Esther 7-10

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Haman Is Executed

1 So the king and Haman went into the banquet with Esther the queen. 2 And on the second day at the banquet of wine, the king again said to Esther, “What is your petition, queen Esther? It will be granted you. What is your request? Even to the half of the kingdom it will be done.”

Interestingly enough one of the the other times this phrase shows up is in Mark 6:23 where Herod offered the daughter of Herodias, his wife, up to half of his kingdom and she she the daughter talks to her mother who says “you want the head of the baptist” (John) and Herod gives it to her.

3 Then Esther the queen answered, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given to me—this is my petition. And my people—this is my request. 4 For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed and to perish. But if we had merely been sold for male and female slaves, I would have kept silent, for then our distress would not be worth troubling the king.”

Esther is still being a bit coy. She does not identify herself as being a Jew just as Haman never identified who it was to the king that he wanted to be massacred.

Esther 3:8 Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, “There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom. Their laws are different from those of other people, and they don’t keep the king’s laws, so it is not in the king’s best interest to allow them to remain.

Esther has made this a personal appeal to the king. She knows she has never done anything but please the king.

Esther is showing a great deal of wisdom here.

5 Then King Ahasuerus said to Esther the queen, “Who is he, and where is he who dared in his heart to do this?”

6 Esther said, “The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman!”

Then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen. 7 The king arose in his wrath from the banquet of wine and went into the palace garden, but Haman stayed to make a request for his life to Esther the queen, for he saw that harm had been determined against him by the king. 8 Then the king returned out of the palace garden into the place of the banquet of wine, and Haman had just fallen upon the couch where Esther was. Then the king said, “Will he even violate the queen in front of me in my own house?” As the words went out of the king’s mouth, the guards covered Haman’s face.

The king was so angry he had to leave the room for a moment to figure out what he was going to do. Haman goes to plead for his life to the queen and gets on the couch just as the king returns and the rage of the king was angered even further. The guards grab him and cover his face. The reason for this was he was no longer fit to see the king and the king no longer wanted to see him.

9 And Harbonah, one of the eunuchs who attended the king, said, “Behold, a 75-foot high stake that Haman has made for Mordecai, who spoke good on behalf of the king, is standing at Haman’s house.”

The king said, “Impale him on it!”

10 So they impaled Haman on the stake that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king’s wrath was abated.

So ends the life of Haman. I find it Ironic that Haman ends up on the very stake he was planning on impaling Morty on.

This also happened to the men who conspired against Daniel in the lions den. They ended up in the lions den and got devoured.

Esther Chapter 8

Esther Intervenes for the Jews

1 On that day, King Ahasuerus gave the house of Haman, the enemy of the Jews, to Esther the queen. And Mordecai came into the presence of the king, for Esther had told what he was to her. 2 The king took off his signet ring, which he had taken back from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman.

To give someone a ring meaning a signet ring the closest thing we have is to give someone power of attorney you gave that person the right to do business for you. Anything they signed it was just as if the king himself signed it.

3 Then Esther spoke again before the king and fell down at his feet and wept and begged him to put a stop to the evil plan of Haman the Agagite and his plot that he had plotted against the Jews. 4 Then the king held out to Esther the golden scepter. So Esther arose and stood before the king.

5 Then she said, “If it pleases the king and if I have found favor in his sight, and the thing seem right to the king, and I am pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the king’s provinces. 6 For how can I bear to see the evil that would come to my people? How can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?”

7 Then King Ahasuerus said to Esther the queen and to Mordecai the Jew, “See, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and him they have impaled him on the stake because he had stretched out his hands against the Jews. 8 So you write in the king’s name to the Jews whatever is good in your eyes, and seal it with the king’s ring; for a writing that is written in the king’s name and sealed with the king’s ring cannot be revoked.”

9 Then the king’s scribes were called at that time, in the third month (that is the month Sivan), on the 23rd day of the month; and it was written according to all that Mordecai commanded to the Jews, and to the satraps and the governors and officials of the provinces from India to Ethiopia, 127 provinces, to every province in its own script and to every people in their own language, and to the Jews in their script and in their language.

The word satraps is defined in the Etymology Dictionary as "governor of a province of ancient Persia," from Latin satrapes, from Greek satrapes, from Old Persian xšathrapavan-, literally "guardian of the realm," from xšathra- "realm, province"

10 And he wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed it with the king’s signet ring, and he sent letters by courier on horseback, riding on royal horses that were bred from swift steeds.11In those letters, the king granted the Jews who were in every city the right to gather themselves together and to defend their lives, to destroy, to kill, and to wipe out every armed force of any people and province who would assault them, even their little ones and women, and to plunder their possessions 12 on a single day in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, on the 13th day of the 12th month, which is the month Adar.

13 A copy of what was written was to be issued as law in every province, and was proclaimed to all the peoples, and the Jews were to be ready on that day to avenge themselves on their enemies. 14 So the couriers who rode on royal horses went out, hastened and pressed on by the king’s commandment. The decree was given out in the palace-fortress of Susa.

