1   This is a copy of the letter:

  Artaxerxes the Great King to the governors of the one hundred and twenty-seven provinces, from India to Ethiopia, and to the subordinate officials.

   2   Ruler as I am over many nations and master of all the world, it is my will—not in the arrogance of power, but because my rule is mild and equitable—to ensure to my subjects a life permanently free from disturbance, to pacify my empire and make it safe for travel to its farthest limits, and to restore the peace that all men long for. 3   I asked my counsellors how this object might be achieved and received a reply from Haman. Haman is eminent among us for sound judgement, one whose worth is proved by his constant goodwill and steadfast loyalty, and who has gained the honour of the second place at our court. 4   He represented to us that scattered among all the races of the empire is a disaffected people, opposed in its laws to every nation, and continually ignoring the royal ordinances, so that our irreproachable plans for the unified administration of the empire cannot be made effective. 5   We understand that this nation stands alone in its continual opposition to all men, that it evades the laws by its strange manner of life, and in disloyalty to our government commits grievous offences, thus

A plot against the Jews undermining the security of our empire. 6   We therefore order that those who are designated to you in the indictments drawn up by Haman, our vicegerent and second father, shall all, together with their wives and children, be utterly destroyed by the sword of their enemies, without mercy or pity, on the thirteenth ^note day of Adar, the twelfth month, of the present year. 7   Those persons who have long been disaffected shall meet a violent death in one day so that our government may henceforth be stable and untroubled.

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