Esther 8:3-17

Then Esther spoke again to the king; she fell at his feet, weeping and
pleading with him to avert the evil design of Haman the Agagite and the
plot that he had devised against the Jews.  The king held out the golden
scepter to Esther, and Esther rose and stood before the king.  She said,
"If it pleases the king, and if I have won his favor, and if the thing
seems right before the king, and I have his approval, let an order be
written to revoke the letters devised by Haman son of Hammedatha the
Agagite, which he wrote giving orders to destroy the Jews who are in all
the provinces of the king.  For how can I bear to see the calamity that is
coming on my people?  Or how can I bear to see the destruction of my
kindred?"  Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and to the Jew
Mordecai, "See, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and they have
hanged him on the gallows, because he plotted to lay hands on the Jews.
You may write as you please with regard to the Jews, in the name of the
king, and seal it with the king's ring; for an edict written in the name
of the king and sealed with the king's ring cannot be revoked."

The king's secretaries were summoned at that time, in the third month,
which is the month of Sivan, on the twenty-third day; and an edict was
written, according to all that Mordecai commanded, to the Jews and to the
satraps and the governors and the officials of the provinces from India to
Ethiopia, one hundred twenty-seven provinces, to every province in its own
script and to every people in its own language, and also to the Jews in
their script and their language.  He wrote letters in the name of King
Ahasuerus, sealed them with the king's ring, and sent them by mounted
couriers riding on fast steeds bred from the royal herd.  By these letters
the king allowed the Jews who were in every city to assemble and defend
their lives, to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate any armed force of any
people or province that might attack them, with their children and women,
and to plunder their goods on a single day throughout all the provinces of
King Ahasuerus, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the
month of Adar.  A copy of the writ was to be issued as a decree in every
province and published to all peoples, and the Jews were to be ready on
that day to take revenge on their enemies.  So the couriers, mounted on
their swift royal steeds, hurried out, urged by the king's command.  The
decree was issued in the citadel of Susa.

Then Mordecai went out from the presence of the king, wearing royal robes
of blue and white, with a great golden crown and a mantle of fine linen
and purple, while the city of Susa shouted and rejoiced.  For the Jews
there was light and gladness, joy and honor.  In every province and in
every city, wherever the king's command and his edict came, there was
gladness and joy among the Jews, a festival and a holiday.  Furthermore,
many of the peoples of the country professed to be Jews, because the fear
of the Jews had fallen upon them.