1On that day King Ahasuerus gave the house of Haman, the enemy of the Jews, to Queen Esther; and Mordecai came before the king, because Esther had disclosed what he was to her.

2Then the king took off his signet ring, which he had taken away from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman.

3Then Esther spoke again Lit beforeto the king, fell at his feet, wept, and pleaded for his compassion to avert the evil scheme of Haman the Agagite and his plot which he had devised against the Jews.

4And the king extended the golden scepter to Esther. So Esther got up and stood before the king.

5Then she said, “If it pleases the king and if I have found favor before him, and the matter seems proper to the king and I am pleasing in his sight, let it be written to revoke the letters devised by Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to eliminate the Jews who are in all the king’s provinces.

6For how can I endure to see the disaster which will happen to my people, and how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?”

7So King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, “Behold, I have given the house of Haman to Esther, and they have hanged him on the wooden gallows because he had reached out with his hand against the Jews.

8Now you write to the Jews Lit according to the good in your eyesas you see fit, in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s signet ring; for a decree which is written in the name of the king and sealed with the king’s signet ring may not be revoked.”

9So the king’s scribes were summoned at that time in the third month (that is, the month Sivan), on the twenty-third Lit in itday; and it was written in accordance with everything that Mordecai commanded the Jews, the satraps, the governors, and the officials of the provinces which extended from India to Or EthiopiaCush, 127 provinces, to every province according to its script, and to every people according to their language, as well as to the Jews according to their script and their language.

10He wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus, and sealed it with the king’s signet ring, and sent letters by couriers on horses, riding on royal relay horses, offspring of racing mares.

11Lit Which the kingIn the letters the king granted the Jews who were in each and every city the right to assemble and to defend their lives, to destroy, kill, and eliminate the entire army of any people or province which was going to attack them, including children and women, and to plunder their spoils,

12on one day in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month (that is, the month Adar).

13A copy of the edict to be Lit givenissued as law in each and every province was published to all the peoples, so that the Jews would be ready for this day to avenge themselves on their enemies.

14The couriers, hurrying and speeded by the king’s command, left, riding on the royal relay horses; and the decree was issued at the citadel in Susa.

15Then Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in a royal robe of violet and white, with a large crown of gold and a garment of fine linen and purple; and the city of Susa shouted and rejoiced.

16For the Jews there was light, joy, jubilation, and honor.

17In each and every province and in each and every city, wherever the king’s commandment and his decree arrived, there was joy and jubilation for the Jews, a feast and a Lit good dayholiday. And many among the peoples of the land Or posed as Jewsbecame Jews, because the dread of the Jews had fallen on them.