Assyria Shall Be Broken

¹⁵ He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak ^(A)and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. ¹⁶ He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, ^(B)to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, ¹⁷ and that no one may buy or sell except one who has ^[a]the mark or ^(C)the name of the beast, ^(D)or the number of his name.

⁵⁷ Now both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a command, that if anyone knew where He was, he should report it, that they might ^(A)seize Him.

⁷ All the governors of the kingdom, the administrators and satraps, the counselors and advisors, have ^(A)consulted together to establish a royal statute and to make a firm decree, that whoever petitions any god or man for thirty days, except you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions. ⁸ Now, O king, establish the decree and sign the writing, so that it cannot be changed, according to the ^(B)law of the Medes and Persians, which ^[a]does not alter.” ⁹ Therefore King Darius signed the written decree.

⁴ Then a herald cried ^[a]aloud: “To you it is commanded, ^(A)O peoples, nations, and languages, ⁵ that at the time you hear the sound of the horn, flute, harp, lyre, and psaltery, in symphony with all kinds of music, you shall fall down and worship the gold image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up; ⁶ and whoever does not fall down and worship shall ^(B)be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.”

⁷ So at that time, when all the people heard the sound of the horn, flute, harp, and lyre, in symphony with all kinds of music, all the people, nations, and languages fell down and worshiped the gold image which King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

⁶ But he disdained to lay hands on Mordecai alone, for they had told him of the people of Mordecai. Instead, Haman ^(A)sought to destroy all the Jews who were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus—the people of Mordecai.

⁷ In the first month, which is the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, ^(B)they cast Pur (that is, the lot), before Haman ^[a]to determine the day and the ^[b]month, ^[c]until it fell on the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar.

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; ^(C)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 ^(D)took ^(E)his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the ^(F)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 (G)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 ^(H)according to its script, and to every people in their language. ^(I)In the name of King Ahasuerus it was written, and sealed with the king’s signet ring.