Commentary on Esther Part 3: Purim in the Last Days (No. F017iii)

Introduction

Commentary on Esther Part II: Purim in the Last Days (No. 063B)

“[Part 3] takes the Commentary on Esther to the Last Days and examines the days of Purim in the Last Days with the attempts to wipe out the Hebrew people and the consequent results.

In Parts [1-2] we saw the actual significance of the Book of Esther and its application to the Messiah and the Church of God as the bride of Christ. It also showed the place of the Jews in the process and the significance of the Feast of Purim. We will examine that relationship in the trials of the Last Days.

In Part[s 1-2] we saw the players in the story and their identities in the wider more spiritual application. We saw Mordecai represented the Messiah and Esther was the Church.

Vashti was the designated royal house of Judah that refused the calling and was put away but not killed so that the king could remember her. This was also the whole house of Israel.

Esther was called and chosen in her place as the Israel of God (see Nos. 001B and 001C).

In Chapter 7, we saw that the king’s eunuch, Harbo’na, was ordered to hang Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Once Harbo’na hanged Haman, the king’s anger abated. Mordecai was then placed in charge of the House of Haman and given his ring of office. This represents not only the killing of the leader of the physical enemies of Israel and the Church but also the confinement of Satan and the transfer of power to Christ in the Last Days. Harbo’na represents the archangel at the Throne of God charged with the confinement of Satan.

To refresh us on the text involved at the end of the sequence we read as follows.

Note that the letter to destroy the Jews had been sent to all the provinces of the empire to kill all the Jews throughout the empire.”

Chapter 8

¹On that day King Ahasu-e'rus gave to Queen Esther the house of Haman, the enemy of the Jews. And Mor'decai came before the king, for Esther had told what he was to her; ²and the king took off his signet ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mor'decai. And Esther set Mor'decai over the house of Haman. ³Then Esther spoke again to the king; she fell at his feet and besought him with tears to avert the evil design of Haman the Ag'agite and the plot which he had devised against the Jews. ⁴And the king held out the golden scepter to Esther, ⁵and Esther rose and stood before the king. And she said, "If it please the king, and if I have found favor in his sight, and if the thing seem right before the king, and I be pleasing in his eyes, let an order be written to revoke the letters devised by Haman the Ag'agite, the son of Hammeda'tha, which he wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the provinces of the king. ⁶For how can I endure to see the calamity that is coming to my people? Or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?" ⁷Then King Ahasu-e'rus said to Queen Esther and to Mor'decai the Jew, "Behold, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and they have hanged him on the gallows, because he would lay hands on the Jews. ⁸And you may write as you please with regard to the Jews, in the name of the king, and seal it with the king's ring; for an edict written in the name of the king and sealed with the king's ring cannot be revoked." ⁹The king's secretaries were summoned at that time, in the third month, which is the month of Sivan, on the twenty-third day; and an edict was written according to all that Mor'decai commanded concerning the Jews to the satraps and the governors and the princes of the provinces from India to Ethiopia, a hundred and twenty-seven provinces, to every province in its own script and to every people in its own language, and also to the Jews in their script and their language. ¹⁰The writing was in the name of King Ahasu-e'rus and sealed with the king's ring, and letters were sent by mounted couriers riding on swift horses that were used in the king's service, bred from the royal stud. ¹¹By these the king allowed the Jews who were in every city to gather and defend their lives, to destroy, to slay, and to annihilate any armed force of any people or province that might attack them, with their children and women, and to plunder their goods, ¹²upon one day throughout all the provinces of King Ahasu-e'rus, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar. ¹³A copy of what was written was to be issued as a decree in every province, and by proclamation to all peoples, and the Jews were to be ready on that day to avenge themselves upon their enemies. ¹⁴So the couriers, mounted on their swift horses that were used in the king's service, rode out in haste, urged by the king's command; and the decree was issued in Susa the capital. ¹⁵Then Mor'decai went out from the presence of the king in royal robes of blue and white, with a great golden crown and a mantle of fine linen and purple, while the city of Susa shouted and rejoiced. ¹⁶The Jews had light and gladness and joy and honor. ¹⁷And in every province and in every city, wherever the king's command and his edict came, there was gladness and joy among the Jews, a feast and a holiday. And many from the peoples of the country declared themselves Jews, for the fear of the Jews had fallen upon them. (RSV)

