8Verse 1Later on that same day, King Xerxes declared that everything that Haman, the enemy of the Jews, owned, would now belong to Queen Esther. Esther told the king that Mordecai was her cousin. When the king heard that, he sent a message to tell Mordecai to come in.Verse 2When Mordecai came in, the king took off the ring that had his official seal on it, the ring that he had previously given to Haman, and gave it to Mordecai, to indicate that Mordecai was now his most important official. And Esther appointed Mordecai to be in charge of everything that had belonged to Haman.Verse 3Esther again came to talk to the king. She prostrated herself at his feet, crying. She wanted to plead for him to stop what Haman had planned, to kill all the Jews.Verse 4The king held out his gold scepter/staff toward Esther, so Esther arose and stood in front of him.Verse 5She said, “Your majesty, if you are pleased with me, and if you think that it is the right thing to do, make a new law to cancel what Haman decreed, that all the Jews in all the provinces in your empire should be killed.Verse 6I cannot bear seeing all my family and all the rest of my people killed.”Verse 7King Xerxes replied to Queen Esther and Mordecai, “Because Haman tried to get rid of all the Jews, I have given to Esther everything that belonged to Haman, and I have ordered my soldiers to hang Haman.Verse 8So now I am also permitting you to write other letters, to save your people. You may put my name on the letters, and use my ring to seal them because no letter that has my name on it and which is sealed with my ring can ever be changed.”Verse 9Then the king summoned his secretaries, on June 25th, and Mordecai told them to write letters to the Jews and to all the governors and other officials in all of the 127 provinces, which extended from India in the east to Ethiopia in the west. They wrote these letters in all the languages that the people in each area spoke. They also wrote letters to the Jewish people, in their language.Verse 10They wrote in those letters that the Jews in every city were permitted by the king to gather together to protect themselves. They also were permitted to kill any group of soldiers who attacked them. They were also permitted to kill the women and children of those who attacked them, and to take the possessions of the people whom they killed.Verse 12All this was to be done on March 7th of the following year. Mordecai signed the king’s name on the letters, and sealed them with the seal that was on the king’s ring. Then he gave them to messengers, who rode on fast horses that had been raised especially for the king.Verse 13Copies of this law were to be nailed to posts in every province and read to all the people, in order that the Jews would be ready to ◄get revenge on/fight against► their enemies on March 7th.Verse 14The king commanded the men who took these letters to all the provinces to ride quickly on the king’s horses. And copies of the letter were also posted and read to the people in the capital city, Susa.Verse 15Before Mordecai left the palace, he put on the blue and white robe and a large gold crown that the king had given him. He also put on a coat made of fine purple cloth. When the people in Susa heard the new law, they all shouted and cheered.Verse 16The Jews in Susa were very happy, and other people honored them.Verse 17And when the new law arrived in every city and province, the Jews there celebrated and prepared feasts and were very joyful. And many men throughout the empire were circumcised and became Jews, because they were now afraid of what the Jews would do to them if they were not Jews.