Estĕr (Esther) 3
3
1After these events Sovereign Aḥashwĕrosh promoted Haman, son of Hammeḏatha the Aḡaḡite, and exalted him and seated him higher than all the princes with him.
2And all the sovereign’s servants who were in the sovereign’s gate bowed and did obeisance to Haman, for so the sovereign had commanded concerning him. But Mordeḵai would not bow or do obeisance.
3And the sovereign’s servants who were in the sovereign’s gate said to Mordeḵai, “Why do you disobey the sovereign’s command?”
4And it came to be, when they spoke to him daily and he would not listen to them, that they told Haman, to see whether the words of Mordeḵai would stand – for he had told them that he was a Yehuḏi.
5And when Haman saw that Mordeḵai did not bow or do obeisance, Haman was filled with wrath.
6But it was despicable in his eyes to lay hands on Mordeḵai alone, for they had informed him of the people of Mordeḵai. Therefore Haman sought to destroy all the Yehuḏim who were throughout all the reign of Aḥashwĕrosh, the people of Mordeḵai.
7In the first new moon, which is the new moon of Nisan, in the twelfth year of Sovereign Aḥashwĕrosh, someone cast Pur – that is, the lot – before Haman from day to day, and from new moon to new moon, until it fell on the twelfth month, which is the new moon of Aḏar.
8Haman then told Sovereign Aḥashwĕrosh, “There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of your reign, whose laws are different from all people, and they do not do the sovereign’s laws. Therefore it is not in the sovereign’s interest to let them remain.
9“If it pleases the sovereign, let a decree be written to destroy them, and let me pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who do the work, to bring it into the sovereign’s treasuries.”
10And the sovereign took his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman, son of Hammeḏatha the Aḡaḡite, the enemy of the Yehuḏim.
11And the sovereign said to Haman, “The silver and the people are given to you, to do with them as seems good to you.”
12And the sovereign’s scribes were called on the thirteenth day of the first new moon, and a decree was written according to all that Haman commanded – to the viceroys of the sovereign, and to the governors who were over each province, and to the officials of all people, to every province according to its writing, and to every people in their language. It was written in the name of Sovereign Aḥashwĕrosh, and sealed with the sovereign’s signet ring.
13And the letters were sent by the runners into all the sovereign’s provinces, to cut off, to kill, and to destroy all the Yehuḏim, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth new moon, which is the new moon of Aḏar, and to plunder their possessions.
14A copy of the writing, to be made law in every province, was published for all people, to be ready for that day.
15The runners went out, hastened by the sovereign’s command, and the decree was given out in the citadel of Shushan. The sovereign and Haman then sat down to drink, but the city of Shushan was in confusion.
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Estĕr (Esther) 3: TS2009
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