⁵ Now there was a Jew in Susa the citadel whose name was ^(A)Mordecai, the son of Jair, son of Shimei, son of Kish, a Benjaminite, ^6 (B)who had been carried away from Jerusalem among the captives carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away. ⁷ He was bringing up Hadassah, that is Esther, ^(C)the daughter of his uncle, for she had neither father nor mother. The young woman had a beautiful figure and was lovely to look at, and when her father and her mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter.

¹⁵ When the turn came for Esther ^(A)the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her as his own daughter, to go in to the king, she asked for nothing except what ^(B)Hegai the king's eunuch, who had charge of the women, advised. Now Esther was winning favor in the eyes of all who saw her. ¹⁶ And when Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus, into his royal palace, in the tenth month, which is the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign, ¹⁷ the king loved Esther more than all the women, and she won grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins, so that he set ^(C)the royal crown^[a] on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. ¹⁸ Then the king ^(D)gave a great feast for all his officials and servants; it was Esther's feast. He also granted a remission of taxes to the provinces and gave gifts with royal generosity.

¹² And they told Mordecai what Esther had said. ¹³ Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not think to yourself that in the king's palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. ¹⁴ For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” ¹⁵ Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, ¹⁶ “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for ^(A)three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, ^(B)and if I perish, I perish.”^{[a] 17} Mordecai then went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him.

³ Then Esther spoke again to the king. She fell at his feet and wept and pleaded with him to avert the evil plan of Haman ^(A)the Agagite and the plot that he had devised against the Jews. ^4 (B)When the king held out the golden scepter to Esther, Esther rose and stood before the king. ⁵ And she said, “If it please the king, ^(C)and if I have found favor in his sight, and if the thing seems right before the king, and I am pleasing in his eyes, let an order be written to revoke ^(D)the letters devised by Haman ^(E)the Agagite, the son of Hammedatha, which he wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the provinces of the king. ⁶ For how can I bear ^(F)to see the calamity that is coming to my people? Or how can I bear to see the destruction of my kindred?” ⁷ Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, “Behold, ^(G)I have given Esther the house of Haman, and they have hanged him on the gallows,^[a] because he intended to lay hands on the Jews. ⁸ But you may write as you please with regard to the Jews, in the name of the king, ^(H)and seal it with the king's ring, for an edict written in the name of the king and sealed with the king's ring ^(I)cannot be revoked.”