Est 10 | EngLXX | STEP | And the king levied a tax upon his kingdom both by land and sea.

‏ Esther 10

1 And the king levieda tax uponhis kingdom both by land and sea. 2 Andas for his strength and valour, and the wealth and glory of his kingdom, behold, they are writtenin the book of the Persians and Medes, for a memorial. 3 And Mardochaeus was viceroy to king Artaxerxes, and was a great man in the kingdom, andhonored by the Jews, and passed his life beloved of all his nation. And Mardocheus said, These thingshave been done of God. For I remember the dream which I had concerning these matters: for not one particularof them has failed.There was the little fountain which became a river, and there was light, and the sun and muchwater. The river is Esther, whom the king married, and made queen. And the two serpents are I and Aman.And the nations are thosenations that combined to destroy the name of the Jews. Butas for my nation, this is Israel,even they that cried to God and were delivered: for the Lord delivered his people. And theLord rescued us out of all these calamities; and God wrought such signs and great wonders as have notbeen done among the nations. Therefore did he ordain two lots. One for the people of God, and one forall the othernations. And these two lots came for an appointed season, and for a day of judgment, beforeGod, and for all the nations. And God remembered his people, and vindicated his inheritance. And theyshall observe these days in the month Adar, on the fourteenth and on the fifteenthday of the month, with an assembly, and joy and gladness before God, throughout the generationsfor ever among his people Israel. In the fourth year of the reign of Ptolemeus and Cleopatra, Dositheus,who said he was a priest and Levite, and Ptolemeus his son, brought this epistle of Phurim, which theysaid was the same, and that Lysimachus the son of Ptolemeus, that was in Jerusalem, had interpreted it.