Esther 3

¹ After these things, King Ahasuerus promoted Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite and advanced him, setting his seat above all the officials who were with him.

² All the king's servants who were at the king's gate bowed down and paid homage to Haman, for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai would not bow down or pay homage.

³ Then the king's servants who were at the king's gate said to Mordecai, "Why do you disobey the king's command?"

⁴ When they spoke to him day after day and he would not listen to them, they told Haman, to see whether Mordecai's words would stand, for he had told them that he was a Jew.

⁵ When Haman saw that Mordecai would not bow down or pay him homage, Haman was filled with rage.

⁶ But he disdained to lay hands on Mordecai alone. So, since they had made known to him Mordecai's people, Haman sought to destroy all the Jews, the people of Mordecai, throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus.

⁷ In the first month, which is the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast Pur—that is, the lot—before Haman day after day, and month after month, until the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar.

⁸ Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, "There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom. Their laws are different from those of every other people, and they do not keep the king's laws, so that it is not to the king's profit to tolerate them.

⁹ If it pleases the king, let it be decreed that they be destroyed, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who carry out the king's business, to be put into the king's treasuries."

¹⁰ So the king took his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews.

¹¹ The king said to Haman, "The silver is given to you, and the people as well, to do with them as seems good to you."

¹² Then the king's scribes were summoned on the thirteenth day of the first month, and an edict was written according to all that Haman commanded, to the king's satraps, to the governors over each province, and to the officials of each people—to every province in its own script and to every people in its own language. It was written in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed with the king's ring.

¹³ Letters were sent by couriers to all the king's provinces to destroy, kill, and annihilate all Jews—young and old, women and children—in one day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods.

¹⁴ A copy of the document was to be issued as law in every province and proclaimed to all peoples, so that they would be ready for that day.

¹⁵ The couriers went out in haste by order of the king, and the decree was issued in the citadel of Susa. The king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Susa was in confusion.