Greek Additions to Esther 2

1And this is the copy of the letter: Great King Artaxerxes writes these things to the rulers and local governors of the one hundred twenty-seven provinces from India to Ethiopia, who are subject to him.

2The matter was being hurried along even in Susa; but the king and Haman were reclining at table, while the city was in turmoil.

3And when I asked my counselors how this might be brought to completion, Haman showed us the way—he who excelled among us in prudence, had been proved unchanging in goodwill and in steadfast loyalty, and had received the second rank of honor in the kingdom.

4among all the tribes throughout the inhabited world there is mixed in a certain hostile people, opposed in its laws to every nation, and continually disregarding the decrees of the kings, so that the blameless joint-rule directed by us may not be maintained.

5Therefore, having recognized that this nation alone stands in opposition to every man, introducing a foreign way of life in its laws, and being ill-disposed toward our affairs, accomplishing the worst evils, so that the kingdom does not attain stability,

6Therefore we have instructed those writing to you in the documents written by Haman, who was appointed over affairs and was our second father, to destroy all of them—together with women and children—root and branch, by the swords of their enemies, without any pity or sparing, on the fourteenth day of Adar, the twelfth month, of this present year,

7so that those who were hostile in the past and are hostile now, after going down violently to Hades in a single day, may for all time afterward provide us with stable and undisturbed affairs.