day that the enemies of the Jews had supposed that they would gain power over them. But contrary to expectations, the Jews gained power over their enemies.

Hanani, who was one of my relatives, ¹  along with some of the men from Judah, came to me, ²  and I asked them about the Jews who had escaped and had survived the exile, and about Jerusalem. ³ 

(3:33) ¹  Now when Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall he became angry and was quite upset. He derided the Jews,

So it happened that the Jews who were living near them came and warned us repeatedly ¹  about all the schemes ²  they were plotting ³  against us.

There were 150 Jews and officials who dined with me routinely, ¹  in addition to those who came to us from the nations ²  all around us.

Now there happened to be a Jewish man in Susa the citadel whose name was Mordecai. ¹  He was the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjaminite,

So the king removed his signet ring ¹  from his hand and gave it to Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, who was hostile toward the Jews.

he ¹  said to take back this answer to Esther:

Yet all of this fails to satisfy me so long as I have to see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.”