And when Daniel knew that the decree was ordered, he went into his house. And his windows were opened in his chambers toward Jerusalem, and three times in the day he knelt upon his knees, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he used to do before.

And they came and said to the king, O king, have you not made a decree, that if any man shall ask a petition of any god or man for thirty days, except for you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions? And the king said, The word is true, and the decree of the Medes and Persians shall not pass.

Then the king, when he heard the saying, was greatly grieved for Daniel, and he set his heart on Daniel to deliver him: and he exerted himself till evening to deliver him.

And [the message] was sent by posts throughout the kingdom of Artaxerxes, to utterly destroy the race of the Jews on the first day of the twelfth month, which is Adar, and to plunder their goods. And the following is the copy of the letter: The great King Artaxerxes writes thus to the rulers and inferior governors of a hundred and twenty-seven provinces, from India even to Ethiopia, who hold authority under [him]. Ruling over many nations, and having obtained dominion over the whole world, I was minded, (not elated by the confidence of power but ever conducting [myself] with great moderation and with gentleness) to make the lives of [my] subjects continually tranquil, desiring both to maintain the kingdom quite and orderly to [its] utmost limits, and to restore the peace desired by all men. But when I had inquired of my counselors how this should be brought to pass, Haman, who excels in sound judgment among us, and has been manifestly well inclined without wavering and with unshaken fidelity, and has obtained the second post in the kingdom, informed us that a certain ill-disposed people is mixed up with all the tribes throughout the world, opposed in their laws to every [other] nation, and continually neglecting the commands of the kings, so that the united government blamelessly administered by us is not quietly established. Having then conceived that this nation alone [of all others] is continually set in opposition to every man, introducing as a change a foreign code of laws, and injuriously plotting to accomplish the worst of evils against our interests, and against the happy establishment of the monarchy; we have accordingly appointed those who are signified to you in the letters written by Haman, who is set over [the public] affairs and is our second governor, to utterly destroy them all with their wives and children by the swords of the enemies, without pitying or sparing any, on the fourteenth day of the twelfth month (which is Adar) of the present year; that the people aforetime and now ill-disposed [to us] having been violently consigned to death in one day, may hereafter secure to us continually a well- constituted and quiet [state of] affairs.

And the business was hastened, and [that] at Susa. And the king and Haman began to drink, but the city was troubled.

A king in need of revenues is a great oppressor, but he that hates injustice shall live a long time.