Historical

1 It was in the days of Ahasuerus [Xerxes], the Ahasuerus who reigned from India to Ethiopia over 127 provinces.

² In those days when King Ahasuerus sat on his royal throne which was in Shushan or Susa [the capital of the Persian Empire] in the palace or castle,

³ In the third year of his reign he made a feast for all his princes and his courtiers. The chief officers of the Persian and Median army and the nobles and governors of the provinces were there before him

⁴ While he showed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the splendor and excellence of his majesty for many days, even 180 days.

⁵ And when these days were completed, the king made a feast for all the people present in Shushan the capital, both great and small, a seven-day feast in the court of the garden of the king’s palace.

⁶ There were hangings of fine white cloth, of green and of blue [cotton], fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings or rods and marble pillars. The couches of gold and silver rested on a [mosaic] pavement of porphyry, white marble, mother-of-pearl, and [precious] colored stones.

⁷ Drinks were served in different kinds of golden goblets, and there was royal wine in abundance, according to the liberality of the king.

⁸ And drinking was according to the law; no one was compelled to drink, for the king had directed all the officials of his palace to serve only as each guest desired.

⁹ Also Queen Vashti gave a banquet for the women in the royal house which belonged to King Ahasuerus.

¹⁰ On the seventh day, when the king’s heart was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, Abagtha, Zethar, and Carkas, the seven eunuchs who ministered to King Ahasuerus as attendants,

¹¹ To bring Queen Vashti before the king, with her royal crown, to show the peoples and the princes her beauty, for she was fair to behold.

¹² But Queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s command conveyed by the eunuchs. Therefore the king was enraged, and his anger burned within him.

¹³ Then the king spoke to the wise men who knew the times—for this was the king’s procedure toward all who were familiar with law and judgment—

¹⁴ Those next to him being Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucan, the seven princes of Persia and Media who were in the king’s presence and held first place in the kingdom.

¹⁵ [He said] According to the law, what is to be done to Queen Vashti because she has not done the bidding of King Ahasuerus conveyed by the eunuchs?

¹⁶ And Memucan answered before the king and the princes, Vashti the queen has not only done wrong to the king but also to all the princes and to all the peoples who are in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus.

¹⁷ For this deed of the queen will become known to all women, making their husbands contemptible in their eyes, since they will say, King Ahasuerus commanded Queen Vashti to be brought before him, but she did not come.

¹⁸ This very day the ladies of Persia and Media who have heard of the queen’s behavior will be telling it to all the king’s princes. So contempt and wrath in plenty will arise.

¹⁹ If it pleases the king, let a royal command go forth from him and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and Medes, so that it may not be changed, that Vashti is to [be divorced and] come no more before King Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal position to another who is better than she.

²⁰ So when the king’s decree is made and proclaimed throughout all his kingdom, extensive as it is, all wives will give honor to their husbands, high and low.

²¹ This advice pleased the king and the princes, and the king did what Memucan proposed.

²² He sent letters to all the royal provinces, to each in its own script and to every people in their own language, saying that every man should rule in his own house and speak there in the language of his own people. [If he had foreign wives, let them learn his language.]

2 After these things, when the wrath of King Ahasuerus was pacified, he [earnestly] remembered Vashti and what she had done and what was decreed against her.

² Then the king’s servants who ministered to him said, Let beautiful young virgins be sought for the king.

³ And let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom to gather all the beautiful young virgins to the capital in Shushan, to the harem under the custody of Hegai, the king’s eunuch, who is in charge of the women; and let their things for purification be given them.

⁴ And let the maiden who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti. This pleased the king, and he did so.

⁵ There was a certain Jew in the capital in Shushan whose name was Mordecai son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite,

⁶ Who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captives taken away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried into exile.

⁷ He had brought up Hadassah, that is Esther, his uncle’s daughter, for she had neither father nor mother. The maiden was beautiful and lovely, and when her father and mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter.

⁸ So when the king’s command and his decree were proclaimed and when many maidens were gathered in Shushan the capital under the custody of Hegai, Esther also was taken to the king’s house into the custody of Hegai, keeper of the women.

⁹ And the maiden pleased [Hegai] and obtained his favor. And he speedily gave her the things for her purification and her portion of food and the seven chosen maids to be given her from the king’s palace; and he removed her and her maids to the best [apartment] in the harem.

