8
A new law was written to help the Jewish people
1 That same day, King Zerk-sees (Xerxes) gave Queen Esther everything that used to belong to Haman, the enemy of the Jewish people. And she told Zerk-sees that More-dek-eye (Mordecai) was her cousin. So Zerk-sees sent someone to bring More-dek-eye to him.
2 Before this time, King Zerk-sees took back the special law ring that he gave Haman and put it on his own finger. When Zerk-sees met More-dek-eye, he took that law ring off his finger again and gave it to More-dek-eye. And Esther made More-dek-eye the boss over everything that Haman left behind when he died.
3 Then Esther went to talk to Zerk-sees again. She fell down at the king's feet and started to cry. She asked again and again, “My king, please stop that really bad thing Haman the Aga-gite wanted to do to my people, the Jews.”
4 The king held out his golden stick to Esther and she got up and went to stand in front of him.
5 She said, “My master, if you are happy with me and if you agree with my idea, can you write a new law? If you think it is the right thing to do, can the new law say that no-one has to take notice of the paper sent out by Haman the Aga-gite? You remember that paper said that all the Jewish people in every part of your country had to be killed. 6 I would be too upset if such a bad thing happened to my people, and I would be too upset if any of my family were killed.”
7 King Zerk-sees said to Queen Esther and to More-dek-eye the Jew, “Haman tried to kill you and all the Jewish people. But I told my soldiers to put him up on his own pole to die, and I gave all his things to Esther. 8 So, now I want you to write a new law. And I want you to write it so that people think that I wrote it. You can write whatever you want that will help your Jewish people. When you have finished writing those papers, roll them up and put the hot wax on the edge and mark the wax with my special law ring. Everyone knows that any law I have written that has the mark from my special law ring, can never be broken. Everyone has to follow that law.”
9 So on the 23rd day of the third month More-dek-eye had a meeting with all the men that wrote the law papers for the king. At that meeting More-dek-eye told them how to write the king's new law. That new law had to go to all the Jewish leaders and all the important men in every one of the 127 nations that were part of Persia. That country went from India to Ethiopia which is south of Egypt. So they wrote the new law in all the different languages that people were speaking in Persia. And the law was written in the Jewish language too. 10 More-dek-eye told the men to make sure they put King Zerk-sees' name at the top of every paper. And when all the law papers were finished, each paper was rolled up and a small drop of hot wax was put on the edge of the paper to close it up. Then the king's law ring was pushed into the wax to show everybody that those papers came from the king and they had to do what was written inside. Then More-dek-eye sent those papers to every part of Persia. The papers were carried by messengers that rode on fast horses that belonged to the king.
11 This is what was written on the law papers that had the king's name on it.
“The Jewish people in every town are allowed to get a group of fighting men together so that they can keep all their Jewish people safe. If anyone tries to fight them, the Jewish fighters are allowed to kill those men and make it look like they were never alive. And they are allowed to kill the wives and children of those men too. The Jewish people are allowed to grab everything that belongs to the people that try to kill them. 12 The Jewish people in every part of King Zerk-sees' country are allowed to fight for themselves on the 13th day of the last month of the year.”*
13 A copy of this law was sent out to every part of the country so that everybody knew that the Jewish people were ready and they were allowed to fight back if anyone tried to kill them.
14 The king wanted this new law to go everywhere quickly. That is why the messengers rode on the king's fast horses.
The new law was put up on walls everywhere in the town of Susa too.
15 Later on, after all the papers were sent out, More-dek-eye walked out of the king's room wearing some of the king's blue and white clothes. He had a big gold hat called a crown on his head and he wore a really nice purple coat that cost a lot of money. All the people in Susa were so happy that they shouted out loud. 16 It was a time for all the Jewish people to be really happy that they did not have to be frightened anymore. And all the other people in the town showed them respect. 17 When the king's new law was read out all over King Zerk-sees' country, all the Jewish people were really happy. In every town where the law was read out, they had a holiday and big parties. But in every part of the country, people that were not Jews were frightened of the Jewish people. And lots of them changed sides and started to live the way the Jewish people lived.
* 8:12 This was the same day Haman wanted all the Jewish people killed.