1After these things king Ahasuerus promoted Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite. He raised him up, and set his seat above all the princes who were with him.
2All the king's servants who were at the king's gate bowed down and honoured Haman, for the king had commanded this about him. But Mordecai would not bow down, and would not honour him.
3Then the king's servants who were at the king's gate said to Mordecai, "Why do you break the king's command?"
4They spoke to him day after day, but he would not listen to them. So they told Haman, to see whether Mordecai's stand would hold, for he had told them that he was a Jew.
6But he thought it beneath him to lay hands on Mordecai alone, for they had told him who Mordecai's people were. So Haman looked for a way to destroy all the Jews in the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, the people of Mordecai.
7In the first month, that is, the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of king Ahasuerus, they cast Pur, that is, the lot, before Haman. They cast it from day to day, and from month to month, to the twelfth month, that is, the month Adar.
8Then Haman said to king Ahasuerus, "There is a certain people scattered and spread out among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom. Their laws are different from those of every other people, and they do not keep the king's laws. So it does the king no good to let them remain."
9"If it pleases the king, let an order be written that they be destroyed. And I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who manage the king's business, to bring it into the king's treasuries."
10So the king took his ring off his hand and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews.
11The king said to Haman, "The silver is given to you, and the people also, to do with them whatever seems good to you."
12Then the king's scribes were called on the thirteenth day of the first month. They wrote down everything Haman commanded. It went to the king's officers, and to the governors over every province, and to the rulers of every people of every province, in the writing of each province and in the language of each people. It was written in the name of king Ahasuerus, and sealed with the king's ring.
13The letters were sent by messengers into all the king's provinces. They ordered that all Jews were to be destroyed, killed and wiped out, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and that their goods were to be taken as plunder.
14A copy of the writing was to be given out as a law in every province, and made known to all peoples, so that they would be ready for that day.
15The messengers went out in haste at the king's command, and the decree was given out in Shushan the palace. Then the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Shushan was bewildered.