¹³ Letters were sent by couriers^(A) to each of the royal provinces telling the officials to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the Jewish people—young and old, women and children—and plunder their possessions on a single day,^(B) the thirteenth day of Adar, the twelfth month.^[a]

¹¹ The king’s edict gave the Jews in each and every city the right to assemble and defend themselves, to destroy, kill, and annihilate every ethnic and provincial army hostile to them, including women and children, and to take their possessions as spoils of war.^(A)

⁵ The Jews put all their enemies to the sword, killing and destroying them.^(A) They did what they pleased to those who hated them. ⁶ In the fortress of Susa^(B) the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men, ⁷ including Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha, ⁸ Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha, ⁹ Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai, and Vaizatha. ¹⁰ They killed these ten sons^(C) of Haman son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews.^(D) However, they did not seize^[a] any plunder.^(E)