Esther 9:12-22

12 And the king said to Queen Esther, "In Susa the citadel the Jews have killed and destroyed 500 men and also the ten sons of Haman. What then have they done in the rest of the king's provinces! ¹Now what is your wish? It shall be granted you. And what further is your request? It shall be fulfilled."

13 And Esther said, "If it please the king, let the Jews who are in Susa be allowed ²tomorrow also to do according to this day's edict. And let the ten sons of Haman be hanged on the gallows."^[a]

14 So the king commanded this to be done. A decree was issued in Susa, and the ten sons of Haman were hanged.

15 The Jews who were in Susa gathered also on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and they killed 300 men in Susa, but they laid no hands on the plunder.

16 ³Now the rest of the Jews who were in the king's provinces also ⁴gathered to defend their lives, and got relief from their enemies and killed 75,000 of those who hated them, but they laid no hands on the plunder.

17 This was ⁵on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, and on the fourteenth day they rested and made that a day of feasting and gladness.

18 But the Jews who were in Susa gathered ⁶on the thirteenth day and on the fourteenth, and rested ⁷on the fifteenth day, making that a day of feasting and gladness.

19 Therefore the Jews of the villages, who live in ⁸the rural towns, hold the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a day for gladness and feasting, as ⁹a holiday, and ¹⁰as a day on which they send gifts of food to one another.

The Feast of Purim Inaugurated

20 And Mordecai recorded these things and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far,

21 obliging them to keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar and also the fifteenth day of the same, year by year,

22 as the days on which the Jews got relief from their enemies, and as the month that had been turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into ¹¹a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days for sending gifts of food to one another and gifts to the poor.

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Esther 9:12-22 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO ESTHER 9

In this chapter we have an account of the Jews gathering together, on the day fixed for their destruction, to defend themselves, which they did in all the provinces, and smote their enemies; Es 9:1-5. In Shushan the palace they slew the ten sons of Haman and five hundred men on that day, Es 9:6-11 and at the request of the queen they were allowed the next day to hang up his sons, when they slew three hundred men more, Es 9:12-15, in the provinces they slew 75,000 and those in one day only, and the following days they kept as a festival, but they in Shushan kept the two days following, Es 9:16-19, and which two days were established by Esther and Mordecai as festivals, to be observed as such in future ages, by the name of the days of Purim, Es 9:20-32.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 11

1. Esther 5:6; Esther 7:2
2. ver. 15; Esther 8:11
3. ver. 2
4. ver. 2; [Esther 8:11]
5. ver. 1
6. [See ver. 17 above]
7. ver. 21
8. Deuteronomy 3:5; Ezekiel 38:11; Zechariah 2:4
9. Esther 8:17
10. Nehemiah 8:10, 12
11. [See ver. 19 above]

Footnotes 1

[a]. Or stake

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