Esther 8

The signet ring changes hands

1That same day King Ahasuerus gave Queen Esther the house of Haman, the enemy of the Jews; and Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had told the king what Mordecai was to her. 2The king took off his signet ring, which he had taken back from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai; and Esther put Mordecai in charge of the house of Haman. 3Esther spoke to the king again. She fell at his feet, weeping and pleading with him to avert the evil of Haman the Agagite and the scheme he had devised against the Jews. 4The king held out the golden scepter to Esther, and Esther rose and stood before the king. 5She said, “If it pleases the king, and if I have found favor before him, and if the matter seems right to the king and I am pleasing in his eyes, let an order be written to revoke the letters — the scheme of Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite — which he wrote to destroy the Jews in all the king’s provinces. 6For how could I bear to watch the disaster that would overtake my people? How could I bear to watch the destruction of my family?” 7King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew: “Look — I have given Esther the house of Haman, and they have hanged him on the pole because he laid his hand on the Jews. 8Now you write on behalf of the Jews as you see fit, in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s signet ring — for a document written in the king’s name and sealed with the king’s signet ring cannot be revoked.” 9Then the king’s secretaries were summoned, at that time, in the third month — the month of Sivan — on the twenty-third day, and everything Mordecai commanded was written down: to the Jews, to the satraps, to the governors and to the officials of the provinces from India to Cush, one hundred and twenty-seven provinces — to each province in its own script and to each people in its own language, and to the Jews in their own script and in their own language. 10He wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed it with the king’s signet ring, and he sent the letters by couriers on horseback, riding the swift royal steeds, bred from the king’s own mares. 11In them the king granted the Jews of every city the right to assemble and defend their lives: to destroy, to kill and to annihilate any armed force of a people or a province that attacked them — children and women — and to plunder their goods, 12on a single day throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus — the thirteenth of the twelfth month, that is, the month of Adar. 13A copy of the document was to be issued as a decree in every province and published to all the peoples, so that the Jews would be ready for that day to take vengeance on their enemies. 14The couriers, riding the swift royal steeds, went out at speed and in haste at the king’s word, and the decree was issued in the citadel of Susa. 15Mordecai left the king’s presence in royal robes of violet and white, with a great crown of gold and a cloak of fine linen and purple; and the city of Susa shouted and rejoiced. 16For the Jews there was light and gladness, joy and honor. 17In every province and in every city, wherever the king’s word and his decree arrived, there was joy and gladness among the Jews, a banquet and a holiday. And many of the peoples of the land became Jews, for the dread of the Jews had fallen on them.