# Day 204

# The Jews Celebrate Purim

Esther 7:7–10:3

The king left the banquet enraged. Haman threw himself on Esther’s couch, begging for mercy. As he returned, the king saw this happening. “Look, he’s attacking the queen!” the king said. Guards covered Haman’s head. He was doomed.

“Look, there’s the gallows,” Harbona the guard spoke up. “Haman built it to hang Mordecai.”

So they hanged Haman on his own gallows. That day, Ahasuerus gave Esther all of Haman’s property. She told the king that Mordecai was her uncle. So the king gave Mordecai his ring. This ring had been on Haman’s finger.

“O king,” said Esther, “cancel the order to kill my people.”

“Write an order,” Ahasuerus answered. “Say what you please. Put my stamp on it. We’ll send it by swift horses to all the empire.”

So Mordecai wrote the order. It went to all 127 states in the empire, from India to Ethiopia.

A special festival called Purim was ordered by Queen Esther. The Jewish people celebrated their deliverance from death. To this day, at Purim, they tell the story of Esther and Mordecai.

Questions: What happened to Haman? What is Purim?