Esther 8:2-12

2 ¹The king took off his signet ring which he had taken away from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman.

3 Then Esther spoke again to the king, fell at his feet, wept and implored him to avert the evil scheme of Haman the Agagite and his plot which he had devised against the Jews.

4 ²The king extended the golden scepter to Esther. So Esther arose and stood before the king.

5 Then she said, "³If it pleases * the king and if I have found favor before him and the matter seems proper to the king and I am pleasing in his sight, let it be written to revoke the ⁴letters devised by Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the king's provinces.

6 "For ⁵how can I endure to see the calamity which will befall my people, and how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?"

7 So King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, "Behold, ⁶I have given the house of Haman to Esther, and him they have hanged on the gallows because * he had stretched out his hands against the Jews.

The King's Decree Avenges the Jews

8 "Now you write to the Jews as you see fit, in the king's name, and ⁷seal it with the king's signet ring; for a decree which is written in the name of the king and sealed with the king's signet ring ⁸may not be revoked."

9 ⁹So the king's scribes were called at that time in the third month (that is, the month Sivan ), on the twenty-third * day; and it was written according to all that Mordecai commanded to the Jews, the satraps, the governors and the princes of the provinces which extended ¹⁰from India to Ethiopia, 127 * * provinces, to ¹¹every province according to its script, and to every people according to their language as well as to the Jews according to their script and their language.

10 He wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus, and sealed it with the king's signet ring, and sent letters by couriers on ¹²horses, riding on steeds sired by the royal stud.

11 In them the king granted the Jews who were in each and every city the right ¹³to assemble and to defend their lives, ¹⁴to destroy, to kill and to annihilate the entire army of any people or province which might attack them, including children and women, and ¹⁵to plunder their spoil,

12 on ¹⁶one day in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, the thirteenth * day of the twelfth * month (that is, the month Adar ).

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Esther 8:2-12 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO ESTHER 8

This chapter relates the gifts Ahasuerus gave to Esther and Mordecai, Es 8:1,2, the suit Esther made to him to reverse the letters for the destruction of the Jews, Es 8:3-6, which, though it could not be formally granted, was in effect done by letters sent to the Jews, giving them power to rise in their own defence, and slay their enemies, Es 8:7-14, the consequence of which, and the advancement of Mordecai, were matter of great joy to the Jews, Es 8:15-17.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 16

1. Esther 3:10
2. Esther 4:11; Esther 5:2
3. Esther 5:8; Esther 7:3
4. Esther 3:13
5. Esther 7:4; Esther 9:1
6. Esther 8:1
7. Esther 3:12; Esther 8:10
8. Esther 1:19
9. Esther 3:12
10. Esther 1:1
11. Esther 1:22; Esther 3:12
12. 1 Kings 4:28
13. Esther 9:2
14. Esther 3:13
15. Esther 9:10
16. Esther 3:13; Esther 9:1

Footnotes 4

[a]. Lit "according to the good in your eyes"
[b]. Lit "in it"
[c]. Lit "Cush"
[d]. Lit "Which"