And Haman said to king Ahasuerus, There is a people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of thy kingdom; and their laws are diverse from [those of] every people, and they keep not the king's laws; and it is not for the king's profit to suffer them.
Haman has the king's ear, and he uses it to ask the king to destroy a whole people — without ever saying who they are. He makes three claims: they are scattered everywhere, their laws differ from everyone else's, and the crown gains nothing by keeping them.
The reason Haman gave the king was not the reason Haman had. Notice what the story tells us openly, and what it keeps in the dark.
There was the secret. God does not appear. There is no intimation in the history that God had spoken about Haman! Yet here was the secret reason; but the only public reason that appears is that Mordecai was a Jew.
Haman chose his words with care. He builds the charge in stages, and he leaves out the name of the people. (The commentator below calls Ahasuerus by his other name, Xerxes.)
He tells the king about a certain people who live in his kingdom. He avoids mentioning their name. If he had named them, the plot would not have succeeded. Xerxes must have known the famous history of the Jews well. He also knew that ever since Cyrus, the policy of the Persian Empire had been to protect the Jews. Haman's accusation is twofold. First: their laws are different from those of every people. Second: they do not keep the king's laws. And then the verdict: it is not for the king's profit to tolerate them. They were a separate people, following their God-given law. It was this religious side that stirred up Satan's hatred. Through Haman he now urges the murder of the whole race.
Part of Haman's charge was true. The Jews were scattered through the provinces, and they did live by a different law. But one writer looks past the charge to why such a people draw hatred at all, and to how the plot ended.
At the start, everything pointed the other way; in the end Satan defeated himself, as he always does. Haman's plea to the king was plausible. God's people are always an offence to the rest of mankind, simply because they are His. The proud and boastful feel it most. This stays true even when their own unfaithfulness costs them His open favour, and that is exactly what had happened.
Haman pointed at the Jews as a people scattered among the provinces. Scripture uses that same description of Israel, and it reaches into the New Testament.
The term is applied to the nation of Israel, now scattered throughout the world (Esther 3:8). The letters of James and 1 Peter were written especially to believers among them.
Haman's complaint has a shape: these people live by different customs, so they are a danger to the state. One writer ties it to the charge later brought against Paul and Silas at Philippi.
He tells the king that a people is scattered through his realm, and that it is not to his profit to let them live, because their customs are different from all other people. That was the secret of the world's hatred then, and it still is (see Acts 16:20-21).
Acts records the wording: "These men are Jews, and they are disturbing our city. They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice" (Acts 16:20-21, ESV).
The book of Esther never names God, and Haman never names the Jews. But behind the minister stood something more than personal spite.
The enemy always watched for any circumstance that might serve his ends. He used men as his instruments to defeat God's purpose of salvation. Ahasuerus was the tool of Haman. Haman was the tool of Satan. And God allowed it all, so that He might triumph in delivering His people. What a scene to consider! Man shows blindness and spite. The enemy shows malice and craft. God shows fixed purpose and grace. All this comes out to us in the book of Esther.
- Name hidden. Haman never says "the Jews." He left the name out on purpose. The king knew their history, and Persia had protected them since Cyrus.
- Motive hidden. The king heard one reason: this people keeps its own laws. Haman's real reason stayed secret, and the record never states it.
- Half true. Part of the charge was accurate. They were scattered, and their law was different. But God's people offend the world because they are His. That stays true even when their own unfaithfulness has cost them His open favour.
- Charge repeated. "Their customs are different" was the secret of the world's hatred then, and it still is. The same charge met Paul and Silas at Philippi.
- God hidden. Ahasuerus was Haman's tool. Haman was Satan's. God allowed it all, so that He might triumph in delivering His people. His name never appears in the book; His hand does.
If it please the king, let it be written that they may be destroyed, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those that have charge of the affairs, to bring [it] into the king's treasuries.
