Esther 10

1 And King Ahasuerus laid tribute upon the land, and upon the shores 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 But, all the acts of his authority, and his might, and the clear story of the promotion of Mordecai, wherewith the king promoted him, are, they, not 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 next unto King Ahasuerus, and became great among the Jews, and accepted by the multitude of his brethren, —seeking happiness for his people, and speaking peace to all his 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.