⁷ In the twelfth year of King Xerxes, in the first month, the month of Nisan, the pur^(A) (that is, the lot^(B)) was cast in the presence of Haman to select a day and month. And the lot fell on^[a] the twelfth month, the month of Adar.^(C)

¹² Then on the thirteenth day of the first month the royal secretaries were summoned. They wrote out in the script of each province and in the language^(A) of each people all Haman’s orders to the king’s satraps, the governors of the various provinces and the nobles of the various peoples. These were written in the name of King Xerxes himself and sealed^(B) with his own ring.

¹³ Dispatches were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces with the order to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews^(A)—young and old, women and children—on a single day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar,^(B) and to plunder^(C) their goods.