Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Esther 3:13

And the letters were sent by posts 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, [even] upon the thirteenth [day] of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and [to take] the spoil of them for a prey.

13. And letters were sent by posts ] Xenophon tells us ( Cyr. viii. 6. 17) that these were carefully organised by Cyrus in the Persian Empire, and continued after his time. Stations were established at convenient distances apart, and supplied relays of horses and men, that the transmission of letters might be as rapid as possible, the forwarding of correspondence being often continued by night. [71] The Heb. for ‘posts’ here is literally the runners. The Greek word is angaros ( ), which, as denoting compulsory service, supplies a verb used three times in the N.T. (Mat 5:41; Mat 27:32; Mar 15:21) in the sense ‘to compel.’

[71] “Along the whole line of road there are men (they say) stationed with horses, in number equal to the number of days which the journey takes, allowing a man and a horse to each day; and these men will not be hindered either by snow, or rain, or heat, or by the darkness of night from accomplishing at their best speed the distance which they have to go. The first man delivers his despatch to the second, and the second passes it to the third; and so it is borne from hand to hand along the whole line like the light in the torch race” (Herod. viii. 98).

both young and old, little children and women ] It was customary among the Persians (see Herod. iii. 119), and even among the Jews in early times (Jos 7:24 f.; 2Ki 9:26), to put to death the families of criminals. So too Appian (xii. 22) tells us that Mithridates, king of Pontus, sent out orders for the indiscriminate slaughter of Romans and all others of Italian birth. In European history the massacre of St Bartholomew is a conspicuous example of similar cruelty.

upon the thirteenth day] The LXX. has simply upon one day, and in that which purports to be the letter itself, as given in the apocryphal Additions to the Book of Esther (Esther 13:6), the date is given as ‘the fourteenth,’ as given also by the LXX. in Est 3:7 (see note there). In Est 9:1, however, the Greek supports the Hebrew date here given.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Present, the Jews keep three days – the 13th, the 14th, and the 15th of Adar – as connected with the Feast of Purim; but they make the 13th a fast, commemorative of the fast of Esther Est 4:16, and keep the feast itself on the 14th and 15th of Adar.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Est 3:13

To kill, and to cause to perish.

A wicked massacre

The wickedness of the intended massacre does not rest with Ahasuerus and Haman. Great multitudes of the kings subjects must participate in the guilt. The governors and rulers of every province, and the people under their command, have letters written to them, sealed with the kings seal, to contribute their part to the massacre. Let the great consider what they do. If they are wicked, they are not wicked alone. We ought to bless God that no man hath power to require us to do anything but according to the known laws of the land. And yet men of true virtue will not comply with the will of the most absolute monarchs when it is not consistent with the laws of justice and of mercy. At the famous Bartholomew massacre, when the King of France sent his orders to the commanders in the different provinces to massacre the Huguenots, one of them returned him this answer: In my district your Majesty has many brave soldiers, but no butchers. That virtuous governor never felt any effects of the royal resentment. It is to be feared that few of the Persian governors would have given such proofs of virtuous courage if the kings edict had not been reversed. (G. Lawson.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 13. To destroy, so kill, and to cause to perish] To put the whole of them to death in any manner, or by every way and means.

Take the spoil of them for a prey.] Thus, whoever killed a Jew had his property for his trouble! And thus the hand of every man was armed against this miserable people. Both in the Greek version and in the Latin the copy of this order is introduced at length, expressing “the king’s desire to have all his dominions in quiet and prosperity; but that he is informed that this cannot be expected, while a certain detestable people are disseminated through all his provinces, who not only are not subject to the laws, but endeavour to change them; and that nothing less than their utter extermination will secure the peace and prosperity of the empire; and therefore he orders that they be all destroyed, both male and female, young and old,” &c.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Which was to oblige them to the greater severity and readiness, to execute this edict for their own advantage.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

