Esther acts again
1 That same day King Artaxerxes gave Queen Esther everything that had belonged to Haman the accuser. Mordecai was summoned before the king because Esther told the king that he was family to her.
2
The king took the royal ring that he had removed from Haman and gave it to Mordecai. Esther put Mordecai in charge of what Haman had owned.
3
Esther spoke further to the king. She bowed at his feet and asked him to overturn the evil plot of Haman and whatever evils he planned to do to the Jews.
4
The king held out the gold scepter to Esther, and she got up and stood before him.
5
Esther said, "If the idea seems right to the king, and if I still please him, revoke the written decrees sent out by Haman, ordering the destruction of the Jews living within your kingdom.
6
How can I bear to watch the terrible evil about to sweep over my people? And how can I be delivered from the destruction of my people?"
Mordecai writes a new law
7 The king said to Esther, "I've given you everything Haman owned: I've favored you and impaled him on a pole because he planned to attack the Jews.
8
Write to the Jews in the king's name whatever seems best to you and seal the letters with my royal ring. Anything written in the name of the king and sealed with the king's royal ring can't be revoked."
9
So the royal scribes were summoned on the twenty-third day of the first month (that is, the month of Nisan). They wrote out Mordecai's orders regarding the Jews for the officials and governors of the provinces from India to Cush, one hundred twenty-seven in all. They wrote in the alphabet of each province and in the language of each people.
10
They wrote in the name of the king and sealed the order with the king's royal ring. They sent the letters out by messengers on horseback.
11
Mordecai ordered the Jews to live according to their own laws and to defend themselves. He allowed them to do as they wished to their attackers and opponents
12
throughout Artaxerxes' entire kingdom, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month (that is, the month of Adar).
13
Let copies of this decree be displayed publicly throughout the kingdom so that all the Jews may be ready on this day to do battle with their enemies.
14
Messengers on horses sped off to do as the king said, and the law was made public in the city of Susa.
15
Mordecai went out dressed in a royal robe, wearing a gold crown and a turban made of purple linen. The people of Susa rejoiced to see him,
16
and light and gladness came to the Jews.
17
In every city and region—wherever the king's order was posted and the decree proclaimed—the Jews had happiness and joy, feasts and a holiday. Many of the Gentiles had themselves circumcised and became Jews themselves, out of fear of the Jews.