1 And King Ahasuerus laid a tax on the land and [on] the isles of the sea.

2 And all the acts of his power and of might, and the declaration of the greatness of Mordecai, with which the king made him great, [are] they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia?

3 For Mordecai the Jew [was] next to King Ahasuerus and great among the Jews, and pleasing to the multitude of his brothers, seeking the wealth of his people and speaking peace to all his seed.