Esther 9:13

Then said Esther, if it please the king,.... For she was all submission to his will: let it be granted to the Jews which are in Shushan; for no further did she desire the grant to be extended: to do

Then said Esther, If it please the king, let it be granted to the Jews which are in Shushan to do to morrow also according unto this day's decree, and let Haman's ten sons be hanged upon the gallows.

According to this day’ s decree, i.e. to kill their implacable enemies. For it is not improbable that the greatest and worst of them had politicly withdrawn or hidden themselves for that day; after which, the commission granted to the Jews being expired, they confidently returned to their homes, where they were taken and slain by virtue of this private and unexpected decree. Haman’ s sons were slain before; now let their bodies be hanged upon their father’ s gallows, for their greater infamy, and the terror of all others who shall presume to abuse the king in like manner, or to persuade him to execute such cruelties upon his own subjects. This custom of hanging up the bodies of malefactors after their death was frequent among the Jews, and Persians also, as is well known.

Esther 9:13 Then said Esther, If it please the king, let it be granted to the Jews which [are] in Shushan to do to morrow also according unto this day’ s decree, and let Haman’ s ten sons be hanged upon the gallows.Ver. 13. Then said Esther, If it please the king, &c.] See Esther 5:4; Esther 5:8. Let it be granted to the Jews, &c.] The enemies at Shushan could not be all caught the first day; lest therefore those that lurked should hereafter prove troublesome to the Church by hatching new plots, she begs that they also may receive condign punishment, and Haman’ s sons be hanged up for an example. This she requested not out of private and personal spleen to any, but for the glory of God and the Church’ s peace. Had her aims been otherwise than good, her good actions could not have showed her a good woman. For, though a good aim doth not make a bad action good, as we see in Uzzah; yet a bad aim maketh a good action bad, as we see in Jehu. Lavater’ s note may not here be let slip: the diligence that Esther used in rooting out her temporal enemies should quicken us to do the like to our spiritual, viz. those evil affections, motions, and passions, that war against the soul These be our Medes and Persians, with whom we must make no truce, but maintain a constant deadly feud, till we have mastered and mortified them all, Colossians 3:5 Romans 8:13; for till that be done effectually we must never look to have true peace, either within ourselves or with others. And let Haman’ s ten sons be hanged] Had Haman been now alive, himself by right should have been their hangman. There was a young man among the Switzers that went about to usurp the government, and alter their free state. Him they condemned to death, and appointed his father for executioner, as the cause of his evil education. But because Haman was hanged before, his sons (though dead) shall now hang with him. Neither was it cruelty or revenge in Esther, to crave this of the king, but zeal to God, and fervent love to his people, whose welfare she sought by all means possible to promote. As for herself, she could joyfully say of Haman, as David did of Doeg, "Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength; but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness. But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God: I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever. I will praise thee for ever, because thou hast done it: and I will wait on thy name; for it is good before thy saints," Psalms 52:7-9.

(13) Then said Esther . . .—In the terse words of the heading, “Ahasuerus, at the request of Esther, granteth another day of slaughter, and Hainan’s sons to be hanged.” It seems impossible here to acquit Esther of simple blood - thirstiness. Before the slaughter of the 13th of Adar was actually over, it is obvious that the Jews were no longer in any danger. It was known that the sympathies of the Court were entirely with the Jews, and the officers of the king consequently took their part. After one day’s slaughter, in which in the capital alone 500 men were killed, we may be quite certain that the Jews were masters of the situation, and therefore we do not hesitate to call Esther’s fresh action needless butchery. Were anything needed to bring out the matter in its true light, it might be seen in the request that the sons of Haman might be hanged. They had already been killed (Esther 9:10), doubtless among the first, and Esther, therefore, asks for the dead bodies to be crucified, a gratuitous outrage on the dead. Because Esther was a person whom God made use of as an agent for a great purpose, we are not called upon to tone down and explain away the black spots in her history. To suggest that Esther had reason to fear “a renewal of the attacks of the enemies of the Jews” is out of the question, when the Jews had their feet on their necks. We must not, on the other hand, judge Esther according to the high Christian standard. It is true that the Old Testament taught “vengeance is Mine” but it needed the teaching of the New Testament to bring that truth home to men.

Verse 13. Let Haman's ten sons be hanged] They had been slain the preceding day, and now she requests that they may be exposed on posts or gibbets, as a terror to those who sought the destruction of the Jews.

13. There may have been special reasons why the extension of time was needed in Susa in order to ensure the Jews’ complete success in exterminating their foes there. The attitude of Esther and Mordecai towards the whole question of the permissibility of revenge was naturally that of their contemporaries, and so it is not to be judged by us on Christian principles. be hanged upon the gallows] She asks that the bodies may be impaled or hung on a gibbet, so as to crown their disgrace, and serve as a terrible example.

13. To do to-morrow also according unto this day’s decree — This request of Esther has been pronounced the offspring of a bloodthirsty vengeance, and desire to have another day for the butchery of enemies.