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1Later, King Artaxerxes promoted Haman the son of Hammedatha to the highest position in his kingdom.[#3.1 The Greek text adds “a Bougean.” However, the meaning of this term is not known.]
2The king ordered all of his officials to bow down to Haman, and all of them obeyed except Mordecai.
3The other officials went to Mordecai and asked, “Why are you ignoring what the king said?”
4They spoke to Mordecai like this for several days, but he told them he was a Jew and would not bow down to Haman. The other officials went to Haman and told him that Mordecai was Jewish and refused to do what the king said.
5Haman was furious when he learned that Mordecai refused to bow down to him,
6and he started planning how to get rid of all the Jews in the kingdom.
7It was now the twelfth year that Artaxerxes was king, and Haman decided to find out what would be the best month and day to kill Mordecai and the rest of the Jews. He found that the best date was Adar fourteenth.[#3.7 The Greek text has “cast lots,” which were small pieces of wood or bone that were often used to get an answer from a god. They were tossed on the ground, and the way they landed showed what the answer was.; #3.7 See the note at 2.15,16.]
8Then Haman went to King Artaxerxes and said, “Your Majesty, the people from a certain nation are scattered throughout your kingdom. Their customs are different from ours, and they refuse to obey your laws. You would be better off to get rid of them.
9If you give orders for all of them to be killed, I will pay over 340 tons of silver to your treasury.”[#3.9 Possibly from the possessions of the Jews that would be killed.]
10Artaxerxes handed his royal ring to Haman, so the law against the Jews could be made official.[#3.10 Melted wax was used to seal a document, and while the wax was still soft, the king's ring was pressed into it. The special design left in the wax showed that the document was official.]
11Then the king said, “Do what you want with those people! And you can keep their money.”
12On the thirteenth day of the first month, Haman called in the king's secretaries and ordered them to write a letter and make copies in every language used in the kingdom. The letter was to be written in the name of King Artaxerxes and sent to the generals of his army and to the governors of his 127 provinces from India to Ethiopia.[#3.12 Nisan (also called Abib), the first month of the Hebrew calendar, from about mid-March to mid-April.]
13Then messengers would deliver the copies of the letter, which said that on a certain day in Adar, the twelfth month, the people were to get rid of all the Jews and take their property.