Esther Chapter 9

From The Open Bible Project

9:1 Now in the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, on the thirteenth day of the month, when the king's commandment and his decree drew near to be put in execution, on the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to conquer them, (but it was turned out the opposite happened, that the Jews conquered those who hated them),

• (a) This was by God’s great providence, who turns the joy of the wicked into sorrow, and the tears of the godly into gladness.

9:2 the Jews gathered themselves together in their cities throughout all the provinces of the King Ahasuerus, to lay hands on those who wanted to harm them. No one could withstand them, because the fear of them had fallen on all the people.

9:3 All the princes of the provinces, the satraps, the governors, and those who did the king's business helped the Jews, because the fear of Mordecai had fallen on them.

• (b) Honoured them and befriended them.

9:4 For Mordecai was great in the king's house, and his fame went out throughout all the provinces; for the man Mordecai grew greater and greater.

9:5 The Jews struck all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, and with slaughter and destruction, and did what they wanted to those who hated them.

• (c) Who had conspired their death by the permission of the wicked Haman.

9:6 In the citadel of Susa, the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men.

• (d) Besides the three hundred that they slew the second day, (Esther 9:15).

9:7 They killed Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha,

9:8 Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha,

9:9 Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai, and Vaizatha,

9:10 the ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Jew's enemy, but they didn't lay their hand on the plunder.

• (e) By which they declared that this was God’s just judgment on the enemies of his Church as they fought not for their own gain, but to execute his vengeance.

9:11 On that day, the number of those who were slain in the citadel of Susa was brought before the king.

9:12 The king said to Esther the queen, "The Jews have slain and destroyed five hundred men in the citadel of Susa, including the ten sons of Haman; what then have they done in the rest of the king's provinces! Now what is your petition? It shall be granted you. What is your further request? It shall be done."

9:13 Then Esther said, "If it pleases the king, let it be granted to the Jews who are in Shushan to do tomorrow also according to this day's decree, and let Haman's ten sons be hanged on the gallows."

• (f) This she requires not out of a desire for vengeance but with zeal to see God’s judgment’s executed against his enemies.

9:14 The king commanded this to be done. A decree was given out in Shushan; and they hanged Haman's ten sons.

9:15 The Jews who were in Shushan gathered themselves together on the fourteenth day also of the month Adar, and killed three hundred men in Shushan; but they didn't lay their hand on the spoil.

9:16 The other Jews who were in the king's provinces gathered themselves together, defended their lives, had rest from their enemies, and killed seventy-five thousand of those who hated them; but they didn't lay their hand on the plunder.

• (g) Read (Esther 8:11).
• (h) Meaning, that they laid hands on no one that was not the enemy of God.

9:17 This was done on the thirteenth day of the month Adar; and on the fourteenth day of that month they rested and made it a day of feasting and gladness.

• (i) Meaning, in all places saving Shushan.

9:18 But the Jews who were in Shushan assembled together on the thirteenth and on the fourteenth days of the month; and on the fifteenth day of that month, they rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness.

9:19 Therefore the Jews of the villages, who live in the unwalled towns, make the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of gladness and feasting, a good day, and a day of sending presents of food to one another.

• (k) As the Jews do even to this day, calling it in the Persian language Purim, that is, the day of lots.

9:20 Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, both near and far,

• (l) The Jews gather from this that Mordecai wrote this book, but it seems that he wrote only these letters and decrees that follow.

9:21 to enjoin them that they should keep the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month Adar yearly,

9:22 as the days in which the Jews had rest from their enemies, and the month which was turned to them from sorrow to gladness, and from mourning into a good day; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, and of sending presents of food to one another, and gifts to the needy.

• (m) He sets before our eyes the use of this feast which was for the remembrance of God’s deliverance, the maintenance of mutual friendship and relief of the poor.

9:23 The Jews accepted the custom that they had begun, as Mordecai had written to them;

9:24 because Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast "Pur," that is the lot, to consume them, and to destroy them;

• (n) Read (Esther 3:7).

9:25 but when this became known to the king, he commanded by letters that his wicked device, which he had devised against the Jews, should return on his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.

• (o) That is, Esther.
• (p) These are the words of the kings commandment to disannul Haman’s wicked enterprise.

9:26 Therefore they called these days "[1] Purim, [See Esther Footnotes 1]" from the word "Pur." Therefore because of all the words of this letter, and of that which they had seen concerning this matter, and that which had come to them,

9:27 the Jews established, and imposed on themselves, and on their descendants, and on all those who joined themselves to them, so that it should not fail, that they would keep these two days according to what was written, and according to its appointed time, every year;

• (q) Meaning, the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar.

9:28 and that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city; and that these days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor the memory of them perish from their seed.

9:29 Then Esther the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, wrote with all authority to confirm this second letter of Purim.

9:30 He sent letters to all the Jews, to the hundred twenty-seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, with words of peace and truth,

• (r) Which were letters declaring to them quietness and assurance and putting them out of doubt and fear.

9:31 to confirm these days of Purim in their appointed times, as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had decreed, and as they had imposed upon themselves and their descendants, in the matter of the fastings and their cry.

• (s) That they would observe this feast with fasting and earnest prayer, which in Hebrew is signified by this word (they cry).

9:32 The commandment of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim; and it was written in the book.

10:1 King Ahasuerus laid a tribute on the land, and on the islands of the sea.

10:2 All the acts of his power and of his might, and the full account of the greatness of Mordecai, to which the king advanced him, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia?

10:3 For Mordecai the Jew was next to King Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews, and accepted by the multitude of his brothers, seeking the good of his people, and speaking peace to all his descendants.