11. to bring Sovereigness Vashti before the sovereign, with her royal crown, in order to show her loveliness to the people and the officials, for she was lovely to look upon.
12. But Sovereigness Vashti refused to come at the sovereign’s command brought by his eunuchs. And the sovereign was very wroth, and his rage burned within him.
13. So the sovereign said to the wise men who understood the times (for in this way the sovereign’s matter came before all who knew law and right-ruling,
14. and who were close to him: Karshena, Shĕthar, Aḏmatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, Memuḵan, the seven princes of Persia and Media, who saw the sovereign’s face, who sat first in the reign):
15. “According to law, what is to be done to Sovereigness Vashti, because she did not perform the command of Sovereign Aḥashwĕrosh, through the eunuchs?”
16. And Memuḵan answered before the sovereign and the princes, “Sovereigness Vashti has misbehaved not only toward the sovereign, but also toward all the princes, and all the people who are in all the provinces of Sovereign Aḥashwĕrosh.
17. “For the matter of the sovereigness shall go forth to all women, to make their husbands despised in their eyes, when they say, ‘Sovereign Aḥashwĕrosh commanded Sovereigness Vashti to be brought in before him, but she did not come.’
18. “And this day the princesses of Persia and Media shall say to all the sovereign’s officials that they have heard of the matter of the sovereigness – with plenty of scorn and wrath.
19. “If it pleases the sovereign, let a royal decree go out from him, and let it be recorded in the laws of the Persians and the Medes, so that it does not pass away, that Vashti shall come no more before Sovereign Aḥashwĕrosh. And let the sovereign give her royal position to another who is better than she.
20. “And the sovereign’s decree which he makes shall be proclaimed throughout all his rule, great as it is, and all the wives give esteem to their husbands, both great and small.”
21. And the word was good in the eyes of the sovereign and the princes, and the sovereign did according to the word of Memuḵan.
22. So he sent letters to all the sovereign’s provinces, to each province in its own writing, and to every people in their own language, that each man should be master in his own house and speak in the language of his people.