² The Jews assembled in their cities^(A) in all the provinces of King Xerxes to attack those determined to destroy them. No one could stand against them,^(B) because the people of all the other nationalities were afraid of them.

¹⁵ The Jews in Susa came together on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar, and they put to death in Susa three hundred men, but they did not lay their hands on the plunder.^(A)

¹⁶ Meanwhile, the remainder of the Jews who were in the king’s provinces also assembled to protect themselves and get relief^(B) from their enemies.^(C) They killed seventy-five thousand of them^(D) but did not lay their hands on the plunder.^(E)

¹⁸ The Jews in Susa, however, had assembled on the thirteenth and fourteenth, and then on the fifteenth they rested and made it a day of feasting and joy.