Esther Intervenes for the Jews
1 That same day King Ahasuerus awarded Queen Esther the estate of Haman, the enemy of the Jews. Mordecai entered the king's presence because Esther had revealed her relationship to Mordecai.
2
The king removed his signet ring he had recovered from Haman and gave it to Mordecai, and Esther put him in charge of Haman's estate.
3
Then Esther addressed the king again. She fell at his feet, wept, and begged him to revoke the evil of Haman the Agagite, and his plot he had devised against the Jews.
4
The king extended the golden scepter toward Esther, so she got up and stood before the king.
5
She said, "If it pleases the king, and I have found approval before him, if the matter seems right to the king and I am pleasing in his sight, let [a royal edict] be written. Let it revoke the documents the scheming Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, wrote to destroy the Jews who [reside] in all the king's provinces.
6
For how could I bear to see the evil that would come on my people? How could I bear to see the destruction of my relatives?"
7
King Ahasuerus said to Esther the Queen and to Mordecai the Jew, "Look, I have given Haman's estate to Esther, and he was hanged on the gallows because he attacked the Jews.
8
You may write in the king's name whatever pleases you concerning the Jews, and seal it with the royal signet ring. A document written in the king's name and sealed with the royal signet ring cannot be revoked."
9
On the twenty-third day of the third month (that is, the month Sivan), the royal scribes were summoned. Everything was written exactly as Mordecai ordered for the Jews, to the satraps, the governors, and the officials of the 127 provinces from India to Cush. [The edict was written] for each province in its own script, for each ethnic group in its own language, and to the Jews in their own script and language.
10
Mordecai wrote in King Ahasuerus' name and sealed [the edicts] with the royal signet ring. He sent the documents by mounted couriers, who rode fast horses bred from the royal racing mares.
11
The king's edict gave the Jews in each and every city the right to assemble and defend themselves, to destroy, kill, and annihilate every ethnic and provincial army hostile to them, including women and children, and to take their possessions as spoils of war.
12
[This would take place] on a single day throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month Adar.
13
A copy of the document was to be issued as law in every province. It was to be published for every ethnic group so the Jews could be ready to avenge themselves against their enemies on that day.
14
On their royal horses, the couriers rode out in haste, at the king's urgent command. The law was also issued in the fortress of Susa.