8 Haʹman then said to King A·has·u·eʹrus: “There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the peoples+ in all the provinces* of your realm,+ whose laws are different from those of all other peoples; and they do not obey the king’s laws, and it is not in the king’s interests to let them be.

13 The letters were sent by means of couriers to all the king’s provinces,* giving the order to annihilate, to kill, and to destroy all the Jews, young and old alike, children and women, on a single day, on the 13th day of the 12th month, that is, the month of Aʹdar,+ and to seize their possessions.+