Esther 3

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

2. And all the king’s servants in the king’s gate knelt down and paid honor to Haman, for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai did not bow down nor prostrate himself before him.

3. And the king’s servants in the king’s gate said to Mordecai, “Why do you transgress the king’s command?”

4. Now it came to pass when they spoke daily to him, and he did not hearken to them, they told Haman, to see if Mordecai’s words would stand. For he had told them that he was a Jew.

5. And when Haman saw that Mordecai did not kneel down nor pay honor to him, then Haman was full of wrath.

6. But it seemed contemptible to lay hands only on Mordecai, for they had revealed to him the people of Mordecai. So Haman sought to destroy all the Jews throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus—the people of Mordecai.

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

8. And Haman said to King Ahasuerus, “There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people, in all the provinces of your kingdom. And their laws are different from those of all other people, neither do they keep the king’s laws. Therefore it is not in the king’s interest to allow them to live.

9. If it please the king, let it be written that they may be destroyed. And I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who have charge of the business, to bring it into the king’s treasuries.”

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

11. And the king said to Haman, “The silver is given to you, the people also, to do with them as seems good to you.”

12. Then the king’s scribes were called on the thirteenth day of the first month, and there was written according to all that Haman had commanded to the king’s lieutenants, and to the governors who were over every province, and to the rulers of every people of every province, according to the writing of it, and to every people according to their language. It was written in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed with the king’s ring.

13. And the letters were sent by postal riders into all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to plunder their goods.

14. A copy of the writing—as a command to be given in every province— was published to all people, that they should be ready for that day.

15. The posts went out, being hurried by the king’s command, and the decree was given in Shushan the palace. And the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Shushan was perplexed.