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.

² The Jews assembled in their cities^(A) in all the provinces of King Xerxes to attack those determined to destroy them. No one could stand against them,^(B) because the people of all the other nationalities were afraid of them.

¹⁰ the ten sons^(A) of Haman son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews.^(B) But they did not lay their hands on the plunder.^(C)

¹⁵ The Jews in Susa came together on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar, and they put to death in Susa three hundred men, but they did not lay their hands on the plunder.^(A)

¹⁶ Meanwhile, the remainder of the Jews who were in the king’s provinces also assembled to protect themselves and get relief^(A) from their enemies.^(B) They killed seventy-five thousand of them^(C) but did not lay their hands on the plunder.^(D)