1 King Xerxes required that all the people in his empire pay taxes. Even the people who lived on the islands in the Mediterranean Sea (OR, in coastal areas) were required to pay taxes. 2 And all the great and powerful things that Xerxes did were written in the scroll called/entitled ‘The record of the things done by the kings of Media and Persia’. In this book were also written the things done by Mordecai, the man whom the king had greatly honored. 3 Mordecai, who was a Jew, became the king’s most important official, and all the Jews also considered him to be a very great man. They all respected him, because he did many good things for the Jews, and he often asked the king to do good things for them.