Esther 3

3 ¹ Some time later, King Ahasuerus promoted Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, advancing him and setting his seat above all the officials who were with him. ² All the king's servants at the king's gate knelt and bowed down to Haman, for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai would not kneel or bow down. ³ So the king's servants at the king's gate said to Mordecai, "Why do you disobey the king's command?" ⁴ Day after day they spoke to him, but he would not listen; so they reported it to Haman to see whether Mordecai's stand would hold, for he had told them that he was a Jew. ⁵ When Haman saw that Mordecai would not kneel or bow down to him, he was filled with rage. ⁶ But he thought it beneath him to kill only Mordecai, for they had told him who Mordecai's people were; instead Haman sought to destroy all the Jews, the people of Mordecai, throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus.

⁷ In the first month, the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast the Pur (that is, the lot) before Haman to select a day and a month; and the lot fell on the twelfth month, the month of Adar. ⁸ Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, "There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the peoples in every province of your kingdom. Their laws differ from those of every other people, and they do not obey the king's laws; it is not in the king's interest to tolerate them." ⁹ "If it pleases the king, let a decree be written that they be destroyed, and I will pay about three hundred and seventy-five tons of silver into the hands of those who carry out the king's business, to deposit in the royal treasury."

¹⁰ So the king took his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews. ¹¹ "The silver is given to you," the king said to Haman, "and the people too, to do with them as you see fit."

¹² On the thirteenth day of the first month the king's scribes were summoned, and an edict was written, according to all that Haman commanded, to the king's regional governors, to the governors over each province, and to the officials of every people, each province in its own script and each people in its own language. It was written in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed with the king's signet ring. ¹³ Letters were sent by couriers to all the king's provinces, with orders to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the Jews—young and old, women and children—on a single day, the thirteenth of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods. ¹⁴ A copy of the document was to be published as a decree in every province and made known to all the peoples, so that they would be ready for that day. ¹⁵ The couriers went out, urged on by the king's command, and the decree was issued in the citadel of Susa. Then the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Susa was thrown into confusion.