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The copy of the letters was this: "The great King Artaxerxes writeth these things to the princes and governors that are under him from India unto Ethiopia in a hundred and seven and twenty provinces:
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"After I became lord over many nations and had dominion over the whole world, not lifted up with presumption of my authority but carrying myself always with equity and mildness, I purposed to settle my subjects continually in a quiet life and, making my kingdom peaceable and open for passage to the farthest borders, to renew peace, which is desired by all men.
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"Now when I asked my counselors how this might be brought to pass, Haman, who excelled in wisdom among us, and was approved for his constant good will and steadfast fidelity, and had the honor of the second place in the kingdom,
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declared unto us that in all nations throughout the world there was scattered a certain malicious people, who had laws contrary to all nations and continually despised the commandments of kings, so that the uniting of our kingdoms honorably intended by us cannot go forward.
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Seeing then we understand that this people alone is continually in opposition unto all men, differing in the strange manner of their laws, and evilly disposed to our state, working all the mischief they can, that our kingdom may not be firmly established,
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therefore have we commanded that all those who are signified in writing unto you by Haman, who is ordained over the affairs and is next unto us, shall all, with their wives and children, be utterly destroyed by the sword of their enemies, without all mercy and pity, the fourteenth day of the twelfth month of Adar of this present year;
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that they, who of old and now also are malicious, may in one day with violence go into the grave, and so ever hereafter cause our affairs to be well- settled and without trouble."