1 On that day, King Ahasuerus gave the house of Haman, the Jews’ enemy,
to Esther the queen. Mordecai came before the king; for Esther
had told what he was to her. 2 The king took off his ring, which he had
taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. Esther set Mordecai over the house
of Haman. 3 Esther spoke yet again before the king, and fell down at his
feet, and begged him with tears to put away the mischief of Haman the
Agagite, and his device that he had devised against the Jews. 4 Then the
king held out to Esther the golden scepter. So Esther arose, and stood before
the king. 5 She said, “If it pleases the king, and if I have found favor in
his sight, and the thing seem right to the king, and I am pleasing in his
eyes, let it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman, the son of
Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the
king’s provinces. 6 For how can I endure to see the evil that would come
to my people? How can I endure to see the destruction of my relatives?”
7 Then King Ahasuerus said to Esther the queen and to Mordecai the Jew,
“See, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and him they have hanged on
the gallows, because he laid his hand on the Jews. 8 Write also
to the Jews, 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 not be reversed by any man.”
9 Then the king’s scribes were called at that time, in the third month
Sivan, on the twenty-third day of the month; and it was written according to
all that Mordecai commanded to the Jews, and to the satraps, and the governors
and princes of the provinces which are from India to Ethiopia, one hundred
twenty-seven provinces, to every province according to its writing, and to
every people in their language, and to the Jews in their writing, and in
their language. 10 He wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus, and sealed it
with the king’s ring, and sent letters by courier on horseback, riding
on royal horses that were bread from swift steeds. 11 In those letters,
the king granted the Jews who were in every city to gather themselves together,
and to defend 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 plunder their possessions, 12 on one day in all the
provinces of King Ahasuerus, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which
is the month Adar. 13 A copy of the letter, that the decree should be given
out in every province, was published to all the peoples, that the Jews
should be ready for that day to avenge themselves on their enemies.
14 So the couriers who rode on royal horses went out, hastened and pressed
on by the king’s commandment. The decree was given out in the citadel of
Susa.
15 Mordecai went out of the presence of the king in royal clothing of
blue and white, and with a great crown of gold, and with a robe of fine linen
and purple; and the city of Susa shouted and was glad. 16 The Jews had
light, gladness, joy, and honor. 17 In every province, and in every
city, wherever the
king’s commandment and his decree came, the Jews had gladness, joy, a
feast, and a good day. Many from among the peoples of the land became Jews;
for the fear of the Jews was fallen on them.
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