5 When Haman saw that Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor, he was enraged.a 6 Yet having learned who Mordecai’s people were, he scorned the idea of killing only Mordecai. Instead Haman looked for a wayb to destroyc all Mordecai’s people, the Jews,d throughout the whole kingdom of Xerxes.

7 In the twelfth year of King Xerxes, in the first month, the month of Nisan, the pure (that is, the lotf) was cast in the presence of Haman to select a day and month. And the lot fell ona the twelfth month, the month of Adar.g

8 Then Haman said to King Xerxes, “There is a certain people dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom who keep themselves separate. Their customsh are different from those of all other people, and they do not obeyi the king’s laws; it is not in the king’s best interest to tolerate them.j 9 If it pleases the king, let a decree be issued to destroy them, and I will give ten thousand talentsb of silver to the king’s administrators for the royal treasury.”k

10 So the king took his signet ringl from his finger and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews. 11 “Keep the money,” the king said to Haman, “and do with the people as you please.”

12 Then on the thirteenth day of the first month the royal secretaries were summoned. They wrote out in the script of each province and in the languagem of each people all Haman’s orders to the king’s satraps, the governors of the various provinces and the nobles of the various peoples. These were written in the name of King Xerxes himself and sealedn with his own ring. 13 Dispatches were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces with the order to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jewso—young and old, women and children—on a single day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar,p and to plunderq their goods. 14 A copy of the text of the edict was to be issued as law in every province and made known to the people of every nationality so they would be ready for that day.r