Haman has just asked the king to wipe out a whole people, and now he names his price in silver. Why would a man who already had the king's ear offer to pay at all?
Haman knew what a king would ask first. Killing a whole people costs the treasury money. His silver answered that, and did more besides.
Haman, like his dark master, Satan, was cunning enough to anticipate an objection from the king's side. Would the kingdom not lose money if a whole people were wiped out? To remove this financial concern he offers to pay 10,000 talents of silver (about 20 million dollars) for the slaughter of the Jews he wants. With it he tempted the greed of the king. At the same time he flattered the king's pride. He implied that it must be a small thing for him to lose a whole people worth only 10,000 talents. And Haman probably calculated this too: the bigger the sum he offered, the more flattering it would feel to the king to wave it away.
Why would such a plea work at all? The offence was not what these people had done. It was whose they were.
Haman's plea to the king was plausible. God's people, just because they are His, are always an offence to the rest of mankind, and especially to the proud and boastful. This stays true even when their own unfaithfulness costs them His open favour, as was in fact the case… So Haman proposes their destruction, offering a round sum for the treasury in return.
A man willing to pay out of his own pocket has a private motive. The king missed that evidence, though he had taken advice over a much smaller matter.
Surely the king ought to have realised that Haman had a personal axe to grind. Haman would pay this great amount himself to have this people destroyed. But the king had great confidence in this scheming Amalekite. Haman cared far more for his own reputation than for the Persian kingdom… Strangely, the king had consulted his princes about what to do with Queen Vashti (ch. 1:13-15). In this far more serious case he acted like a dictator!
Grant calls Haman an Amalekite. That name goes back to an old feud.
He was called "the Agagite," which linked him with the Amalekites, a people who had attacked Israel out of pure malice. God had pronounced unending war against them. That is why Mordecai refused to honour Haman. The refusal so wounded Haman's pride and stirred his anger that he plotted to destroy not only Mordecai but every Jew in the king's lands.
The king never took the money. He waved it away and handed over the people instead.
Haman proposes to enrich the king through this destruction… Ahasuerus refuses the silver. He hands the people over to Haman, "to do with them as seems good to him." What indifference, what a hardened heart we find in this king! The name of Israel has no meaning for him. One of his favourites, a wicked man, matters more to him than the life of a whole nation — and a ruler ought to care for his people!
Haman had bought his decree. He had not counted on the God who was watching.
His offer of the immense sum of 10,000 talents of silver ought to have shown the king that he had some sinister end in view… But God was watching over all. On that very night He caused the king to remember what Mordecai had done for him… So God watched over His people in their captivity and made the scheme of their enemy fall on his own head.
Haman is not the first man of his kind.
The Agagite now stands out as the representative of the great enemy, the proud rebel who stands against God, His people and His purposes. There has been such a man in every age… Pharaoh, in Egypt; Amalek, in the wilderness; Haman, here in the day of the dispersion; and Herod, in the New Testament. Self-exaltation, godless pride, and defiance of the fear of God, along with deep-rooted hatred of His people, are some or all of the marks on each of them.
- Bought. Haman offers 10,000 talents to buy a written decree — money aimed at the king's greed and his pride at once.
- Plausible. A separate people always offends the proud. The payment made the murder look like profit.
- Exposed. A man paying his own silver for state policy has a private grudge. It went back to an old feud, and the king should have seen it.
- Waived. The king refused the silver and handed over the people instead. He valued neither.
- Overruled. The scheme fell on the buyer's own head. God was watching all along.
And the king took his ring from his hand, and gave it to Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the Jews' enemy.
The king's signet ring changes hands here, and with it the power to turn one man's hatred into law. Scripture pauses to give the man who receives it a title: the enemy of the Jews. Behind that title lies a feud far older than the Persian court.
A ring in that court was not jewellery. It was a working tool of government, and the king hands it to Haman.