Intent of Chapter 8

“The sequence here in chapter 8 was to judge according to what had been determined by Satan and the world system as depicted by Haman the Agagite. The structure is that the world was judged out of its own mouth. As the forces arrayed against the elect were determined to harm the elect then it was decreed that they would be judged as they had judged.

The time sequence on the Last Days is part of the message of this book. This was to happen at the last month of the year. In the texts of Parts 1-3 we spoke of the depiction of the 30 days of the Mourning for Moses. This period was examined in the paper The Last Thirty Years: The Final Struggle (No. 219).

But note that the Message for the salvation of Judah was written in the Third month on the Twenty-third day [v. 9]. This was after Pentecost had passed. Symbolically this was after the Holy Spirit had been given to the Church of God and the Church had interceded with God for Judah and the nation of Israel.

The secretaries [v. 9] represent the prophets of God and the elders of the Churches of God that have written and published the texts of the Bible in both Testaments. These secretaries continue on into the Last Days. These people and the process of the witness of the Gospel of the Kingdom and the Law of God have been examined in the paper The Witnesses (including the Two Witnesses) (No. 135).

Prophetically we might note that it is 270 days before Purim or 270 years before Purim on a year-for-a-day basis. We will come back to this aspect later. The process of the witness intensifies from this time all over the world.”

Chapter 9

¹Now in the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, on the thirteenth day of the same, when the king's command and edict were about to be executed, on the very day when the enemies of the Jews hoped to get the mastery over them, but which had been changed to a day when the Jews should get the mastery over their foes, ²the Jews gathered in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Ahasu-e'rus to lay hands on such as sought their hurt. And no one could make a stand against them, for the fear of them had fallen upon all peoples. ³All the princes of the provinces and the satraps and the governors and the royal officials also helped the Jews, for the fear of Mor'decai had fallen upon them. ⁴For Mor'decai was great in the king's house, and his fame spread throughout all the provinces; for the man Mor'decai grew more and more powerful. ⁵So the Jews smote all their enemies with the sword, slaughtering, and destroying them, and did as they pleased to those who hated them. ⁶In Susa the capital itself the Jews slew and destroyed five hundred men, ⁷and also slew Par-shan-da'tha and Dalphon and Aspa'tha ⁸and Pora'tha and Ada'lia and Arida'tha ⁹and Parmash'ta and Ar'isai and Ar'idai and Vaiza'tha, ¹⁰the ten sons of Haman the son of Hammeda'tha, the enemy of the Jews; but they laid no hand on the plunder. ¹¹That very day the number of those slain in Susa the capital was reported to the king. ¹²And the king said to Queen Esther, "In Susa the capital the Jews have slain five hundred men and also the ten sons of Haman. What then have they done in the rest of the king's provinces! Now what is your petition? It shall be granted you. And what further is your request? It shall be fulfilled." ¹³And Esther said, "If it please the king, let the Jews who are in Susa be allowed tomorrow also to do according to this day's edict. And let the ten sons of Haman be hanged on the gallows." ¹⁴So the king commanded this to be done; a decree was issued in Susa, and the ten sons of Haman were hanged. ¹⁵The Jews who were in Susa gathered also on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and they slew three hundred men in Susa; but they laid no hands on the plunder. ¹⁶Now the other Jews who were in the king's provinces also gathered to defend their lives, and got relief from their enemies, and slew seventy-five thousand of those who hated them; but they laid no hands on the plunder. ¹⁷This was on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, and on the fourteenth day they rested and made that a day of feasting and gladness. ¹⁸But the Jews who were in Susa gathered on the thirteenth day and on the fourteenth, and rested on the fifteenth day, making that a day of feasting and gladness. ¹⁹Therefore the Jews of the villages, who live in the open towns, hold the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a day for gladness and feasting and holiday-making, and a day on which they send choice portions to one another. ²⁰And Mor'decai recorded these things, and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasu-e'rus, both near and far, ²¹enjoining them that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar and also the fifteenth day of the same, year by year, ²²as the days on which the Jews got relief from their enemies, and as the month that had been turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days for sending choice portions to one another and gifts to the poor. ²³So the Jews undertook to do as they had begun, and as Mor'decai had written to them. ²⁴For Haman the Ag'agite, the son of Hammeda'tha, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast Pur, that is the lot, to crush and destroy them; ²⁵but when Esther came before the king, he gave orders in writing that his wicked plot which he had devised against the Jews should come upon his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows. ²⁶Therefore they called these days Purim, after the term Pur. And therefore, because of all that was written in this letter, and of what they had faced in this matter, and of what had befallen them, ²⁷the Jews ordained and took it upon themselves and their descendants and all who joined them, that without fail they would keep these two days according to what was written and at the time appointed every year, ²⁸that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, in every family, province, and city, and that these days of Purim should never fall into disuse among the Jews, nor should the commemoration of these days cease among their descendants. ²⁹Then Queen Esther, the daughter of Ab'ihail, and Mor'decai the Jew gave full written authority, confirming this second letter about Purim. ³⁰Letters were sent to all the Jews, to the hundred and twenty-seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasu-e'rus, in words of peace and truth, ³¹that these days of Purim should be observed at their appointed seasons, as Mor'decai the Jew and Queen Esther enjoined upon the Jews, and as they had laid down for themselves and for their descendants, with regard to their fasts and their lamenting. ³²The command of Queen Esther fixed these practices of Purim, and it was recorded in writing. (RSV)

