Esther 3

Berean Standard Bible

Chapter summary

King Xerxes elevated Haman the Agagite above all the other princes, commanding all royal servants at the king's gate to bow down and pay homage to him. While the other servants complied, Mordecai refused to bow, leading them to report his Jewish identity and defiance to Haman. Enraged by this disrespect, Haman decided to destroy not only Mordecai, but all the Jewish people throughout the entire kingdom of Xerxes. To determine the date for this destruction, the lot, called the Pur, was cast before Haman, falling upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, Adar. Haman then persuaded King Xerxes to issue a royal decree authorizing the annihilation of all Jews, offering ten thousand talents of silver to the treasury. The king granted the request by giving his signet ring to Haman, and official letters were written by royal scribes and dispatched by couriers to every province, ordering the destruction of young and old, women and children, on the designated day.

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¹After these events, King Xerxes honored Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, elevating him to a position above all the princes who were with him. ²All the royal servants at the king’s gate bowed down and paid homage to Haman, because the king had commanded that this be done for him. But Mordecai would not bow down or pay homage. ³Then the royal servants at the king’s gate asked Mordecai, “Why do you disobey the command of the king?” ⁴Day after day they warned him, but he would not comply. So they reported it to Haman to see whether Mordecai’s behavior would be tolerated, since he had told them he was a Jew. ⁵When Haman saw that Mordecai would not bow down or pay him homage, he was filled with rage. ⁶And when he learned the identity of Mordecai’s people, he scorned the notion of laying hands on Mordecai alone. Instead, he sought to destroy all of Mordecai’s people, the Jews, throughout the kingdom of Xerxes. ⁷In the twelfth year of King Xerxes, in the first month, the month of Nisan, the Pur (that is, the lot) was cast before Haman to determine a day and month. And the lot fell on the twelfth month, the month of Adar. ⁸Then Haman informed King Xerxes, “There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the peoples of every province of your kingdom. Their laws are different from everyone else’s, and they do not obey the king’s laws. So it is not in the king’s best interest to tolerate them. ⁹If it pleases the king, let a decree be issued to destroy them, and I will deposit ten thousand talents of silver into the royal treasury to pay those who carry it out.” ¹⁰So the king removed the signet ring from his finger and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews. ¹¹“Keep your money,” said the king to Haman. “These people are given to you to do with them as you please.” ¹²On the thirteenth day of the first month, the royal scribes were summoned and the order was written exactly as Haman commanded the royal satraps, the governors of each province, and the officials of each people, in the script of each province and the language of every people. It was written in the name of King Xerxes and sealed with the royal signet ring. ¹³And the letters were sent by couriers to each of the royal provinces with the order to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the Jews—young and old, women and children—and to plunder their possessions on a single day, the thirteenth day of Adar, the twelfth month. ¹⁴A copy of the text of the edict was to be issued in every province and published to all the people, so that they would be ready on that day. ¹⁵The couriers left, spurred on by the king’s command, and the edict was issued in the citadel of Susa. Then the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Susa was in confusion.

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Louis Segond 1910 and Berean Standard Bible: public domain. Cross references: open-cross-ref, Creative Commons BY 4.0.