Esther (Greek) 3
3
Haman plans to destroy Mordecai
1Sometime later, King Artaxerxes honored Haman, Hammedatha’s son, a Bougaean, by promoting him above all other political advisors. 2Everyone at the court would kneel and bow down to Haman because the king had so ordered. But Mordecai didn’t kneel or bow down. 3So the people at the king’s court said to him, “Mordecai, why don’t you obey the king’s command?” 4Day after day they tried to speak to him, but he didn’t listen to them. So they let Haman know that Mordecai was disregarding the king’s order. Earlier Mordecai had explained to them that he was a Jew. 5When Haman himself became aware that Mordecai didn’t kneel or bow down to him, he became very angry. 6So he planned to wipe out all the Jews throughout the whole kingdom of Artaxerxes. 7He made a decision in the twelfth year of Artaxerxes’ rule, and he threw lots to determine the day and month on which Mordecai’s people would be destroyed in a single day. The lot fell on the fourteenth#3.7 MT thirteenth day day of the twelfth month, that is, the month of Adar.#3.7 February–March
8Then Haman said to King Artaxerxes, “A certain group of people exist in pockets among the other peoples throughout your kingdom. Their laws are different from those of everyone else, and they refuse to obey the king’s laws. It is against the king’s interests to put up with them any longer. 9If the king wishes, perhaps a written order could be sent out that they should be destroyed, and I will contribute ten thousand big sacks#3.9 Gk talantas of silver to the king’s treasury.”
10The king removed his royal ring from his finger and handed it to Haman to put a seal on the orders he would write against the Jews. 11The king said to Haman, “Keep the silver. Do as you wish to the people.”
12So in the first month, on the thirteenth day, royal scribes were summoned to write down everything that Haman ordered in the name of King Artaxerxes. The orders were sent out to the governors and rulers in charge of each province, from India to Ethiopia, to one hundred twenty-seven regions in their own language. 13Fast runners carried the order throughout Artaxerxes’ kingdom. The order commanded people to wipe out all the Jews on a single day of the twelfth month, the month called Adar, and to seize their property.
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Esther (Greek) 3: CEB
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