Esther 8

₁King Ahasuerus gave Haman's house to Queen Esther on that day. Haman had been the enemy of the Jews. Mordecai stood before the king. He became a very important man because Esther told the king that she was Mordecai's cousin. ₂The king took off his ring with the seal and he gave it to Mordecai. It was the seal which he had taken from Haman. Esther asked Mordecai to be the manager of Haman's house.

₃Esther went to the king again and she lay before him and cried. She asked him to stop the plans that Haman, the descendant of King Agag, had made. Haman had made plans to kill all the Jews and she asked the king to help make those plans fail. ₄When Esther went to the king, he pointed his golden sceptre at her and she stood in front of him.

₅She said: ‘Your_Majesty, if you want to help me and you think this is right, then you must please do something for me. If you love me, please say that the letters of Haman must stop. Haman, the descendant of Agag, wrote the letters because he wanted all the Jews in the provinces of the king to be killed. ₆I do not want a bad thing like that to happen to my people. I do not want them to kill my family.’

₇King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and Mordecai the Jew: ‘You know that I gave Haman's house to Esther and that they hanged him on the pole because he said that they must kill all the Jews. ₈No person can stop a letter that comes from the king if the king's seal is on it. But you can write a new law to help the Jews. Write the letter as you want to and say the letters come from the king and put the seal of the king on the letters.’

₉In the 3rd month, the month of Sivan, on the 23rd day of the month, Mordecai called all the secretaries of the king. They wrote what Mordecai said. They had to write to the Jews, the chief_officials, the governors and all officials in the 127 provinces, from the land of India to the land of Cush. They had to write to each province and to each nation. They had to write in the language of those nations and in the way that those people used to write. ₁₀Mordecai wrote that the letters came from the king and he put the seal of the king on the letters. Messengers on fast horses of the king took the letters to all the provinces.

₁₁The letters said that the king had told the Jews in every town that they could come together to fight and protect their lives. It also said that they could kill anyone who attacked them, no_matter what nation or province they came from. They could also kill the wives and children of the people who attacked them and take everything they had. ₁₂The day when this could happen in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus was the 13th day of the 12th month, the month of Adar. ₁₃The messengers took the letters to every province and everyone had to know that it was a law of the king. The Jews had to be ready on that day to punish their enemies.

₁₄The messengers rode on fast horses of the king, and the king told them to hurry. They told the people in the city of Susa what the king had said ₁₅and the Jews rejoiced and celebrated. When Mordecai went away from the king, he wore royal clothes and a big golden crown on his head. The royal clothes were made of white, blue and purple wool and linen. ₁₆For the Jews it was a time to be happy, to rejoice and to hope. All the people respected them.

₁₇In every province and every town where they told the people what the king had decided, the Jews were happy and they celebrated. It was a very good day for them. A lot of the other people said that they were Jews, because they were afraid of the Jews.