Royal Favour Shown to the Jews

1On that very day King Artaxerxes granted to Esther all the property of the persecutor8.1 Gk slanderer Haman. Mordecai was summoned by the king, for Esther had told the king8.1 Gk him that he was related to her. 2The king took the ring that had been taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai; and Esther set Mordecai over everything that had been Haman's.

3Then she spoke once again to the king and, falling at his feet, she asked him to avert all the evil that Haman had planned against the Jews. 4The king extended his golden sceptre to Esther, and she rose and stood before the king. 5Esther said, ‘If it pleases you, and if I have found favour, let an order be sent rescinding the letters that Haman wrote and sent to destroy the Jews in your kingdom. 6How can I look on the ruin of my people? How can I be safe if my ancestral nation8.6 Gk country is destroyed?’ 7The king said to Esther, ‘Now that I8.7 Gk If I have granted all of Haman's property to you and have hanged him on a tree because he acted against the Jews, what else do you request? 8Write in my name what you think best and seal it with my ring; for whatever is written at the king's command and sealed with my ring cannot be contravened.’

9The secretaries were summoned on the twenty-third day of the first month, that is, Nisan, in the same year; and all that he commanded with respect to the Jews was given in writing to the administrators and governors of the provinces from India to Ethiopia, one hundred and twenty-seven provinces, to each province in its own language. 10The edict was written8.10 Gk It was written with the king's authority and sealed with his ring, and sent out by couriers. 11He ordered the Jews in every city to observe their own laws, to defend themselves, and to act as they wished against their opponents and enemies 12on a certain day, the thirteenth of the twelfth month, which is Adar, throughout all the kingdom of Artaxerxes.