Esther 9:15 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Esther 9:15
For the Jews that were in Shushan gathered themselves together on the fourteenth day also of the month Adar, and slew three hundred men at Shushan; but on the prey they laid not their hand.
a Jehudite (i.e. Judaite or Jew) · definite article + noun, gentilic masculine plural absolute
Shushan
בְּשׁוּשָׁ֗ןbe.shu.Shan
H7800
Shushan · preposition + proper noun, a place name
together
וַיִּֽקָּהֲל֞וּvai.yi.ka.ha.Lu
H6950
to convoke · conjunction + verb, niphal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
fourteenth
אַרְבָּעָ֤ה'ar.ba.'Ah
H702
four · cardinal number, both genders singular absolute
day
בְּי֣וֹםbe.Yom
H3117
a day (as the warm hours) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
month
לְחֹ֣דֶשׁle.Cho.desh
H2320
the new moon · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
Adar
אֲדָ֔ר'a.Dar
H143
Adar · proper noun, a title
slew
וַיַּֽהַרְג֣וּvai.ya.har.Gu
H2026
to smite with deadly intent · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
three
שְׁלֹ֥שׁshe.Losh
H7969
three · cardinal number, both genders singular construct
hundred
מֵא֖וֹתme.'ot
H3967
a hundred · cardinal number, feminine plural absolute
men
אִ֑ישׁ'Ish
H376
a man as an individual or a male person · noun, common masculine singular absolute
Shushan
בְשׁוּשָׁ֔ןve.shu.Shan
H7800
Shushan · preposition + proper noun, a place name
prey
וּבַ֨בִּזָּ֔הu.Vab.bi.Zah
H961
booty · conjunction + preposition with the article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
laid
שָׁלְח֖וּsha.le.Chu
H7971
to send away · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
hand
יָדָֽםya.Dam
H3027
a hand (the open one (indicating power · noun, common both genders singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
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 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,…
Esther 9:10 The ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews, slew they; but on the spoil laid they not their hand.
Esther 9:2 The Jews gathered themselves together in their cities throughout all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, to lay hand on such as sought thei…
Esther 9:13 Then said Esther, If it please the king, let it be granted to the Jews which are in Shushan to do to morrow also according unto this day’s d…
Esther 9:16 But the other Jews that were in the king’s provinces gathered themselves together, and stood for their lives, and had rest from their enemie…
Psalms 118:7-12 The LORD taketh my part with them that help me: therefore shall I see my desire upon them that hate me.
Hebrews 13:5 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor fo…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Esther 9:1-19
We have here a decisive battle fought between the Jews and their enemies, in which the Jews were victorious. Neither side was surprised; for both had notice of it long enough before, so that it was a fair trial of skill between them. Nor could either side call the other rebels, for they were both supported by the royal authority.
I. The enemies of the Jews were the aggressors. They hoped, notwithstanding the latter edict, to have power over them, by virtue of the former (Est 9:1), and made assaults upon them accordingly; they formed themselves into bodies, and joined in confederacy against them, to seek their hurt, Est 9:2. The Chaldee paraphrase says that none appeared against the Jews but…
let it be granted to the Jews which are in Shushan to do to-morrow also according unto this day's decree--Their enemies adroitly concealing themselves for the first day might have returned on the next, when they imagined that the privilege of the Jews was expired; so that that people would have been surprised and slain. The extension of the decree to another day at the queen's special desire has exposed her to the charge of being actuated by a cruel and vindictive disposition. But her conduct in making this request is capable of full vindication, on the ground (1) that Haman's sons having taken a prominent part in avenging their father's fall, and having been previously slain in the melee, t…
And slew three hundred men - Esther had probably been informed by Mordecai that there were still many enemies of the Jews who sought their destruction, who had escaped the preceding day; and, therefore, begs that this second day be added to the former permission. This being accordingly granted, they found three hundred more, in all eight hundred. And thus Susa was purged of all their enemies.
John Gill on Esther 9:15
The Church Fathers
When the whole nation of Israel was about to perish, blessed Esther defeated the tyrant's anger simply by fasting and praying to God. By faith she changed the ruin of her people into safety. Those days are feast days for Israel; they used to call a feast when an enemy was slain or a conspiracy against the people was broken up and Israel was delivered. That is why Moses established the Feast of the Passover: because Pharaoh was killed and the people were delivered from bondage. So then, especially when tyrants were slain, temporal feasts and holidays were established in Judea. Now, however, the devil, that tyrant against the whole world, is slain. Therefore, our feast does not relate only to time but to eternity. It is a heavenly feast! We do not announce it as a shadow or a picture or a type but as the real thing.
In the face of all this, brothers and sisters, what should we do but give thanks to God, the king of all? Let us start by crying out the words of the psalm, "Blessed is the Lord, who has not let them eat us up." Let us keep the feast in that way that he has established for our salvation—the holy day of Easter—so that we, along with the angels, may celebrate the heavenly feast. Remember that Israel, coming out of affliction to a state of rest, sang a song of praise for the victory as they kept the feast. And in the time of Esther the people kept a feast to the Lord because they had been delivered from a deadly decree. They called a feast, thanking and praising the Lord because he had changed the situation for them. Therefore, let us keep our promises to the Lord, confess our sins, and keep the feast to him—in behavior, moral conduct, and way of life. Let us keep it by praising the Lord, who has disciplined us so lightly but has never failed us nor forsaken us nor stopped speaking to us.
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
Shushan (Susa) · 2. King’ s palace at — 2. King’ s palace at
Unselfishness · .Jews — .Jews
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).
For the Jews that were in Shushan gathered themselves together on the fourteenth day also of the month Adar,.... As they had on the thirteenth:
and slew three hundred men at Shushan; the Targum adds, of the family of Amalek: but there is no reason to confine it to them; it respects all such as were the enemies of the Jews, and rose up against them; so that the whole number slain in Shushan were eight hundred persons, besides the sons of Human:
but on the prey they laid not their hand; See Gill on Esther 9:7.
Keil & Delitzsch on Esther 9:15-17
On this second day the Jews slew 300 more; comp. Est 9:10. - Est 9:16. The rest of the Jews in the provinces, i.e., the Jews in the other parts of the kingdom, assembled themselves and stood for their lives, and had rest from their enemies, and slew of their foes 75,000, but upon the spoil they laid not their hand. על עמד like Est 8:11. The מאיביהם ונוח inserted between על נ ועמד and והרוג is striking; we should rather have expected the resting or having rest from their enemies after the death of the latter, as in Est 9:17 and Est 9:18, where this is plainly stated to have taken place on the day after the slaughter. The position of these words is only explained by the consideration, that the…