Intent of Chapter 9

Commentary on Esther Part II: Purim in the Last Days (No. 063B)

“Chapter 9 deals with this final conflict and we will try to outline the time-frame in the sequence of the Last Days (see also the paper The Day of the Lord and the Last Days (No. 192)).”

Note that the sequence in Chapter 9 (vv. 7 and 14) shows a repeat of the killing of the ten sons of Haman. This duality mentioned points to a duality of type antitype in the killing of Purim and points to the end time application as well as to the prior event.

[vv. 10,15,16] “They laid no hand on the plunder” (see the paper The Golden Calf (No. 222)).

Placing Purim in the Wars of the End

We have identified the Days of the Mourning for Moses as the last thirty years on a year-for-a-day basis of the final Jubilee of the six thousand years of the Rule of Satan. That is the 120^th Jubilee of the creation from the closure of Eden. That period is the end of the Times of the Gentiles or the Times of the Nations. These times ended in 1996-7. That year coincides with the end of the Thirty Years of the Mourning for Aaron.

The year 1967 was the year that ended the struggles with the nations outside of the Promised Land and the consolidation of Jerusalem in the Six-Day War. This sequence is explained in the Commentary on Daniel F027, (viii) (xii) and (xiii).

Remember also that Miriam died after they had camped at Meribah in this year in the First month. Edom refused Israel permission to pass and came out against them (Num. 20:1).

This period went from the end of the 2520 years from the Battle of Carchemish ending with the butchery of WWI in 1916 and the capture of Beersheba and Jerusalem in 1917. 1916 commenced the last eighty-year period of the Nations (see also The Fall of Egypt: The Prophecy of Pharaoh’s Broken Arms (No. 036)).

