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Esther 8: A second decree, written to the whole empire from India to Cush

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AFGHANISTANALGERIAAUSTRIAAZERBAIJANBENINBULGARIABURKINA FASOCHADEGYPTERITREAFRANCEGEORGIAGREECEHUNGARYIRANIRAQITALYJORDANLIBYAMALIMAURITANIAMOROCCONIGERNIGERIAOMANPAKISTANPORTUGALROMANIASAUDI ARABIASERBIASOMALILANDSPAINSUDANSWITZERLANDSYRIATUNISIATURKEYTURKMENISTANUZBEKISTANYEMENPersian GulfRed SeaArabian SeaCaspian SeaIndusNileCush (Ethiopia) — named here, no site fixedIndia — named here, no site fixedSusaIndiaCush (Ethiopia)

Esther 4:16ESV

“Go, gather all the Jews to be found in , and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.”

ESV

The king's scribes were summoned at that time, in the third month, which is the month of Sivan, on the twenty-third day. And an edict was written, according to all that Mordecai commanded concerning the Jews, to the satraps and the governors and the officials of the provinces from to , 127 provinces, to each province in its own script and to each people in its own language, and also to the Jews in their script and their language.

ESV

So the couriers, mounted on their swift horses that were used in the king's service, rode out hurriedly, urged by the king's command. And the decree was issued in the citadel.

ESV

Then Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal robes of blue and white, with a great golden crown and a robe of fine linen and purple, and the city of shouted and rejoiced.

Esther 9:6ESV

In the citadel itself the Jews killed and destroyed 500 men,

Esther 4
Esther 9

Haman is dead, his house is given to Esther, and Mordecai receives the king's signet ring. The first decree cannot be revoked, so Esther pleads for a second, and Mordecai writes it in the king's name: the Jews in every city may gather and defend themselves on the day appointed for their destruction. It goes out by the royal post horses to all a hundred and twenty-seven provinces from India to Cush, in every script and language and to the Jews in theirs, and is published in Susa the citadel, where Mordecai comes out in royal robes and the city shouts and rejoices.

Map of Esther 8: A second decree, written to the whole empire from India to Cush — 1 sites plotted

Regions on this map

Verses 14 and 15: where the decree is published and Mordecai is seen in royal robes.

  • The winter capital of the Persian kings, on the plain of Elam below the Zagros, and the stage for the whole book. The ESV's “Susa the citadel” is the fortified royal quarter on its mound, set apart from the city around it. All 500 votes put it at modern Shush, in Iran's Khuzestan.

    Today: Shush, Khuzestan, Iran

Verse 9: the reach of the second decree, the same two ends as chapter 1.

  • The southern edge: Cush, the Nile kingdom above Egypt's southern border, which the ESV calls Ethiopia. It is not modern Ethiopia but northern Sudan, where Meroe was the capital.

    a country, not a site: the one point on record is Meroe, the capital of Cush, standing for the whole kingdom

  • The eastern edge of the empire: not the subcontinent but the Indus valley, Darius's satrapy of Hindush in what is now Pakistan. Esther marks the reach of the king's rule by naming it as one end.

    a country, not a site: the one point on record is on the lower Indus, standing for the whole satrapy

Esther 8, verse by verse

  1. Esther 8:9The king's scribes were summoned at that time, in the third month, which is the month of Sivan, on the twenty-third day. And an edict was written, according to all that Mordecai commanded concerning the Jews, to the satraps and the governors and the officials of the provinces from to , 127 provinces, to each province in its own script and to each people in its own language, and also to the Jews in their script and their language.
  2. Esther 8:14So the couriers, mounted on their swift horses that were used in the king's service, rode out hurriedly, urged by the king's command. And the decree was issued in the citadel.
  3. Esther 8:15Then Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal robes of blue and white, with a great golden crown and a robe of fine linen and purple, and the city of shouted and rejoiced.