Esther

2. finally revealed what he was to her. The king took off the very ring that he had once given over to Haman, and gave it instead to Mordekhai; and Esther appointed Mordekhai over Hamans estate. 3 But then Esther spoke to the king again, falling down at his feet, weeping and pleading with him to overturn the wickedness of Haman the Agagite, 4 and the plot that he had thought up against the Jews. The king extended his golden scepter to Esther, and Esther raised herself up and stood before the 5 king. And she said, “If so it please the king, and if I have his favor, and if it seems right to the king and I am pleasing in his eyes - let the decree be writ- ten to revoke the scrolls that were the plot of Haman, son of Hamedata the Agagite, who wrote to destroy all the Jews that are in all the king’s provinces. 6 For how can 1 live to see the evil that will come upon my people; how can 1 live to see the loss of those I am born of?” 7 King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and to Mordekhai the Jew, “Look, I have given Haman’s house to Esther, and he has been hung up on the post 8 for putting out his hand against the Jews. Now, write whatever you like about the Jews in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s ring - but no writing that has been written in the name of the king and sealed with the king’s seal can ever be revoked.’ 9 And so, at that time, the king’s scribes were called - on the twenty-third day of the third month, the month of Sivan, that is - and they wrote down all that Mordekhai dictated, to the Jews and to the viceroys, the adminis- trators and the ministers of all the provinces from India to Ethiopia, one hundred and twenty-seven provinces, to each province in its script and to each people in its language, and to the Jews also, in their script and in 10 their language. It was written in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed with the king’s seal, and the scrolls were sent with the horseback runners, 11 riding the swift horses of the royal stable, young of the royal mares - to convey that the king had granted the Jews in every single town the right to come together to stand up and defend their lives, to wipe out, kill and destroy all the armed hordes of the peoples and provinces who threat- ened them, even their children and women, and to loot their plunder, 12 all on one day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month - the month of