Mordecai’s edict carried precisely the same authority as the previous edict. Wishing to deliver the Jews from their distress as soon as possible, he arranged for the couriers to use the king’s fastest horses. Thus, the new edict moved out with speed, covering the area from the Indus River to the Danube, and from Southern Russia to Ethiopia (Esther 1:1). It would have taken the couriers about one hundred days to reach the farthest corners of the empire (see note under Esther 3:13).
10 And he wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed it with the king’s signet ring. Then he sent the letters by mounted couriers riding on swift horses that were used in the king’s service, bred from the royal stud,