CHAPTER 8

¹On that day King Ahasuerus gave to Queen Esther the house of Haman, foe of the Jews, and Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had told what he was to her. ²And the king removed his ring that he had taken away from Haman and gave it to Mordecai, and Esther placed Mordecai over the house of Haman. ³And Esther spoke once again before the king and fell at his feet and wept and pleaded with him to take away the evil of Haman the Agagite and his scheme that he had hatched against the Jews. ⁴And the king reached out the golden scepter to Esther, and Esther arose and stood before the king. ⁵And she said, “If it please the king and if I have found favor before him and if the thing be fit before the king and I be pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to turn back the missives, the scheme of Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the king’s provinces. ⁶For how could I behold the evil that would befall my people and how could I behold the destruction of my birth-kin?” ⁷And King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, “Look, I have given the house of Haman to Esther, and him they have impaled on a stake for his having laid hands on the Jews. ⁸And as for you, write concerning the Jews what is good in your eyes in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s ring, for a writ that has been written in the king’s name and sealed with the king’s ring one cannot turn back.” ⁹And the king’s scribes were called together at that time, in the third month, which is the month of Sivan, on the twenty-third day therein, and it was written as all that Mordecai had charged to the Jews and to the satraps and the governors and the ministers of the provinces from India to Cush, one hundred and twenty-seven provinces, every province according to its own mode of writing and every people according to its language, and to the Jews, according to their system of writing and according to their language. ¹⁰And he wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed it with the king’s ring and sent missives by the hand of couriers on horseback riding mail-horses bred of swift steeds: ¹¹That the king has granted to the Jews who were in every single city to assemble and defend their lives, to destroy, and to kill and to wipe out the whole force of every people and province that was assaulting them, even children and women, and to take their booty, ¹²on a single day, in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, ¹³the copy of the writ to be given as a rule in every single province, manifest to all the peoples, and for the Jews to be ready for this day to take vengeance of their enemies. ¹⁴The couriers riding the mail-horses went out rushing urgently by the king’s command, and the rule was given out in Shushan the capital. ¹⁵And Mordecai came out before the king in royal garb, indigo and white, and a great golden diadem and a wrap of crimson linen. And the city of Shushan was merry and rejoicing. ¹⁶For the Jews there was light and joy and gladness and honor. ¹⁷In every single province and in every single city, where the king’s command and his rule reached, there was joy and gladness for the Jews, banquet and holiday, and many of the peoples of the land were passing as Jews, for the fear of the Jews had fallen upon them.