15 And Mordecai went out from the king’s presence in royal clothing of blue and white, and with a great crown of gold and with a robe of fine linen and purple; and the city of Susa shouted and was glad. 16 For the Jews there was light, and gladness, and joy, and honor. 17 And in each and every province and in each and every city, wherever the king’s commandment and his decree came, there was gladness and joy for the Jews, a feast and a good day. And many from among the peoples of the land became Jews, for the fear of the Jews had fallen on them.

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REV  Chapter 9

Victories of the Jews

1 Now in the 12th month, which is the month of Adar, on the 13th day of the month, when the king’s command and his decree were about to be carried out, on the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to overpower them, just the opposite happened: the Jews overpowered those who hated them. 2 The Jews gathered together in their cities throughout all the provinces of the King Ahasuerus to lay hands on those who wanted to harm them. And no one could stand against them, because the fear of them had fallen on all the people.

3 And all the officials of the provinces, the satraps, the governors and those who were doing the king’s business helped the Jews, because the fear of Mordecai had fallen on them. 4 For Mordecai was great in the king’s house, and his fame went out throughout all the provinces; for the man Mordecai grew greater and greater.

5 The Jews struck all their enemies with the stroke of the sword; even killing and destroying them, and did as they pleased with those who hated them. 6 In the palace-fortress of Susa the Jews killed and destroyed 500 men. 7 And they killed Parshandatha, and Dalphon, and Aspatha, 8 and Poratha, and Adalia, and Aridatha, 9 and Parmashta, and Arisai, and Aridai, and Vaizatha, 10 the ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews. But they didn’t lay their hand on the plunder.

11 On that day, the number of those who were killed in the palace-fortress of Susa was reported to the king. 12 And the king said to Queen Esther, “The Jews have killed and destroyed 500 men in the palace-fortress of Susa, including the ten sons of Haman; what then have they done in the rest of the king’s provinces! Now what is your petition? It will be granted you. And what further is your request? It also will be done.”

13 Then Esther said, “If it pleases the king, let the Jews who are in Shushan be permitted to do also tomorrow according to this day’s decree, and let Haman’s ten sons be impaled on stakes.” 14 So the king commanded that to be done. A decree was issued in Susa, and they impaled Haman’s ten sons. 15 The Jews who were in Susa also gathered together on the 14th day of the month Adar, and killed 300 men in Susa; but they didn’t lay their hand on the plunder.

16 And the rest of the Jews, who were in the king’s provinces, had gathered together to defend their lives and had rest from their enemies. And they killed 75,000 of those who hated them, but they didn’t lay their hand on the plunder.

17 This was done on the 13th day of the month Adar; and on the 14th day of that month they rested and made it a day of feasting and gladness.

18 But the Jews who were in Susa assembled together on the 13th and on the 14th days of the month; and on the 15th day of that month they rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness. 19 This is why the Jews in the villages, who live in the unwalled towns, make the 14th day of the month Adar a day of gladness and feasting, a good day, and a day of sending presents of food to one another.

20 And Mordecai wrote these things down and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, both near and far, 21 to establish for them that they should keep the 14th and 15th days of the month Adar always, year after year, 22 because in those days the Jews obtained rest from their enemies, andit was a month that was turned for them from sorrow to gladness and from mourning into a good day. They were to be days of feasting and gladness, and of sending presents of food to one another, and gifts to the needy.

23 And the Jews took it upon themselves to continue what they had begun, as Mordecai had written to them; 24 because Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast “Pur” (that is the lot), to discomfort and to destroy them; 25 but when this became known to the king, he commanded by letters that his wicked plot that he had plotted against the Jews should return on his own head, and that he and his sons should be impaled on stakes. 26 Therefore they called these days “Purim,” from the word “Pur.”

Therefore because of all that was written in this letter, and of what they had faced in this matter, and what had happened to them, 27 the Jews established, and took it upon themselves and on their descendants and on all those who joined themselves to them, that without fail they would keep those two days according to what was written and at the appointed time every year; 28 and that those days would be remembered and kept throughout each and every generation, every family, every province, and every city; and that these days of Purim were not to cease among the Jews, nor their memory die out among their seed.

29 Then Queen Esther, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, gave full written authority confirming this second letter about Purim. 30 He sent letters to all the Jews, to the 127 provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, in words of peace and truth, 31to establish these days of Purim at their appointed times as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had established, and as they had established for themselves and their descendants in the matter of fasting and their lamentation. 32Esther’s command confirmed these matters of Purim, and it was written in a scroll.

Esther 10

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Mordecai’s Fame

1 And King Ahasuerus imposed a tax on the land and on the coastlands of the sea. 2 And all the acts of his power and of his might, and the full account of the greatness of Mordecai to which the king advanced him, are they not written in the Scroll of the Events of the Days of the kings of Media and Persia? 3 For Mordecai the Jew was second only to King Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews, and favorably accepted by the multitude of his brothers, seeking the good of his people and speaking peace to all his descendants.

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