TRV
Translation
King James Version
Upon one day in all the provinces of king Ahasuerus, namely, upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar.
Complete Jewish Bible
on the designated day in any of the provinces of King Achashverosh, namely, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar."
Berean Standard Bible
The single day appointed throughout all the provinces of King Xerxes was the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar.
American Standard Version
upon one day in all the provinces of king Ahasuerus, namely, upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar.
World English Bible Messianic
on one day in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar.
Geneva Bible (1599)
Vpon one day in all the prouinces of King Ahashuerosh, euen in the thirteenth day of the twelft moneth, which is the moneth Adar.
Young's Literal Translation
In one day, in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, on the thirteenth of the twelfth month--it is the month of Adar--
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In the KJVVerse 12,830 of 31,102
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Commentary on Esther 8 verses 3–14
3 ¶ And Esther spake yet again before the king, and fell down at his feet, and besought him with tears to put away the mischief of Haman the Agagite, and his device that he had devised against the Jews.
4 Then the king held out the golden sceptre toward Esther. So Esther arose, and stood before the king,
5 And said, If it please the king, and if I have found favour in his sight, and the thing seem right before the king, and I be pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews which are in all the king's provinces:
6 For how can I endure to see the evil that shall come unto my people? or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?
7 Then the king Ahasuerus said unto Esther the queen and to Mordecai the Jew, Behold, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and him they have hanged upon the gallows, because he laid his hand upon the Jews.
8 Write ye also for the Jews, as it liketh you, in the king's name, and seal it with the king's ring: for the writing which is written in the king's name, and sealed with the king's ring, may no man reverse.
9 Then were the king's scribes called at that time in the third month, that is, the month Sivan, on the three and twentieth day thereof; and it was written according to all that Mordecai commanded unto the Jews, and to the lieutenants, and the deputies and rulers of the provinces which are from India unto Ethiopia, an hundred twenty and seven provinces, unto every province according to the writing thereof, and unto every people after their language, and to the Jews according to their writing, and according to their language.
10 And he wrote in the king Ahasuerus' name, and sealed it with the king's ring, and sent letters by posts on horseback, and riders on mules, camels, and young dromedaries:
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,
12 Upon one day in all the provinces of king Ahasuerus, namely, upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar.
13 The copy of the writing for a commandment to be given in every province was published unto all people, and that the Jews should be ready against that day to avenge themselves on their enemies.
14 So the posts that rode upon mules and camels went out, being hastened and pressed on by the king's commandment. And the decree was given at Shushan the palace.
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 king's presence (Est 8:3), and was as before encouraged to present her petition, by the king's holding out the golden sceptre to her, Est 8:4. Her petition is that the king, having put away Haman, would put away the mischief of Haman and his device against the Jews, that that might not take place now that he was taken off. Many a man's mischief survives him, and the wickedness he devised operates when he is gone. What men project and write may, after their death, be either very profitable or very pernicious. It was therefore requisite in this case that, for the defeating of Haman's plot, they should apply to the king for a further act of grace, that by another edict he would reverse the letters devised by Haman, and which he wrote (she does not say which the king consented to and confirmed with his own seal; she leaves it to his own conscience to say that), by which he took an effectual course to destroy the Jews in all the king's provinces, Est 8:5. If the king were indeed, as he seemed to be, troubled that such a decree was made, he could not do less than revoke it; for what is repentance, but undoing, to the utmost of our power, what we have done amiss? 1. This petition Esther presents with much affection: She fell down at the king's feet and besought him with tears (Est 8:3), every tear as precious as any of the pearls with which she was adorned. It was time to be earnest when the church of God lay at stake. Let none be so great as to be unwilling to stoop, none so merry as to be unwilling to weep, when thereby they may do any service to God's church and people. Esther, though safe herself, fell down, and begged with tears for the deliverance of her people. 2. She expresses it with great submission, and a profound deference to the king and his wisdom and will (Est 8:5): If it please the king and if I have found favour in his sightand again, "If the thing itself seem right and reasonable before the king, and if I that ask it be pleasing in his eyes, let the decree be reversed." Even when we have the utmost reason and justice on our side, and have the clearest cause to plead, yet it becomes us to speak to our superiors with humility and modesty, and all possible expressions of respect, and not to talk like demandants when we are supplicants. There is nothing lost be decency and good breeding. As soft answers turn away wrath, so soft askings obtain favour. 3. She enforces her petition with a pathetic plea: "For how can I endure to see the evil that shall come upon my people? Little comfort can I have of my own life if I cannot prevail for theirs: as good share in the evil myself as see it come upon them; for how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred, that are dear to me?" Esther, a queen, owns her poor kindred, and speaks of them with a very tender concern. Now it was that she mingled her tears with her words, that she wept and made supplication; we read of no tears when she begged for her own life, but, now that she was sure of that, she wept for her people. Tears of pity and tenderness are the most Christ-like. Those that are truly concerned for the public would rather die in the last ditch than live to see the desolations of the church of God and the ruin of their country. Tender spirits cannot bear to think of the destruction of their people and kindred, and therefore dare not omit any opportunity of giving them relief.
