that in the third year of his reign he made a feast for all his officials and servants. The power of Persia and Media, the nobles and the princes of the provinces were before him,
And all the acts of his power and his might, and the exact account of the greatness of Mordeḵai, with which the sovereign made him great, are they not written in the book of the annals of the sovereigns of Media and Persia?
A distressing vision is revealed to me: the treacherous betrays, and the ravager ravages. Go up, O Ěylam! Besiege, O Media! All the groaning I bring to an end.
For they too shall be enslaved by many nations and great sovereigns. And I shall repay them according to their deeds and according to the works of their hands.’ ”
Polish the arrows! Put on the shields! יהוה has stirred up the spirit of the sovereigns of the Medes. For His plan is against Baḇel to destroy it, because it is the vengeance of יהוה, the vengeance for His Hĕḵal.
Lift up a banner in the land, blow a shophar among the nations! Prepare the nations against her, call the reigns together against her: Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a commander against her, bring up horses like hairy locusts.
so that the land shakes and writhes in pain. For every plan of יהוה shall be established against Baḇel, to make the land of Baḇel a ruin, without inhabitant.
“Now, O sovereign, establish the interdict and sign the writing, so that it is not to be changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which does not pass away.”