Esther 3:7-15

7 In the first month, which is the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, ¹they cast Pur (that is, they cast lots) before Haman day after day; and they cast it month after month till the twelfth month, which is ²the month of Adar.

8 Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, "There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom. ³Their laws are different from those of every other people, and they do not keep the king's laws, so that it is not to the king's profit to tolerate them.

9 If it please the king, let it be decreed that they be destroyed, and I will pay 10,000 talents^[a] of silver into the hands of those who have charge of the king's business, that they may put it into the king's treasuries."

10 ⁴So the king took his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman ⁵the Agagite, the son of Hammedatha, ⁶the enemy of the Jews.

11 And the king said to Haman, "The money is given to you, the people also, to do with them as it seems good to you."

12 ⁷Then the king's scribes were summoned on the thirteenth day of the first month, and an edict, according to all that Haman commanded, was written to the king's ⁸satraps and to the governors over all the provinces and to the officials of all the peoples, ⁹to every province in its own script and every people in its own language. It was written ¹⁰in the name of King Ahasuerus ¹¹and sealed with the king's signet ring.

13 Letters were sent ¹²by couriers to all the king's provinces with instruction ¹³to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all Jews, young and old, women and children, ¹⁴in one day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, ¹⁵and to plunder their goods.

14 ¹⁶A copy of the document was to be issued as a decree in every province by proclamation to all the peoples to be ready for that day.

15 ¹⁷The couriers went out hurriedly by order of the king, and the decree was issued in Susa the citadel. And the king and Haman sat down to drink, ¹⁸but the city of Susa was thrown into confusion.

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Esther 3:7-15 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO ESTHER 3

This chapter gives an account of the promotion of Haman, and of the mortification of him by Mordecai, who refused to bow to him, upon which he vowed revenge on him, and on all his people the Jews, Es 3:1-6, for which purpose, through a false representation of them, he obtained letters of the king, and sent to the deputies of all the provinces to destroy them all on a certain day fixed, Es 3:7-15.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 18

1. Esther 9:24, 26
2. Ezra 6:15
3. [Ezra 4:12, 13; Acts 16:20, 21]
4. Esther 8:2; Genesis 41:42
5. ver. 1
6. Esther 7:6; Esther 8:1; Esther 9:10, 24
7. Esther 8:9
8. See Ezra 8:36
9. Esther 1:22; Esther 8:9
10. Esther 8:8, 10; [1 Kings 21:8]
11. Esther 8:8, 10
12. Esther 8:10; [2 Chronicles 30:6]
13. Esther 7:4; Esther 8:11
14. Esther 8:12; [Esther 9:1]
15. Esther 8:11
16. Esther 8:13, 14
17. [See ver. 13 above]
18. [Esther 8:15]

Footnotes 1

[a]. A talent was about 75 pounds or 34 kilograms

The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.