He sent letters throughout all the royal provinces, to each province according to its own script and to each people according to its own language, that every man should be ruling his family and should be speaking the language of his own people.

At the end of the twelve months that were required for the women, when the turn of each young woman arrived to go to King Ahasuerus -- for in this way they had to fulfill their time of cosmetic treatment: six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with perfume and various ointments used by women --

Throughout each and every province where the king's edict and law were announced there was considerable mourning among the Jews, along with fasting, weeping, and sorrow. Sackcloth and ashes were characteristic of many.

The king's scribes were quickly summoned -- in the third month (that is, the month of Sivan), on the twenty-third day. They wrote out everything that Mordecai instructed to the Jews and to the satraps and the governors and the officials of the provinces all the way from India to Ethiopia -- a hundred and twenty-seven provinces in all -- to each province in its own script and to each people in their own language, and to the Jews according to their own script and their own language.

A copy of the edict was to be presented as law throughout each and every province and made known to all peoples, so that the Jews might be prepared on that day to avenge themselves from their enemies.

to have them observe the fourteenth and the fifteenth day of the month of Adar each year