6 And it seemed to him insignificant to lay his hand on Mordecai alone; but since they had told him what kind of people Mordecai was, Haman planned to destroy all the Jews who were in all the kingdom of Ahasuerus, as the people of Mordecai.

7 In the first month, which is the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of king Ahasuerus, they cast pur, that is, lots, before Haman, day after day, and month after month, in the twelfth month, that is, in the month of Adar.

8 And Haman said to king Ahasuerus, 'There is one people scattered and scattered among the nations in all the provinces of your kingdom; and their laws are different from the laws of all nations, and they do not keep the laws of the king; and the king ought not to leave them like that.

9 If it pleases the king, let it be commanded to destroy them, and ten thousand talents of silver I will put into the hands of the bailiffs, to bring into the king's treasury.

10 Then the king took his ring from his hand, and gave it to Haman the son of Hamadath the Bugeite, to seal the decree against the Jews.

11 And the king said to Haman, 'I give you this money and the people; do with him as you please.

12 And the king's scribes were summoned in the first month, on the thirteenth day thereof, and it was written, as Haman had commanded, to the king's satraps, and to the governors of every province, and to the princes of every nation, in every province thereof, and to every nation in its language, saying, everything was written in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed with the royal ring.

13 And letters were sent by messengers into all the provinces of the king, to kill, and to destroy, and to destroy all the Jews, young and old, children and women, in one day, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, that is, the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods. [This is a copy of this letter: The great king Artaxerxes commanded from India to Ethiopia over the one hundred and twenty-seven provinces, and the governors subject to them. restore the peace desired by all people.

And so, when we know that this people alone always resists every man, leads a way of life that is foreign to the laws, and in opposition to our actions, commits the greatest evils, so that our kingdom may not prosper, we have commanded Haman, who is appointed in the letters, and our second father, with his wives and children, to be utterly destroyed by the swords of the enemy, without any pity or mercy; on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month of Adar of the present year, so that these hostile people, both before and now, having been forcibly cast down into hell in one day, do not hinder us from living peacefully and serenely to the end in the time to come.]

14 A copy of the decree shall be given to every province as a law to be declared to all nations, that they may be ready for that day.

15 The messengers departed quickly with the king's command. A decree was also pronounced in Shusa, the throne city; and the king and Haman sat and drank, and the city of Susa was in confusion.

4

1 And when Mordecai knew all that was done, he tore his garments, and put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and cried out with a great and bitter cry, saying, An innocent people is being destroyed.

2 And he came to the royal gate, because it was forbidden to enter the royal gate with sackcloth [and ashes].