1The text of the letter was as follows:
The Great King Ahasuerus to the rulers of the hundred and twenty-seven provinces from India to Ethiopia and to the governors under them:
2As ruler of many nations and master of the whole world, I have resolved 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 desire by making my government humane and truly civilized as far as the borders of my kingdom.
3When 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, 4brought to our attention the existence throughout my realm of a people of ill will, whose laws are opposed to those of every nation. Their continuous disregard of the decrees of kings hinders the establishment of unity in the empire.
5Considering, therefore, the continuous opposition of this people to all humankind, its outlandish system of laws and strange manner of life, its hostility to our interests and the harm it does to the stability of our kingdom, 6we 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 utterly destroyed with women and children, by the sword, without mercy or consideration, on the fourteenth day of the twelfth month, Adar, of the present year, 7so 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.
