6 So couriers went throughout all Israel and Judah with letters from the king and his princes, as the king had commanded, saying, “O people of Israel, ^xreturn to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that he may turn again to the remnant of you who have escaped ^yfrom the hand of the kings of Assyria.

10 And he wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed it with the king’s signet ring. Then he sent the letters by mounted couriers riding on swift horses that were used in the king’s service, bred from the royal stud,