Esther 9 · a question people ask
"Did what they wanted to those who hated them" (9:5). How do Christians read the fighting in Esther 9?
The chapter tells it in its own words. The king's second letters had granted the Jews "to gather themselves together and to defend their lives" (Esther 8:11), and had been published "that the Jews should be ready for that day to avenge themselves on their enemies" (Esther 8:13). On the day, "the Jews gathered themselves together in their cities throughout all the provinces of the King Ahasuerus, to lay hands on those who wanted to harm them" (9:2), and "The Jews struck all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, and with slaughter and destruction, and did what they wanted to those who hated them" (9:5). When the king told Esther what had been done in Susa (9:12), she asked, "let it be granted to the Jews who are in Susa to do tomorrow also according to today’s decree, and let Haman’s ten sons be hanged on the gallows" (9:13). In the provinces the Jews "gathered themselves together, defended their lives, had rest from their enemies" (9:16). Three times the chapter says, "they didn’t lay their hand on the plunder" (9:10, 9:15, 9:16). The book adds no verdict of its own in words. Christians read these verses in two main ways, each resting on its verses, and they also differ on whether the book approves what it records; each view below says how it reads that. These notes don't choose between them, and apply neither to any people or conflict today. Both agree on what the chapter says: that this was "the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to conquer them" (9:1); that 9:16's "defended their lives" uses the words of the letters in 8:11; that the chapter three times says they didn't take the plunder (9:10, 9:15, 9:16); and that the chapter says no word of its own for or against what was done. And Christians who hold each view take as words for Jesus' followers both Paul's "Don’t seek revenge yourselves, beloved, but give place to God’s wrath" (Romans 12:19) and Jesus' "love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you" (Matthew 5:44). They differ on how Esther 9 sits beside them.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
The self-defence the king's letters allowed
Those who read it this way start from the day itself. Haman's letters, "written in the name of King Ahasuerus" (Esther 3:12), had ordered "to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day" (Esther 3:13), and the king had said that "the writing which is written in the king’s name, and sealed with the king’s ring, may not be reversed by any man" (Esther 8:8). The second letters granted the Jews "to gather themselves together and to defend their lives" (Esther 8:11), and the chapter uses those words for what they did: they "gathered themselves together, defended their lives, had rest from their enemies" (9:16). They gathered "to lay hands on those who wanted to harm them" (9:2), on "the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to conquer them" (9:1). The letters had also granted "to plunder their possessions" (Esther 8:11), and three times the chapter says "they didn’t lay their hand on the plunder" (9:10, 9:15, 9:16). On this reading, the chapter tells of people defending their lives on the day set against them, as the king's letters allowed, which they read as a different thing from the revenge Romans 12:19 forbids, and as not at odds with Jesus' "love your enemies" (Matthew 5:44). And though the book gives no verdict in words, they read it as telling that day with approval: it is the day on which "it turned out that the opposite happened" (9:1), kept as "the days in which the Jews had rest from their enemies" (9:22).
Esther 3:12-13 · Esther 8:8 · Esther 8:11 · Esther 9:1-2 · Esther 9:10 · Esther 9:15-16 · Esther 9:22 · Romans 12:19 · Matthew 5:44
Going beyond defence, recorded without approval
Those who read it this way note words in this chapter and the one before that go further than defending lives. The letters were published "that the Jews should be ready for that day to avenge themselves on their enemies" (Esther 8:13). The chapter says the Jews "did what they wanted to those who hated them" (9:5). After the king had told Esther what was done in Susa, "including the ten sons of Haman" (9:12), she asked "to do tomorrow also according to today’s decree, and let Haman’s ten sons be hanged on the gallows" (9:13), though the chapter has already told that the ten were killed (9:7-10). They set these beside Paul, "Don’t seek revenge yourselves, beloved, but give place to God’s wrath. For it is written, “Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord.”" (Romans 12:19), and Jesus, "love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you" (Matthew 5:44). They note that the book gives no word of its own for what was done, and quotes no word of God about it. On this reading, the chapter is a true record of what was done, some of it going beyond defending their lives, and the book records it without approving it.
Esther 8:13 · Esther 9:5 · Esther 9:7-10 · Esther 9:12-13 · Romans 12:19 · Matthew 5:44
The verses
“In those letters, the king granted the Jews who were in every city to gather themselves together and to defend their lives—to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish all the power of the people and province that would assault them, their little ones and women, and to plunder their possessions,”
“A copy of the letter, that the decree should be given out in every province, was published to all the peoples, that the Jews should be ready for that day to avenge themselves on their enemies.”
“Now in the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, on the thirteenth day of the month, when the king’s commandment and his decree came near to be put in execution, on the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to conquer them, (but it turned out that the opposite happened, that the Jews conquered those who hated them), the Jews gathered themselves together in their cities throughout all the provinces of the King Ahasuerus, to lay hands on those who wanted to harm them. No one could withstand them, because the fear of them had fallen on all the people.”
“The Jews struck all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, and with slaughter and destruction, and did what they wanted to those who hated them.”