Esther 8

Mordecai receives the king’s signet ring

¹That same day King Ahasuerus gave Queen Esther the estate of Haman, the enemy of the Jews. And Mordecai came into the king’s presence, because Esther had told how he was related to her. ²The king took off his signet ring, which he had taken back from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. And Esther put Mordecai in charge of Haman’s estate.

Esther pleads again for her people

³Esther spoke to the king once more. She fell at his feet, weeping, and begged him to undo the evil of Haman the Agagite, the scheme he had devised against the Jews. ⁴The king held out the golden scepter to Esther, and she rose and stood before the king. ⁵She said, “If it pleases the king, and if I have found favor with him, and if the matter seems right to the king, and if I am pleasing to him, let an order be written to revoke the letters devised by Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews in all the king’s provinces. ⁶For how can I bear to see the disaster that is coming on my people? How can I bear to see my family destroyed?”

A new decree written to every province

⁷King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, “Look, I have given Haman’s estate to Esther, and he has been hanged on the gallows because he tried to attack the Jews. ⁸Now you write whatever you think best concerning the Jews, in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s signet ring. For a decree written in the king’s name and sealed with the king’s ring cannot be revoked.” ⁹So the king’s scribes were summoned at that time, on the twenty-third day of the third month, the month of Sivan. Everything Mordecai ordered was written down, to the Jews and to the satraps, the governors, and the officials of the 127 provinces stretching from India to Cush. It was written to each province in its own script and to each people in its own language, and to the Jews in their own script and language. ¹⁰Mordecai wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed it with the king’s signet ring, and he sent the letters by mounted couriers riding swift horses bred for the royal service,^{a 11}saying that the king allowed the Jews in every city to gather and defend their lives, and to destroy, kill, and wipe out any armed force of any people or province that might attack them, together with their children and women, and to plunder their goods,^{b 12}on a single day in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar. ¹³A copy of the text was to be issued as law in every province and made known to all the peoples, so that the Jews would be ready on that day to take revenge on their enemies. ¹⁴The couriers, riding the royal horses, went out in haste, urged on by the king’s command. And the decree was issued in the citadel of Susa.

Light and gladness for the Jews

¹⁵Mordecai left the king’s presence wearing royal robes of blue and white, a large gold crown, and a cloak of fine linen and purple. And the city of Susa shouted for joy. ¹⁶For the Jews it was a time of light and gladness, joy and honor. ¹⁷In every province and in every city, wherever the king’s command and his decree arrived, there was gladness and joy among the Jews, with feasting and a holiday. And many people of the land became Jews, because fear of the Jews had come over them.^c