II. The king here takes a course for the preventing of the mischief that Haman had designed. 1. The king knew, and informed the queen, that, according to the constitution of the Persian government, the former edict could not be revoked (Est 8:8): What is written in the king's name, and sealed with the king's ring, may not, under any pretence whatsoever, be reversed. This was a fundamental article of their magna charta, that no law or decree, when once it had passed the royal assent, could be repealed or recalled, no judgment vacated, no attainder reversed, Dan 6:15. This is so far from bespeaking the wisdom and honour of the Medes and Persians that really it bespeaks their pride and folly, and consequently their shame. It is ridiculous in itself for any man, or company of men, to pretend to such an infallibility of wisdom as to foresee all the consequences of what they decree; and therefore it is unjust, and injurious to mankind, to claim such a supremacy of power as to make their decrees irrevocable, whether the consequences prove good or bad. This savours of that old presumption which ruined us all: We will be as gods. Much more prudent is that proviso of our constitution, that no law can, by any words or sanctions whatsoever, be made unrepealable, any more than any estate unalienable. Cujus est instruere, ejus est destruere - the right to enact implies the right to repeal. It is God's prerogative not to repent, and to say what can never be altered or unsaid. 2. Yet he found an expedient to undo the devices of Haman, and defeat his design, by signing and publishing another decree to authorize the Jews to stand upon their defence, vim vi repellere, et invasorem occidere - to oppose force to force, and destroy the assailant. This would be their effectual security. The king shows them that he had done enough already to convince them that he had a concern for the Jewish nation, for he had ordered his favourite to be hanged because he laid his hand upon the Jews (Est 8:7), and he therefore would d the utmost he could to protect them; and he leaves it as fully with Esther and Mordecai to use his name and power for their deliverance as before he had left it with Haman to use his name and power for their destruction: "Write for the Jews as it liketh you (Est 8:8), saving only the honour of our constitution. Let the mischief be put away as effectually as may be without reversing the letters." The secretaries of state were ordered to attend to draw up this edict on the twenty-third day of the third month (Est 8:9), about two months after the promulgation of the former, but nine months before the time set for its execution: it was to be drawn up and published in the respective languages of all the provinces. Shall the subjects of an earthly prince have his decrees in a language they understand? and shall God's oracles and laws be locked up from his servants in an unknown tongue? It was to be directed to the proper officers of every province, both to the justices of peace and to the deputy-lieutenants. It was to be carefully dispersed throughout all the king's dominions, and true copies sent by expresses to all the provinces. The purport of this decree was to commission the Jews, upon the day which was appointed for their destruction, to draw together in a body for their own defence. And, (1.) To stand for their life, that, whoever assaulted them, it might be at their peril. (2.) They might not only act defensively, but might destroy, and slay, and cause to perish, all the power of the people that would assault them, men, women, and children (Est 8:11), and thus to avenge themselves on their enemies (Est 8:13), and, if they pleased, to enrich themselves by their enemies, for they were empowered to take the spoil of them for a prey. Now, [1.] This showed his kindness to the Jews, and sufficiently provided for their safety; for he latter decree would be looked upon as a tacit revocation of the former, though not in expression. But, [2.] It shows the absurdity of that branch of their constitution that none of the king's edicts might be repealed; for it laid the king here under a necessity of enacting a civil war in his own dominions, between the Jews and their enemies, so that both sides took up arms by his authority, and yet against his authority. No better could come of men's pretending to be wise above what is given them. Great expedition was used in dispersing this decree, the king himself being in pain lest it should come too late and any mischief should be done to the Jews by virtue of the former decree before the notice of this arrived. It was therefore by the king's commandment, as well as Mordecai's, that the messengers were hastened and pressed on (Est 8:14), and had swift beasts provided them, Est 8:10. It was not a time to trifle when so many lives were in danger.
