1 After these events, King Aha suerus promoted Haman, son of Hammedatha the Agagite, to a rank higher than that of all the other officials.
2 On orders of the king, all the royal officials at the king’s gate would kneel and bow down to Ha man. This Mordecai refused to do.
3 The royal officials at the king’s gate asked Mordecai, “Why do you disobey the king’s order?”
4 They spoke to him day after day, but he refused to comply, explaining that he was a Jew. To find out if this explanation was acceptable, they reported the matter to Haman.
5 Haman was enraged when he saw that Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor.
6 Having learned who Mordecai’s people were, he thought it would not be enough to lay hands on him alone, but sought to destroy all the Jews throughout the kingdom of Ahasu erus.
7 In the first month, the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, the pur or lot was cast in Haman’s presence to determine the day and the month for the destruction of Mordecai’s people. The lot fell on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, Adar.
8 Haman talked to King Aha suerus, “Scattered throughout the pro vinces of your kingdom is a certain peo ple, whose customs differ from those of other people. Since they do not obey our laws, it is not in the king’s best interests to tolerate them.
9 If it pleases the king, let a decree be issued to destroy them. I will deposit in the royal treasury ten thousand silver talents for the men who carry out the king’s business.”
10 The king took the signet ring off his finger, handed it to Haman, son of Hammedatha the Agagite, enemy of the Jews, and said,
11 “Keep the money, and do with these peo ple as you please.”
12 On the thirteenth day of the first month, the royal scribes were summoned. As Haman dictated, they wrote orders in the script of each province and in the language of each people to the king’s satraps, the governors of every province, and the officials of every people. Written in the name of King Ahasuerus himself and sealed with his own ring,
13 these dispatches were sent by couriers to all the royal provinces with the order to kill, destroy and wipe out all the Jews – young and old, women and children – on a single day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month of Adar, and to plunder their goods.
14 A copy of the edict to be pro mulgated as law in every province was published for all the people to know so that they would be ready for that day.
15 The couriers, spurred on by the king’s command, set out in haste, and the edict was first promulgated in Susa. As the king and Haman sat down to drink, the city of Susa was in bewilderment.
------------------------------------------------------------
Comments Esther, Chapter 3
• 3.14 This “letter of Ahasuerus,” together with the other in chapter 15, is one of the best pages of the book.
One way of reading it is to see in it a model of what the totalitarian regimes and military dictators in all places and in all times think, say and write. Whoever for conscience reasons opposes those in power is a traitor to his country or to his people. The book shows how such totalitarianism turns into idolatry of rulers who are considered infallible. It must always be remembered that nations and their armies are only means of serving the international community and peace which requires that people and consciences be free. This letter targets the liberty of conscience of the Jewish people, a liberty which should not be less in Christians. It shows us why societies in the past with small regard for the rights of the human person – even when claiming to be Christian – could not tolerate Jews. For the same reasons Christians are persecuted or suffer many constraints to day in countries where the majority are of another religion.
This letter can also be read in another way: we can see the tensions existing at that time between the Jews and the non-Jews. They made much of their solidarity with other Jews; the Law kept them apart and did not allow them a real companionship with their neighbor. And the end of the book will reveal the violence hidden under the humble trust of believers in their God.