Esther 8:11 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Esther 8:11
Wherein the king granted the Jews which were in every city to gather themselves together, and to stand for their life, to destroy, to slay and to cause to perish, all the power of the people and province that would assault them, both little ones and women, and to take the spoil of them for a prey,
a king · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
granted
נָתַ֨ןna.Tan
H5414
to give · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Jews
לַיְּהוּדִ֣יםlai.ye.hu.Dim
H3064
a Jehudite (i.e. Judaite or Jew) · preposition with the article + noun, gentilic masculine plural absolute
city
עִיר'ir-
H5892
a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the wi… · noun, common feminine singular absolute
together
לְהִקָּהֵל֮le.hi.ka.Hel
H6950
to convoke · preposition + verb, niphal infinitive construct
stand
וְלַעֲמֹ֣דve.la.'a.Mod
H5975
to stand · conjunction + preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Esther 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,…
Psalms 37:14-15 The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, and to slay such as be of upright conversatio…
Psalms 146:6-9 Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth for ever:
Ezekiel 39:10 So that they shall take no wood out of the field, neither cut down any out of the forests; for they shall burn the weapons with fire: and th…
Esther 9:2-16 The Jews gathered themselves together in their cities throughout all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, to lay hand on such as sought thei…
Psalms 137:8 O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us.
Psalms 68:3 But let the righteous be glad; let them rejoice before God: yea, let them exceedingly rejoice.
Isaiah 10:6 I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Esther 8:3-14
Haman, the chief enemy of the Jews, was hanged, Mordecai and Esther, their chief friends, were sufficiently protected; but many others there were in the king's dominions that hated the Jews and desired their ruin, and to their rage and malice all the rest of that people lay exposed; for the edict against them was still in force, and, in pursuance of it, their enemies would on the day appointed fall upon them, and they would be deemed as rebels against the king and his government if they should offer to resist and take up arms in their own defence. For the preventing of this,
I. The queen here makes intercession with much affection and importunity. She came, a second time, uncalled into the k…
the king granted the Jews . . . to stand for their life . . . to slay . . . all . . . that would assault them--The fixed and unalterable character claimed for Persian edicts often placed the king in a very awkward dilemma; for, however bitterly he might regret things done in a moment of haste and thoughtlessness, it was beyond even his power to prevent the consequences. This was the reason on account of which the king was laid under a necessity not to reverse, but to issue a contradictory edict; according to which it was enacted that if, pursuant to the first decree, the Jews were assaulted, they might, by virtue of the second, defend themselves and even slay their enemies. However strange a…
To destroy, to slay, and to cause to perish - The same words as in Haman's decree: therefore the Jews had as much authority to slay their enemies, as their enemies had to slay them.
Little ones and women - This was the ordinary custom, to destroy the whole family of those convicted of great crimes; and whether this was right or wrong, it was the custom of the people, and according to the laws. Besides, as this edict was to give the Jews the same power against their enemies as they had by the former decree against them, and the women and children were there included; consequently they must be included here.
The Church Fathers
The fact that this earthly king sends his couriers to gather the Jews in each place and to assemble them in a single location so that they may fight for their lives and destroy all their enemies with their children and women and houses signifies that through his preachers our king, the absolute ruler of heaven and earth, orders the true Jews and his confessors among all the Gentiles, after they have gathered in the unity of society and peace, to fight for the salvation of their souls and to condemn their enemies both visible and invisible, namely the false Jews, who belong to the synagogue of Satan, and the unredeemed pagan and heretics, and the unclean spirits with all their impieties.
So when this earthly king orders his couriers to gather the Jews in each place, and to command them to assemble so that they might fight for their lives and kill all their enemies together with their wives and children and all their houses, this can only mean that our king, who rules over all of Heaven and earth, is—through his preachers—ordering the true Jews and their adherents throughout the nations to assemble as a union of fellowship and peace; and to fight for the salvation of their souls; and to condemn all their enemies both visible and invisible, i.e. the false Jews who are the synagogue of Satan and the incorrigible pagans and heretics, as well as the impure spirits with all their impieties and perverse notions. Nor should they permit any remnant of these to survive, or even their wives and children, i.e. they should wipe out completely the carnal desires and the works of sinners together with their houses, namely with their worldly ambitions; or allow to remain any offshoot of these things that could pose a threat to them. So it is that in the Law, the Lord commanded the Israelites to kill and to wipe out those nations in the Promised Land that were antagonistic to them; so too he afterward commanded them to destroy the Amalekites until they were all slaughtered, because he wanted to deprive them of any occasion for misbehavior. This is what the prophet is thinking of when he says in the Psalms: "In the mornings I was killing all the sinners of the land, to wipe out from the city of the Lord all the evildoers" (Psalms 101).
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Captivities Of The Jews — The present article is confined to the forcible deportation of the Jew; from their native land, and their forcible detention, under the Assyrian or Babylonian kings. Captives of Israel.—The kingdom…
Proclamation · Imperial — Imperial
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
life
נַפְשָׁם֒naf.Sham
H5315
properly · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
destroy
לְהַשְׁמִיד֩le.hash.Mid
H8045
to desolate · preposition + verb, hiphil infinitive construct
slay
וְלַהֲרֹ֨גve.la.ha.Rog
H2026
to smite with deadly intent · conjunction + preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
probably a force · noun, common masculine singular construct
people
עַ֧ם'am
H5971
a people (as a congregated unit) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
province
וּמְדִינָ֛הu.me.di.Nah
H4082
properly · conjunction + noun, common feminine singular absolute
assault
הַצָּרִ֥יםha.tza.Rim
H6696
to cramp · definite article + verb, qal active participle, masculine plural absolute
ones
טַ֣ףtaf
H2945
a family (mostly used collectively in the singular) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
women
וְנָשִׁ֑יםve.na.Shim
H802
a woman · conjunction + noun, common masculine plural absolute
spoil
וּשְׁלָלָ֖םu.she.la.Lam
H7998
booty · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
prey
לָבֽוֹזla.Voz
H962
to plunder · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
John Gill on Esther 8:11
Wherein the king granted the Jews which were in every city to gather themselves together,.... In some part of the city they should choose, and remain in a body, being sufficiently armed:
and to stand for their life; to defend themselves, and fight for their life, should any attack them, or attempt to take it away; in such case they might act offensively:
so as to destroy, to slay, and to cause to perish, all the power of the people and province that would assault them; every army of them, or as many as should join in a body to attack them, any mighty or powerful mob; and not men only:
but both little ones and women, and to take the spoil of them for a prey; the same words are used, and th…
These letters were prepared in the same manner as those of Haman (Est 3:12-15), on the 23rd day of the third month, the month Sivan, and sent into all the provinces. "And it was written according to all that Mordochai commanded." They were sent to the Jews and to the satraps, etc., of the whole wide realm from India to Ethiopia (see Est 1:1), while those of Haman had been issued only to the satraps, etc. The rest coincides with Est 3:12. ויּכתּב, and he (Mordochai) wrote. To show the speed with which the letters were despatched, (messengers) "on horseback, on coursers, government coursers, the sons of the stud," is added to הרצים בּיד. רכשׁ is a collective, meaning swift horses, coursers; co…
The king’s decree did not permit the Jewish people to start a war but to defend themselves and plunder the property of those who attacked them (reversing the decree in 3:13). • The phrase kill, slaughter, and annihilate is an ironic repetition of the words in Haman’s original edict (3:13; see also 9:5).
Rashi on Esther 8:11
With their booty to be taken. As was written in the first [letters], but they did not lay their hands upon the spoils, for they showed everyone that this was not done for the sake of money.
