Then Queen Esther answered and said, If I have found favor in your eyes, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request.

Now therefore, I pray, if I have found favor in Your eyes, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find favor in Your eyes. And consider that this nation is Your people.

For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found favor in Your eyes, except You go with us? So we shall be distinct, Your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth.

And he said, Please let me go, for our family has a sacrifice in the city, and thus my brother has commanded me. And now, if I have found favor in your eyes, please let me get away and see my brothers. Therefore he has not come to the king's table.

Then let the young woman who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti. And the thing pleased the king, and he did so.

And the king loved Esther more than all the other women, and she obtained grace and favor in his presence more than all the virgins; so he set the royal crown upon her head and made her queen instead of Vashti.

Then the king's scribes were called on the thirteenth day of the first month, and a decree was written according to all that Haman commanded; to the king's satraps, to the governors who were over each province, to the rulers of all the people, to every province according to its writing, and to every people in their language. In the name of King Ahasuerus it was written, and sealed with the king's signet ring.

And the letters were sent by runners into all the king's provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to exterminate all the Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, and to plunder their possessions;