Matthew Henry (1662–1714) — Commentary on the Whole Bible. This section covers verses 3–14. Public domain.
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Rabanus MaurusAD 856
EXPLANATION ON THE BOOK OF ESTHER 11
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.
Rabanus MaurusAD 856
Commentary on Esther
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).
Furthermore, the time at which this slaughter of enemies was ordered to take place accords very well with the mystery of this spiritual slaughter, since the twelfth Hebrew month, which is Adar, can only symbolize the last age of our world when this spiritual war is being waged above all by the soldiers of Christ. And in the same way, the thirteenth day symbolizes the faith in the holy Trinity through the observing the commands of God, which is the basis upon which all our adversaries are effectively subdued.
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.
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SUMMARY
Esther 8:12 precisely articulates the date on which the Jewish people, scattered across the vast Persian Empire under King Ahasuerus, were granted the unprecedented and divinely orchestrated right to defend themselves. This verse is pivotal as it marks the dramatic and complete reversal of fortune, transforming a day originally designated for their annihilation into one of justified self-defense and eventual triumph, a profound turn of events brought about through the courageous intercession of Queen Esther and the strategic leadership of Mordecai.
CONTEXT
Literary Context: Esther 8:12 is situated within the narrative of the second royal decree, issued by King Ahasuerus at Mordecai's urgent request. This new edict was an absolute necessity because Haman's earlier, irrevocable decree (detailed in Esther 3:12-15), had commanded the extermination of all Jews throughout the empire on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, Adar. Since a Persian king's decree, once sealed, could not be rescinded (Esther 8:8), the new decree, meticulously crafted by Mordecai and authenticated with the king's signet ring, ingeniously granted the Jews the legal right to assemble, defend themselves, destroy those who attacked them, and plunder their goods on that very same, fateful day. Verse 12 specifically reiterates this precise date, emphasizing the direct counter-measure to Haman's original genocidal plot and setting the dramatic stage for the climactic events of Esther 9.
Historical & Cultural Context: The events of the book of Esther unfold during the zenith of the Persian Empire, likely under the reign of Xerxes I (identified as Ahasuerus), who ruled an immense territory stretching "from India even unto Ethiopia, over an hundred and seven and twenty provinces" (Esther 1:1). A central legal principle, crucial to the plot's tension and resolution, was the absolute and irreversible nature of royal decrees in Persia. The use of the king's signet ring (as seen in Esther 8:8) was the ultimate symbol of royal authority, rendering any edict sealed with it inviolable. The concept of granting an ethnic minority the right to self-defense against a previously state-sanctioned decree was extraordinary and unprecedented, underscoring the unique and powerful influence Mordecai and Esther had attained. The calendar system, referencing the "twelfth month, Adar," was a standard part of the ancient Near Eastern calendar, corresponding to late February/early March in the Gregorian calendar, thereby grounding the narrative in specific historical and chronological realities.
