⁸ You yourselves write a decree concerning the Jews, ^[a]as you please, in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s signet ring; for whatever is written in the king’s name and sealed with the king’s signet ring ^(A)no one can revoke.”

^12 (A)Then the king’s scribes were called on the thirteenth day of the first month, and a decree was written according to all that Haman commanded—to the king’s satraps, to the governors who were over each province, to the officials of all people, to every province ^(B)according to its script, and to every people in their language. ^(C)In the name of King Ahasuerus it was written, and sealed with the king’s signet ring.

¹⁹ If it pleases the king, let a royal ^[a]decree go out from him, and let it be recorded in the laws of the Persians and the Medes, so that it will ^(A)not ^[b]be altered, that Vashti shall come no more before King Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal position to another who is better than she.

¹⁹ Nevertheless ^(A)the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: “The Lord ^(B)knows those who are His,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of ^[a]Christ depart from iniquity.”

^12 (A)And they went before the king, and spoke concerning the king’s decree: “Have you not signed a decree that every man who petitions any god or man within thirty days, except you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions?”

The king answered and said, “The thing is true, ^(B)according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which ^[a]does not alter.”

¹³ So they answered and said before the king, “That Daniel, ^(C)who is ^[b]one of the captives from Judah, ^(D)does not show due regard for you, O king, or for the decree that you have signed, but makes his petition three times a day.”

¹⁴ And the king, when he heard these words, ^(E)was greatly displeased with himself, and set his heart on Daniel to deliver him; and he ^[c]labored till the going down of the sun to deliver him. ¹⁵ Then these men ^[d]approached the king, and said to the king, “Know, O king, that it is ^(F)the law of the Medes and Persians that no decree or statute which the king establishes may be changed.”

⁸ Now, O king, establish the decree and sign the writing, so that it cannot be changed, according to the ^(A)law of the Medes and Persians, which ^[a]does not alter.”

⁵ and said, “If it pleases the king, and if I have found favor in his sight and the thing seems right to the king and I am pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to revoke the ^(A)letters devised by Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to annihilate the Jews who are in all the king’s provinces.

¹⁷ Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to ^(A)the heirs of promise ^(B)the ^[a]immutability of His counsel, ^[b]confirmed it by an oath, ¹⁸ that by two ^[c]immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to ^(C)lie, we ^[d]might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope ^(D)set before us.

^10 (A)And he wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus, sealed it with the king’s signet ring, and sent letters by couriers on horseback, riding on royal horses ^[a]bred from swift steeds.