By 1967 Jerusalem was consolidated. 1996-7 saw the end of the Seven Times given to the Nations from Babylon, as we saw in Daniel Chapter 2. The development of the Mission of the church commenced in this period. By 1987 the Temple was brought into judgment and it was to be measured. This process is covered in the paper Measuring the Temple (No. 137).

The church was reorganised for the last phase of the Churches of God in the Third year of the Sabbath Cycle in 1994.

The end of the Time of the Nations or the Time of the Gentiles was in 1996/7.

1997 began the final Thirty Years before the occupation of the millennial system in the Holy Land. This period is then the symbolic Adar or last month before the occupation. In this month of years we would expect to see this final Purim.

1998 began the Restoration of the Law of God in the Sabbath year and the Law was read a second time in the Sabbath Year of 2005.

Purim as we see was to commence on the 13^th of the month and proceed to the 14^th and 15^th of the month of the Mourning for Moses [vv. 17-21].

From 1997 on a year-for-a-day period we come to the years 2009, 2010 and 2011.

We would expect to see over the final period, from the cessation of the wars of elimination in 1967, a period of extensive preparation by the enemies of the Holy People. This centres primarily on the Churches of God as spiritual Israel as well as the Hebrew peoples in both Judah and Israel.

This period was to be a complex sequence of planning for the elimination of the power of the Holy People and their economic and physical destruction.

The forces of Satan have planned to bring about the economic destruction of the power of the Hebrew peoples and once that is in play the attempt will be made at their total physical destruction. This is symbolised by the persecutions of the Fifth Seal of Revelation.

We would expect the final attempts at their destruction to come into play from 13 to 15 Adar or from 2009 to 2011 being the 13^th to 15^th days of the Adar or month of the Mourning for Moses of the Last Days. We saw the GFC take up from 2008 and thus in 2009-2011 we saw the financial hits to the GFC. We also saw the Trojan horse begin with the infiltrations of Europe and the US under the EU and under the Obama administration in the US. That has not stopped and the mass immigration into the English-speaking countries has not stopped. In fact, it has accelerated since 2013 to the present day.

Over the Last Days the confinement of Satan is necessary. The restoration of all things by Elijah and the other Witness comes with their establishment at Jerusalem. Following the days of the Two Witnesses we expect the intervention and then placement of Mordecai-Messiah as Viceroy of this planet after the judgment of the Two Witnesses.

The major attempt at the genocide of the Jews and in Israel was in WWII. The “Final Solution” was planned in Europe and the first concentration camps were established in Germany at Hamburg in 1932 by Trinitarians. Both Lutherans and Roman Catholics worked on this “Final Solution.” In the end they provided the ratline to get the war criminals out to the US, Australia and South America. Some of these clergy deny the holocaust to this day. The popes supported them first by active assistance and then by condonation and silence.

As the former Jesuit priest Malachi Martin has charged, a mass has been said at St Peters in the 20^th century for the enthronement of Satan as god. He was killed before he wrote the next expose. Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 are repeated.

At the Nuremburg trials one of the Nazi leaders said, when he was sentenced to death, “This is Purim”.

Indeed the attempts against the Jews were made on an ongoing basis as have been the wars against the British and Anglo-Saxons who harbour the majority of those people. In 1739 Britain fought its war with Spain and the Holy Roman Empire suffered defeat at the hand of the Turks. The Europeans, Russians and Turks signed treaties in this year to end hostilities. Also in this year Jews were sentenced to life imprisonment in Lisbon, Portugal. The attempts at the genocide of the Israelite people have been met with frustration on an ongoing basis. 1739 was 270 years before 2009.

The Book of Esther did not say that attempts to kill the Jews would cease. It says that the attempts will be overcome and those who plot to do so will die. These attempts are ongoing.

Inciting Genocide

The Balfour Declaration was made by Prime Minister Balfour after the defeat of the Turks in Beersheba and before the taking of Jerusalem in 1917. It established the concept and right and British support for the Jewish Homeland. From that time onwards the genocide of the Jews has been planned and carried out both in Europe and the Middle East.

It is now being openly advocated both in Iran and among its satellites in the Middle East.

The Ten sons of Haman are the same as the Ten horns or kings of the Empire of the Beast and the Ten toes of iron and clay of the Last Roman Empire of Daniel chapter 2 [F027ii].

Note that the Book of Esther states that in the capital at Susa the slaughter took place on the 14^th Adar also. The slaughter in the capitals of the Empire will be longer and more severe than elsewhere. From the wars of the end we can expect the conflict to last over two years from Europe into Iran (2022 to 2024 and onwards).

The attempted destruction of the British, Celt and Anglo-Saxon people has been undertaken from European Trinitarianism for centuries. They have never succeeded but they will make one last attempt in the next few years.

The economic and physical destruction of the US and British Commonwealth will be undertaken by these servants of Satan both in Europe and the Middle East. Their plans and their instruments of destruction will be used against them, and they will hang on their own gallows as Haman and his ten sons were hanged. The iron and miry clay represent the conflicting aims and objectives and peoples and systems in this last empire. Christ will strike it from its occupation of the Middle East at Jerusalem.

At the moment Iran, supported by its Syrian, Lebanese and Palestinian allies, is calling for the genocide of the Jews. They chant “Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas”. The activities by Hamas are deliberate acts of terrorism that are being played up by the media all over the Muslim and Western world and they contain fabrications against Israelis. The actions in Gaza and among Palestinians are deliberately designed to justify the genocide of Israel. There is no nation on earth that would tolerate the persistent rocket attacks on its people such as inflicted by Hamas on Israel. It is a policy of hate which is condoned by the UN in the full knowledge that it is in violation of UN rules and the Geneva Convention. Egypt is used as a funnel to get the rockets inside Gaza.

What the media has achieved is to alienate Israel in the eyes of the world and allow Israel to be subjected to hateful attacks and to a sense of isolation such that it will now elect rightist politicians that will fight for Israel’s existence.

The media and the UN have guaranteed that the nihilistic philosophy of Islamic terrorism has become entrenched in the Islamic countries from Africa to Indonesia. The media has entrenched the anti-Semitic philosophy of the Islamic and European religious hate camps.

Israel is the only country in the world that did not have the economy as its primary political focus in the last few months before the Passover of 2009.

Islam does not read the Bible and Trinitarians do not study the Bible either. They do not read it because it does not suit their agenda. Their religious errors are condemned by what is written there.

The word of the Living God is quite clear. He will allow Israel to be dealt with and that includes the nations that are derived from mixtures of those nations. He will allow them to be purged and put to the sword and to suffer plagues and famines, but they will not be allowed to be destroyed.

Every nation that joins these extremists in calling for and attempting the genocide of Israel will be put to the sword. That includes the leaders of their religious systems.

The Middle East will not prevail and they will bring upon themselves their own destruction. No matter where it is planned and no matter where the instruments are erected for the elimination of the people of God, those who undertake the planning will themselves be killed on their own instruments of genocide, even within Britain and America themselves and that will extend to the EU and elsewhere.

We have dealt with the expansion of Israel according to prophecy and the placement of the nation within it to some degree in the papers The Last Thirty Years: the Final Struggle (No. 219) and War of Hamon-Gog (No. 294).

These papers were the outline and build up to the Wars of the End. These wars have been prophesied in Scripture and Christ said that Scripture cannot be broken (Jn. 10:35). God has given His word through the prophets and those things will come to pass.

The only question we are now left with is what timeframe would we expect to see the placement of Elijah and the other witness on the planet? (See the paper The Witnesses (including the Two Witnesses) (No. 135) and also No. 141D. The coming of the Witnesses is after the war of the Sixth Trumpet. The structure of the events is discussed in the papers The Advent of the Messiah Part I (No. 210A) and The Golden Jubilee and the Millennium (No. 300). See also No. 141C.

