Esther 8:10

10 Mordecai wrote orders in the name of King Xerxes and sealed the letters with the king's signet ring. Then he sent the king's orders by messengers on fast horses, horses that were raised just for the king.

Esther 8:10 Meaning and Commentary

Esther 8:10

And he wrote in the King Ahasuerus' name, and sealed it with
the king's ring
Which gave the letters authority, and made them irreversible, and for this Mordecai had the king's order, ( Esther 8:8 )

and sent letters by post;
by runners or couriers:

on horseback;
that rode on horses that were racers, that ran swiftly:

and riders on mules, camels, and young dromedaries;
which were all different creatures, and swift ones, according to our version, especially the latter; see ( Jeremiah 2:23 ) which were a kind of camels, but swifter, and would go more than one hundred miles a day ^F1; and, as Diodorus Siculus says ^F2, not less than 1500 furlongs or about two hundred miles: though it may be only one sort are meant, namely, "mules", for the next word, "ahashteranim", in the Persian language signifies mules ^F3, and so Aben Ezra interprets it, and likewise Kimchi and Ben Melech; and the last words may be rendered "sons of mares", so David de Pomis; that is, such mules as are gendered by he asses and mares: and so the same writer observes, that the word in the Arabic language signifies "mares"; and such mules that come from them he says are stronger than those that come from she asses; so that the whole may be rendered to this sense, "riders on mules", (which in the Persian language are called "ahashteranim",) namely, such as are "sons of mares"; and which according to Aelianus ^F4 and Pliny ^F5 are the swiftest; though the Persians had camels swifter than are common elsewhere, called "revatrie", the "goer", which trot as fast as an horse can gallop ^F6.

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FOOTNOTES:

F1 Isidor. Origin. l. 12. c. 1. Vid. Strabo Geograph. l. 15. p. 498.
F2 Bibliothec. l. 19. p. 683.
F3 Castell. Dictionar. Persic. col. 29. Hottinger. Smegma Oriental l. 1. c. 5. p. 75.
F4 De Animal. l. 16. c. 9.
F5 Nat. Hist. l. 8. c. 44.
F6 Universal History, vol. 5. p. 88.

Esther 8:10 In-Context

8 Now, in the king's name, write another order to the Jewish people as it seems best to you. Then seal the order with the king's signet ring, because no letter written in the king's name and sealed with his signet ring can be canceled."

9 At that time the king's secretaries were called. This was the twenty-third day of the third month, which is Sivan. The secretaries wrote out all of Mordecai's orders to the Jews, to the governors, to the captains of the soldiers in each state, and to the important men of the one hundred twenty-seven states that reached from India to Cush. They wrote in the writing of each state and in the language of each people. They also wrote to the Jewish people in their own writing and language.

10 Mordecai wrote orders in the name of King Xerxes and sealed the letters with the king's signet ring. Then he sent the king's orders by messengers on fast horses, horses that were raised just for the king.

11 These were the king's orders: The Jewish people in every city have the right to gather together to protect themselves. They may destroy, kill, and completely wipe out the army of any state or people who attack them. And they are to do the same to the women and children of that army. They may also take by force the property of their enemies.

12 The one day set for the Jewish people to do this in all the empire of King Xerxes was the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar.