1. Later, King Xerxes promoted Haman the son of Hammedatha to the highest position in his kingdom. Haman was a descendant of Agag,
2. and the king had given orders for his officials at the royal gate to honour Haman by kneeling down to him. All of them obeyed except Mordecai.
3. When the other officials asked Mordecai why he disobeyed the king's command,
4. he said, “Because I am a Jew.” They spoke to him for several days about kneeling down, but he still refused to obey. Finally, they reported this to Haman, to find out if he would let Mordecai get away with it.
5. Haman was furious to learn that Mordecai refused to kneel down and honour him.
6. And when he found out that Mordecai was a Jew, he knew that killing only Mordecai was not enough. Every Jew in the whole kingdom had to be killed.
7. It was now the twelfth year of the rule of King Xerxes. During Nisan, the first month of the year, Haman said, “Find out the best time for me to do this.” The time chosen was Adar, the twelfth month.
8. Then Haman went to the king and said:Your Majesty, there are some people who live all over your kingdom and won't have a thing to do with anyone else. They have customs that are different from everyone else's, and they refuse to obey your laws. We would be better off to get rid of them!
9. Why not give orders for all of them to be killed? I can promise that you will get a great deal of silver for your treasury.
10. The king handed his official ring to Haman, who hated the Jews, and the king told him,
11. “Do what you want with those people! You can keep their money.”