CAB(i)
12 So the king's recorders were called in the first month, on the thirteenth
day, and they wrote as Haman commanded to the captains and governors in every province, from India even to Ethiopia, to a hundred and twenty-seven provinces, and to the rulers of the nations according to their
many languages, in the name of King Artaxerxes.
13 And
the message was sent by posts throughout the kingdom of Artaxerxes, to utterly destroy the race of the Jews on the first day of the twelfth month, which is Adar, and to plunder their goods. And the following is the copy of the letter: The great King Artaxerxes writes thus to the rulers and inferior governors of a hundred and twenty-seven provinces, from India even to Ethiopia, who hold authority under
him. Ruling over many nations, and having obtained dominion over the whole world, I was minded, (not elated by the confidence of power but ever conducting
myself with great moderation and with gentleness) to make the lives of
my subjects continually tranquil, desiring both to maintain the kingdom quite and orderly to
its utmost limits, and to restore the peace desired by all men. But when I had inquired of my counselors how this should be brought to pass, Haman, who excels in sound judgment among us, and has been manifestly well inclined without wavering and with unshaken fidelity, and has obtained the second post in the kingdom, informed us that a certain ill-disposed people is mixed up with all the tribes throughout the world, opposed in their laws to every
other nation, and continually neglecting the commands of the kings, so that the united government blamelessly administered by us is not quietly established. Having then conceived that this nation alone
of all others is continually set in opposition to every man, introducing as a change a foreign code of laws, and injuriously plotting to accomplish the worst of evils against our interests, and against the happy establishment of the monarchy; we have accordingly appointed those who are signified to you in the letters written by Haman, who is set over
the public affairs and is our second governor, to utterly destroy them all with their wives and children by the swords of the enemies, without pitying or sparing any, on the fourteenth day of the twelfth month (which is Adar) of the present year; that the people aforetime and now ill-disposed
to us having been violently consigned to death in one day, may hereafter secure to us continually a well- constituted and quiet
state of affairs.
14 And the copies of the letters were published in every province; and an order was given to all the nations to be ready against that day.