1 The text of the letter was as follows: The Creat King Ahasuerus to the rulers of the hundred and twenty-seven prouinces from India to Ethiopia and to the governors under them:
2 As ruler of many nalions and master of the whole world, I haue resolvcd never to be carried away by the arrogance of power but always to rule with fairness and clemency, to provide for my subjects a life free of distress, and to restore the peace that all men desire by making mg government humane and truly civilized as far as the borders of my kingdom.
3 When I consulted my advisers on how this might be accomplished, Haman, who excels among us in wisdom, who has earned distinction for trustworthiness and loyalty, and who has attained the second rank in the kingdom,
4 brough t to our attention the existence throughout my realm of a people of ill will, whose laws are opposed to those of everg nation.Their continuous disregard of the decrees of kings hinders the establishment of unity in the empire.
5 Considering. therefore, the continuous opposttion of this people to all humankind, its outlandish system of laws and strange manner of life, its hostility to our interests and the harmit does to the stability of our kingdom.
6 we hereby decree that all the people indicated in the letters of Haman, who is In charge of affairs and a second father to us, be utterlg destroyed with women and children, by without mercy or consideration, on the fourteenth day of the twelfth month, Adar,of the present year.
7 so that when these people; with their past and present ill will, have gone down into the world of the dead on a single day,they may at last leave our government in complete stability and peace.