10 When the Jews received this letter, they didn’t rush to depart. Instead, they petitioned the king that they might carry out the punishment deserved by those Jews who had voluntarily turned aside from the holy God and God’s Law.
11 They insisted that those who had broken divine laws for the sake of the belly would never be reliable subjects under the king’s government either.
12 The king recognized and agreed that they were speaking the truth. So he gave them a free hand to utterly destroy those who had violated God’s Law in every place within his kingdom, and to do so with confidence and without needing royal approval or supervision.
13 Then they applauded him, as was fitting, and their priests and all the crowd shouted the Hallelujah joyously and departed.
14 On their way they punished and killed any fellow Jews they came upon who had polluted themselves, making a public example of them.
15 On that day they killed more than three hundred persons, a day that they also observed as a joyous festival since they had subdued the renegades.
16 But those who had held fast to God to the point of death, having obtained the complete reward of deliverance, set out from the city crowned with all kinds of the most fragrant flowers, celebrating and shouting, giving thanks with praises and beautiful hymns to the God of their ancestors, the eternal savior of Israel.