Esther 1

KING JAMES BIBLE	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
1 Then Mardocheus said, God hath done these things.	1 In the second year of the reign of Artaxerxes the great, on the first day of the month of Nisan, Mordecai the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin,
2 For I remember a dream which I saw concerning these matters, and nothing thereof hath failed.	2 a Jewish man who lived in the city of Susa, a great gentleman, and among the first ones of the king’s court, saw a dream.
3 A little fountain became a river, and there was light, and the sun, and much water: this river is Esther, whom the king married, and made queen:	3 Now he was one of a number of captives, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away from Jerusalem with Jeconiah king of Judah.
4 And the two dragons are I and Aman.	4 And this was his dream: voices appeared, and confusion, and thunders, and earthquakes, and a disturbance upon the earth.
5 And the nations were those that were assembled to destroy the name of the Jews:	5 And behold, there were two great dragons making preparations against one another for battle.
6 And my nation is this Israel, which cried to God, and were saved: for the Lord hath saved his people, and the Lord hath delivered us from all those evils, and God hath wrought signs and great wonders, which have not been done among the Gentiles.	6 And at their cry all peoples rushed forth to fight against the nation of the just.
7 Therefore hath he made two lots, one for the people of God, and another for all the Gentiles.	7 And that was a day of darkness and division, of tribulation and anguish, and there was an unnatural dread over the earth.
8 And these two lots came at the hour, and time, and day of judgment, before God among all nations.	8 And the nation of the just was disturbed, fearing their own evils, and was prepared for death.
9 So God remembered his people, and justified his inheritance.	9 And they cried out to God, and from their loud crying, a little fountain grew into a very great river and overflowed into many waters.
10 Therefore those days shall be unto them in the month Adar, the fourteenth and fifteenth day of the same month, with an assembly, and joy, and with gladness before God, according to the generations for ever among his people.	10 The light and the sun rose up, and the humble were exalted, and they devoured the illustrious.
11 To bring Vashti the queen before the king with the crown royal, to shew the people and the princes her beauty: for she was fair to look on.	11 When Mordecai had seen this, and he arose from bed, he was considering what God might want to do, and he kept it fixed in his soul, desiring to know what the dream might signify.
12 But the queen Vashti refused to come at the king's commandment by his chamberlains: therefore was the king very wroth, and his anger burned in him.
13 Then the king said to the wise men, which knew the times, (for so was the king's manner toward all that knew law and judgment:
14 And the next unto him was Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucan, the seven princes of Persia and Media, which saw the king's face, and which sat the first in the kingdom;)
15 What shall we do unto the queen Vashti according to law, because she hath not performed the commandment of the king Ahasuerus by the chamberlains?
16 And Memucan answered before the king and the princes, Vashti the queen hath not done wrong to the king only, but also to all the princes, and to all the people that are in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus.
17 For this deed of the queen shall come abroad unto all women, so that they shall despise their husbands in their eyes, when it shall be reported, The king Ahasuerus commanded Vashti the queen to be brought in before him, but she came not.
18 Likewise shall the ladies of Persia and Media say this day unto all the king's princes, which have heard of the deed of the queen. Thus shall there arise too much contempt and wrath.
19 If it please the king, let there go a royal commandment from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes, that it be not altered, That Vashti come no more before king Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal estate unto another that is better than she.
20 And when the king's decree which he shall make shall be published throughout all his empire, (for it is great,) all the wives shall give to their husbands honour, both to great and small.
21 And the saying pleased the king and the princes; and the king did according to the word of Memucan:
22 For he sent letters into all the king's provinces, into every province according to the writing thereof, and to every people after their language, that every man should bear rule in his own house, and that it should be published according to the language of every people.