Then Nebuchadnezzar ¹  promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon.

Now ¹  three days after Festus ²  arrived in the province, he went up to Jerusalem ³  from Caesarea. ⁴ 

When the governor ¹  had read ²  the letter, ³  he asked ⁴  what province he was from. ⁵  When he learned ⁶  that he was from Cilicia, ⁷ 

Mordecai wrote these matters down and sent letters to all the Jews who were throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far,

Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and the province of Asia, ¹ 

You know that everyone in the province of Asia ¹  deserted me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes.

A scroll was found in the citadel ¹  of Ecbatana which is in the province of Media, and it was inscribed as follows: “Memorandum:

Letters were sent ¹  to all the Jews in the hundred and twenty-seven provinces of the empire of Ahasuerus – words of true peace ²  –

¹ The following events happened ²  in the days of Ahasuerus. ³  (I am referring to ⁴  that Ahasuerus who used to rule over a hundred and twenty-seven provinces ⁵  extending all the way from India to Ethiopia. ⁶ )

In this ¹  vision I saw myself in Susa ²  the citadel, ³  which is located in the province of Elam. In the vision I saw myself at the Ulai Canal. ⁴ 

He sent letters throughout all the royal provinces, to each province according to its own script and to each people according to its own language, ¹  that every man should be ruling his family ²  and should be speaking the language of his own people. ³ 

So the royal scribes ¹  were summoned in the first month, on the thirteenth day of the month. Everything Haman commanded was written to the king’s satraps ²  and governors who were in every province and to the officials of every people, province by province according to its script and people by people according to its language. In the name of King Ahasuerus it was written and sealed with the king’s signet ring.

A copy of this edict was to be presented as law throughout every province; it was to be made known to all the inhabitants, ¹  so that they would be prepared for this day.

This was to take place on a certain day throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus – namely, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month (that is, the month of Adar).

All the officials of the provinces, the satraps, the governors and those who performed the king’s business were assisting the Jews, for the dread of Mordecai had fallen on them.

Mordecai was of high rank ¹  in the king’s palace, and word about him was spreading throughout all the provinces. His influence ²  continued to become greater and greater.

So after sending ¹  two of his assistants, ²  Timothy and Erastus, to Macedonia, ³  he himself stayed on for a while in the province of Asia. ⁴ 

The king’s scribes were quickly ¹  summoned – in the third month (that is, the month of Sivan), on the twenty-third day. ²  They wrote out ³  everything that Mordecai instructed to the Jews and to the satraps and the governors and the officials of the provinces all the way from India to Ethiopia ⁴  – a hundred and twenty-seven provinces in all – to each province in its own script and to each people in their own language, and to the Jews according to their own script and their own language.

They went through the region of Phrygia ¹  and Galatia, ²  having been prevented ³  by the Holy Spirit from speaking the message ⁴  in the province of Asia. ⁵ 

This went on for two years, so that all who lived in the province of Asia, ¹  both Jews and Greeks, heard the word of the Lord. ²