The king answered, "I know of a certainty that you would gain time, because you see the thing is gone from me.

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

Then these men assembled together to the king, and said to the king, "Know, O king, that it is a law of the Medes and Persians, that no decree nor statute which the king establishes may be changed."