16 And Memuhan said before the king and the princes, 'Vashti the queen is not guilty before the king alone, but before all the princes, and before all the nations, which are in all the provinces of king Ahasuerus;

17 for the queen's deed shall come to all the wives, and they shall despise their husbands, saying, 'King Ahasuerus commanded that Vashti the queen should be brought before him, but she would not go.'

18 Now the princesses of Persia and Media, who hear of the queen's deed, shall say the same thing to all the princes of the king; and neglect and grief will suffice.

19 If it pleases the king, let the king's decree go out from him, and be inscribed in the laws of Persia and Media, and shall not be revoked, that Vashti shall not enter in before king Ahasuerus, but that the king shall give her royal dignity to another who is better than she.

20 And when they hear of this decree of the king, which shall be dispersed throughout all his kingdom, great as it may be, then shall all the wives honour their husbands, from the great to the smallest.

21 And this word was pleasing in the sight of the king and the princes; and the king did according to the word of Memuchan.

22 And he sent letters to all the provinces of the king, written in every province in its writings, and to every people in its language, that every man should be lord in his house, and that it should be declared to each one in his natural language.

Chapter 2

1 And after this, when the wrath of king Ahasuerus had ceased, he remembered Vashti, and what she had done, and what had been decreed of her.

2 И сказали отроки царя, служившие при нем: пусть бы поискали царю молодых красивых девиц,

3 и пусть бы назначил царь наблюдателей во все области своего царства, которые собрали бы всех молодых девиц, красивых видом, в престольный город Сузы, в дом жен под надзор Гегая, царского евнуха, стража жен, и пусть бы выдавали им притиранья [и прочее, что нужно];

4 и девица, которая понравится глазам царя, пусть будет царицею вместо Астинь. И угодно было слово это в глазах царя, и он так и сделал.

5 Был в Сузах, городе престольном, один Иудеянин, имя его Мардохей, сын Иаира, сын Семея, сын Киса, из колена Вениаминова.

6 Он был переселен из Иерусалима вместе с пленниками, выведенными с Иехониею, царем Иудейским, которых переселил Навуходоносор, царь Вавилонский.