Esther 3

1After these things King Ahasuerus promoted Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite. He raised him up and gave him a seat above all the officials who were with him.

2All the king’s servants who were at the king’s gate knelt down and bowed low to Haman, for the king had commanded this concerning him. But Mordecai would not kneel down or bow low.

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

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

5When Haman saw that Mordecai would not kneel down or bow low to him, Haman was filled with rage.

6But he thought it beneath him to lay hands on Mordecai alone, since they had told him who Mordecai’s people were. So Haman sought to destroy all the Jews, the people of Mordecai, throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus.

7In the first month, the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast pur, that is, the lot, in the presence of Haman, day after day and month after month, and the lot fell on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar.

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

9If it pleases the king, let a decree be written for their destruction, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who carry out the king’s business, to be put into the king’s treasuries.”

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

11The king said to Haman, “The silver is yours, and the people as well, to do with them as you see fit.”

12Then the king’s scribes were summoned on the thirteenth day of the first month, and everything Haman commanded was written to the king’s satraps, to the governors over each province, and to 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 signet ring.

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

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

15The couriers went out quickly 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 thrown into confusion.