to bring Queen Vashti before the king {with her royal crown} to show the people and the officials her beauty, {for she was very attractive}.

And the king said to the wise men, {the ones who know the times}--for it [was] the procedure of the king before all those who knew law and rights;

And Memucan said before the king and the officials, "Not only has Queen Vashti done wrong to the king, but to all the officials and all of the people who [are] in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus.

For this deed of the queen {will be known} to all the women, causing them {to look with contempt on their husbands}, as they will say, 'King Ahasuerus commanded Queen Vashti to be brought before him but she did not come!'

{If it pleases} the king, let {a royal edict} go out from him, and let it be written among the laws of Persia and Media so that it will not be altered, that Vashti cannot come before King Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal position to her neighbor who [is] better than she.

And the matter was investigated and found [to be so]; and the two of them were hanged on [the] gallows, and it was written in the scroll of the events of the days before the presence of the king.

In the first month, that [is], the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasurus, he cast pur--that [is], the lot--before the presence of Haman {for the day and for the month}, until the twelfth month, that [is], the month of Adar.

And he gave him a copy of the edict of the law that had been issued in Susa for their destruction to show Esther, and to inform her, and to charge her to go to the king and make supplication to him and entreat before him for her people.

And Haman went out on that day rejoicing and {feeling good}. But when Haman saw Mordecai at the gate of the king, and he did not rise or tremble before him, Haman was filled {with rage toward} Mordecai.

During that night the king's sleep escaped [him], and he gave orders to bring the {scroll of records and chronicles}, and they were read before the king.

And let the clothing and the horse be given {to the man} by the officials of the king's nobles; let them cloth the man whom the king wishes to honor, and let him ride on his horse through the public square of the city, and let them proclaim before him, 'Thus, it will be done for the man whom the king wishes to honor.'"

So Haman took the clothing and the horse, and he clothed Mordecai and let him ride through the public square of the city; and he proclaimed before him, "Thus, it is done to the man whom the king wishes to honor."

And Haman told Zeresh his wife and all his friends all that had happened to him. And his advisers and Zeresh his wife said to him, "If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, [is] {from the descendants of the Jews}, you will not prevail against him, but will certainly fall before him."

And Esther said, "The adversary and enemy [is] this evil Haman!" And Haman was terrified before the king and queen.

On that day King Ahasuerus gave Queen Esther the house of Haman, the enemy of the Jews; and Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had told what he [was] to her.

And Esther again spoke before the king, and she fell before his feet and wept, pleading for his grace to avert Haman the Agagite's evil [plan] and the plot that he devised against the Jews.

And the king held out to Esther the scepter of gold, and Esther rose and stood before the king,

and she said, "If it is good to the king, and if I have found favor before him, and if the king is pleased with this matter, and {I have his approval}, let [an edict] be written to revoke the letters of the plans of Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews that [are] in all the provinces of the king.