Queen Vashti Deposed

1 This is what happened during the time of Xerxes,^[a](A) the Xerxes who ruled over 127 provinces^(B) stretching from India to Cush^[b]:^(C)

⁹ At once the royal secretaries were summoned—on the twenty-third day of the third month, the month of Sivan. They wrote out all Mordecai’s orders to the Jews, and to the satraps, governors and nobles of the 127 provinces stretching from India to Cush.^[a](A) These orders were written in the script of each province and the language of each people and also to the Jews in their own script and language.^(B)

³⁰ And Mordecai sent letters to all the Jews in the 127 provinces^(A) of Xerxes’ kingdom—words of goodwill and assurance—