Vashti Angers the King

1 These events took place during the days of Ahasuerus,^(A) who ruled 127 provinces^(B) from India to Cush.

¹¹ The king’s edict gave the Jews in each and every city the right to assemble and defend themselves, to destroy, kill, and annihilate every ethnic and provincial army hostile to them, including women and children, and to take their possessions as spoils of war.^(A)

¹⁷ In every province and every city where the king’s command and edict reached, gladness and joy took place among the Jews. There was a celebration and a holiday.^[a](A) And many of the ethnic groups of the land professed themselves to be Jews because fear of the Jews^(B) had overcome them.

² In each of King Ahasuerus’s provinces^(A) the Jews assembled in their cities to attack those who intended to harm them.^[a] Not a single person could withstand them; fear of them^(B) fell on every nationality.^(C)