8 Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, “There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of your kingdom; jtheir laws are different from all other people’s, and they do not keep the king’s laws. Therefore it is not fitting for the king to let them remain. 9 If it pleases the king, let a decree be written that they be destroyed, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who do the work, to bring it into the king’s treasuries.”

10 So the king ktook lhis signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the menemy of the Jews. 11 And the king said to Haman, “The money and the people are given to you, to do with them as seems good to you.”

12 nThen the king’s scribes were called on the thirteenth day of the first month, and a decree was written according to all that Haman commanded—to the king’s satraps, to the governors who were over each province, to the officials of all people, to every province oaccording to its script, and to every people in their language. pIn the name of King Ahasuerus it was written, and sealed with the king’s signet ring. 13 And the letters were qsent by couriers into all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all the Jews, both young and old, little children and women, rin one day, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, and sto plunder their 4possessions. 14 tA copy of the document was to be issued as law in every province, being published for all people, that they should be ready for that day.