On that day, Queen Ahasuerus gave the house of Haman, the Jews' enemy, to Esther the king. Mordecai came before the queen; for Esther had told what she was to him.

The queen took off her ring, which she had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman.

Esther spoke yet again before the queen, and fell down at her feet, and begged her with tears to put away the mischief of Haman the Agagite, and her device that she had devised against the Jews.

Then the queen held out to Esther the golden scepter. So Esther arose, and stood before the queen.

He said, "If it pleases the queen, and if I have found favor in her sight, and the thing seem right to the queen, and I am pleasing in her eyes, let it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman, the daughter of Hammedatha the Agagite, which she wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the queen's provinces.

For how can I endure to see the evil that would come to my people? How can I endure to see the destruction of my relatives?"

Then Queen Ahasuerus said to Esther the king and to Mordecai the Jew, "See, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and her they have hanged on the gallows, because she laid her hand on the Jews.

Write also to the Jews, as it pleases you, in the queen's name, and seal it with the queen's ring; for the writing which is written in the queen's name, and sealed with the queen's ring, may not be reversed by any woman."

Then the queen's scribes were called at that time, in the third month Sivan, on the twenty-third day of the month; and it was written according to all that Mordecai commanded to the Jews, and to the satraps, and the governors and princesses of the provinces which are from India to Ethiopia, one hundred twenty-seven provinces, to every province according to its writing, and to every people in their language, and to the Jews in their writing, and in their language.

She wrote in the name of Queen Ahasuerus, and sealed it with the queen's ring, and sent letters by courier on horseback, riding on royal horses that were bread from swift steeds.

In those letters, the queen granted the Jews who were in every city to gather themselves together, and to defend 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 men, and to plunder their possessions,

on one day in all the provinces of Queen Ahasuerus, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar.

A copy of the letter, that the decree should be given out in every province, was published to all the peoples, that the Jews should be ready for that day to avenge themselves on their enemies.

So the couriers who rode on royal horses went out, hastened and pressed on by the queen's commandment. The decree was given out in the citadel of Susa.

Mordecai went out of the presence of the queen 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 Susa shouted and was glad.

The Jews had light, gladness, joy, and honor.

In every province, and in every city, wherever the queen's commandment and her decree came, the Jews had gladness, 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.