Additions to Esther 3:1-7

1 Some time later King Xerxes honored a man named Haman son of Hammedatha, a Bougaean, by promoting him to the position of prime minister.
2 The king ordered all the officials in his service to show their respect for Haman by bowing to him. They all did so, except Mordecai, who refused to bow to Haman.
3 The other officials in the royal service asked him why he was disobeying the king's command.
4 Day after day they urged him to give in, but he would not listen to them. "I am a Jew," he explained, "and I cannot bow to Haman." So they told Haman how Mordecai was defying the king's orders.
5 Haman was furious when he realized that Mordecai was not going to bow to him,
6 and so he made plans to kill every Jew in the whole Persian Empire.
7 In the twelfth year of King Xerxes' reign, Haman ordered the lots to be cast to find out the right day and month to destroy the Jews, all in a single day. The fourteenth day of the month of Adar was the date chosen.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.