And the letters were sent by post into all the king’s provinces,…. Or by the runners x; by which it seems as if these letters were carried by running footmen, men swift of foot; or rather they were running horses, on which men rode post with letters, and which the Persians called Angari; a scheme invented by Cyrus, for the quick dispatch of letters from place to place, by fixing horses and men to ride them at a proper distance, to receive letters one from another, and who rode night and day y, as our mail men do now; and nothing could be swifter, or done with greater speed; neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor night, could stop their course, we are told z: the purport of these letters was,

to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar; see Es 3:7. The orders were to destroy, by any means whatsoever, all the Jews, of every age and sex, all in one day, in all the provinces which are here named, that they might be cut off with one blow: and to take the spoil of them for a prey; to be their own booty; which was proposed to engage them in this barbarous work, to encourage them in it to use the greater severity and dispatch.

x “in manu cursorum”, Montanus; so the Tigurine version, Drusius, V. L. Junius & Tremellius, Piscator. y Xenophon. Cyropaedia, l. 8. c. 43. z Herodot. Urania, sive, l. 8. c. 98.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

(13) Posts.Literally, the runners. (See Note on Est. 1:22.)

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

13. Sent by posts See note on Est 1:22 for the Persian system of letter carrying.

To destroy in one day Some have thought that eleven months’ previous notice of such a decree would have frustrated Ha-man’s design, since it would have afforded the Jews opportunity to escape from the dominions of Xerxes. But the procedure was by no means incredible. We know too little of the exact circumstances of the dispersed Jews of that time, and the extent of country through which they were dispersed, to form a positive judgment in the case. Multitudes may have been in such a state of bondage as to make it impossible for any great number of them to escape; and as for others, it may have been expected and desired that some of them would leave the kingdom. But such as Mordecai, whom Haman especially wished to destroy, could not leave the kingdom any more than Nehemiah (compare Neh 2:6; Neh 13:6) without permission from the king. It was also in keeping with Haman’s character to cause all the anguish and horror possible to the Jews in anticipation of the dreadful day of slaughter. Then we must remember, as observed above on Est 3:7, that a wise Providence so overruled this whole procedure as to bring to naught the plans of the Jews’ enemy, and make his malignant hatred of the Jews the occasion of his ruin.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Est 3:13. Letters were sent by posts The first institution of posts is generally ascribed to the Persians; for the kings of Persia, as Diodorus Siculus observes, lib. 19: in order that they might have intelligence of what passed in all the provinces of their vast dominions, placed centinels on eminences, at convenient distances, where towers were built; and these centinels gave notice of public occurrences to each other, with a very loud and shrill voice; by which method news was transmitted from one extremity of the kingdom to the other with great expedition. But, as this could be practised only in the case of general news, which might be communicated to the whole nation, Cyrus, as Xenophon relates, Cyropaed. lib. 8: set up couriers, places for post-horses on all high roads, and officers where they might deliver their pacquets to each other. The like is said by Herodotus, lib. 8:; and he acquaints us further, that Xerxes, in his famous expedition against Greece, planted posts from the AEgean sea to Shushan, at certain distances as far as a horse could ride with speed; that thereby he might send notice to his capital city of whatever should happen in his army. The Greeks borrowed the use of posts from the Persians: and, in imitation of them, called them . Among the Romans, Augustus was the person that set up public posts, who at first were running footmen, but were afterwards changed for post-chariots and horses. For the greater expedition, Adrian improved upon this; and, having reduced the posts to great regularity, discharged the people from the obligation they were under before of furnishing horses and chariots. With the empire the use of posts declined. About the year 807, Charlemagne endeavoured to restore them, but his design was not prosecuted by his successors. In France, Lewis XI. set up posts at two leagues distance through the kingdom. In Germany, Count Taxis set them up, and had for his recompence, in 1616, a grant of the office of postmaster-general to himself and his heirs for ever. About eight hundred years ago couriers were set up in the Ottoman empire; and at this time there are some among the Chinese; but their appointment is only to carry orders from the king and the governors of provinces, and, in a word, for public affairs, and those of the greatest consequence.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Est 3:13 And the letters were sent by posts 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, [even] upon the thirteenth [day] of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and [to take] the spoil of them for a prey.

Ver. 13. And the letters were sent by posts ] These the Persians called Angari, or (as Ruffin writeth it) Aggari. But why was this done in such post haste, so long before the day of execution? was it not to hold them all that while on the rack, and so to kill them piecemeal (as Tiberius used to do by his enemies), while, through fear of death, and expectation of that doleful day, they were all their lifetime subject to bondage? Heb 2:15 .

To destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish ] Words written not with black, but with blood; and therefore multiplied in this sort, to show that it mattered not how, so they were made away by any means, and the world well rid of them. Read the history of the French Massacre; and hear reverend Merlin (who narrowly, and indeed miraculously, escaped those bloody villains, as being chaplain to the admiral, and praying with him in his chamber a little before he was murdered), hear him, I say, commenting upon this text; Sic nostro saeculo, si scribenda fuerint edicta adversus religionem, non potuerunt sibi scribae satisfacere in excogitandis verbis significantibus, quibus atrociora et magis sanguinaria redderentur, &c.; that is, in our age also if any edicts are to be written against religion, the secretaries cannot satisfy themselves in devising significant words, whereby those edicts may be rendered the more cruel and sanguinary.

All Jews, both young and old, little children and women ] All ages, sizes, and sexes. What could the devil himself have added to this abhorred cruelty, if it had gone on? Such a slaughter made Doeg at Nob; the Sicilians at their bloody vespers; the king of France with the Templars throughout his kingdom; Minerius, the pope’s champion, with the Protestants of Merindol and Chabriers (besides that of the Parisian Massacre before mentioned, and by Merlin upon this verse graphically described, like as that of Babylon is by Jeremiah, Jer 51:34 ). What a woeful slaughter had here been made had Fawkes but fired the powder! What an Aceldama had this whole land been turned into in a few days’ time! Necdum interiit saevus Hamani animus. Neither yet is Haman dead, but reviveth daily in his bloody and blasphemous successors. That like as Bucholcer saith of Cain, the devil’s patriarch, there are not a few that still carry about, adore, and worship as a sacred thing, Cain’s club red with the blood of Abel; so it is here.

Even upon the thirteenth day ] That it was to be no sooner done was by a special providence of God, that ere that time came it might be happily prevented, as was before noted. See Est 3:7 . Haman’s folly also was not a little seen in deferring the execution so long; for how knew he what a day might bring forth? it was indeed mirabile simulque miserabile dictu, as one saith, a wonderful and in addition a miserable thing, that none should be found among the Persians, Medes, and Chaldees to pity this poor people, and to intercede for them. To have spoken to Haman for them might likely have been as bootless as once it was to Minerius in the behalf of the Merindolians. Of whom when a few had escaped his all-devouring sword, and he was entreated to give them quarter for their lives, he sternly answered, I know what I have to do, not one of them shall escape my hands; I will send them to dwell in hell among the devils. But if Haman resolved no better, yet what knew he, but that in time the king might relent and repent of that rash and wretched edict, as he did.

Nam faciles motus mens generosa capit (Ovid).

We read in our Chronicles, that when King Henry III had given commandment for the apprehending of Hubert de Burgo, earl of Kent, he fled into a church in Essex. They to whom the business was committed, finding him upon his knees before the high altar, with the sacrament in one hand and a cross in the other, carried him away nevertheless unto the Tower of London. The bishop taking this to be a great violence and wrong to the Church, would never leave the king until he had caused the earl to be carried to the place whence he was fetched. This was done; and although order was taken he should not escape thence, yet it gave the king’s wrath a time to cool, and himself leisure to make proof of his innocence; by reason whereof he was afterwards restored to the king’s favour and former places of honour. And the like befell these Jews, ere the thirteenth of Adar; but Haman, blinded with pride and superstition, could not foresee it.

And to take the spoil of them for a prey ] To be sure that none should escape, the goods of the slain are proposed for a reward to them that should slay them, and how far that would prevail with many covetous wretches who knoweth not? Covetousness is daring and desperate ( D , Isid.), how much more when it is encouraged, as here, by a permission, nay, a precept, from the king and his chief favourite! where we may be sure, the wealthier any man was the sooner he should have been sent out of the world, as a tree with thick and large boughs is most likely to be lopped. Trithemius telleth us, that the Templars mentioned above were massacred by Philip the Fair, king of France, upon pretext of heresy; but indeed because they were rich, and Philip sore longed after their possessions. The Cyprians for their great wealth became a spoil to the Romans.

– Quid non mortalia pectora cogis,

Auri sacra fames?

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)