3 After this, King Ahashverosh highly honoured Haman the son of Hamedata, the Bugaean. He exalted him and set his seat above all his friends. 2 All in the palace bowed down to him, for so the king had given orders to do; but Mordekai didn’t bow down to him. 3 And they in the king’s palace said to Mordekai, “Mordekai, why do you transgress the king’s commands?” 4 They questioned him daily, but he didn’t listen to them; so they reported to Haman that Mordekai resisted the king’s commands; and Mordekai had shown to them that he was a Yehudi (Jew). 5 When Haman understood that Mordekai didn’t bow down to him, he was greatly enraged, 6 and plotted to utterly destroy all the Yehudim (Jews) who were under the rule of Ahashverosh.

7 In the twelfth year of Ahashverosh’s reign, Haman made a decision by casting lots by day and month, to kill the race of Mordekai in one day. The lot fell on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar. 8 So he spoke to King Ahashverosh, saying, “There’s a nation scattered among the nations in all your kingdom, and their laws differ from all the other nations. They disobey the king’s laws. It isn’t expedient for the king to tolerate them. 9 If it seem good to the king, let him make a decree to destroy them, and I’ll remit into the king’s treasury ten thousand talents of silver.”

10 So the king took off his ring, and gave it into Haman’s hands to seal the decrees against the Yehudim. 11 The king said to Haman, “Keep the silver, and treat the nation as you will.” 12 So the king’s recorders were called in the first month, on the thirteenth day, and they wrote as Haman commanded to the captains and governors in every province, from Hodu even to Kush (Ethiopia), to one hundred and twenty-seven provinces; and to the rulers of the nations according to their languages, in King Ahashverosh’s name. 13 The message was sent by couriers throughout Ahashverosh’s kingdom, to utterly destroy the race of the Yehudim on the first day of the twelfth month, which is Adar, and to plunder their goods.[fn] [The following is the copy of the letter. “From the great King Ahashverosh to the rulers and the governors under them of one hundred and twenty-seven provinces, from Hodu even to Kush, who hold authority under him:

“Ruling over many nations and having obtained dominion over the whole world, I was determined (not elated by the confidence of power, but ever conducting myself with great moderation and gentleness) to make the lives of my subjects continually tranquil, desiring both to maintain the kingdom quiet and orderly to its utmost limits, and to restore the peace desired by all men. When I’d asked my counsellors how this should be brought to pass, Haman, who excels in soundness of judgement among us, and has been manifestly well inclined without wavering and with unshaken fidelity, and had obtained the second post in the kingdom, informed us that a certain ill-disposed people is scattered among all the tribes throughout the world, opposed in their law to every other nation, and continually neglecting the king’s commands, so that the united government blamelessly administered by us isn’t quietly established. Having then conceived that this nation is continually set in opposition to every man, introducing as a change a foreign code of laws, and injuriously plotting to accomplish the worst of evils against our interests, and against the happy establishment of the monarchy, we instruct you in the letter written by Haman, who’s set over the public affairs and is our second governor, to destroy them all utterly with their wives and children by the swords of the enemies, without pitying or sparing any, on the fourteenth day of the twelfth month Adar, of the present year; that the people formerly and now ill-disposed to us having been violently consigned to death in one day, may in the future secure to us continually a well constituted and quiet state of affairs.”] 14 Copies of the letters were published in every province; and an order was given to all the nations to be ready for that day. 15 This business was hastened also in Shushan (Susa). The king and Haman began to drink, but the city was confused.