1 After these events King Ahasuerus honored Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, promoting him and giving him a seat of honor higher than that of all the other officials with him.
2 All the king's servants at the king's gate knelt down and bowed to Haman, because the king had commanded it. But Mordecai would not kneel down or bow.
3 The king's servants at the king's gate asked Mordecai, "Why do you disobey the king's command?"
4 Day after day they spoke to him, but he refused to listen. So they told Haman, to see whether Mordecai's reason would be accepted, for he had told them he was a Jew.
5 When Haman saw that Mordecai would not kneel down or bow to him, he was enraged.
6 But he scorned the idea of laying hands on Mordecai alone, since they had told him who Mordecai's people were. Instead Haman looked for a way to wipe out all the Jews, Mordecai's people, throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus.
7 In the first month, the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast pur, that is, the lot, in Haman's presence, day after day and month after month, until it fell on the twelfth month, the month of Adar.
8 Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, "There is a certain people dispersed and scattered among the peoples in every province of your kingdom. Their laws are different from those of all other peoples, and they do not keep the king's laws. It is not in the king's interest to tolerate them.
9 If it pleases the king, let a decree be written to destroy them, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of the officials in charge of the king's business, for the royal treasuries."
10 So the king took the signet ring off his hand and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews.
11 "Keep the money," the king told Haman, "and the people too; do with them whatever you like."
12 On the thirteenth day of the first month the royal scribes were called in, and everything Haman ordered was written down to the king's satraps, the governors of each province, and the officials of each people, to each province in its own script and to each people in its own language. It was written in King Ahasuerus's name and sealed with the king's signet ring.
13 The letters were sent by runners to all the king's provinces with the order to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the Jews, young and old, women and little children, on a single day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, and to seize their goods as plunder.
14 A copy of the text was to be issued as law in every province and made known to all the peoples, so they would be ready for that day.
15 At the king's command the runners went out in haste, and the decree was issued in Susa the citadel. The king and Haman sat down to drink, while the city of Susa was thrown into confusion.