4
Then the king held out to Ester the golden scepter. So Ester arose, and stood before the king.
5
She said, If it please the king, and if I have found favor in his sight, and the thing seem right before the king, and I be pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman, the son of Hammedata the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Yehudim who are in all the king's provinces:
6
for how can I endure to see the evil that shall come to my people? or how can I endure to see the destruction of my relatives?
7
Then the king Achashverosh said to Ester the queen and to Mordekhai the Yehudi, See, I have given Ester the house of Haman, and him they have hanged on the gallows, because he laid his hand on the Yehudim.
8
Write you also to the Yehudim, 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, may no man reverse.
9
Then were the king's Sofrim called at that time, in the third month Sivan, on the three and twentieth [day] of it; and it was written according to all that Mordekhai commanded to the Yehudim, and to the satraps, and the governors and princes of the provinces which are from Hoddu to Kush, one hundred twenty-seven provinces, to every province according to the writing of it, and to every people after their language, and to the Yehudim according to their writing, and according to their language.
10
He wrote the name of king Achashverosh, and sealed it with the king's ring, and sent letters by post on horseback, riding on swift steeds that were used in the king's service, bred of the stud:
11
in which the king granted the Yehudim who were 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 the spoil of them for a prey,
12
on one day in all the provinces of king Achashverosh, [namely], on the thirteenth [day] of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar.
13
A copy of the writing, that the decree should be given out in every province, was published to all the peoples, and that the Yehudim should be ready against that day to avenge themselves on their enemies.
14
So the posts who rode on swift steeds that were used in the king's service went out, being hurried and pressed on by the king's mitzvah; and the decree was given out in Shushan the palace.