Then the king gave him his ring. It was a ring to seal a document. Every ring had a seal. Handing over the king's ring with its seal handed over royal authority and power to the man who received it. So Haman now held royal authority. The haughtiness of the king appears now. Not only does he turn over his signet ring, but he also makes Haman a present of the enormous sum he had offered to the king. In cold blood Xerxes gives over this unknown people into the hands of this wicked enemy.
The verse names Haman's family, and that name carries a history. Agag was the royal line of Amalek, a nation under a standing sentence from God.
Haman was the son of Hammedatha the Agagite. Josephus explains his foreign name by calling him an Amalekite by race, and Jewish tradition says the same. So Haman was an Amalekite. This explains why Mordecai refused to bow down before Haman. He belonged to the race the Lord had sworn to fight for ever, and which He told Saul to destroy completely. Ex. 17:16; Deut. 25:19; 1 Sam. 15:3.
One writer sees a long campaign behind Amalek. It runs from the desert years to Haman, and on to Bethlehem, with the same hidden aim throughout.
Without Moses' prayer on the mountain and without Joshua, he would have destroyed the people. David defeated him at last, yet even then he did not treat the fight as finished. Now the people are captive. Their unfaithfulness has brought them to the lowest point of humiliation. So Satan stirs up Haman the Agagite to wipe out the weak remnant of this people. And let us not forget his hidden purpose: to take Israel away from Christ, the king God had planned and promised. Could there be a more deceitful plan, a more satanic one, than that? This book teaches us that Satan is frustrated in his efforts, yet he does not consider himself beaten. He attacks Israel's very Leader, Christ. At His birth he tries to kill Him through a new Agag, in the massacre at Bethlehem.
The king hands over the ring without one question about the people he is condemning. He also misses what his adviser stood to gain.
The king ought to have realised that Haman had a personal axe to grind. Haman was ready to pay this huge sum out of his own pocket to have this people destroyed. But the king placed great confidence in this scheming Amalekite. Haman cared far more for his own reputation than for the Persian kingdom. The king therefore agreed, and gave Haman liberty to do just as he desired (vv. 10-11). It seems strange that the king consulted his princes about what to do with Queen Vashti (ch. 1:13-15). Yet in this far more serious case he acted like a dictator!
Why did this hatred settle on this people? One writer names the reason underneath it, and the way such plots end.
Haman's plea to the king sounded plausible. God's people, just because they are His, are always an offence to the rest of mankind, and most of all to the proud and boastful. This stays true even when their own unfaithfulness has cost them His open favour, as it had here… At first, that ending looked the least likely of all; in the end Satan, as always, defeated himself.
The title given to Haman here follows him through the rest of the book. But the decree he seals with this ring does not get the last word.
Haman accuses the Jewish people before the king, and this verse names him "the enemy of the Jews" (v. 10; cf. 8:1; 9:10, 24). All of it matters for what we learn about Satan and his agents (cf. Rev. 12:4, 10). A royal decree then makes his plan law: every Jew must die (v. 12-15)… How good to know that the king later passes a second decree which overturns the first. That second decree turns a sentence of death into life and peace.
- The ring — the signet stamped documents and made them law. Giving it away gave away royal authority, and Haman now acts with the king's own power.
- The hand that takes it — Haman is an Agagite, from Amalek's royal line. God had sworn lasting war on that nation, and the old feud is why Mordecai would not bow.
- The hand that gives it — a king who asked nothing and checked nothing, and made a gift of the silver too. He took advice about his queen, but not about the life of a whole nation.
- The hatred underneath — God's people offend the proud just because they are His. That stays true even when their unfaithfulness has cost them His open favour.
- The reversal — the king later issues a second decree that overturns the first. The sentence of death becomes life and peace.
And the king said to Haman, The silver is given to thee, the people also, to do with them as seems good to thee.
The king's answer costs him nothing: he gives away his ring, waves off the money, and hands a whole people to a man who hates them. Everything that follows in the book flows from this careless moment.