The placement of the Two Witnesses has a direct effect on when the Messiah is to return. One is dependent on the other and Scripture cannot be broken. Messiah returns to save those who eagerly await him.

Thus if the Witnesses are not here until much later we cannot expect the Messiah now until after 2024 or 2025 or even later dependent on when the Witnesses take up station in Jerusalem. We know that Messiah has to intervene to cut Satan’s rule short. His rule ends in the 120^th Jubilee in 2027 in any event. Therefore, Messiah has to return and establish the millennial administration in Jerusalem before the end of 2027. From the parable of the siege of Jericho we would expect the last seven days of the old order to occur at least in the last Sabbath sequence from 2020 to 2027 (see the paper The Fall of Jericho (No. 142)).

The Witnesses, in those circumstances, could not come later than 2024/5. Christ has to deal with Judah and reorganise the Holy Land with the attendant earthquakes and restructuring.

Christ then has to bring the armies of the world’s systems down to Armageddon and destroy them, as foretold in Scripture. That is because the world, even after this sequence of miracles, will not repent. The majority of those purporting to be Christians today will declare Messiah to be Antichrist because he, as the Witnesses before him, restores the Law of God. The true Antichrist will be established before him, as a true religious figure, by these same people. Christ will slay him and the false prophet at his coming. Thus we must assume that these figures of false religion will be contemporaneous with the Witnesses. We can thus also assume that the Antichrist must commence to rule with the false prophet and continue even as late as 2027.

We can thus conclude that from the structure of the Jubilees as denoted in history and the Bible and – ignoring the false post-Temple rabbinical 49-year system based on the Babylonian intercalations – given this view of Purim and the Last Month of Years of the Jubilee cycles and the structure of the Sign of Jonah and the Church in the wilderness, the Witnesses could come any time from 2024/5 and onwards and Messiah would follow them any time over the period to 2027. We simply do not know the exact time of the Witnesses and hence the arrival of the Messiah.

The sequence of the Wars of the Trumpets has seen the bio-chemical wars of the Fifth Trumpet developed by the globalists using the US, France, Canada and AU to develop the weapons using the CCP and the Wuhan lab to develop and release the differing weaponised viruses and poisons, released as pseudo-vaccines, from 2018-2022. The Great Awakening is now being affected as the people begin to realise the evil and extent of the Globalists and their attempt at the extermination of the European and Israelite Judeo-Christian civilisations.

In order to extend their power and the Globalist satanic NWO they will incite the War of the Sixth Trumpet from 2022 onwards. That will kill a third of mankind (cf. Wars of the End Part I: Wars of Amalek (No. 141C); Climate Change 2021 and the NWO (No. 218C); Conduct of the War of the Sixth Trumpet (No. 141C_2). This will place the final wars out into the period to 2025 which is the treble harvest of the Jubilee that is set from 2026-2027).

All of this is in accordance with the Plan and Command of God (see the papers The Sign of Jonah and the History of the Reconstruction of the Temple (No. 013); Distortion of God’s Calendar in Judah (No. 195B)).

The only thing we can be sure of is that the forces of Satan will be defeated both in Asia and the Middle East, the Americas and in its religious system of Europe. Its headquarters there in Europe will be destroyed. The elimination of the Israelite people will not be allowed because Mordecai/Messiah has completed his task and the final phase of the prayers of Esther and the elect are still being accomplished.

Christ will rule as the Viceroy of God on Earth. God determines what is to be done under His Laws. The tithes of God are levied on land and on the coastlands and all its produce.”

