Esther 3:7, 13; 9:24–26
Pur, the lot, and the 13th or 14th of Adar
"They cast Pur, that is, the lot" to choose the day. The Hebrew decree sets 13 Adar; the library's Greek has the lot fall on the 14th. The festival is named Purim "after the name of Pur."
Read Esther 3:7, 13; 9:24–26 in every edition
Manuscript variant: witnesses differ in wording
The family tree
Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.
✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives
- Same line, through lost copies
- Translation
- Related (shared ancestry)
Every witness, in order
c. 9th century BC
Die of Yahali (clay cube inscribed "lot," pūru)
How the site knows this: Reported in scholarship; not checked by the site.
An Assyrian clay die (Yale Babylonian Collection) inscribed as the pūru of Yahali, used to choose a year's eponym. Shows the word and the practice; unrelated to Esther's events. Not inspected by the site.
Composed c. 400–150 BC (debated)
Original Esther
No original survives. No copy of Esther has been identified among the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Translated c. 2nd–1st century BC
Old Greek Esther (library text: Giguet's French)
How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.
il agita les sorts… et le sort tomba sur le quatorzième du mois qui est appelé adar
the lot fell on the fourteenth of the month called Adar
No word "Pur" here. Old Greek via Giguet's French (its own verse numbers); not checked against Hanhart's Göttingen edition.
c. AD 400
Jerome's Vulgate
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).
missa est sors in urnam, quæ hebraice dicitur phur
a lot was put into the urn, which in Hebrew is called phur
AD 1008
Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.
הִפִּיל פּוּר הוּא הַגּוֹרָל לִפְנֵי הָמָן
he cast pur, that is, the lot, before Haman
The decree (3:13) sets the 13th of Adar.
1611
King James Bible
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).
they cast Pur, that is, the lot, before Haman from day to day, and from month to month
What changed, and why
Pur is Akkadian pūru; the Hebrew explains it with goral. The Greek's 14th of Adar matches its Addition B (the decree's date) and may reflect the date of the festival. Purim is kept on 14 Adar (15 in walled cities), the day after the fighting.
What the evidence shows
- Pur is Akkadian pūru, "lot."
- The library's Greek has the lot fall on 14 Adar. Via Giguet.
Sources
Related lessons
- Haman, the Lot and the Death Decree →The king promotes Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite above all the princes. Everyone at the king's gate bows to him except Mordecai, who has told them he is a Jew. Haman decides to destroy all Mordecai's people. In Nisan of the twelfth year the lot (pur) is cast before him and falls on Adar. He offers the king 10,000 talents of silver; the king gives him his signet ring. On 13 Nisan letters go out in every language: on 13 Adar, kill all the Jews, young and old, women and children, and plunder their goods. "The king and Haman sat down to drink; but the city Shushan was perplexed."
- Violence, Numbers and Purim →On 13 Adar the day is reversed: the Jews gather against those who sought their hurt, and officials help them for fear of Mordecai. In Susa they kill 500 men and Haman's ten sons, but lay no hand on the plunder. At Esther's request a second day is granted in Susa: 300 more men; the ten sons are hanged. Elsewhere the Jews kill 75,000 (in the library's Greek, 15,000), and take no plunder. They rest and feast on the 14th, in Susa on the 15th. Mordecai and Esther write letters establishing Purim: feasting, gifts to one another and gifts to the poor, every year.
- Purim and Jewish Memory →Purim takes its name from pur, the lot Haman cast. The Hebrew book ends by establishing the festival on 14 and 15 Adar, with feasting, food gifts and gifts to the poor. Outside Esther, Purim is first mentioned as "Mordecai's day" in 2 Maccabees. Some scholars propose that Purim adapted an older Babylonian or Persian festival; there is no evidence that settles its origin.