The ring was not a personal keepsake. It stamped the empire's decisions as genuine, so handing it over handed over the power itself.
Then the king gave him his ring. It was a ring for sealing a document. Every ring had a seal. Handing over the royal ring with the royal seal meant handing over royal authority and power to the person who received it. Haman was therefore invested with royal authority. The haughtiness of the king now appears. Not only does he hand over his signet ring, but he also makes Haman a present of the enormous sum he had offered to the king. In cold blood Xerxes gives this unknown people over into the hands of this wicked enemy.
Refusing Haman's money may look like restraint. It shows something else: the people meant so little to him that he did not even want paying for them.
Ahasuerus refuses the silver and hands the people over to Haman, "to do with them as it seems good to [him]." What indifference, what a hardened heart we find in this king! The name of Israel has no significance for him. "Do with them as it seems good to you," he says — in other words, do evil and face no punishment!
One writer notes that the offer itself should have made the king suspicious.
Surely the king ought to have realised that Haman had a personal axe to grind. He was ready to pay this huge amount himself to have this people destroyed. But the king clearly had great confidence in this scheming Amalekite, who cared far more for his own reputation than for the Persian kingdom. So the king agreed, and gave Haman freedom to do just as he wanted. It seems strange that the king would consult with the princes about what to do with Vashti, but that here, in a far more serious case, he would act like a dictator!
Commentators see more here than one man's grudge. One writer points to the power behind Haman, and to a hatred that had no cause at all.
Satan stirred up the Amalekite to a hatred that wanted God's fallen people wiped out. But He who loved them despite everything would give that hatred the punishment it deserved. It began without cause, against the very people He had openly favoured.
Haman now acts, but never in his own name. That makes his private revenge look like the king's own policy — and one writer sees the same pattern returning at the end.
Haman writes "in the name of king Ahasuerus," and appears to act as his humble servant in matters the king himself has decided and decreed. Similar circumstances will come round again at the time of the end. The Antichrist will make himself the servant of the Roman Beast (Rev. 13:14-16) to carry out his own plans. Haman's satanic scheme begins with the pride and ambition of this man. He would rather crush everything under his feet than see it all subject to Christ.
Nothing in this chapter looks hopeful. Yet the plot carried its own defeat inside it.
Divine providence delayed the outcome long enough to allow a fresh decree. The first one could not be changed or cancelled. The new decree let the Jews defend themselves and destroy their enemies. But at first no outcome looked less likely; in the end Satan, as always, defeated himself. Haman's argument to the king was plausible. God's people are always an offence to the rest of mankind, just because they are His. The proud and boastful hate them most. This stays true even when their own unfaithfulness costs them His open favour, which is what had happened here.
The whole nation is now under a legal death sentence. One writer draws out what the two decrees picture together.
Haman accuses the Jewish people before the king, and the book exposes him as "the Jews' enemy"... A royal decree then makes his plan law: all Jews must die. This pictures a divine death sentence on the Jewish nation. How good to know that — as we will see — the king later passes a second decree which overturns the first. The sentence of death turns into life and peace.
- Ring — the seal was royal authority itself. Giving it away turned Haman's private hatred into law.
- Indifference — the king refused the money because a whole people cost him nothing to give away.
- Enmity — behind Haman stands Satan, stirring a hatred with no cause against the people God had openly favoured.
- Borrowed name — Haman never acts as himself. He signs in the king's name, a pattern one writer expects to see again at the end.
- Reversal — the scheme defeated itself. A second decree turned the sentence of death into life and peace.
Then were the king's scribes called, in the first month, on the thirteenth day of the [month], and there was written according to all that Haman commanded unto the king's satraps, and to the governors over every province, and to the princes of every people; to every province according to the writing thereof, and to every people according to their language in the name of king Ahasuerus was it written, and sealed with the king's ring.
Haman holds the king's ring, and now the king's scribes write whatever he commands. On the thirteenth day of the first month, one man's hatred becomes the fixed law of an empire.
