3:1  After these events King Ahasuerus promoted Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him and established his authority over all the princes who accompanied him.

3:2  All the king's servants who assembled at the king's gate bowed down and paid homage to Haman; for so the king had commanded concerning him. But Mordecai neither bowed down nor paid homage.

3:3  Then the king's servants who assembled at the king's gate said to Mordecai, "Why do you transgress the king's command?"

3:4  Now when they had spoken daily to him and he would not listen to them, that they told Haman to see whether Mordecai's reason would stand; for he had told them that he had Jewish linneage.

3:5  When Haman saw that Mordecai neither bowed down nor paid homage to him, Haman filled with rage.

3:6  But he disdained to lay hands on Mordecai alone, for they had told him who the people of Mordecai consisted of; therefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews, the people of Mordecai, who lived throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus.

3:7  In the first month, which we mark as the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, Pur, namely the lot, became cast before Haman from day to day and from month to month, until the twelfth month, namely the month Adar.

3:8  Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, "There lives a certain people scattered and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom; their laws differ from those of all other people and they do not observe the king's laws, so it does not prove in the king's interest to let them remain.

3:9  "If it pleases the king, let him decree that they receive the death penalty, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who carry on the king's business, to put into the king's treasuries."

3:10  Then the king took his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews.

3:11  The king said to Haman, "The silver belongs to you, and the people also, to do with them as you please."

3:12  Then the king's scribes received a summons on the thirteenth day of the first month, and the scribes wrote just as Haman commanded to the king's satraps, to the governors who ruled over each province and to the princes of each people, each province according to its script, each people according to its language, having appeared as written in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed with the king's signet ring.

3:13  Letters travelled by couriers to all the king's provinces to destroy, to kill and to annihilate all the Jews, both young and old, women and children, in one day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which we mark as the month Adar, and to seize their possessions as plunder.

3:14  A copy of the issued edict as law in every province became published to all the peoples so that they should become ready for this day.

3:15  The couriers went out impelled by the king's command while the king issued a decree at the citadel in Susa; and while the king and Haman sat down to drink, the city of Susa tumbled into confusion.