Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Esther · About this commentary
A Decree That Cannot Be Revoked
Esther 8:1-8
1 On that day, King Ahasuerus gave the house of Haman, the Jews’ enemy, to Esther the queen. Mordecai came before the king; for Esther had told what he was to her. · WEB
Haman is dead and the decree is not, and the law the empire was proud of turns out to be the thing nobody can undo.
The transfers are swift. Haman's house to Esther, the ring to Mordecai, and Esther setting Mordecai over the estate Esther 8:2. The signet that sealed the death decree is now on the hand of the man it was meant to kill.
But verse 3 shows why none of that is enough. Esther fell down at his feet and begged him with tears — she has been queen, has been received, has been offered half a kingdom, and she is on the floor again. The enemy is dead and the order still stands.
Her request in verse 5 is carefully worded and it asks for the impossible: let it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman.
Verse 6 is the only place in the book where Esther speaks about her own feelings, and it is two questions: how can I endure to see the evil that would come to my people? How can I endure to see the destruction of my relatives?
The king's reply in verses 7 and 8 grants everything he can and states the limit plainly. Write what you please, in my name, sealed with my ring — for the writing which is written in the king's name, and sealed with the king's ring, may not be reversed by any man.
That is the trap the book set in its first chapter, when a domestic quarrel produced a law that cannot be altered Esther 1:19. An empire that boasted of irreversible decrees cannot rescind one even when its king wants to.
So the solution cannot be cancellation. It has to be a second decree written beside the first, and the next paragraph is what that looks like.
settled What this mark means