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Esther 3:1-15 — Haman's Plot Against the Jews

Esth.3.1-15

¹After these events King Ahasuerus promoted Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, exalted him, and set his seat above all the officials who were with him. ²All the king's servants who were at the king's gate bowed down and prostrated themselves before Haman, for so the king had commanded concerning him. But Mordecai would not bow down or prostrate himself. ³Then the king's servants who were at the king's gate said to Mordecai, 'Why are you disobeying the king's command?' ⁴And when they spoke to him day after day and he did not listen to them, they told Haman, to see whether Mordecai's words would stand, for he had told them that he was a Jew. ⁵When Haman saw that Mordecai did not bow down or prostrate himself before him, Haman was filled with rage. ⁶But it seemed beneath him to lay hands on Mordecai alone, because they had told him who Mordecai's people were. So Haman sought to destroy all the Jews throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, the people of Mordecai. ⁷In the first month, that is, the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast Pur (that is, the lot) before Haman, from day to day and from month to month, until the twelfth month, that is, the month of Adar. ⁸Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, 'There is a certain people, scattered and separated among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom. Their laws are different from those of every other people, and they do not keep the king's laws; therefore it is not in the king's interest to let them remain.' ⁹If it pleases the king, let it be written that they be destroyed, and I will weigh out ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who carry out the business, to bring it into the king's treasuries. ¹⁰So the king removed his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews. ¹¹And the king said to Haman, 'The silver is given to you, and the people also, to do with them as seems good in your eyes.' ¹²Then the king's scribes were summoned in the first month, on the thirteenth day of it, and all that Haman commanded was written to the king's satraps, to the governors over each province, and to the officials of each people, to every province in its own script and to every people in its own language. It was written in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed with the king's signet ring. ¹³Letters were sent by couriers to all the king's provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all the Jews, young and old, children and women, in one day, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, that is, the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods. ¹⁴A copy of the document was to be issued as a decree in every province, publicly displayed to all the peoples, so that they would be ready for that day. ¹⁵The couriers went out hurried by the king's command, and the decree was issued in Susa the citadel. And the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Susa was bewildered.

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4/11/2026

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