Esther 3

1After these things King Artaxerxes honored Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and elevated him and set his seat above all his friends.

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2All those in the court bowed to him, for thus the king commanded, but Mordecai refused to bow to him.

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3Then those in the court said to Mordecai, 'Mordecai, why do you ignore the king's command?'

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4They said this to him daily, but he did not listen to them. And they informed Haman that Mordecai resisted the words of the king, and that Mordecai had revealed to them that he was a Jew.

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5When Haman learned that Mordecai did not bow to him, he became exceedingly angry,

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6and he determined to destroy all the Jews of the kingdom of Artaxerxes.

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7And he made a decree in the twelfth year of the reign of Artaxerxes, and he cast lots to determine the precise day and month to destroy the race of Mordecai on a single day, and the lot fell on the fourteenth day of the month, which is the month of Adar.

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8Then Haman spoke to King Artaxerxes, saying, 'There is a certain people scattered among the peoples throughout your kingdom; their laws are different from all other people, and they disregard the king's laws. Therefore it is not fitting for the king to let them remain.

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9If it pleases the king, let him make a decree to destroy them. If so, I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the king's treasury.'

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10So the king took off his signet ring and placed it into the hand of Haman in order to seal what was written against the Jews.

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11And the king said to Haman, 'Keep the silver, and deal with those people as you wish.'

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12Then the king's scribes were called on the thirteenth day of the first month, and they wrote, as Haman commanded, to the commanders and the governors in the one hundred twenty-seven provinces stretching from India to Ethiopia, and to the rulers of the nations, in their own language. They wrote in the name of King Artaxerxes,

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13The letter was sent by couriers throughout the kingdom of Artaxerxes to utterly destroy the race of the Jews on a single day, in the twelfth month, which is Adar, and to plunder their possessions. 13a The following is a copy of the letter: The great King Artaxerxes, to the rulers in the hundred twenty-seven provinces from India to Ethiopia, and who hold authority under him, thus decrees: 13b Ruling over many nations, and having gained dominion over all the world, not motivated by the power of authority, but ever conducting myself in moderation and unceasing gentleness, I was desiring to make the lives of my subjects continually tranquil and to maintain the kingdom calm and safe to its furthest borders, and to restore the peace desired by all men. 13c But when I inquired of my counselors how this should be done, Haman, who excels in good sense among us, and has been shown unwavering in good will and unshakeable in fidelity, and has attained the second place in the kingdom, 13d made known to us that there is a race of people full of ill will who are mixed in with all the other races throughout the whole world, whose laws are contrary to all the other nations, and they continually disregard the ordinances of the kings. Thus the joint administration, blamelessly administered by us, cannot be performed. 13e Therefore, we have determined that this people alone is in opposition to every other person, entertaining a strange code of laws, and not disposed to our affairs and perpetrating the worst evils, and thus the kingdom is not able to experience stability. 13f Therefore, we have designated all those made known to you in the letters written by Haman, who is appointed over such matters and who is our second father, to root out and destroy all of them, with their wives and children, without any mercy, sparing no one, on the fourteenth day of the twelfth month Adar of this present year— 13g that this race of people, both from before and until now hostile to us, violently going down to death in one day, may afterwards secure for us a time that is tranquil and an undisturbed state of affairs.

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14Copies of the letters were published throughout every province, and an order was given to all nations to be ready on that day.

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15The matter was quickly dispatched also in Susa. And the king and Haman were drinking, but the city was troubled.

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