13 Letters were sent by ^acouriers to all the king’s provinces with instruction to ^bdestroy, to kill, and to annihilate all Jews, young and old, women and children, in one day, the ^cthirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods.

4 For we have been ^dsold, I and my people, to be ^edestroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have been silent, for our affliction is not to be compared with the loss to the king.”