7 And king Artaxerxes answered Esther the queen and Mordecai the Jew, 'I have granted Haman's house to Esther, and I have ordered him to be fastened to a cross, because he dared to lay hands on the Jews.
8 Therefore, write to the Jews, just as it pleases you, in the king's name, sealing the letters with my ring.' For this was the custom, that letters which were sent in the king's name and were sealed with his ring, no one would dare to contradict.
9 Then the scribes and copyists were brought in, (now it was the time of the third month which is called Sivan,) on the twenty-third day of the month, and letters were written, as Mordecai wanted, to the Jews, and to the governors, and procurators, and judges, who presided over the one hundred twenty-seven provinces, from India all the way to Ethiopia: to one province and another, to one people and another, in accordance with their languages and letters, and to the Jews, exactly as they were able to read and hear.
10 And these letters, which were sent in the king's name, had been signed with his ring, and were sent by swift couriers who were to rush in every direction, through all the provinces, so as to prevent the former letters with new messages.
11 The king commanded them to bring together the Jews throughout each city, and to instruct them to join together, so as to make a stand for their lives, and to execute and destroy all their enemies, with their wives and children and their entire houses, and to plunder their spoil.
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