The verse reads like paperwork: officials, provinces, scripts, languages. One commentator walks through the steps that turned Haman's wish into a law nobody could undo:
The king's scribes were then called to write a decree "according to all that Haman commanded." It was addressed to all the officials of the kingdom in every province and sealed with the king's signet (v. 12). Couriers then carried these letters to all the king's provinces. They told the people to kill and destroy all the Jews — young and old, women and children — on one set day, and to take all their possessions as plunder. Haman took the fullest advantage of the king's permission. He had copies of the document sent everywhere (v. 14), declaring this slaughter to be law. That law could not be changed, because the Medes and Persians prided themselves on having unchangeable laws (Dan. 6:8).
The decree carries two things that are not Haman's: the king's name and the king's seal. A later letter in the book carries the same two marks. Comparing them shows what the seal meant:
Esther 3:12 and Esther 8:8 hold two letters of King Ahasuerus. The first was written under Haman's influence and scheming, calling on men to rise up against the Jews and wipe them out. The second was written under Mordecai's guidance, authorising the Jews to destroy anyone who dared to lay hands on them. Both letters were written in the king's name and sealed with the king's ring, and neither was cancelled. No man may reverse a writing that carries the king's name and the king's seal. So the sealing stood for the settled, unchangeable purpose and will of the one whose seal it was. No man could reverse it.
The order goes out "to every province in its own script and every people in its own language." No Jew anywhere could say the law had not reached him.
The decree they read. It was written, it was sealed with the king's signet — no man could reverse it. Who could bring comfort to those affected by it? A Persian had no fear of death because of it; it did not touch him. Once it was published, no Jew inside the king's lands had any hope of life. He could go from one end of the empire to the other, and no corner, no hidden spot, was safe for him. The decree aimed at the whole race. So the Jew was born into this world under a threat of death.
Everything in the letter is Haman's; nothing in it bears his name. One commentator sees the same arrangement returning at the end of days:
Haman writes "in the name of King Ahasuerus," and in appearance acts as his humble servant in affairs that the king himself has resolved and decreed. Similar circumstances will be renewed at the time of the end. The Antichrist will make himself the servant of the Roman Beast (Rev. 13:14-16) to carry out his own plans. Haman's satanic plan begins with his own pride and ambition. He would rather crush everything under his feet than see it made subject to Christ.
Haman used the lot to pick his day, and the lot gave him the twelfth month — eleven months away. That delay left room for the steps that undid him.
Haman had power, and he was full of anger at Mordecai's lack of respect. He decided to destroy not Mordecai alone but all his people. So he cast lots to find "the lucky day." The lots were cast in the first month of the year, and they pointed to a day as late as the thirteenth day of the twelfth month. That left ample time for the various steps that brought down both his plan and himself (3:7 and 13).
No one ever cancels the decree of verse 12. A second decree answers it, and one commentator sees in that a picture of the nation's standing before God:
His plan is ratified by a royal decree according to which all Jews must die (v. 12-15). This illustrates that there is a divine death sentence on the Jewish nation. How good to know that — as we will see — the king later passes a second decree which overturns the first. The sentence of death becomes life and peace.
- Written. Hatred in Haman's heart could kill no one. Written out by the king's scribes, it became law.
- Sealed. The king's ring marked a settled will. What it stamped could not be taken back, so rescue had to come as a second decree, not as a cancelled first one.
- Sent. Copies went to every province in its own script and language. No Jew in the empire stood outside the sentence.
- Delayed. The lot Haman trusted gave him a date eleven months away. That gap left room for the steps that destroyed him.
- Reversed. Chapter 3 leaves a death sentence over the nation. By chapter 8 a second letter, with the same name and the same ring, turns it into life and peace.
And the letters were sent by couriers into all the king's provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, upon the thirteenth of the twelfth month, that is, the month Adar, and [to take] the spoil of them for a prey.