Chapter 10

¹King Ahasu-e'rus laid tribute on the land and on the coastlands of the sea. ²And all the acts of his power and might, and the full account of the high honor of Mor'decai, to which the king advanced him, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia? ³For Mor'decai the Jew was next in rank to King Ahasu-e'rus, and he was great among the Jews and popular with the multitude of his brethren, for he sought the welfare of his people and spoke peace to all his people. (RSV)

Intent of Chapter 10

Commentary on Esther Part II: Purim in the Last Days (No. 063B)

“The Church will rule under Christ. The works of the Church and the establishment of the millennial kingdom will be recorded. The Messiah of the line of Judah and of David of Bethlehem Ephratah will feed all of us and he will be the Prince of Peace.

How well we do our job now will determine how we survive.

Bullinger’s Notes on Esther chapters 8-10 (for KJV)

Chapter 8

Verse 1

On that day. Contrast "On that night", Esther 6:1 .

the Jews' enemy. See note on Esther 3:10 .

Verse 2

gave it unto Mordecai. Compare Esther 3:10 . Note how God honoured godly Jews in foreign courts: Joseph next to Pharaoh; Moses the heir to the throne of Egypt; Daniel next to Darius in Babylon; Mordecai next to Astyages in Shushan.

over the house of Hainan. Wonderful retribution.

Verse 3

mischief. Hebrew. ra'a'. App-44 . Same word as "evil", Esther 7:7 .

Haman the Agagite. See notes on Esther 2:5 with Esther 3:1 .

Verse 5

If it please the king. Note the Alternation in this verse: The king. "If it please the king. "Esther. "And if I have found favour. "The king. "And . . . before the king. "Esther. "And I be pleasing in his eyes. "

the Jews. Some codices, with Aram, and Syriac, read "all the Jews".

Verse 6

evil. Same word as "mischief", Esther 8:3 .

Verse 7

gallows. See note on Esther 5:14 .

Verse 8

liketh = pleaseth. Compare Esther 3:11 .

may no man reverse. But Compare Esther 3:12 , and see App-23 .

Verse 9

commanded unto = charged. Hebrew. zavah. See note on "law", Esther 3:2 .

Verse 10

posts on horseback = couriers on horseback. Haman's "posts" were runners on foot (Esther 3:13 , Esther 3:15 ), hut speed was now essential. See Esther 9:1 .

Verse 11

their life = themselves. Hebrew. nephesh.

destroy . . . slay . . . perish. Figure of speech Synonymia , for emphasis. See note on Esther 3:13 .

power = force. Hebrew. hayil, as in Esther 1:3 . Not shalat = mastery, as in Esther 9:1 ; or tokeph = authority, as in Esther 9:29 .

little ones. These were spared, notwithstanding. Compare Esther 9:6 .

Verse 12

thirteenth. See note on Esther 3:12 .

Verse 13

a commandment = an imperial decree.

people = the peoples.

Verse 14

hastened. Hebrew. bahal. See note on Esther 6:10 .

commandment = word. Hebrew. dabar. See note on Esther 1:12 .

decree. See note on Esther 2:8 .

Verse 16

light. Put by Figure of speech Metonymy (of Adjunct), for joy.

Verse 17

became Jews = made common cause with the Jews.

Chapter 9

Verse 1

thirteenth. See note on Esther 3:12 .

commandment. Hebrew. dabar. See note on Esther 1:12 .

decree. Hebrew. dath . See note on Esther 2:8 .

power = mastery. See note on Esther 8:11 .

though, &c. Note the Parenthesis.

the Jews = the Jews themselves.

Verse 2

withstand = stand before.

people = the peoples.

Verse 4

Mordecai = the man (Hebrew. 'ish. App-14 .) Mordecai, greatly emphasizing the person. Compare Numbers 12:3 . 1 Kings 11:28 . Daniel 9:21 .

Verse 5

sword . . . slaughter . . . destruction. Note the Figure of speech Synonymia , for emphasis.

and. Note the Figure of speech Polysyndeton. App-6 .

Verse 6

destroyed, &c. Note that they took no advantage of the permission given in Esther 8:11 .

Verse 7

And. Note the Figure of speech Polysyndeton in verses: Esther 9:7-9 , particularizing each one of Haman's ten sons.

