Esther 3:8-5:3

New King James Version

⁸Then 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. ⁹If 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.”

¹⁰So 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. ¹¹And 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. ¹³And 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. ¹⁵The 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.

Esther Agrees to Help the Jews

4 When Mordecai learned all that had happened, ^[e]he ^(M)tore his clothes and put on sackcloth ^(N)and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city. He ^(O)cried out with a loud and bitter cry. ²He went as far as the front of the king’s gate, for no one might enter the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth. ³And in every province where the king’s command and decree arrived, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.

⁴So Esther’s maids and eunuchs came and told her, and the queen was deeply distressed. Then she sent garments to clothe Mordecai and take his sackcloth away from him, but he would not accept them. ⁵Then Esther called Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs whom he had appointed to attend her, and she gave him a command concerning Mordecai, to learn what and why this was. ⁶So Hathach went out to Mordecai in the city square that was in front of the king’s gate. ⁷And Mordecai told him all that had happened to him, and ^(P)the sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king’s treasuries to destroy the Jews. ⁸He also gave him ^(Q)a copy of the written decree for their destruction, which was given at ^[f]Shushan, that he might show it to Esther and explain it to her, and that he might command her to go in to the king to make supplication to him and plead before him for her people. ⁹So Hathach returned and told Esther the words of Mordecai.

¹⁰Then Esther spoke to Hathach, and gave him a command for Mordecai: ¹¹“All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that any man or woman who goes into ^(R)the inner court to the king, who has not been called, ^(S)he has but one law: put all to death, except the one ^(T)to whom the king holds out the golden scepter, that he may live. Yet I myself have not been ^(U)called to go in to the king these thirty days.” ¹²So they told Mordecai Esther’s words.

¹³And Mordecai told them to answer Esther: “Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king’s palace any more than all the other Jews. ¹⁴For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

¹⁵Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai: ¹⁶“Go, gather all the Jews who are present in ^[g]Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for ^(V)three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which is against the law; ^(W)and if I perish, I perish!”

¹⁷So Mordecai went his way and did according to all that Esther commanded ^[h]him.

Esther’s Banquet

5 Now it happened ^(X)on the third day that Esther put on her royal robes and stood in ^(Y)the inner court of the king’s palace, across from the king’s house, while the king sat on his royal throne in the royal house, facing the entrance of the ^[i]house. ²So it was, when the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, that ^(Z)she found favor in his sight, and ^(AA)the king held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. Then Esther went near and touched the top of the scepter.