1On that day King Ahasuerus gave to Queen Esther the house of Haman, the enemy of the Jews, and Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had told what he was to her.
2And the king removed his signet ring, which he had taken back from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai; and Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman.
3And Esther spoke again before the king, and she fell before his feet and wept and pleaded with him to avert the evil of Haman the Agagite and his scheme that he had devised against the Jews.
4And the king extended to Esther the golden scepter, and Esther rose and stood before the king.
5And she said, “If it seems good to the king, and if I have found favor before him, and the matter is proper before the king, and I am pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to revoke the letters, the scheme of Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the king’s provinces.
6For how can I bear to see the evil that will find my people? And how can I bear to see the destruction of my kindred?”
7And King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, “Behold, I have given the house of Haman to Esther, and him they have hanged on the gallows because he laid his hand against the Jews.
8So you yourselves write concerning the Jews as seems good in your eyes, in the name of the king, and seal it with the king’s signet ring; for a writing that is written in the name of the king and sealed with the king’s signet ring cannot be revoked.”
9So the king’s scribes were summoned at that time, in the third month, that is, the month of Sivan, on the twenty-third day of it; and it was written according to all that Mordecai commanded, to the Jews and to the satraps and governors and officials of the provinces that extend from India to Cush, one hundred twenty-seven provinces — each province according to its own script and each people according to its own language, and to the Jews according to their script and their language.
10And he wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed it with the king’s signet ring, and he sent letters by the hand of couriers on horseback, riders of the royal steeds bred from the royal mares.
11by which the king granted the Jews who were in every single city to assemble and to stand for their lives, to destroy and to kill and to annihilate any armed force of any people or province that might attack them, their children and women, and to plunder their spoil —
12on one day, in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, that is, the month of Adar.
13A copy of the writing was to be issued as law in each and every province, made public to all the peoples, and that the Jews should be ready for that day to avenge themselves on their enemies.
14The couriers, riders of the royal steeds, went out hurried and driven onward by the word of the king, and the law was issued in Susa the citadel.
15And Mordecai went out from before the king in royal apparel of blue and white, with a great crown of gold and a robe of fine linen and purple, and the city of Susa shouted for joy and was glad.
16For the Jews there was light and gladness and joy and honor.
17And in every single province and in every single city, in every place where the king’s word and his law reached, there was gladness and joy for the Jews, feasting and a holiday. And many of the peoples of the land became Jews, for the dread of the Jews had fallen upon them.
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