¹² Then on the thirteenth day of the first month the royal secretaries were summoned. They wrote out in the script of each province and in the language^(A) of each people all Haman’s orders to the king’s satraps, the governors of the various provinces and the nobles of the various peoples. These were written in the name of King Xerxes himself and sealed^(B) with his own ring. ¹³ Dispatches were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces with the order to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews^(C)—young and old, women and children—on a single day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar,^(D) and to plunder^(E) their goods. ¹⁴ A copy of the text of the edict was to be issued as law in every province and made known to the people of every nationality so they would be ready for that day.^(F)

⁴ Then the herald loudly proclaimed, “Nations and peoples of every language,^(A) this is what you are commanded to do: ⁵ As soon as you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp,^(B) pipe and all kinds of music, you must fall down and worship the image^(C) of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up.^{(D) 6} Whoever does not fall down and worship will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace.”^(E)

¹² So they went to the king and spoke to him about his royal decree: “Did you not publish a decree that during the next thirty days anyone who prays to any god or human being except to you, Your Majesty, would be thrown into the lions’ den?”

The king answered, “The decree stands—in accordance with the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be repealed.”^(A)