The King Honors Mordecai

6 On that night the king could not sleep, and he gave orders to bring the book of records, the annals, and they were read to the king.^{(A) 2} It was found written how Mordecai had told about Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs who guarded the threshold and who had conspired to kill^[a] King Ahasuerus.^{(B) 3} Then the king said, “What honor or distinction has been bestowed on Mordecai for this?” The king’s servants who attended him said, “Nothing has been done for him.” ⁴ The king said, “Who is in the court?” Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the king’s palace to speak to the king about having Mordecai hung on the pole that he had prepared for him.^{(C) 5} So the king’s servants told him, “Haman is there, standing in the court.” The king said, “Let him come in.” ⁶ So Haman came in, and the king said to him, “What shall be done for the man whom the king wishes to honor?” Haman said to himself, “Whom would the king wish to honor more than me?”^{(D) 7} So Haman said to the king, “For the man whom the king wishes to honor, ⁸ let royal robes be brought, which the king has worn, and a horse that the king has ridden, with a royal crown on its head.^{(E) 9} Let the robes and the horse be handed over to one of the king’s most noble officials; let him^[b] robe the man whom the king wishes to honor, and let him^[c] conduct the man on horseback through the open square of the city, proclaiming before him: ‘Thus shall it be done for the man whom the king wishes to honor.’ ”^{(F) 10} Then the king said to Haman, “Quickly, take the robes and the horse, as you have said, and do so to Mordecai the Jew who sits at the king’s gate. Leave out nothing that you have mentioned.” ¹¹ So Haman took the robes and the horse and robed Mordecai and led him riding through the open square of the city, proclaiming, “Thus shall it be done for the man whom the king wishes to honor.”

¹² Then Mordecai returned to the king’s gate, but Haman hurried to his house, mourning and with his head covered.^{(G) 13} When Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened to him, his advisers and his wife Zeresh said to him, “If Mordecai, before whom your downfall has begun, is of the Jewish people, you will not prevail against him but will surely fall before him.”^(H)

Haman’s Downfall and Mordecai’s Advancement

¹⁴ While they were still talking with him, the king’s eunuchs arrived and hurried Haman off to the banquet that Esther had prepared.^(I) 7 ¹ So the king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther. ² On the second day, as they were drinking wine, the king again said to Esther, “What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled.”^{(J) 3} Then Queen Esther answered, “If I have won your favor, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me—that is my petition—and the lives of my people—that is my request.^{(K) 4} For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have held my peace, but no enemy can compensate for this damage to the king.”^{[d](L) 5} Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, who has presumed to do this?” ⁶ Esther said, “A foe and an enemy, this wicked Haman!” Then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen.^{(M) 7} The king rose from the feast in wrath and went into the palace garden, but Haman stayed to beg his life from Queen Esther, for he saw that the king had determined to destroy him. ⁸ When the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet hall, Haman had thrown himself on the couch where Esther was reclining, and the king said, “Will he even violate the queen in my presence, in my own house?” As the words left the mouth of the king, they covered Haman’s face.^{(N) 9} Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king, said, “Look, the very pole that Haman has prepared for Mordecai, whose word saved the king,^[e] stands at Haman’s house, fifty cubits high.” And the king said, “Hang him on that.”^{(O) 10} So they hung Haman on the pole that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the anger of the king abated.

Esther Saves the Jews

8 On that day King Ahasuerus gave to Queen Esther the house of Haman, the enemy of the Jews, and Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had told what he was to her.^{(P) 2} Then the king took off his signet ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. So Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman.^(Q)

³ Then Esther spoke again to the king; she fell at his feet, weeping and pleading with him to avert the evil design of Haman the Agagite and the plot that he had devised against the Jews. ⁴ The king held out the golden scepter to Esther, and Esther rose and stood before the king.^{(R) 5} She said, “If it pleases the king, and if I have won his favor, and if the thing seems right before the king, and I have his approval, let an order be written to revoke the letters devised by Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote giving orders to destroy the Jews who are in all the provinces of the king.^{(S) 6} For how can I bear to see the calamity that is coming on my people? Or how can I bear to see the destruction of my kindred?”^{(T) 7} Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, “See, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and they have hung him on the pole because he plotted to kill^[f] the Jews.^{(U) 8} You may write as you please with regard to the Jews, in the name of the king, 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 cannot be revoked.”^(V)

⁹ The king’s secretaries were summoned at that time, in the third month, which is the month of Sivan, on the twenty-third day, and an edict was written, according to all that Mordecai commanded, to the Jews and to the satraps and the governors and the officials of the provinces from India to Cush, one hundred twenty-seven provinces, to every province in its own script and to every people in its own language, and also to the Jews in their script and their language.^{(W) 10} He wrote letters in the name of King Ahasuerus, sealed them with the king’s ring, and sent them by mounted couriers riding on fast steeds bred from the royal herd.^{[g](X) 11} By these letters the king allowed the Jews who were in every city to assemble and defend their lives, to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate any armed force of any people or province that might attack them, their children, and their women, and to plunder their goods^{(Y) 12} on a single day throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar. ¹³ A copy of the writ was to be issued as a decree in every province and published to all peoples, and the Jews were to be ready on that day to take revenge on their enemies.^{(Z) 14} So the couriers, mounted on their royal steeds, hurried out, urged by the king’s command. The decree was issued in the citadel of Susa.

¹⁵ Then Mordecai went out from the presence of the king, wearing royal robes of blue and white, with a great golden crown and a mantle of fine linen and purple, while the city of Susa shouted and rejoiced.^{(AA) 16} For the Jews there was light and gladness, joy and honor. ¹⁷ In every province and in every city, wherever the king’s command and his edict came, there was gladness and joy among the Jews, a festival and a holiday. Furthermore, many of the peoples of the country professed to be Jews because the fear of the Jews had fallen upon them.^(AB)

Seven Chosen to Serve

6 Now during those days, when the disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food.^{(A) 2} And the twelve called together the whole community of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should neglect the word of God in order to wait on tables.^{[a] 3} Therefore, brothers and sisters, select from among yourselves seven men of good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this task,^{(B) 4} while we, for our part, will devote ourselves to prayer and to serving the word.” ⁵ What they said pleased the whole community, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, together with Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch.^{(C) 6} They had these men stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.^(D)

⁷ The word of God continued to spread; the number of the disciples increased greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.^(E)

The Arrest of Stephen

⁸ Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. ⁹ Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and others of those from Cilicia and Asia, stood up and argued with Stephen. ¹⁰ But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit^[b] with which he spoke.^{(F) 11} Then they secretly instigated some men to say, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.”^{(G) 12} They stirred up the people as well as the elders and the scribes; then they suddenly confronted him, seized him, and brought him before the council. ¹³ They set up false witnesses who said, “This man never stops saying things against this holy place and the law,^{(H) 14} for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth^[c] will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses handed on to us.”^{(I) 15} And all who sat in the council looked intently at him, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.