Here Haman's private grudge becomes imperial law. Couriers carry sealed letters into every province, and one day is named for the killing of a whole people. Why was the day set so far off? And what can a people do when the law itself says they must die?
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Haman's own words became a law of the empire, and no one could undo it.
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The king's scribes were then called to write a decree "according to all that Haman commanded." It was addressed to all the officials of the kingdom in every province, and sealed with the king's signet (v. 12)... Haman had taken fullest advantage of the king's permission. He had copies of the document sent everywhere (v. 14), declaring this slaughter as law. That law could not be changed, for the Medes and Persians prided themselves on laws that could never be altered (Dan. 6:8).
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The order was written on a day whose Persian name meant "lot", and it reached every people in its own language.
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An empire-wide proclamation went out, a real proclamation of death. The king's scribes were called on the 13th day of the month. Research has shown that the Persians called that day Tir, which means "lot." The message went out in different languages to all the king's satraps, to the governors of every province, and to the princes of every people joined to the Persian empire. It told them what was to happen on the 13th day of the month Adar.
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The man dictating these letters is drawn as more than an offended official.
He is marked by uncontrollable pride and by the desire to lift himself up and make himself a god. He is filled with terrible hatred against the people of God and against the one who represents them. To take revenge on that one man, the enemy sacrifices the whole nation. He also uses lies and hellish cunning to get what he wants: murder. In a word, he is the spirit of wickedness in the flesh. Is he not the same one who says, "Come, let us wipe them out as a nation; let the name of Israel be remembered no more!"? (Ps. 83:4)
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Haman cast lots to pick his day, and the day he got undid him.
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So the enemy cast lots to find a day that suited his murderous plan. God's providence saw to it that the lot fell far ahead. That delay left room for a new decree, since the old one could not be changed or cancelled, so that the Jews could stand and defend themselves and destroy their enemies. At first nothing looked less likely. In the end Satan, as always, defeated himself.
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The sorrow that spread had a deeper cause than one man's hatred.
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The king's decree, the written word, stood in front of them. It would not be changed. It had to be carried out, unless some way of rescue was found in time. Haman's hatred on its own would have caused no sorrow. The decree of death made all the difference, because it came from the man who held the power to kill.
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Birth alone put a person under the sentence, and no comfort could reach him.
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A Persian had no fear of death because of it; it did not touch him. A Jew anywhere in the king's lands had no hope of life once it was published. He could go from one end of the empire to the other, and there was no corner, no hidden spot, where he was safe.
after The decree was aimed against the race. So simply by being born into this world, the Jew found himself threatened with death... Had anyone tried to cheer him, how could it be done? "It is written" would have been the poor man's answer.
The chapter closes with two men at ease over the doom they have just posted.
Haman succeeded in getting a royal decree for the destruction of all the Jews found in the kingdom of Ahasuerus. His work for that day was done. The scribes were busy; the couriers went out, hurried on by the king's commandment. Then Ahasuerus and Haman sat down to their drinking. What is man! Those two, as far as they were concerned, had sealed the doom of a whole people by the decree that was being published; then, with light hearts, they sat down to drink! (3:15).
A second proclamation later followed this one, and the Jews had to believe both.
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But faith was necessary for the Jews. They had to believe the second proclamation as they had believed the first. It would have gone badly for them if the thirteenth day of the month Adar came and they had not acted on the second decree. The first decree would then have fallen on their heads, and they would have died. So the sinner must believe the first decree: death is his sentence as a sinner. Then he must believe the second decree, "Christ died for the sins of the ungodly." There is life in a look to the crucified One.
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- Written. One sealed law, sent out in every language, set a single day for killing every Jew. Persian law could not be changed.
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- Hated. Behind the writing stands pride and hatred of God's people. One man's wounded pride is paid for by a whole nation.
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- Deferred. The lot set the day far ahead. That delay left room for a second decree, so the enemy's own method defeated him.
