In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria. And he placed them in Halah, and in Habor by the river Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

And the king of Assyria carried away Israel to Assyria, and put them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes,

And there was found at Achmetha, in the palace that was in the province of the Medes, a scroll. And in it was a record written thus:

If it please the king, let there be a royal command from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes, so that it may not be changed, that Vashti come no more before King Ahasuerus. And let the king give her royal state to another who is better than she is.

Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, who shall not value silver; and they shall not delight in gold.

and all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Medes,

Sharpen the arrows; gather the shields; Jehovah has raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes. For His plan is against Babylon, to destroy it; because it is the vengeance of Jehovah, the vengeance of His temple.

Consecrate nations against her, with the kings of the Medes, her governors and all her rulers, and all the land of his kingdom.

HALF-MINAS, Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.

Now, O king, establish the ban and sign the writing, so that it may not be changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians which cannot be changed.

Then they came near and spoke before the king concerning the king's ban, Have you not signed a ban that every man who shall ask a petition of any god or man within thirty days, except of you, O king, shall be thrown into the lion's den? The king answered and said, The thing is true, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be changed.

Then these men met before the king and said to the king, Know, O king, that the law of the Medes and Persians is that no ban nor law which the king establishes may be changed.

In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans,

Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia,