Esther 8:1–8

The King’s Edict in Behalf of the Jews

8That same day King Xerxes gave Queen Esther the estate of Haman,^j the enemy of the Jews. And Mordecai came into the presence of the king, for Esther had told how he was related to her. ²The king took off his signet ring,^k which he had reclaimed from Haman, and presented it to Mordecai. And Esther appointed him over Haman’s estate.^l

³Esther again pleaded with the king, falling at his feet and weeping. She begged him to put an end to the evil plan of Haman the Agagite,^m which he had devised against the Jews. ⁴Then the king extended the gold scepterⁿ to Esther and she arose and stood before him.

⁵“If it pleases the king,” she said, “and if he regards me with favor^o and thinks it the right thing to do, and if he is pleased with me, let an order be written overruling the dispatches that Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, devised and wrote to destroy the Jews in all the king’s provinces. ⁶For how can I bear to see disaster fall on my people? How can I bear to see the destruction of my family?”^p

⁷King Xerxes replied to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, “Because Haman attacked the Jews, I have given his estate to Esther, and they have impaled^q him on the pole he set up. ⁸Now write another decree^r in the king’s name in behalf of the Jews as seems best to you, and seal^s it with the king’s signet ring^t—for no document written in the king’s name and sealed with his ring can be revoked.”^u