Esther 3 - Meaning, Themes & Application

After this, King Ahasuerus highly honored Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Bugaean. He exalted him and set his seat above all his friends.

All in the palace bowed down to him, for so the king had given orders to do; but Mordecai didn’t bow down to him.

And they in the king’s palace said to Mordecai, “Mordecai, why do you transgress the commands of the king?”

They questioned him daily, but he didn’t listen to them; so they reported to Haman that Mordecai resisted the commands of the king; and Mordecai had shown to them that he was a Jew.

When Haman understood that Mordecai didn’t bow down to him, he was greatly enraged,

and plotted to utterly destroy all the Jews who were under the rule of Ahasuerus.

In the twelfth year of the reign of Ahasuerus, Haman made a decision by casting lots by day and month, to kill the race of Mordecai in one day. The lot fell on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar.

So he spoke to King Ahasuerus, saying, “There is a nation scattered among the nations in all your kingdom, and their laws differ from all the other nations. They disobey the king’s laws. It is not expedient for the king to tolerate them.

If it seem good to the king, let him make a decree to destroy them, and I will remit into the king’s treasury ten thousand talents of silver.”

So the king took off his ring, and gave it into the hands of Haman to seal the decrees against the Jews.

The king said to Haman, “Keep the silver, and treat the nation as you will.”

So the king’s recorders were called in the first month, on the thirteenth day, and they wrote as Haman commanded to the captains and governors in every province, from India even to Ethiopia, to one hundred twenty-seven provinces; and to the rulers of the nations according to their languages, in the name of King Ahasuerus.

The message was sent by couriers throughout the kingdom of Ahasuerus, to utterly destroy the race of the Jews on the first day of the twelfth month, which is Adar, and to plunder their goods.

Copies of the letters were published in every province; and an order was given to all the nations to be ready for that day.

This business was hastened also in Susa. The king and Haman began to drink, but the city was confused.