Esther 3:13

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 (Dεινος και παντολμος, 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?

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3:13 The phrase killed, slaughtered, and annihilated is repeated with ironic effect in 8:11 and 9:5. • on March 7 of the next year: Haman’s “lucky day” that was chosen by casting lots (3:7) was eleven months after the decree, by God’s providence, giving time to overcome the decree. • The property of the Jews would be given to those who killed them: Haman ingeniously bribed the would-be executioners.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Hebrew, the hands of posts.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

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.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(13) Posts.—Literally, the runners. (See Note on Est_1:22.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 (ἄγγαρος), 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.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 Est 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.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Messengers. Literally, "runners." (Haydock) --- Posts were first established in Persia, and were the admiration of other nations, though nothing compared with ours, as they were not regular, nor for the people. They called these messengers Astandæ, or Angari, Matthew v. 41. Darius Condomanus was one of these postilions, before he came to the crown. (Calmet) --- At first the kings had people stationed on eminences, at a convenient distance, to make themselves heard, when they had to communicate some public news. (Diod. xix. p. 680.) --- Cyrus afterwards appointed horsemen, to succeed each other. (Xenophon, Cyrop. viii.) --- Cæsar made some regulations on this head, which were perfected by Augustus and Adrian; but being neglected, Charlemagne strove to restore them: yet it is thought that the posts were not established, in France, till the reign of Louis XI. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

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

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

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.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And the letters were sent by posts. The Persian system of posts is thus described by Xenophon, who attributes its introduction to Cyrus: for horses are erected along the various lines of route, at such a distance one from another as a horse can accomplish in a day. All the stables are provided with a number of horses and grooms. There is a post-master to preside over each, who receives the despatches along with the tired men and horses, and sends them on by fresh horses and fresh riders. Sometimes there is no stoppage in the conveyance even at night; since a night courier takes up the work of the day courier, and continues it.

It has been said that these posts outstrip the flight of birds, which is not altogether true; but beyond a doubt it is the most rapid of all methods of conveyance by land" ("Cyrop.," 8:6, To destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish. The writer quotes from the edict, which appears to have had as many surplus words as a modern English law paper. Young and old, little children and women. "To take the father"s life and spare the child"s" was thought to be an act of folly in ancient times. Wives and children of criminals were, as a matter of course, put to death with them. This was anciently even the Jewish practice (Jos_7:24, Jos_7:25; 2Ki_9:26 2Ki_14:6) and was quite an established usage in Persia (Herod., 3:119). The thirteenth day. The Septuagint has "the fourteenth day" in its professed copy of the decree, but confirms the Hebrew text here by making the thirteenth the actual day of the struggle. (Est_9:1) The fourteenth and fifteenth are the days now kept by the Jews; but it is suspected that an alteration has been made in order to assimilate the Purim to the passover feast, which began on the 14th of Nisan.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And letters shall be sent Heb. וְנִשְּׁלוֹחַ. And letters shall be sent, יtre tramis in O.Fr., to be sent, which is of the [same grammatical] structure as (Jud. 11:25): “did he ever fight? (נִלְחוֹם נִלְחַם)”; (I Sam. 2:27): “Did I appear? (נִגְלֹה נִגְלֵיתִי) (Hos. 10:15): “was silenced (נִדְמֹה נִדְמָה).”

on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month On the thirteenth day of that month, which is the twelfth month of the year.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.