Esther 10

1 And king Achashverosh imposed a tribute upon the land, and the isles of the sea.

King Xerxes required that all the people in his empire pay taxes. Even the people who lived on the islands [in the Mediterranean Sea] (OR, in coastal areas) were required to pay taxes.

2 And all the acts of his strength and of his might, and the exposition of the greatness of Mordecai, wherewith the king made him great, behold they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia.

And all the great and powerful things that Xerxes did were written in the scroll called/entitled ‘The record of the things done by the kings of Media and Persia’. In this book were also written [the things done] by Mordecai, the man whom the king had greatly honored.

3 For Mordecai the Jew was the second in rank after king Achashverosh, and great among the Jews, and acceptable to the multitude of his brethren, a promoter of good to his people, and speaking peace to all its seed.

Mordecai, who was a Jew, became the king’s most important official, and [all] the Jews also considered him to be a very great man. They [all] respected him, because he did many good things for the Jews, and he often asked [the king] to do good things for them.