The king grants permission for a new decree.

The king then reminded Esther and Mordecai that he had hung Haman and put Esther over his house, because Haman had opposed the Jews. It is unclear whether the king said this to ra-tionalize his own responsibility for the decree against the Jews or whether he was just reassuring them that he was still willing to help further with the problem.

In any case, he then gave them blanket permission to issue whatever decree they wish to make, write it in his name, and seal it with his ring. The one thing they had to remember, how-ever, was that the law of a Persian king could never be reversed once it had been issued in his name and sealed with his ring. This meant, first, that they could not directly revoke the previous decree; it must be allowed to stand, so they must find some other means to solve the problem. The second application of this was that their decree would also be irrevocable. So they should be sure that it was just, realizing that it too could not be reversed. They should not repeat the error of Haman in issuing an unwise decree. This also meant, however, that once they made a new de-cree, no one in the kingdom could prevent them from carrying it out.