Esther 10

1 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.

King Xerxes imposed taxes throughout the empire, even to its most distant shores.

2 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.

All he accomplished through his power and strength, as well as the complete account of the high position to which the king promoted Mordecai, are written down in the Book of the Records of the kings of Media and Persia.

3 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.

For Mordecai the Jew was second-in-command to King Xerxes, leader of the Jews and highly-respected in the Jewish community, he worked to help his people and improve the security of all Jews.