Haman Plots Against the Jews

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

² And all the king’s servants who were at the king’s gate bowed down and paid homage to Haman, for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai did not bow down or pay homage.

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

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

⁵ And when Haman saw that Mordecai did not bow down or pay homage to him, Haman was filled with fury.

⁶ But he disdained to lay hands on Mordecai alone. So, as they had made known to him the people of Mordecai, Haman sought to destroy all the Jews, the people of Mordecai, throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus.

⁷ In the first month, which is the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast Pur (that is, they cast lots) before Haman day after day; and they cast it month after month till the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar.

⁸ Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, “There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom. Their laws are different from those of every other

⁹ people, and they do not keep the king’s laws, so that it is not to the king’s profit to tolerate them. If it please the king, let it be decreed that they be destroyed, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who have charge of the king’s business, that they may put it into the king’s treasuries.”

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

¹¹ And the king said to Haman, “The money is given to you, the people also, to do with them as it seems good to you.”

¹² Then the king’s scribes were summoned on the thirteenth day of the first month, and an edict, according to all that Haman commanded, was written to the king’s satraps and to the governors over all the provinces and to the officials of all the peoples, to every province in its own script and every people in its own language. It was written in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed with the king’s signet ring.

¹³ Letters were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces with instruction to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all Jews, young and old, women and children, in one day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods.

The King’s Letter

^13a This is a copy of the letter: “The great king, Artaxerxes, to the rulers of the 127 lands from India to Ethiopia and to the governors under them, writes thus:

^13b “Having become ruler of many nations and master of the whole world, not elated with presumption of authority but always acting reasonably and with kindness, I have determined to settle the lives of my subjects in lasting tranquility and, in order to make my kingdom peaceable and open to travel throughout all its extent, to reestablish the peace that all people desire.

^13c “When I asked my counselors how this might be accomplished, Haman, who excels among us in sound judgment and is distinguished for his unchanging good will and steadfast fidelity and has attained the second place in the kingdom,

^13d pointed out to us that among all the tribes in the world there is scattered a certain hostile people who have laws contrary to those of every nation and continually disregard the ordinances of the kings, so that the unifying of the kingdom that we honorably intend can not be brought about.

^13e We understand that this nation, and it alone, stands constantly in opposition to all, perversely following a strange manner of life and laws and is ill disposed to our government, doing all the harm they can so that our kingdom may not attain stability.

^13f “Therefore we have decreed that those indicated to you in the letters of Haman, who is in charge of affairs and is our second father, shall all, with their wives and children, be utterly destroyed by the sword of their enemies, with out pity or mercy, on the fourteenth day of the twelfth month, Adar, of this present year,

^13g so that those who have long been and are now hostile may in one day go down in violence to Hades and leave our government completely secure and untroubled hereafter.”

¹⁴ A copy of the document was to be issued as a decree in every province by proclamation to all the peoples to be ready for that day.

¹⁵ The couriers went out hurriedly by order of the king, and the decree was issued in Susa the citadel. And the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Susa was thrown into confusion.