¹⁶And Memucan said before the king and the officials, “Not only has Queen Vashti done wrong to the king, but to all the officials and all of the people who are in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus. ¹⁷For this deed of the queen will be known^o to all the women, causing them to look with contempt on their husbands,^p as they will say, ‘King Ahasuerus commanded Queen Vashti to be brought before him but she did not come!’ ¹⁸This day the women of nobility from Persia and Media who have heard this deed of the queen will respond the same way to all the officials of the king and there will be no end to contempt and anger. ¹⁹If it pleases^q the king, let a royal edict^r go out from him, and let it be written among the laws of Persia and Media so that it will not be altered, that Vashti cannot come before King Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal position to her neighbor who is better than she. ²⁰And let the king’s decree that he will make be proclaimed in all his kingdom, because it is vast and all the women will honor their husbands, great and small.”^s

²¹This advice pleased the king^t and the officials, and the king acted according to the word of Memucan.

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Footnotes

oLiterally “will go out”
pLiterally “to despise their husbands in their eyes”
qLiterally “If it is good to”
rLiterally “a word of the kingdom”
sOr “high and low”
tLiterally “The word was good in the eyes of the king”