Esther 3
1AFTER these things king Artaxerxes honoured Haman of Amadathes, the Bougaian, and promoted him, and seated him first of all his friends,
2so that all the court bowed down to him for so the king had commanded to be done. But Mordecai did not bow down to him;
3whereupon they who were in the king’s court said to him, Mordecai, Why transgressest thou the king’s commands.
4And when they spoke to him daily and he hearkened not to them, they told Haman, that Mordecai disobeyed the king’s commands. Now Mordecai had told them that he was a Jew.
5So when Haman understood that Mordecai did not bow down to him,
6he was greatly inflamed with wrath, and determined to destroy all the Jews throughout the whole kingdom of Artaxerxes.
7And having drawn up a decree in the twelfth year of the reign of Artaxerxes, he cast lots for one day after another and for one month after another so as to destroy the whole race of Mordecai in one day.
8And the lot having fallen on the fourteenth day of the month Adar, he spoke to king Artaxerxes, saying, There is a nation scattered among the nations throughout thy whole kingdom, whose laws differ from all the nations. And as they disobey the king’s laws and it is not expedient for the king to let them alone;
9if it seemeth good to the king, let him pass a decree to destroy them and I will subscribe ten thousand talents of silver to the king’s treasury.
10Thereupon the king taking off his ring gave it to Haman to seal the writings against the Jews.
11And the king said to Haman, Keep the money, and do with the nation what thou pleasest.
12So the king’s secretaries were convened on the thirteenth day of the first month, and they wrote as Haman directed to the generals and the governors in every province, from India to Ethiopia a hundred and twenty-seven provinces, and to the chiefs of the nations according to their dialect in the name of king Artaxerxes,
13and the decree was despatched by posts throughout the whole kingdom of Artaxerxes, to destroy the race of the Jews on a certain day of the twelfth month which is Adar, and to make spoil of their goods.
And the copy of the letter follows:
The great king Artaxerxes writeth these things to the princes and governors under his rule from India unto Ethiopia, in a hundred and twenty-seven satrapies.
After I had become lord over many nations, and had dominion ouer the whole world, not inflated with overconfidence of power, but conducting myself ever with justness and mercy, I planned to settle on my subjects a continually peaceful life, and, maintaining the kingdom in order, and passable to its utmost boundaries, to renew the peace desired by all men.
Yet when I asked my counsellors how this might be brought about, Haman,—who excels in wisdom among us, and who has been manifestly of constant good will and unswerving fidelity, and has risen to second in rank in the kingdom,—informed us that among all nations throughout the world there was dispersed a certain invidious people that had laws contrary to all [other] nations, and who continually ignored the commands of kings, so that the uniting of our kingdoms, in unexceptionable good faith planned by us, cannot proceed.
Realizing, hence, that this people alone is continually opposing all men, innovating an alien code of laws, and attempting to work all the mischief they can against us and the firm establishment of the kingdom:—
Therefore we have decreed that all those who are signified in writing to you by Haman, who is in charge ouer the affairs [ofthe kingdom] next to us, shall all—wives and children alike—without mercy be utterly destroyed by the sword of their enemies, sparing none, on the fourteenth day of the twelfth month Adar of this present year; in order that these people, hitherto and also now hostile, may on one day be violently slain, thus ever henceforth obtaining for us a well-ordered and untroubled state.
14And copies of the decree were to be sent through every province and all the nations were ordered to be ready against that day.
15And when the business was despatched at Susa, the king and Haman sat down to revel, but the city was struck with consternation.