² He spoke in the presence of his brothers and ^(A)the ^[a]wealthy men of Samaria and said, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Are they going to restore it for themselves? Can they offer sacrifices? Can they finish in a day? Can they revive the stones from the ^[b](B)dusty rubble even the burned ones?” ³ Now Tobiah the Ammonite was near him and he said, “Even what they are building—^(C)if a fox should ^[c]jump on it, he would break their stone wall down!”

^4 (D)Hear, O our God, how we are despised! ^(E)Return their reproach on their own heads and give them up for plunder in a land of captivity.

⁶ But he ^[a]disdained to ^[b]lay hands on Mordecai alone, for they had told him who the people of Mordecai were; therefore Haman ^(A)sought to destroy all the Jews, the people of Mordecai, who were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus.

⁸ Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, “There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom; ^(A)their laws are different from those of all other people and they do not observe the king’s laws, so it is not in the king’s interest to let them remain. ⁹ If it is pleasing to the king, let it be ^[a]decreed that they be destroyed, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who carry on the king’s business, to put into the king’s treasuries.”