Esther 8
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CHAPTER 8
The King’s Edict in Behalf of the Jews (8:1–17)
1–2 King Xerxes gave Haman’s property to Esther and Haman’s position to Mordecai; Mordecai became, in effect, the “prime minister” of the Persian Empire. And Xerxes also gave Mordecai the signet ring that he had taken back from Haman; with the ring, Mordecai would now have authority to issue decrees in the king’s name (Esther 3:10–12).
3–8 But there remained one problem: Haman’s decree concerning the destruction of the Jews was still in effect. So Esther again begged the king to have that decree overruled.
Xerxes pointed out that no document written in the king’s name and sealed with his ring [could] be revoked (verse 8). The solution, then, was to write another decree which countered the first one. Mordecai was assigned the task of wording the new decree.
9–14 Without canceling the edict prepared by Haman, Mordecai’s edict stipulated that the Jews could legally protect themselves against any attackers; not only that, they could destroy, kill and annihilate any armed force that came against them and they could plunder their enemies’ property (verse 11). The wording Mordecai used was almost the same as that used in Haman’s original edict (Esther 3:12–15)—except that this time the Jews would be the ones doing the destroying!
But the Jews would only be allowed to fight back on one day, namely, the day that Haman had selected for their destruction (Esther 3:13): the thirteenth day of the twelfth month (verse 12). That was the only day on which the Jews were at risk.
15–17 Naturally there was great rejoicing among the Jews as news of Mordecai’s new edict spread through the kingdom. Many people of other nationalities even decided to become Jews themselves. Now it seemed safer to be a Jew than not to be one!