Esther 8:3-14

³ Then Esther spoke again to the king , fell at his feet , wept and implored him to avert the evil scheme of Haman the Agagite and his plot which he had devised against the Jews . ⁴ The king extended the golden scepter to Esther . So Esther arose and stood before the king . ⁵ Then she said , " If it pleases e the king and if I have found favor before him and the matter seems proper to the king and I am pleasing in his sight , let it be written to revoke the letters devised by Haman , the son of Hammedatha the Agagite , which he wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the king's provinces . ⁶ "For how can I endure to see the calamity which will befall my people , and how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred ?" ⁷ So King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew , "Behold , I have given the house of Haman to Esther , and him they have hanged on the gallows because e he had stretched out his hands against the Jews . ⁸ "Now you write to the Jews as you see fit , in the king's name , and seal it with the king's signet ring ; for a decree which is written in the name of the king and sealed with the king's signet ring may not be revoked ." ⁹ So the king's scribes were called at that time in the third month (that is, the month Sivan ), on the twenty-third e day; and it was written according to all that Mordecai commanded to the Jews , the satraps , the governors and the princes of the provinces which extended from India to Ethiopia , 127 e e provinces , to every province according to its script , and to every people according to their language as well as to the Jews according to their script and their language . ¹⁰ He wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus , and sealed it with the king's signet ring , and sent letters by couriers on horses , riding on steeds sired by the royal stud . ¹¹ In them the king granted the Jews who were in each and every city the right to assemble and to defend their lives , to destroy , to kill and to annihilate the entire army of any people or province which might attack them, including children and women , and to plunder their spoil , ¹² on one day in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus , the thirteenth e day of the twelfth e month (that is, the month Adar ). ¹³ A copy of the edict to be issued as law in each and every province was published to all the peoples , so that the Jews would be ready for this day to avenge themselves on their enemies . ¹⁴ The couriers , hastened and impelled by the king's command , went out, riding on the royal steeds ; and the decree was given out at the citadel in Susa .