Esther B

Now the copy of the letter is as follows. The great king Artaxerxes writeth these things to the princes of one hundred and twenty-seven provinces from India to Ethiopia, and to the subordinate governors.

Having become lord of many nations and attained dominion over the whole world, not as though I am elated with the presumption of power, but as one who ever rule my life with moderation and mildness, I desire to establish the lives of my subjects in a lasting tranquillity, and, making my kingdom peaceable and safe for passage to its furthest bounds, to restore that peace which is desired of all men.

But having made inquiry of my advisers how this might be brought to pass, Haman, who excels in prudence among us, and is approved for his unswerving goodwill and firm faithfulness and is exalted to the second place in the kingdom, has shown us that among all the nations in the world there is scattered a certain evilly-disposed people, which sets itself in opposition to every nation by its laws, and which habitually neglects the ordinances of the kings, so that the consolidation of the kingdom honourably intended by us cannot be brought about.

Having understood therefore that this nation stands alone in opposition to all men continually, observing perversely an alien manner of life in respect of its laws and being ill-affected towards our government, working all the damage it can that our kingdom may not attain to security, we have decreed accordingly that they that are indicated to you in the letters of Haman, who is set over our affairs and is our second father, be all with wives and children destroyed root and branch by the sword of their enemies without pity or mercy, on the ^†fourteenth^† day of the twelfth month Adar in the present year; that they who in days past and even now are malicious may in one day go down violently into Hades, and may henceforth leave our state secure and unthreatened.