Esther 3:8-15

New King James Version

⁸ Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, “There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of your kingdom; ^(A)their laws are different from all other people’s, and they do not keep the king’s laws. Therefore it is not fitting for the king to let them remain. ⁹ If it pleases the king, let a decree be written that they be destroyed, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who do the work, to bring it into the king’s treasuries.”

¹⁰ So the king ^(B)took ^(C)his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the ^(D)enemy of the Jews. ¹¹ And the king said to Haman, “The money and the people are given to you, to do with them as seems good to you.”

^12 (E)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 ^(F)according to its script, and to every people in their language. ^(G)In the name of King Ahasuerus it was written, and sealed with the king’s signet ring. ¹³ And the letters were ^(H)sent by couriers into all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all the Jews, both young and old, little children and women, ^(I)in one day, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, and ^(J)to plunder their ^[a]possessions. ^14 (K)A copy of the document was to be issued as law in every province, being published for all people, that they should be ready for that day. ¹⁵ The couriers went out, hastened by the king’s command; and the decree was proclaimed in ^[b]Shushan the ^[c]citadel. So the king and Haman sat down to drink, but ^(L)the city of Shushan was ^[d]perplexed.