24 You⌃ have governed badly; and have exceeded tyrants in cruelty; and me your benefactor you⌃ have laboured to deprive at once of my dominion and my life, by secretly devising measures injurious to the kingdom.
25 Who has gathered here, unreasonably removing each from his home, those who, in fidelity to us, had held the fortresses of the country?
26 Who has thus consigned to unmerited punishments those who in good will towards us from the beginning have in all things surpassed all nations, and who often have engaged in the most dangerous undertakings?
27 Loose, loose the unjust bonds; send them to their homes in peace, and deprecate what has been done.
28 Release the sons of the almighty living God of heaven, who from our ancestors’ times until now has granted a glorious and uninterrupted prosperity to our affairs.
29 These things he said; and they, released the same moment, having now escaped death, praised God their holy Saviour.
30 The king then departed to the city, and called his financier to him, and bade him provide a seven days’ quantity of wine and other materials for feasting for the Jews. He decided that they should keep a gladsome festival of deliverance in the very place in which they expected to meet with their destruction.