¹⁰ Esther had not made known her nationality or her kindred, for Mordecai had charged her not to do so.

¹¹ And Mordecai [who was an ^[a]attendant in the king’s court] walked every day before the court of the harem to learn how Esther was and what would become of her.

¹² Now when the turn of each maiden came to go in to King Ahasuerus, after the regulations for the women had been carried out for twelve months—since this was the regular period for their beauty treatments, six months with oil of myrrh and six months with sweet spices and perfumes and the things for the purifying of the women—

¹³ Then in this way the maiden came to the king: whatever she desired was given her to take with her from the harem into the king’s palace.

¹⁴ In the evening she went and next day she returned into the second harem in the custody of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch who was in charge of the concubines. She came to the king no more unless the king delighted in her and she was called for by name.

¹⁵ Now when the turn for Esther the daughter of Abihail, the uncle of Mordecai who had taken her as his own daughter, had come to go in to the king, she required nothing but what Hegai the king’s attendant, the keeper of the women, suggested. And Esther won favor in the sight of all who saw her.

¹⁶ So Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus into his royal palace in the tenth month, the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.

¹⁷ And the king loved Esther more than all the women, and she obtained grace and favor in his sight more than all the maidens, so that he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti.

¹⁸ Then the king gave a great feast for all his princes and his servants, Esther’s feast; and he gave a holiday [or a lessening of taxes] to the provinces and gave gifts in keeping with the generosity of the king.

¹⁹ And when the maidens were gathered together the second time, Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate.

²⁰ Now Esther had not yet revealed her nationality or her people, for she obeyed Mordecai’s command to her [^[b]to fear God and execute His commands] just as when she was being brought up by him.

²¹ In those days, while Mordecai sat at the king’s gate, two of the king’s eunuchs, Bigthan and Teresh, of those who guarded the door, were angry and sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus.

²² And this was known to Mordecai, who told it to Queen Esther, and Esther told the king in Mordecai’s name.

²³ When it was investigated and found to be true, both men were hanged on the gallows. And it was recorded in the Book of the Chronicles in the king’s presence.

3 After these things, King ^[c]Ahasuerus promoted Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite and advanced him and set his seat above all the princes who were with him.

² And all the king’s servants who were at the king’s gate bowed down and did reverence to Haman, for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai did not bow down or do him reverence.

³ Then the king’s servants who were at the king’s gate said to Mordecai, Why do you transgress the king’s command?

⁴ Now when they spoke to him day after day and he paid no attention to them, they told Haman to see whether Mordecai’s conduct would stand, for he had told them that he was a Jew.

⁵ And when Haman saw that Mordecai did not bow down or do him reverence, he was very angry.

⁶ But he scorned laying hands only on Mordecai. So since they had told him Mordecai’s nationality, Haman sought to destroy all the Jews, the people of Mordecai, throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus.

⁷ In the first month, the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, Haman caused Pur, that is, lots, to be cast before him day after day [to find a lucky day for his venture], month after month, until the twelfth, the month of Adar.

⁸ Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom; their laws are different from every other people, neither do they keep the king’s laws. Therefore it is not for the king’s profit to tolerate them.

⁹ If it pleases the king, let it be decreed that they be destroyed, and I will pay 10,000 talents of silver into the hands of those who have charge of the king’s business, that it may be brought into the king’s treasuries.

¹⁰ And the king took his signet ring from his hand [with which to seal his letters by the king’s authority] and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the Jews’ enemy.

¹¹ And the king said to Haman, The silver is given to you, the people also, to do with them as it seems good to you.

¹² Then the king’s secretaries were called in on the thirteenth day of the first month, and all that Haman had commanded was written to the king’s chief rulers and to the governors who were over all the provinces and to the princes of each people, to every province in its own script and to each people in their own language; it was written in the name of King Ahasuerus and it was sealed with the king’s [signet] ring.

¹³ And letters were sent by special messengers to all the king’s provinces—to destroy, to slay, and to do away with all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, and to seize their belongings as spoil.

¹⁴ A copy of the writing was to be published and given out as a decree in every province to all the peoples to be ready for that day.

¹⁵ The special messengers went out in haste by order of the king, and the decree was given out in Shushan, the capital. And the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Shushan was perplexed [at the strange and alarming decree].