CHAPTER 8
1 In that day king Ahasuerus gave to Esther, the queen, the house of Haman, enemy of the Jews. And Mordecai entered in before the face of the king; for Esther acknowledged to him, that he was her father’s brother.
2 Therefore the king took the ring, which he had commanded to be received from Haman, and he gave it to Mordecai. And Esther ordained Mordecai to be sovereign over her household.
3 And Esther was not appeased with these things, and felled down to the feet of the king, and wept, and spake to him, and prayed, that he should command the malice of Haman of the kindred of Agag, and his worst casts, which he had thought out against the Jews, to be made void.
4 And the king by custom held forth the golden rod of the king with his hand, by which the token of his mercy was showed. And then Esther rose up, and stood before the king,
5 and said, If it pleaseth the king, and if I have found grace before his eyes, and if my prayer is not seen to be contrary to him, I beseech, that the eld [or old] letters of Haman, the traitor, and enemy of Jews, by which he had commanded them to perish in all the provinces of the king, be amended by new letters;
6 for how shall I be able to suffer the death, and the slaying, of my people?
7 And king Ahasuerus answered to Esther, the queen, and to Mordecai, the Jew, and said, I have granted the house of Haman to Esther, the queen, and I commanded him to be hanged on the cross, for-thy that he was hardy to set [or put] hand against the Jews.
8 Therefore write ye to [the] Jews, as it pleaseth to you, by the name of the king, and aseal ye the letters with my ring. For this was the custom, that no man durst against-say the letters, that were sent in the king’s name, and were sealed with his ring.
9 And when the arrayers of the king’s letters, and his writers, were called; it was then the time of the third month, that is called Sivan, that is, June, in the three and twentieth day of the month; letters were written, as Mordecai would, to [the] Jews, and to [the] princes, and to procurators, and to judges, that were sovereigns over an hundred and seven and twenty provinces, from India unto Ethiopia, they were written to that province and to that province, to that people and to that people, by their languages and by their letters, and to the Jews, that they might read and hear them.
10 And those letters, that were sent in the name of the king, were asealed with his ring, and were sent forth by his messengers, the which ran about by all provinces, and they came with [the] new messages before that the eld [or old] letters were executed.
11 To whom the king commanded, that they should call together the Jews, and command them to be gathered together by all cities, and that they should stand together for their lives; and that they should slay, and do away, all their enemies, with their wives, and with their children, and with all their households.
12 And one day of vengeance, that is, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month of Adar, that is, March, was ordained by all provinces.
13 And the short sentence of the epistle was this, that it were made known in all lands and peoples, that were subject to the empire of king Ahasuerus, that the Jews be ready that day to take vengeance of their enemies.
14 And the messengers went out, before-bearing swift messages; and this same behest of the king hanged in the city of Susa.
15 And Mordecai went out of the king’s palace and of the king’s sight, and he shined in the king’s clothes, that is, clothes the colour of jacinth, and colour of the air, and he bare a golden crown on his head, and was clothed with a mantle of silk and of purple; and all the city fully joyed, and was glad.
16 Certainly then a new light seemed to rise up to the Jews, and joy, and honour, and dancing
17 was at all peoples, and cities, and at all provinces, whither ever the commandments of the king came, among them was a wonderful joy, and meats, and feasts, and an holy day, in so much, that many of another folk and sect were joined to the religion and ceremonies of them; for the great dread of the name of Jews had assailed all them.