Esther 3:8-15 ▼

8 Haman said to King Akhshirash, There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of King Akhshirash; and their laws are different from those of all other people; and they do not keep the king's laws; therefore the king ought not to spare them.

9 If it please the king, let it be written that they may be destroyed; and I will weigh ten thousand talents of silver to the hands of those who have charge of the business, to bring it into the king's treasuries.

10 And the king took his ring from his hand and gave it to Haman the son of Hammadatha the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews.

11 And the king said to Haman, The silver is given to you, the people also, to do with them as it seems good to you.

12 Then the king's scribe was called on the thirteenth day of the first month, and there was written according to all that Haman had commanded to the king's commanders and to the governors that were over every province and to the princes of every people of every province according to the writing thereof and to every people according to their language; in the name of King Akhshirash it was written and sealed with the king's ring.

13 And the letters were sent by couriers to all the king's provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to take their wealth for a prey. In the same day on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar they were written.

14 The copy of the writing was given in every province, commanding all the people to be ready for that day.

15 The couriers went out, being hastened by the king's command, and the decree was given in Shushan the palace. And the king and Haman sat down to drink; but the city of Shushan was in an uproar.