Ester 3

¹ After these things King Ahasuerus promoted Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him and set his seat above all the rulers who were with him.

² And all the king’s servants who were in the king’s gate bowed and paid homage to Haman, for so the king had commanded concerning him. But Mordecai did not bow nor pay homage.

³ Then the king’s servants who were in the king’s gate said to Mordecai, Why do you transgress the king’s command?

⁴ Now it happened, when they spoke to him day after day and he would not listen to them, that they told Haman, to see whether Mordecai’s words would stand; for Mordecai had told them that he was a Jew.

⁵ When Haman saw that Mordecai did not bow or pay him homage, Haman was filled with rage.

⁶ But it was contemptible in his eyes to lay hands on Mordecai alone, for they had told him of the people of Mordecai. Therefore, Haman sought to destroy all the Jews who were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus; the people of Mordecai.

⁷ In the first month, which is the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast Pur (that is, the lot), before Haman from day to day and month to month, until it fell on the twelfth month, the month of Adar.

⁸ Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of your kingdom; their laws are different from all other people’s, and they do not keep the king’s laws. Therefore it is not fitting for the king to let them remain.

⁹ If it pleases the king, let a decree be written that they be destroyed, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who do the work, to bring it into the king’s treasuries.

¹⁰ So the king took his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the one harassing the Jews.

¹¹ And the king said to Haman, The money and the people are given to you, to do with them as seems good to you.

¹² Then the king’s scribes were called on the thirteenth day of the first month, and a decree was written according to all that Haman commanded; to the king’s satraps, to the governors who were over each province, to the rulers of all the people, to every province according to its writing, and to every people in their language. In the name of King Ahasuerus it was written, and sealed with the king’s signet ring.

¹³ And the letters were sent by runners into all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to exterminate all the Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, and to plunder their possessions;

¹⁴ a copy of the document to be issued as law in every province, being published for all people, that they should be ready for that day.

¹⁵ The runners went out, hastened by the king’s command; and the decree was proclaimed in Shushan the palace. So the king and Haman sat down to drink. But the city of Shushan was perplexed.