1And it was sent by couriers throughout the kingdom of Artaxerxes to annihilate the Jewish people on a single day of the twelfth month, which is Adar, and to plunder their possessions.
2The copy of the letter is as follows: Great King Artaxerxes writes these things to the rulers and subordinate local governors of the one hundred and twenty-seven provinces from India to Ethiopia.
3Having become ruler of many nations and gained dominion over the whole inhabited world, I resolved—not being carried away by the arrogance of my authority, but always governing with greater moderation and gentleness—to establish the lives of my subjects in uninterrupted tranquility, and, by making the kingdom peaceful and safe for travel to its farthest borders, to restore the peace desired by all people.
4When I inquired of my counselors how this might be brought to completion, Haman—who is distinguished among us for his prudence, has been proven to be of unswerving goodwill and steadfast loyalty, and has been awarded the honor of second place in the kingdom—
5informed us that a certain hostile people is mixed in among all the tribes throughout the world, opposed in their laws to every nation and continually disregarding the commands of kings, so that the unified government, blamelessly administered by us, cannot be established.
6Therefore, understanding that this nation alone stands in constant opposition to all humanity, observing a strange system of laws, and being ill-disposed toward our affairs, committing the worst of evils to the point that our kingdom cannot attain stability—
7we have commanded that the persons designated to you in the letters by Haman—who is in charge of our affairs and is our second father—be utterly destroyed, root and branch, along with their wives and children, by the swords of their enemies, without any pity or mercy, on the fourteenth day of the twelfth month, Adar, of the present year,
8so that these people, who have long been and are now hostile, may on a single day go down violently to Hades, and so may for all future time leave our affairs stable and undisturbed.
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