Immerse: Chronicles Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 165
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ordered that Jews throughout all the king’s provinces should be destroyed.
For how can I endure to see my people and my family slaughtered and
destroyed?”
Then King Xerxes said to Queen Esther and Mordecai the Jew, “I have
given Esther the property of Haman, and he has been impaled on a pole
because he tried to destroy the Jews. Now go ahead and send a message
to the Jews in the king’s name, telling them whatever you want, and seal it
with the king’s signet ring. But remember that whatever has already been
written in the king’s name and sealed with his signet ring can never be
revoked.”
So on June 25 the king’s secretaries were summoned, and a decree was
written exactly as Mordecai dictated. It was sent to the Jews and to the
highest officers, the governors, and the nobles of all the 127 provinces
stretching from India to Ethiopia. The decree was written in the scripts
and languages of all the peoples of the empire, including that of the Jews.
The decree was written in the name of King Xerxes and sealed with the
king’s signet ring. Mordecai sent the dispatches by swift messengers, who
rode fast horses especially bred for the king’s service.
The king’s decree gave the Jews in every city authority to unite to defend
their lives. They were allowed to kill, slaughter, and annihilate anyone of
any nationality or province who might attack them or their children and
wives, and to take the property of their enemies. The day chosen for this
event throughout all the provinces of King Xerxes was March 7 of the
next year.
A copy of this decree was to be issued as law in every province and proclaimed to all peoples, so that the Jews would be ready to take revenge on
their enemies on the appointed day. So urged on by the king’s command,
the messengers rode out swiftly on fast horses bred for the king’s service.
The same decree was also proclaimed in the fortress of Susa.
Then Mordecai left the king’s presence, wearing the royal robe of blue
and white, the great crown of gold, and an outer cloak of fine linen and
purple. And the people of Susa celebrated the new decree. The Jews were
filled with joy and gladness and were honored everywhere. In every province and city, wherever the king’s decree arrived, the Jews rejoiced and had
a great celebration and declared a public festival and holiday. And many of
the people of the land became Jews themselves, for they feared what the
Jews might do to them.
So on March 7 the two decrees of the king were put into effect. On that
day, the enemies of the Jews had hoped to overpower them, but quite the
opposite happened. It was the Jews who overpowered their enemies. The
Jews gathered in their cities throughout all the king’s provinces to attack
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