Esther 8
Esther 8:1 That same day, King Ahasuerus awarded Queen Esther the house of Haman, the enemy of the Jews. Mordecai entered the king’s presence because Esther had revealed her relationship to Mordecai.
Esther 8:2 The king removed the signet ring he had recovered from Haman and gave it to Mordecai, and Esther put him in charge of Haman’s house.
Esther 8:3 Then Esther addressed the king again. She fell at his feet, wept, and begged him to revoke Haman the Agagite’s evil and the plot he had devised against the Jews.
Esther 8:4 The king extended the gold scepter toward Esther, so she got up and stood before the king.
Esther 8:5 She said, “If it pleases the king and I have found favor before him, if the matter seems right to the king and I am pleasing in his eyes, let a royal edict be written. Let it revoke the documents that the scheming Haman, son of Hammedatha the Agagite, wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the king’s provinces.
Esther 8:6 How could I bear to see the disaster coming on my people? How could I bear to see the destruction of my relatives?”
Esther 8:7 King Ahasuerus said to Esther, the queen, and Mordecai the Jew, “Notice, I have given Haman’s house to Esther, and he was hanged on the gallows because he attacked the Jews.
Esther 8:8 Write in the king’s name whatever pleases you concerning the Jews, and seal it with the royal signet ring. A document written in the king’s name and sealed with the royal signet ring cannot be revoked.”
Esther 8:9 On the twenty-third day of the third month—that is, the month Sivan—the royal scribes were called together. Everything was recorded just as Mordecai instructed for the Jews, including the satraps, the governors, and the captains of the 127 provinces from India to Cush. The decree was written for each province in its own script, for each ethnic group in its language, and for the Jews in their script and language.
Esther 8:10 Mordecai wrote in King Ahasuerus’s name and sealed the mandates with the royal signet ring. He sent the documents by mounted couriers, who rode fast horses bred in the royal stables.
Esther 8:11 The king’s edict gave the Jews in each city the right to assemble and defend their throats, to exterminate, kill, and destroy every ethnic and provincial army hostile to them, including women and children, and to take their possessions as spoils of war.
Esther 8:12 This would happen on a single day, the thirteenth of the twelfth month, Adar, across all the provinces of King Ahasuerus.
Esther 8:13 A copy of the text, issued as law throughout every province, was distributed to all the people so the Jews could be ready to avenge themselves against their enemies on that day.
Esther 8:14 The couriers hurriedly rode out on their royal horses at the king’s urgent command. The law was also issued in the fortress of Susa.
Esther 8:15 Mordecai went from the king’s face, clothed in royal purple and white with a great gold crown and a purple robe of fine linen. The city of Susa shouted and rejoiced,
Esther 8:16 and the Jews celebrated with gladness, joy, and honor.
Esther 8:17 In every province and every city, wherever the king’s command and his law reached, joy and rejoicing occurred among the Jews. There was a celebration and a holiday. And many of the ethnic groups of the land[1] professed themselves to be Jews because fear of the Jews had overcome them.
[1] אֶרֶץ = land. Esther 8:17; 10:1.
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