1. On that day hath the king Ahasuerus given to Esther the queen the house of Haman, adversary of the Jews, and Mordecai hath come in before the king, for Esther hath declared what he [is] to her,
2. and the king turneth aside his signet, that he hath caused to pass away from Haman, and giveth it to Mordecai, and Esther setteth Mordecai over the house of Haman.
3. And Esther addeth, and speaketh before the king, and falleth before his feet, and weepeth, and maketh supplication to him, to cause the evil of Haman the Agagite to pass away, and his device that he had devised against the Jews;
4. and the king holdeth out to Esther the golden sceptre, and Esther riseth, and standeth before the king,
5. and saith, `If to the king [it be] good, and if I have found grace before him, and the thing hath been right before the king, and I [be] good in his eyes, let it be written to bring back the letters--a device of Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite--that he wrote to destroy the Jews who [are] in all provinces of the king,
6. for how do I endure when I have looked on the evil that doth find my people? and how do I endure when I have looked on the destruction of my kindred?'
7. And the king Ahasuerus saith to Esther the queen, and to Mordecai the Jew, `Lo, the house of Haman I have given to Esther, and him they have hanged on the tree, because that he put forth his hand on the Jews,
8. and ye, write ye for the Jews, as [it is] good in your eyes, in the name of the king, and seal with the signet of the king--for the writing that is written in the name of the king, and sealed with the signet of the king, there is none to turn back.'
9. And the scribes of the king are called, at that time, in the third month--it [is] the month of Sivan--in the three and twentieth of it, and it is written, according to all that Mordecai hath commanded, unto the Jews, and unto the lieutenants, and the governors, and the heads of the provinces, that [are] from Hodu even unto Cush, seven and twenty and a hundred provinces-- province and province according to its writing, and people and people according to its tongue, and unto the Jews according to their writing, and according to their tongue.