They Laid No Hand on the Plunder
11 On that day, the number of those who were slain in the citadel of Susa was brought before the king. 12 The king said to Esther the queen, “The Jews have slain and destroyed five hundred men in the citadel of Susa, including 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. What is your further request? It shall be done.” 13 Then Esther said, “If it pleases the king, let it be granted to the Jews who are in Susa to do tomorrow also according to today’s decree, and let Haman’s ten sons be hanged on the gallows.” 14 The king commanded this to be done. A decree was given out in Susa; and they hanged Haman’s ten sons. 15 The Jews who were in Susa gathered themselves together on the fourteenth day also of the month Adar, and killed three hundred men in Susa; but they didn’t lay their hand on the plunder. 16 The other Jews who were in the king’s provinces gathered themselves together, defended their lives, had rest from their enemies, and killed seventy-five thousand of those who hated them; but they didn’t lay their hand on the plunder. 17 This was done on the thirteenth day of the month Adar; and on the fourteenth day of that month they rested and made it a day of feasting and gladness. 18 But the Jews who were in Susa assembled together on the thirteenth and on the fourteenth days of the month; and on the fifteenth day of that month, they rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness. 19 Therefore the Jews of the villages, who live in the unwalled towns, make the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of gladness and feasting, a holiday, and a day of sending presents of food to one another.
Esther asks for a second day and the numbers grow large, and the same clause about plunder is recorded a second and third time.
The king reports the Susa figure to Esther and does the arithmetic aloud — five hundred here, what then have they done in the rest of the king's provinces! — and then offers her a further request, the fourth such offer in the book.
What she asks for is another day in Susa and the public hanging of Haman's ten sons, who are already dead Esther 9:13. The bodies are displayed. The book records the request without comment and without approval, as it records everything.
The numbers are stated plainly: three hundred more in Susa, seventy-five thousand in the provinces. They are not to be softened, and the text gives nothing to celebrate in them. Three things belong beside them.
The second decree had authorized defense against those who would assault them Esther 8:11, and the narrative describes the Jews striking those who hated them — the first decree had licensed the unprovoked killing of women and children Esther 3:13, and this is the answer to it. The book reports the killing rather than commending it. And it names no God anywhere, so no divine sanction is claimed for any of it.
What the book does comment on, by repetition, is the plunder. Verse 15 and verse 16 each end with the same clause — they didn't lay their hand on the plunder — making three occurrences in seven verses. Where the narrative could have justified the violence, it says nothing; where it could have passed over the property, it insists three times.
Verses 17 to 19 turn the days into rest and feasting, and add the two practices that define the festival: sending presents of food to one another, and different dates for walled and unwalled towns.
held with reason What this mark means