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3 Some time later, King Ahasuerus promoted one of his officials, Haman, the son of Hammedatha, who was a descendant of Agag. The king gave Haman a very important position, more important than any of his other officials. 2 The king wanted to show that he had given Haman an important position. So he commanded all of his other servants who were at the king’s gate to bow down all the way to the ground to honor Haman whenever he walked by. But Mordecai refused to bow down to Haman, because as a Jew he would not worship anyone except Yahweh. 3 The other servants at the king’s gate saw that Mordecai refused to bow down, and they asked him, “Why are you disobeying the king’s command?” 4 Mordecai told them that he was a Jew, and that Jews only worship Yahweh. The other servants warned Mordecai every day that he would be punished severely if he kept disobeying the king and not honoring his most important official. But Mordecai still refused to bow down. So they told Haman about it to see if he would allow Mordecai to keep refusing to bow down because he was a Jew. 5 When Haman saw that Mordecai would not bow down to him, he became furious. 6 The other servants told Haman that Mordecai was not bowing down to him because Mordecai was a Jew. So Haman decided it would not be enough just to kill Mordecai alone. Haman decided that he would try to kill all the Jews in the entire empire of Ahasuerus.
7 So Haman had his servants cast a Pur (that is, a lot) while he watched to determine the best month and the best day of the month to kill the Jews. They did that in the first month, the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year that Ahasuerus reigned as king of Persia. The lot selected the twelfth month of that year, the month of Adar, as the time for Haman to carry out his plan. 8 Then Haman went to King Ahasuerus and said, “Your Majesty, there is a certain group of people who live among the other peoples in your empire. They are in every province. They have their own set of laws, and so they do not obey your laws. It is not good for you to allow them to live in your empire. 9 If you approve of this plan, O king, then write a decree saying that all of the Jews must die. When they are dead, we can take all of their goods, and from that I will give 300 tons of silver to your administrators for them to put into your royal treasuries.” 10 The king liked what Haman said. So he gave Haman the ring that he wore that had his official seal on it. With that, Haman could make laws as if he were the king himself. Haman, the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, had become the enemy of the Jews. 11 The king told Haman, “You can keep the money for yourself, and you can do whatever you want to do with those people.”
12 On the thirteenth day of the first month of that same year, Haman called in the royal scribes, and he dictated a letter to them. He told them to send copies to the royal officials, the governors of each province, and the leaders of each people group. The scribes translated the letter so it could be sent to each province using its own alphabet and to each people group in its own language. To show that he was sending the letter under the king’s own authority, Haman sealed each copy of the letter with the ring that had the king’s official seal on it. 13 Couriers delivered the letters to the officials in every province in the empire. The letters said to completely destroy all the Jews, including the children and women, on a single day. That was to be the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, in that same year. The letters also said that those who killed the Jews could take everything that belonged to them. 14 The letter told the officials to post copies where everyone could see them. That way all the people in every single province would know that the king had commanded this, and they would get ready to do what the letter said to do when the day came. 15 As the king had commanded, couriers rushed with the letters to every province in the empire. A herald also proclaimed what the letter said in the capital city of Susa. The king and Haman relaxed and drank together. But everyone who lived in Susa was very upset about what was going to happen.