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The Blue Letter Bible

Esther 3 :: New International Version (NIV)

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Haman’s Plot to Destroy the Jews

Unchecked Copy BoxEst 3:1 - After these events, King Xerxes honored Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, elevating him and giving him a seat of honor higher than that of all the other nobles.
Unchecked Copy BoxEst 3:2 - All the royal officials at the king’s gate knelt down and paid honor to Haman, for the king had commanded this concerning him. But Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor.
Unchecked Copy BoxEst 3:3 - Then the royal officials at the king’s gate asked Mordecai, “Why do you disobey the king’s command?”
Unchecked Copy BoxEst 3:4 - Day after day they spoke to him but he refused to comply. Therefore they told Haman about it to see whether Mordecai’s behavior would be tolerated, for he had told them he was a Jew.
Unchecked Copy BoxEst 3:5 - When Haman saw that Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor, he was enraged.
Unchecked Copy BoxEst 3:6 - Yet having learned who Mordecai’s people were, he scorned the idea of killing only Mordecai. Instead Haman looked for a way to destroy all Mordecai’s people, the Jews, throughout the whole kingdom of Xerxes.
Unchecked Copy BoxEst 3:7 - In the twelfth year of King Xerxes, in the first month, the month of Nisan, the pur (that is, the lot) was cast in the presence of Haman to select a day and month. And the lot fell on[fn] the twelfth month, the month of Adar.
Unchecked Copy BoxEst 3:8 - Then Haman said to King Xerxes, “There is a certain people dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom who keep themselves separate. Their customs are different from those of all other people, and they do not obey the king’s laws; it is not in the king’s best interest to tolerate them.
Unchecked Copy BoxEst 3:9 - If it pleases the king, let a decree be issued to destroy them, and I will give ten thousand talents[fn] of silver to the king’s administrators for the royal treasury.”
Unchecked Copy BoxEst 3:10 - So the king took his signet ring from his finger and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews.
Unchecked Copy BoxEst 3:11 - “Keep the money,” the king said to Haman, “and do with the people as you please.”
Unchecked Copy BoxEst 3:12 - Then on the thirteenth day of the first month the royal secretaries were summoned. They wrote out in the script of each province and in the language of each people all Haman’s orders to the king’s satraps, the governors of the various provinces and the nobles of the various peoples. These were written in the name of King Xerxes himself and sealed with his own ring.
Unchecked Copy BoxEst 3:13 - Dispatches were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces with the order to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews—young and old, women and children—on a single day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods.
Unchecked Copy BoxEst 3:14 - A copy of the text of the edict was to be issued as law in every province and made known to the people of every nationality so they would be ready for that day.
Unchecked Copy BoxEst 3:15 - The couriers went out, spurred on by the king’s command, and the edict was issued in the citadel of Susa. The king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Susa was bewildered.
NIV Footnotes
Septuagint; Hebrew does not have And the lot fell on.
That is, about 375 tons or about 340 metric tons
NIV

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Esther Chapter 3 — Additional Translations: