Chapter 8

¹On that day did the king Ahasuerus give the house of Haman the Jews’ enemy to Esther the queen. Mordecai came before the king; for Esther had told what he was to her. ²The king took off his ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman. ³Esther spoke yet again before the king, and fell down at his feet, and begged him with tears to put away the mischief of Haman the Agagite, and his device that he had devised against the Jews. ⁴Then the king held out to Esther the golden scepter. So Esther arose, and stood before the king. ⁵She said, If it please the king, and if I have found favor in his sight, and the thing seem right before the king, and I be pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the king’s provinces: ⁶for how can I endure to see the evil that shall come to my people? or how can I endure to see the destruction of my relatives? ⁷Then the king Ahasuerus said to Esther the queen and to Mordecai the Jew, See, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and him they have hanged on the gallows, because he laid his hand on the Jews. ⁸Write you also to the Jews, as it pleases you, in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s ring; for the writing which is written in the king’s name, and sealed with the king’s ring, may no man reverse. ⁹Then were the king’s scribes called at that time, in the third month Sivan, on the three and twentieth day of it; and it was written according to all that Mordecai commanded to the Jews, and to the satraps, and the governors and princes of the provinces which are from India to Ethiopia, one hundred twenty-seven provinces, to every province according to the writing of it, and to every people after their language, and to the Jews according to their writing, and according to their language. ¹⁰He wrote the name of king Ahasuerus, and sealed it with the king’s ring, and sent letters by post on horseback, riding on swift steeds that were used in the king’s service, bred of the stud: ¹¹in which the king granted the Jews who were in every city to gather themselves together, and to stand for their life, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all the power of the people and province that would assault them, their little ones and women, and to take the spoil of them for a prey, ¹²on one day in all the provinces of king Ahasuerus, namely, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar. ¹³A copy of the writing, that the decree should be given out in every province, was published to all the peoples, and that the Jews should be ready against that day to avenge themselves on their enemies. ¹⁴So the posts who rode on swift steeds that were used in the king’s service went out, being hurried and pressed on by the king’s commandment; and the decree was given out in Shushan the palace. ¹⁵Mordecai went forth from the presence of the king in royal clothing of blue and white, and with a great crown of gold, and with a robe of fine linen and purple: and the city of Shushan shouted and was glad. ¹⁶The Jews had light and gladness, and joy and honor. ¹⁷In every province, and in every city, wherever the king’s commandment and his decree came, the Jews had gladness and joy, a feast and a good day. Many from among the peoples of the land became Jews; for the fear of the Jews was fallen on them.