⁶ Hathach went out to Mordecai in the open square of the city in front of the king’s gate,

³ In every province, wherever the king’s command and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting and weeping and lamenting, and most of them lay in sackcloth and ashes.^(A)

² On the second day, as they were drinking wine, the king again said to Esther, “What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled.”^(A)

¹² The king said to Queen Esther, “In the citadel of Susa the Jews have killed and destroyed five hundred people and the ten sons of Haman. What have they done in the rest of the king’s provinces? Now what is your petition? It shall be granted you. And what further is your request? It shall be fulfilled.”^(A)