Esther 3:8–15

⁸Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, “There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom; ^atheir laws are different from those of all other people and they do not observe the king’s laws, so it is not in the king’s interest to let them remain.

⁹“If it is pleasing to the king, let it be ¹decreed that they be destroyed, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who carry on the king’s business, to put into the king’s treasuries.”

¹⁰Then ^athe king took his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman, the son of Hammedatha ^bthe Agagite, ^cthe enemy of the Jews.

¹¹The king said to Haman, “The silver is ¹yours, and the people also, to do with them as you please.”

^12aThen the king’s scribes were summoned on the thirteenth day of the first month, and it was written just as Haman commanded to ^bthe king’s satraps, to the governors who were over each province and to the princes of each people, each province according to its script, each people according to its language, being written ^cin the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed with the king’s signet ring.

¹³Letters were sent by ^acouriers to all the king’s provinces ^bto destroy, to kill and to annihilate all the Jews, both young and old, women and children, ^cin one day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to ^dseize their possessions as plunder.

^14aA copy of the edict to be ¹issued as law in every province was published to all the peoples so that they should be ready for this day.

¹⁵The couriers went out impelled by the king’s command while the decree was ¹issued at the citadel in Susa; and while the king and Haman sat down to drink, ^athe city of Susa was in confusion.