Biblion Bible Commentary
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They Laid No Hand on the Plunder
Esther 9:11-19
11 On that day, the number of those who were slain in the citadel of Susa was brought before the king. · WEB
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