1Inilah yang terjadi pada waktu Ahasweros memerintah atas kerajaan Media Persia. Wilayah kekuasaannya terdiri dari 127 provinsi, yaitu mulai dari wilayah India sampai ke Etiopia.2Ahasweros memerintah dari dalam istananya di kota Susan. Istana itu dikelilingi dengan benteng.3Pada tahun ketiga dalam masa pemerintahannya, Raja Ahasweros mengadakan pesta besar untuk semua pembesar dan kaum bangsawan— termasuk para panglima tentara Media Persia, para pangeran, dan para gubernur.4Pesta besar itu berlangsung selama enam bulan, dan selama pesta itu berlangsung raja memamerkan kepada para tamu undangan semua kekayaannya— untuk memperlihatkan betapa besar dan megah serta betapa agung dan mulia kerajaannya.5Di akhir bulan keenam, raja mengadakan pesta lagi untuk semua pekerja di istana, baik orang penting maupun orang biasa. Pesta itu diadakan di taman istana raja selama satu minggu penuh.6Taman yang berada di dalam istana tersebut dihiasi kain linen putih yang digantung menyerupai atap. Beberapa kain yang berwarna ungu juga digantung pada gelang-gelang yang terbuat dari perak— yaitu gelang-gelang yang sudah dipasangkan di tiang-tiang yang terbuat dari batu putih yang mahal, dan diikat menggunakan pita dari kain linen ungu. Tempat duduk para tamu berupa dipan— yang terbuat dari emas dan perak, diletakkan di atas lantai yang permukaannya dihiasi dengan potongan-potongan kecil dari berbagai jenis batu mulia, kulit mutiara, dan batu putih yang mahal. Semuanya dipasang dengan sangat rapi.7Para tamu minum anggur dari berbagai tempat minum mewah yang dibuat dari emas. Persediaan anggur pun melimpah karena raja ingin setiap tamu boleh minum tanpa dibatasi dan tamu juga tidak dipaksa minum bila tidak mau. Sebab sebelumnya raja sudah memberikan perintah kepada para pelayan istana, supaya setiap tamu dilayani menurut permintaannya masing-masing.9Pada waktu yang bersamaan, Ratu Wasti juga mengundang para istri pejabat istana untuk berpesta di ruangan yang berbeda di istana Raja Ahasweros.10Pada hari terakhir pesta perayaan tersebut, ketika Raja Ahasweros sudah minum anggur sampai hatinya gembira dan mabuk, dia memanggil ketujuh pelayan khusus istana, yaitu Mehuman, Bista, Harbona, Bigta, Abagta, Setar dan Karkas.11Raja memerintahkan mereka untuk membawa Ratu Wasti ke hadapannya dengan memakai mahkota kerajaaan. Raja ingin memamerkan kecantikan istrinya kepada para tamu undangannya, sebab Ratu Wasti sangat cantik.12Tetapi ketika para pelayan menyampaikan perintah raja kepada Ratu Wasti, dia menolak untuk datang ke hadapan raja. Hal ini menyebabkan raja sangat marah.13Mendengar jawaban Ratu Wasti, raja langsung meminta nasihat dari ketujuh penasihat tertinggi dalam kerajaannya. Mereka ini adalah: Karsena, Setar, Admata, Tarsis, Merses, Marsena dan Memukan. Raja sering meminta nasihat mereka, karena ketujuh pejabat ini merupakan ahli dalam persoalan hukum dan adat.15Raja berkata, “Menurut hukum, tindakan apa yang harus kita ambil atas Ratu Wasti? Aku sudah mengutus pelayan-pelayanku kepadanya untuk menyuruh dia datang kepadaku. Tetapi dia tidak taat pada perintahku.”16Seorang penasihat raja bernama Memukan berkata, “Tuanku Raja, Ratu Wasti tidak hanya melakukan kesalahan kepada Tuanku, tetapi dia juga melakukan kesalahan kepada semua pejabat— bahkan kepada semua laki-laki di kerajaan Tuanku!17Semua wanita di seluruh kerajaan akan mendengar apa yang dilakukan oleh Ratu Wasti, dan mereka akan mengatakan, ‘Raja memerintahkan Ratu Wasti datang kepadanya, tetapi dia menolak.’ Dan mereka akan menggunakan itu sebagai alasan untuk tidak taat kepada suami mereka masing-masing.18Sebelum hari ini berakhir, ketika para istri mendengar apa yang sudah ratu lakukan, mereka juga akan menolak untuk harus tunduk kepada suami, dan mereka tidak akan menghormati suaminya lagi. Sehingga hal itu akan membuat semua suami menjadi sangat marah.19Jika berkenan bagi Tuanku Raja, keluarkan suatu surat perintah bahwa Ratu Wasti tidak dapat menghadap raja lagi, dan surat perintah itu akan dimasukkan dalam undang-undang Media Persia sehingga tidak dapat dihapus. Lalu Tuanku Raja menyerahkan kedudukan ratu kepada perempuan lain yang lebih layak dari dia.20Dengan demikian, ketika surat perintah Tuanku Raja diumumkan, maka semua istri, baik dari para pejabat maupun masyarakat biasa, akan menghormati dan menaati suami mereka.”21Raja dan para pejabat lainnya setuju dengan usulan Memukan itu.22Maka raja menyuruh supaya surat perintah itu ditulis dan dikirim kepada semua provinsi dalam setiap bahasa dan jenis tulisan yang digunakan oleh penduduk di seluruh daerah kerajaannya. Surat perintah itu menyatakan bahwa semua suami memiliki kuasa penuh untuk mengatur segala sesuatu di dalam rumah tangganya sendiri, dan bahasa suku suami, harus menjadi bahasa yang digunakan di dalam keluarga.
