Esther 3:1-15
3 After these events the king made a great man of Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and elevated him and set his chair above all the princes he had about him,
2 and all the officials in the king’s gate bowed and did reverence to Haman; for the king had given such orders for him. But Mordocai did not bow nor do reverence.
3 And the officials in the king’s gate said to Mordocai “How comes it you are going against the king’s orders?”
4 * and when they said so to him day by day and he did not listen to them they told Haman, to see whether the position Mordocai had taken would stand. For he had told them he was a Jew.
5 And Haman saw that Mordocai was not bowing and doing reverence to him; and Haman was filled with ire,
6 * and scorned to lay hands on Mordocai alone (for they had told him Mordocai’s nationality), and Haman undertook to root out all the Jews in Xerxes’ empire, Mordocai’s people.
7 ** In the first month (that is, the month of Nisan) in the year twelve of Xerxes’ reign, they cast pur (that is, the lot) before Haman from day to day and from month to month, and the lot fell on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month (that is, the month of Adar).
8 And Haman said to King Xerxes “There is one people scattered and keeping separate among the peoples in all the provinces of your empire, and their laws are different from those of any people, and they do not comply with the king’s laws; and it does not pay the king to tolerate them.
9 If the king thinks best, let writs be issued to destroy them; and I will turn over ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of the administrators to put into the royal treasury.”
10 And the king took his ring off his hand and gave it to Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the Jews’ assailant;
11 and the king said to Haman “The silver is given to you, and so is the people, to do as you think best with.”
12 And he called the king’s secretaries in the first month, on the thirteenth day in it, and writs were issued, in full accordance with Haman’s orders, to the king’s satraps and to the governors over each province and to the princes of each people, each province in its own form of writing and each people in its own language, written in King Xerxes’ name and sealed with his royal ring.
13 * And there was sending of writs by couriers to all the king’s provinces to kill and destroy and root out all the Jews from boy to old man, children and women, on one day, on the thirteenth of the twelfth month (that is, the month of Adar), and to take their plunder.
14 A copy of the document, to be promulgated as law in each and every province, was publicly displayed to all the peoples, that they be ready on this day.
15 The couriers went out posthaste by royal order, and the law was promulgated in Susa Citadel, and the king and Haman sat down to drink; and the city of Susa was in confusion.
Footnotes
^ 3:4 Lit. said to him (without so)
^ 3:6 Conj.* empire with Mordocai.
^ 3:7 Or On the first day of the first month
^ 3:7 Codd. fourteenth day
^ 3:13 Lit. and to plunder their booty