3
Then Esther spoke again to the king. She fell at his feet and wept and pleaded with him to avert the evil plan of Haman
1the Agagite and the plot that he had devised against the Jews.
4
2When the king held out the golden scepter to Esther,
5
Esther rose and stood before the king. And she said, "If it please the king,
3and if I have found favor in his sight, and if the thing seems right before the king, and I am pleasing in his eyes, let an order be written to revoke
4the letters devised by Haman
5the Agagite, the son of Hammedatha, which he wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the provinces of the king.
6
For how can I bear
6to see the calamity that is coming to my people? Or how can I bear to see the destruction of my kindred?"
7
Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, "Behold,
7I have given Esther the house of Haman, and they have hanged him on the gallows, because he intended to lay hands on the Jews.
8
But you may write as you please with regard to the Jews, in the name of the king,
8and seal it with the king's ring, for an edict written in the name of the king and sealed with the king's ring
9cannot be revoked."
9
10The king's scribes were summoned at that time, in the third month, which is the month of Sivan, on the twenty-third day. And an edict was written, according to all that Mordecai commanded concerning the Jews, to
11the satraps and the governors and the officials of the provinces
12from India to Ethiopia, provinces,
13to each province in its own script and to each people in its own language, and also to the Jews in their script and their language.
10
14And he wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus
15and sealed it with the king's signet ring. Then he sent the letters by mounted couriers riding on
16swift horses that were used in the king's service, bred from the royal stud,
11
saying that the king allowed the Jews who were in every city
17to gather and defend their lives,
18to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate any armed force of any people or province that might attack them, children and women included,
19and to plunder their goods,
12
20on one day throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar.
13
21A copy of what was written was to be issued as a decree in every province, being publicly displayed to all peoples, and the Jews were to be ready on that day to take vengeance on their enemies.