Esther 9:1-23

The Triumph of the Jews

1 On the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, the edict commanded by the king was to be carried out. On this day the enemies of the Jews had hoped to overpower them, but now the tables were turned and the Jews got the upper hand over those who hated them.
2 The Jews assembled in their cities in all the provinces of King Xerxes to attack those determined to destroy them. No one could stand against them, because the people of all the other nationalities were afraid of them.
3 And all the nobles of the provinces, the satraps, the governors and the king’s administrators helped the Jews, because fear of Mordecai had seized them.
4 Mordecai was prominent in the palace; his reputation spread throughout the provinces, and he became more and more powerful.
5 The Jews struck down all their enemies with the sword, killing and destroying them, and they did what they pleased to those who hated them.
6 In the citadel of Susa, the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men.
7 They also killed Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha,
8 Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha,
9 Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai and Vaizatha,
10 the ten sons of Haman son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews. But they did not lay their hands on the plunder.
11 The number of those killed in the citadel of Susa was reported to the king that same day.
12 The king said to Queen Esther, “The Jews have killed and destroyed five hundred men and the ten sons of Haman in the citadel of Susa. What have they done in the rest of the king’s provinces? Now what is your petition? It will be given you. What is your request? It will also be granted.”
13 “If it pleases the king,” Esther answered, “give the Jews in Susa permission to carry out this day’s edict tomorrow also, and let Haman’s ten sons be impaled on poles.”
14 So the king commanded that this be done. An edict was issued in Susa, and they impaled the ten sons of Haman.
15 The Jews in Susa came together on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar, and they put to death in Susa three hundred men, but they did not lay their hands on the plunder.
16 Meanwhile, the remainder of the Jews who were in the king’s provinces also assembled to protect themselves and get relief from their enemies. They killed seventy-five thousand of them but did not lay their hands on the plunder.
17 This happened on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, and on the fourteenth they rested and made it a day of feasting and joy.
18 The Jews in Susa, however, had assembled on the thirteenth and fourteenth, and then on the fifteenth they rested and made it a day of feasting and joy.
19 That is why rural Jews—those living in villages—observe the fourteenth of the month of Adar as a day of joy and feasting, a day for giving presents to each other.

Purim Established

20 Mordecai recorded these events, and he sent letters to all the Jews throughout the provinces of King Xerxes, near and far,
21 to have them celebrate annually the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar
22 as the time when the Jews got relief from their enemies, and as the month when their sorrow was turned into joy and their mourning into a day of celebration. He wrote them to observe the days as days of feasting and joy and giving presents of food to one another and gifts to the poor.
23 So the Jews agreed to continue the celebration they had begun, doing what Mordecai had written to them.

Esther 9:1-23 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.

Cross References 30

  • 1. S Esther 8:12
  • 2. Jeremiah 29:4-7
  • 3. S Esther 3:12-14; Proverbs 22:22-23
  • 4. ver 15-18; S Genesis 22:17
  • 5. Esther 8:11,17; Psalms 35:26; Psalms 40:14; Psalms 70:2; Psalms 71:13,24
  • 6. S Ezra 8:36
  • 7. Esther 8:17
  • 8. S Esther 8:15
  • 9. S Exodus 11:3
  • 10. S 2 Samuel 3:1; 1 Chronicles 11:9
  • 11. Deuteronomy 25:17-19; S 1 Samuel 15:3; S Ezra 4:6
  • 12. S Esther 5:11; Psalms 127:3-5
  • 13. S 1 Samuel 15:33
  • 14. S Genesis 14:23; S 1 Samuel 14:32; S Esther 3:13; Esther 8:11
  • 15. Esther 5:6; Esther 7:2
  • 16. S Esther 5:11
  • 17. S Deuteronomy 21:22-23
  • 18. S Ezra 6:11
  • 19. S Genesis 14:23; S Esther 8:11
  • 20. S Esther 4:14
  • 21. Deuteronomy 25:19
  • 22. S 1 Chronicles 4:43
  • 23. S Esther 8:11
  • 24. S 1 Kings 3:15
  • 25. S Esther 3:7
  • 26. ver 22; Deuteronomy 16:11,14; Nehemiah 8:10,12; S Esther 2:9; Revelation 11:10
  • 27. S Esther 4:14
  • 28. Nehemiah 8:12; Psalms 30:11-12
  • 29. S 2 Kings 25:30
  • 30. S Nehemiah 8:10
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