So on April 17, the king’s secretaries were summoned and a decree was written exactly as Haman dictated. It was sent t the highest officers, the governors of the respective provinces, and the nobles of each province in their own scripts and languages. This decree was written in the name of King Xerxes and sealed with the king’s signet ring. Dispatches were sent by swift messengers into all the provinces of the empire, giving the order that all Jews-young and old, including women and children-must be killed, slaughtered, and annihilated on a single day. This was scheduled to happen on March 7 of the next year. The property of the Jews would be given to those who killed them. (vv. 12-13, NLT)