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- Helpless. "It is written" ended every comfort. Nowhere in the empire was safe, because the sentence fell on the race, not on what anyone had done.
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- Answered. The first decree still stood, but a second one came. The Jews lived by believing both — as the sinner believes the sentence of death, and then believes that Christ died.
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That the decree might be given in every province, a copy of the writing was published to all peoples, that they should be ready against that day.
Haman's order to destroy the Jews was not whispered; it was published. Scribes copied it, couriers carried it, and every province knew the date almost a year in advance — so what hope was left?
The copies went to every level of government, in the languages people spoke.
Here we see great activity. An empire-wide proclamation went out, a true proclamation of death. The king's scribes were called on the 13th day of the month… All the king's satraps (his provincial rulers), the governors of every province, and the princes of every people who had joined themselves to the Persian empire received notice, in different languages, of what was to happen on the 13th day of the month Adar. The proclamation was written in the king's name and sealed with his ring, which Haman held.
Publishing the text did more than inform. It made the killing legal, and Persian law did not change.
Haman took the fullest advantage of the king's permission. He had copies of the document sent everywhere (v. 14), declaring this slaughter to be law. That law could not be changed, for the Medes and Persians took pride in having laws that never altered (Dan. 6:8).
The decree named one people out of many. One writer sees a hostility here that is not peculiar to Persia.
God's people, just because they are His, are always an offence to the rest of mankind, and above all to the proud and boastful. This holds true even when their own unfaithfulness costs them His open favour, which is what had happened here… So Haman proposes their destruction, offering a round sum for the treasury in return.
Why would an enemy with full power fix a date eleven months away? The lot chose it, and one writer reads that choice as no accident.
The lot points to the twelfth month for the massacre of the Jews. Why not the third or the fourth month, to take away any chance of escape from this oppressed people? Is this not once again hidden Providence, directing everything as always? What can the "oppressor of the Jews" (Esther 9:10, 24) do against the secret counsels of Providence? He must obey the lot he has consulted, and right there his quick road to death and judgment begins.
Kelly points to what that long delay left room for.
Divine providence saw to it that the day was put off long enough to make room for a fresh decree — since changing or cancelling the first was not allowed — so that the Jews could stand in self-defence and destroy their enemies. At first nothing looked less likely; in the end Satan, as always, defeated himself.
Ordinary people could read their own death date. One writer pictures what that did to them.
The written decree! What a change it made! The goals and aims that had taken up so much of their lives until then must have looked different — and, may we say it, truer. A Persian had no fear of death because of it; it did not touch him. A Jew had no hope of life once it was published, if he lived anywhere in the king's realm. He could go from one end of the empire to the other, and in no corner, in no hidden place, was he safe. The decree was aimed at the race. So by birth alone the Jew found himself under threat of death… It is written would have been the poor man's answer. It is written must have crushed all hope.
A second decree followed the first, carried to the same provinces. The Jews' mood changed while the first decree still stood.
Perplexity gave way to gladness; feasting took the place of fasting. Why? The thirteenth of Adar had not yet come. The first decree stood unrepealed. Why this change? The written word of that second decree had made all the difference. Relief had come; a way of escape from that dreadful doom was offered the Jews. They believed it, and they acted as if they believed it.
- Written — scribes drafted the order and the king's ring sealed it. That made it law, not a threat.
- Published — copies went to every province in every language. The whole empire knew the date in advance.
- Unchangeable — Persian law could not be revoked. No appeal was left; only a second decree could bring relief.
- Delayed — the lot pushed the day eleven months out. Writers read that gap as hidden providence working against Haman.
- Answered — a second written word travelled as far as the first. It turned mourning into gladness before the dreaded day arrived.
The couriers went out, being hastened by the king's commandment, and the decree was given in Shushan the fortress. And the king and Haman sat down to drink; but the city of Shushan was in consternation.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.