That same day King Xerxes gave Queen Esther the estate of Haman, the enemy of the Jews. And Mordecai came into the presence of the king, for Esther had told how he was related to her.
2 The king took off his signet ring, which he had reclaimed from Haman, and presented it to Mordecai. And Esther appointed him over Haman’s estate.
3 Esther again pleaded with the king, falling at his feet and weeping. She begged him to put an end to the evil plan of Haman the Agagite, which he had devised against the Jews.
4 Then the king extended the gold scepter to Esther and she arose and stood before him. 5 “If it pleases the king,” she said, “and if he regards me with favor and thinks it the right thing to do, and if he is pleased with me, let an order be written overruling the dispatches that Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, devised and wrote to destroy the Jews in all the king’s provinces. 6 For how can I bear to see disaster fall on my people? How can I bear to see the destruction of my family?”
Although Haman had been eliminated, the threat to the Jews remained, because the royal decree authorizing their slaughter had already been published. Since the time for the execution of the decree was still ten months away, we might think that the easiest solution would be for the king to revoke the decree. But according to the Persian regulation reported earlier in the book of Esther (1:19), Persian royal decrees could not be revoked. The only way to get around the decree was to issue a second decree that would have the practical effect of rendering the first decree harmless. With the guidance of Mordecai, King Xerxes issued such a decree.