For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Esther 9:1-17

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.

A. Find Out

1. What happened at the end of the year? v.1
2. Why did the Jews prevail? v.2
3. Who helped them, and why? v.3,4
4. What did the Jews actually do that day? v.5-10
5. What 2 things did Esther further request? v.11-13
6. What was then the extent of the work of the Jews? v.14-17

B. Think:

1. What is clear about the reputation, before this, of the Jews?
2. How had that crystallized?
3. What now was the end situation?

C. Comment:

     Again, to our modern minds, these possibly seem most barbaric actions. To catch the meaning of these events we need to try and get the big picture. Scattered throughout the Babylonian kingdom after the exile of Israel, and then also the later kingdoms, were thousands of Jews. They were quite distinct, as they always have been, and as such they were accompanied by a fear which turned into defensive hostility. When Haman issued his edict, it gave the possibility of putting that fear and hostility into practical action – the complete extinction of this people.

     However, this is a people formed by God at Sinai and His chosen people, a people that He still has plans for. He will not, therefore, let them be destroyed. They are His! No one touches them and gets away with it. Essentially, we suspect, the death sentence was passed on all those plotters of this genocide. Essentially this was outright war, even though it was within a single kingdom. There was one large group of people trying to wipe out another large group of people. The second group turned round and instead wiped them out. Essentially, this is exactly what has happened in some measure in the two world wars of the twentieth century and numerous other conflicts. As much as our modern minds may dislike the reading in this study, we don’t have any room to point fingers. This is what happens in a sinful world!

D. Application:

1. Killing is always to be avoided where possible.
2. Self-defence has always been a defence for killing.

Passage: Esther 9:18-28

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.

20 Mordecai recorded these events, and he sent letters to all the Jews throughout the provinces of King Xerxes, near and far, 21 that they should 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 to 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. 24 For Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them and had cast the pur (that is, the lot) for their ruin and destruction. 25 But when the plot came to the king’s attention, he issued written orders that the evil scheme Haman had devised against the Jews should come back on to his own head, and that he and his sons should be impaled on poles. 26 (Therefore these days were called Purim, from the word pur.) Because of everything written in this letter and because of what they had seen and what had happened to them, 27 the Jews took it on themselves to establish the custom that they and their descendants and all who join them should without fail observe these two days every year, in the way prescribed and at the time appointed. 28 These days should be remembered and observed in every generation by every family, and in every province and in every city. And these days of Purim should never fail to be celebrated by the Jews – nor should the memory of these days die out among their descendants.

A. Find Out

1. How did the Jews use these three days? v.18,19
2. What did Mordecai do? v.20-22
3. What did the Jews agree to do and why? v.23-25
4. How did the celebration come to be called Purim? v.26
5. So what did they do? v.27-28

B. Think:

1. What was the basis of this celebration?
2. How long did it continue?
3. If you were a Jew, what do you think you would feel about it?

C. Comment:

       These verses show us how what happened was fixed in the life of Israel. First of all, the historical facts: for two days, the thirteen and fourteenth, the edict from Mordecai, coming with the king’s authority, was carried out, and the enemies of the Jews who had plotted to destroy them, were, themselves, destroyed. On the fifteenth when that was finished, they celebrated. It is easy to miss the significance of this last day. It was a day to acknowledge the wonder of what had happened and be grateful. Again there is no mention of the Lord in the text, but it would surely have been a day of thankfulness to the Lord for their deliverance, such was their ingrained relationship with the Lord. It is so easy to just let events pass without acknowledging the wonder of them. Celebration is a good part of human life because it acknowledges good aspects of life and doesn’t take them for granted.

      Mordecai sent out instructions for this to become an annual celebration and the Jews all over the kingdom responded to that, and did it. Because it was based upon the casting of the lot – the pur – which had given the Jews a time of reprieve, a time in which things could happen that would bring them salvation, it was known as Purim. Thus it came to be built into the life of the Jews, that they would remember each year how they had been saved from extinction. If this had not happened they would not exist. That is how important it is.

D. Application:

1. Is celebration built into our lives, to acknowledge God’s goodness?
2. Do we regularly acknowledge the Lord’s hand of deliverance?

Passage: Esther 9:29 – 10:3

29 So Queen Esther, daughter of Abihail, along with Mordecai the Jew, wrote with full authority to confirm this second letter concerning Purim. 30 And Mordecai sent letters to all the Jews in the 127 provinces of Xerxes’s kingdom – words of goodwill and assurance – 31 to establish these days of Purim at their designated times, as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had decreed for them, and as they had established for themselves and their descendants in regard to their times of fasting and lamentation. 32 Esther’s decree confirmed these regulations about Purim, and it was written down in the records.

1 King Xerxes imposed tribute throughout the empire, to its distant shores. 2 And all his acts of power and might, together with a full account of the greatness of Mordecai, whom the king had promoted, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Media and Persia? 3 Mordecai the Jew was second in rank to King Xerxes, pre-eminent among the Jews, and held in high esteem by his many fellow Jews, because he worked for the good of his people and spoke up for the welfare of all the Jews.

A. Find Out

1. What did Esther do to strengthen the situation? v.29, 32
2. What did Mordecai do? v.30,31
3. How was all this recorded? v.2
4. What was Mordecai’s position? v.3a
5. How was he considered? v.3b

B. Think:

1. What do Esther’s actions indicate about her?
2. What do Mordecai’s actions indicate about him?
3. How is the end of this story so different from the beginning?

C. Comment:

     What stands out in these closing verses of chapter 9 is that Esther and Mordecai wrote together, in complete harmony, as Jews to Jews. There is nothing ‘under cover’ about their activities; they are completely ‘above board’ and with the full assent of the king. Now this cannot be emphasised too strongly. The king held supreme position and his authority was ultimate. Indeed, he had absolute power over his kingdom so if he wanted to raise tribute (v.1) he did. It was as simple as that. His wishes were supreme. So, when we see Esther and Mordecai exercising this same authority we know that they have the absolute blessing of the king.

      This is quite amazing really, because he has given them absolute power to instruct a particular group of his subjects, making them special. This day of remembrance is established in every one of the provinces wherever there are Jews. It is a day when they should celebrate to remind themselves of the near catastrophe that was averted by Mordecai and Queen Esther.

Also note that this is not just some little thing that was done on the side, but it is part of the governing of the kingdom and as such was included in the national records archive as a distinct event. Note also that Mordecai is held in high esteem by his people in recognition of his care and concern for them. He has been a means of establishing them and bringing security to them in exile.

D. Application:

1. God can reverse the very worst of situations.
2. God’s hand may be unseen, but He is still there, moving events.