11 Then the king told Haman, “The money and people are given to you to do with as you see fit.”

12 The royal scribes were summoned(A) on the thirteenth day of the first month, and the order was written exactly as Haman commanded. It was intended for the royal satraps,(B) the governors of each of the provinces, and the officials of each ethnic group and written for each province in its own script and to each ethnic group in its own language.(C) It was written in the name of King Ahasuerus(D) and sealed with the royal signet ring.(E) 13 Letters were sent by couriers(F) to each of the royal provinces telling the officials to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the Jewish people—young and old, women and children—and plunder their possessions on a single day,(G) the thirteenth day of Adar, the twelfth month.[a]

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Esther 3:13 LXX adds the text of Ahasuerus’s letter here.

11 “Keep the money,” the king said to Haman, “and do with the people as you please.”

12 Then on the thirteenth day of the first month the royal secretaries were summoned. They wrote out in the script of each province and in the language(A) of each people all Haman’s orders to the king’s satraps, the governors of the various provinces and the nobles of the various peoples. These were written in the name of King Xerxes himself and sealed(B) with his own ring. 13 Dispatches were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces with the order to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews(C)—young and old, women and children—on a single day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar,(D) and to plunder(E) their goods.

Read full chapter