However, the narrative overall focuses more on the pacific results of the bloodletting, gaining relief from hostile neighbors ( 9:1, 16) and the day(s) of rejoicing as celebration after the triumphant self-defense ( 9:17– 19). This time, unlike Saul, Mordecai and the Jews refrained from taking booty. After Saul defeated the Agagites (Amalek), he kept the best sheep and cattle as spoils in disobedience to God's command, thus earned divine disapproval and God regretting the choice of Saul as king. One important point is that they refrained from plundering (this is mentioned three times: 9:10, 15, 16), which indicates an echo in Esther 9 of 1 Samuel 15, resuming the parallel set up between Mordecai/Saul and Haman/Agag. A parallel with 1 Samuel 15:1–9 is that Saul spared Agag, and therefore lost his kingship as well as his life, so this time Esther determined not to make the same mistake with Haman and his sons. On the thirteenth of Adar the Jews struck down 75,000 in the provinces ( 9:16) and 500 in the citadel of Susa ( 9:6) of those who hated them ( 9:5), also on the fourteenth of Adar, by a special additional edict (provided directly by the king at Esther's behest), the Jews killed 300 remaining enemies in the city of Susa, while at the same time, in accord with that additional royal edict, they hang the bodies of the ten sons of Haman on the gallows.

The opening verse of this section explicitly describes the power reversal on the very day that the enemies of the Jews were to have vanquished them, but the opposite happened: 'the Jews would gain power over their foes' ( 9:1). The events on the thirteenth and fourteenth of Adar (9:1–19) Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus ( B G A 5th century). There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BCE. Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text, which includes Codex Leningradensis (1008). This chapter was originally written in the Hebrew language and since the 16th century is divided into 32 verses. This chapter records the events on the thirteenth and fourteenth of Adar and the institution of the Purim festival after the Jews overcome their enemies. Chapters 9 to 10 contain the resolution of the stories in the book. 245 CE.Įsther 9 is the ninth chapter of the Book of Esther in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible, The author of the book is unknown and modern scholars have established that the final stage of the Hebrew text would have been formed by the second century BCE.

Synagogue interior wood panel from Dura Europos, Syria.

Esther bible study for preteens