Esther 8:4-14

4 ¹The king extended the golden scepter to Esther. So Esther arose and stood before the king.

5 Then she said, "²If 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 ³letters 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 ⁴how 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, ⁵I 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 ⁶seal 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 ⁷may not be revoked."

9 ⁸So 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 ⁹from India to Ethiopia, 127 * * provinces, to ¹⁰every 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 ¹¹horses, 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 ¹²to assemble and to defend their lives, ¹³to destroy, to kill and to annihilate the entire army of any people or province which might attack them, including children and women, and ¹⁴to plunder their spoil,

12 on ¹⁵one day in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, the thirteenth * day of the twelfth * month (that is, the month Adar ).

13 ¹⁶A copy of the edict to be issued as law in each and every province was published to all the peoples, so that the Jews would be ready for this day to avenge themselves on their enemies.

14 The couriers, hastened and impelled by the king's command, went out, riding on the royal steeds; and the decree was given out at the citadel in Susa.

Esther 8:4-14 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.

Cross References

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

Footnotes

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