Esther 3

¹ After these things, King Ahasuerus promoted Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite and exalted him. He set his throne above all the officials who were with him.

² All the king’s officials who were at the king’s gate knelt and bowed down before Haman, because the king had ordered this concerning him. But Mordecai neither knelt nor bowed down.

³ The king’s officials who were at the king’s gate said to Mordecai, “Why are you disobeying the king’s command?”

⁴ They said this to him day after day, but he would not listen to them. So they told Haman, to see whether Mordecai’s words would stand, because he had told them that he was a Jew.

⁵ When Haman saw that Mordecai neither knelt nor bowed down before him, Haman was filled with fury.

⁶ But it seemed too little to him to strike out against Mordecai alone, because they had told him what people Mordecai belonged to. So Haman sought to destroy all the Jews throughout the kingdom of Ahasuerus, the people of Mordecai.

⁷ In the first month, the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, Pur—that is, the lot—was cast before Haman. The days and months were determined, from day to day and month to month, until the twelfth month, the month of Adar.

⁸ Haman said to King Ahasuerus, “There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the peoples throughout all the provinces of your kingdom. Their laws are different from those of every other people, and they do not obey the king’s laws. It is not in the king’s interest to leave them alone.

⁹ If it pleases the king, let a decree be written to destroy them, and I will weigh out ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who do the work, to bring it into the king’s treasuries.”

¹⁰ The king took the ring from his own hand and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews.

¹¹ The king said to Haman, “The silver is given to you, and the people too, to do with them whatever seems good to you.”

¹² Then the king’s scribes were summoned in the first month, on the thirteenth day of the month. Everything Haman commanded was written to the king’s satraps, the governors of each province, and the officials of each people: to each province in its own script and to each people in its own language. It was written in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed with the king’s ring.

¹³ Letters were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces, ordering them to destroy, kill, and exterminate all the Jews, young and old, children and women, in a single day, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, and to plunder their possessions.

¹⁴ A copy of the written decree was to be issued as law in every province and made known to all the peoples, so they would be ready for that day.

¹⁵ The couriers went out in haste at the king’s command, and the decree was issued in Susa the citadel. The king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Susa was in turmoil.

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