On that day King Ahasuerus1 gave the house of Haman, enemy of the Jews, to Esther the queen. Mordecai came before the king; for Esther had told what he was to her. 2The king took off his ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman.
3Esther spoke yet again before the king, and fell down at his feet, and begged him with tears to put away the mischief of Haman the Agagite, and his plan that he had devised against the Jews. 4Then the king held out to Esther the golden scepter. So Esther arose, and stood before the king. 5She said, “If it please the king, and if I have found favour in his sight, and the thing seems right before the king, and I be pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the king’s provinces. 6How can I endure to see the evil that will come to my people? Or how can I endure to see the destruction of my relatives?”
7Then King Ahasuerus said to Esther the queen and to Mordecai the Jew, “See, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and him they have hanged on the gallows, because he laid his hand on the Jews. 8Write also to the Jews, as it pleases you, in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s ring; for the writing which is written in the king’s name, and sealed with the king’s ring, no man may reverse.”
9Then the king’s scribes were called at that time, in the third month Sivan, on the twenty-third day; and it was written according to all that Mordecai commanded to the Jews, and to the satraps, and the governors and princes of the provinces which are from India to Ethiopia, one hundred twenty-seven provinces, to every province according to what was written, and to every people after their language, and to the Jews according to their written script, and according to their language. 10He wrote the name of King Ahasuerus, and sealed it with the king’s ring, and sent letters by couriers on horseback, riding on horses used in the king’s service, bred from swift steeds.
11In those letters, the king granted the Jews in every city to gather themselves together, and to stand for their life, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all the power of the people and province that would assault them, their little ones and women, and to take their possessions for plunder, 12on one day in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, namely, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar. 13A copy of the writing, that the decree should be given out in every province, was published to all the people, and that the Jews should be ready against that day to avenge themselves on their enemies. 14So the couriers who rode on swift steeds used in the king’s service went out, being hurried and pressed on by the king’s command; and the decree was given out in the citadel of Susa.
15Mordecai went forth from the presence of the king in royal clothing of blue and white, with a great crown of gold, and with a robe of fine linen and purple: and the city of Susa shouted and was glad. 16The Jews had light and gladness, and joy and honour. 17In every province, and in every city, wherever the king’s command and decree came, the Jews had gladness and joy, a feast and a good day. Many from among the people of the land became Jews; for the fear of the Jews had fallen on them.
- 8:1 Ahasuerus, or Xerxes. ↩︎