After these events, King Ahasuerus promoted Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and he elevated him and placed his throne above all the officials who were with him.

And all the king's servants who were at the king's gate bowed down and prostrated themselves to Haman, for so the king had commanded concerning him. But Mordecai did not bow down nor prostrate himself.

Then the king's servants who were at the king's gate said to Mordecai, 'Why are you transgressing the king's command?'

And when they spoke to him day after day, and he did not listen to them, they told Haman to see if Mordecai's words would stand, for he had told them that he was a Yehudi.

And Haman saw that Mordecai did not bow down nor prostrate himself to him, and Haman was filled with rage.

But it seemed insignificant in his eyes to lay a hand on Mordecai alone, for they had told him Mordecai's people. So Haman sought to destroy all the Yehudim who were in all the kingdom of Ahasuerus, Mordecai's people.

In the first month, which is the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast the pur, which is the lot, before Haman, from day to day and from month to month, for the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar.

Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, 'There is one people scattered and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom, and their laws are different from every people, and they do not perform the king's laws. It is not beneficial for the king to tolerate them.

If it is pleasing to the king, let it be written to destroy them, and I will weigh out ten thousand talents of silver by the hand of the workers to bring into the king's treasuries.'

So the king removed his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the adversary of the Yehudim.

And the king said to Haman, 'The silver is given to you, and the people also, to do with them as is good in your eyes.'

Then the king's scribes were summoned in the first month, on the thirteenth day of it, and it was written according to all that Haman commanded to the king's satraps and to the governors who were over each province and to the officials of each people, province by province, according to its writing and people by people, in the name of King Ahasuerus it was written and sealed with the king's signet ring.

And letters were sent by the hand of messengers to all the king's provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all the Yehudim, from young man to old man, infants and women, on one day, on the thirteenth of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, and to plunder their spoil.

The text of the decree to be given as law in each province was made public to all the peoples, so that they would be ready for this day.

The messengers went out, hastened by the king's command, and the decree was given in Shushan the capital. And the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Shushan was in confusion.