The king gives Mordecai the highest place
8
📚On that day King Ahasuerus gave the house of Haman 📖 the Jews’ enemy to Esther the queen. And Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had told how he was related to her. 2 📚And the king took off his ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. And Esther appointed Mordecai over the house of Haman.Esther pleads with the king
3 📚And Esther spoke again to the king, and fell down at his feet and begged him with tears to put an end to the evil conspiracy of Haman the Agagite, and his scheme which he had devised against the Jews. 4 📚Then the king held out the golden sceptre toward Esther. So Esther arose and stood before the king, 5 📚and said, “If it pleases the king, and if I have found favour in his sight, and the thing seems right to the king, and I am pleasing in his eyes, let a command be written to overrule 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. 6 📚For how can I bear to see the evil that will come to my people? Or how can I bear to see the destruction of my kindred?”
The king’s decree for the Jews
7 📚Then King Ahasuerus said to Esther the queen and to Mordecai the Jew, “Look, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and they have hanged him on the gallows, because he stretched out his hand against the Jews. 8 📚Write also a decree for the Jews, as it pleases you, in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s ring. For no one can overrule 📖 a letter which is written in the king’s name, and sealed with the king’s ring”.
9 📚📚Then the king’s scribes were called at that time, in the third month, that is, the month Sivan, on the twenty-third day of that month, and they wrote down all the commands that Mordecai gave to the Jews, and to the officials, and the deputies and rulers of the provinces which are from India 📖 to Ethiopia, a hundred and twenty-seven provinces, to each province in its script, and to each people in their language, and to the Jews in their script and in their language. 10 📚And he wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus, and sealed it with the king’s ring, and sent letters by couriers on horseback, and riders on mules, camels, and swift horses.
11 📚In them the king gave permission to the Jews who were in every city to gather together, and to stand up for their life, to destroy, to kill and to annihilate all the forces of any people and province who assaulted them, both little ones and women, and to plunder their possessions, 12 📚on one day in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, namely, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar.
13 📚A copy of the writing as a command to be given in every province was published to all people, so that the Jews could be ready on that day to avenge themselves on their enemies.
14 📚So the couriers, riding on royal horses, went out, going swiftly, impelled by the king’s command. And the decree was given at Shushan the palace.
15 📚And Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal robes of blue and white, and with a great crown of gold, and with a garment of fine linen and purple. And the city of Shushan rejoiced and was glad 📖. 16 📚The Jews had light and gladness and joy and honour. 17 📚And in every province, and in every city where the king’s command and decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast and a holiday. And many of the people of the land became Jews, for the fear of the Jews 📖 fell on them.