Verse 10

The ten sons. In all Hebrew manuscripts and printed editions these ten names are written with the word veeth, being the demonstrative pronoun = self, or this same, or himself, thus: veeth Parshandatha, veeth Dalphon, veeth Aspatha, veeth Poratha, veeth Adalia, veeth Aridatha, veth Parmashta, veeth Arisai, veeth Aridai, veeth Vajezatha. It has been suggested that it is because they were hanged one above another. But, as each Hebrew character is a number as well as a letter, the numerical value of these names (regarded as an addition sum) amounts to 10,244, or 13 x 788; while Haman the Agagite = 117 (13x9), and Zeresh = 507 (13x39), and the whole family = 10,868 (13x836). See App-10 for the significance of this. On the other hand, 'Eth - Hadassah hi ' (Esther 2:7 ) adds up 1,152 = 8x122, and "Mordecai", son of Jair, son of Shimei, son of Kish, a Benjarnite (Esther 2:5 ), adds up 1,912 = (8 x 239). See App-10 .

the enemy of the Jews. See note on Esther 3:10 .

Slew they. See note on "Benjamite" (Esther 2:5 ).

laid they not their hand. Compare note on "take the spoil" (Esther 3:13 ). They probably remembered taking the spoil instead of obeying in 1 Samuel 15:0 . Hence the emphasis on this in verses: Esther 9:10 , Esther 9:15 , Esther 9:16 .

Verse 13

let Hainan's ten sons be hanged. One of the ten deaths occasioned or obtained by women. See note on Judges 4:21 .

be hanged Not alive, but hanged up after death. They were slain in conflict first. See verses: Esther 9:6 , Esther 9:7 .

Verse 14

commanded. Hebrew. 'amar. See note on Esther 1:10 .

Verse 16

their lives = themselves Hebrew. nephesh. App-13 .

had rest from. Dr. Ginsburg thinks the Hebrew should read "to avenge themselves upon". Compare Esther 8:13 .

Verse 21

stablish = ordain. Hebrew. kum, as in verses: Esther 9:29 , Esther 9:31 .

Verse 25

device, which he devised = his great device. Figure of speech Polyptoton.

Verse 26

Purim = lots. The name of the feast to this day.

Pur. See note on Esther 3:7 .

Verse 27

ordained. Hebrew. kum, as in verses: Esther 9:21 , Esther 9:31 .

Verse 28

should not fail. This sounds like a prophecy, and sets a seal on the inspiration of the book.

perish = come to an end. See note on Esther 3:13 .

Verse 29

the daughter of Abihail. See Esther 2:15 .

confirm. Hebrew. kum, as in verses: Esther 9:21 , Esther 9:31 .

Verse 30

hundred, &c. See note on Esther 1:1 .

Verse 31

enjoined = ordained. Hebrew. kum.

as = according as.

decreed = ordained. Hebrew. kum, as in verses: Esther 9:27 , Esther 9:29 , Esther 9:31 .

Verse 32

decree = command. Hebrew. ma'amar. Occurs only in Esther (Esther 1:15 ).

Chapter 10

Verse 1

isles = coasts.

Verse 2

power. Hebrew. tokeph. See note on Esther 8:11 .

Verse 3

next = the second = the Grand Vizier. Compare Esther 8:2 .

speaking peace = maintaining peace.

his seed: i.e. the People of Israel. N. B. in Persia, not Judea.

Thus was prepared the way for the emancipation of the Jews, which, not long after, was proclaimed by Cyrus (Ezra 1:1 ), the son of Astyages and Esther (see App-57 ), and is further proof that this book comes, chronologically, before the book Ezra-Nehemiah. N.B. the year 461 is the midway year of the Babylonian Servitude (496-426). See special note on 2 Chronicles 36:21 .

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Placing Purim in the Wars of the End

Inciting Genocide

Chapter 10