¹³ Dispatches were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces with the order to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews^(A)—young and old, women and children—on a single day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar,^(B) and to plunder^(C) their goods.

⁵ The Jews struck down all their enemies with the sword, killing and destroying them,^(A) and they did what they pleased to those who hated them.