World English Bible (dengan Deuterokanonika)
1[In the second year of the reign of Ahasuerus the great king, on the first day of Nisan, Mordecai the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Jew dwelling in the city Susa, a great man, serving in the king’s palace, saw a vision. Now he was one of the captives whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried captive from Jerusalem with Jeconiah the king of Judea. This was his dream: Behold, voices and a noise, thunders and earthquake, tumult upon the earth. And, behold, two great serpents came out, both ready for conflict. A great voice came from them. Every nation was prepared for battle by their voice, even to fight against the nation of the just. Behold, a day of darkness and blackness, suffering and anguish, affection and tumult upon the earth. And all the righteous nation was troubled, fearing their own afflictions. They prepared to die, and cried to God. Something like a great river from a little spring with much water, came from their cry. Light and the sun arose, and the lowly were exalted, and devoured the honorable. Mordecai, who had seen this vision and what God desired to do, having arisen, kept it in his heart, and desired by all means to interpret it, even until night. Mordecai rested quietly in the palace with Gabatha and Tharrha the king’s two chamberlains, eunuchs who guarded the palace. He heard their conversation and searched out their plans. He learned that they were preparing to lay hands on King Ahasuerus; and he informed the king concerning them. The king examined the two chamberlains. They confessed, and were led away and executed. The king wrote these things for a record. Mordecai also wrote concerning these matters. The king commanded Mordecai to serve in the palace, and gave gifts for this service. But Haman the son of Hammedatha the Bougean was honored in the sight of the king, and he endeavored to harm Mordecai and his people, because of the king’s two chamberlains.] And it came to pass after these things in the days of Ahasuerus, —(this Ahasuerus ruled over one hundred twenty-seven provinces from India)—2in those days, when King Ahasuerus was on the throne in the city of Susa,3in the third year of his reign, he made a feast for his friends, for people from the rest of the nations, for the nobles of the Persians and Medes, and for the chief of the local governors.4After this—after he had shown them the wealth of his kingdom and the abundant glory of his wealth during one hundred eighty days—5when the days of the wedding feast were completed, the king made a banquet lasting six days for the people of the nations who were present in the city, in the court of the king’s house,6which was adorned with fine linen and flax on cords of fine linen and purple, fastened to golden and silver studs on pillars of white marble and stone. There were golden and silver couches on a pavement of emerald stone, and of mother-of-pearl, and of white marble, with transparent coverings variously flowered, having roses arranged around it.7There were gold and silver cups, and a small cup of carbuncle set out, of the value of thirty thousand talents, with abundant and sweet wine, which the king himself drank.8This banquet was not according to the appointed law, but as the king desired to have it. He charged the stewards to perform his will and that of the company.9Also Vashti the queen made a banquet for the women in the palace where King Ahasuerus lived.10Now on the seventh day, the king, being merry, told Haman, Bazan, Tharrha, Baraze, Zatholtha, Abataza, and Tharaba, the seven chamberlains, servants of King Ahasuerus,11to bring in the queen to him, to enthrone her, and crown her with the diadem, and to show her to the princes, and her beauty to the nations, for she was beautiful.12But queen Vashti refused to come with the chamberlains; so the king was grieved and angered.13And he said to his friends, “This is what Vashti said. Therefore pronounce your legal judgment on this case.”14So Arkesaeus, Sarsathaeus, and Malisear, the princes of the Persians and Medes, who were near the king, who sat chief in rank by the king, drew near to him,15and reported to him according to the laws what it was proper to do to queen Vashti, because she had not done the things commanded by the king through the chamberlains.16And Memucan said to the king and to the princes, “Queen Vashti has not wronged the king only, but also all the king’s rulers and princes;17for he has told them the words of the queen, and how she disobeyed the king. As she then refused to obey King Ahasuerus,18so this day the other wives of the chiefs of the Persians and Medes, having heard what she said to the king, will dare in the same way to dishonor their husbands.19If then it seems good to the king, let him make a royal decree, and let it be written according to the laws of the Medes and Persians, and let him not alter it: ‘Don’t allow the queen to come in to him any more. Let the king give her royalty to a woman better than she.’20Let the law of the king which he will have made be widely proclaimed in his kingdom. Then all the women will give honor to their husbands, from the poor even to the rich.”21This advice pleased the king and the princes; and the king did as Memucan had said,22and sent into all his kingdom through the several provinces, according to their language, so that men might be feared in their own houses.