Key Themes: This verse powerfully contributes to several overarching themes within the book of Esther. Foremost is the theme of Divine Reversal and Justice, where the very day intended for the Jews' utter destruction is miraculously transformed into the day of their deliverance and triumph. This dramatic shift serves as a powerful testament to God's sovereign hand, subtly working behind the scenes to turn evil intentions into redemptive outcomes, echoing the profound truth found in Genesis 50:20. Another significant theme is God's Perfect Timing or Providence. While God's name is conspicuously absent from the book of Esther, His meticulous orchestration of events, particularly the precise mirroring of Haman's chosen date for destruction with the date of Jewish self-defense, powerfully underscores His unseen but active control over human affairs and His commitment to His covenant people. Finally, the verse highlights the theme of Empowerment for Self-Defense, marking a crucial shift for the Jewish people from passive victims awaiting annihilation to active agents of their own survival, reflecting a divinely sanctioned right to protect life and community in the face of existential threat.
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Esther 8:12 masterfully employs several literary devices to heighten its impact and underscore its theological significance. The most prominent is Irony, as the very day meticulously chosen by Haman for the annihilation of the Jewish people is precisely the day transformed into their glorious and victorious self-defense. This dramatic reversal underscores the futility of human evil against divine providence. Repetition is also key, as the specific date ("the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar") is repeated verbatim from Haman's original decree in Esther 3:13. This repetition serves to emphasize the direct counter-action and the complete overturning of the enemy's meticulously laid plans. Furthermore, the precise dating in this verse serves as potent Foreshadowing, setting the stage for the climactic events of Esther 9:1-19, where the Jewish people indeed defend themselves and achieve a decisive victory, leading to the establishment of the enduring feast of Purim.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Esther 8:12 serves as a powerful testament to God's sovereign providence, even when His name is not explicitly mentioned within the narrative. The precise timing of the counter-decree, mirroring the original date of destruction, illustrates a divine orchestration that turns the enemy's most meticulously laid plans on their head. This is not merely a political victory but a profound theological statement about God's unseen hand working through human agents and political structures to protect His covenant people. It highlights that God's justice is not only eventual but often manifests through dramatic reversals, transforming moments of despair into triumphs of deliverance, demonstrating His faithfulness to His promises despite overwhelming odds.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Esther 8:12 offers profound encouragement for believers facing seemingly insurmountable odds or situations where evil seems to have gained an irreversible advantage. It reminds us that even when malevolent schemes are meticulously planned and appear legally or practically unchangeable, God's sovereign power can orchestrate a complete and dramatic reversal. The fact that the deliverance occurred on the very day intended for destruction underscores the perfection of God's timing; He often waits until the eleventh hour to display His power most gloriously, demonstrating His ultimate control over all circumstances. This should inspire us to maintain unwavering hope and trust in His ultimate control, even when His presence feels hidden or His plan seems unclear. Furthermore, the decree's empowerment of the Jews for self-defense reminds us that while we trust in divine providence, we are also called to act courageously and wisely within the opportunities God provides, standing against injustice and protecting what is righteous, for faith without works is dead.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Why was it necessary to issue a new decree instead of simply revoking Haman's original one?
Answer: According to Persian law, a decree issued in the king's name and sealed with his signet ring was considered irrevocable. Esther 8:8 explicitly states this: "the writing which is written in the king's name, and sealed with the king's ring, may no man reverse." This legal constraint created a significant challenge for Mordecai and Esther. They could not simply cancel Haman's genocidal order. Instead, they had to devise a counter-decree that, while not nullifying the first, granted the Jewish people the legal right to assemble, defend themselves, and destroy their attackers on the very same day. This ingenious solution upheld the integrity of Persian law while simultaneously providing a divinely orchestrated path for the Jews' survival and triumph.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Esther 8:12, with its dramatic reversal of a decree of death into a day of deliverance, powerfully foreshadows the ultimate and decisive reversal wrought by Jesus Christ. Just as the Jews faced an inescapable decree of annihilation, humanity was under the decree of spiritual death due to sin (Romans 6:23). Yet, at the appointed time, God sent His Son, not to cancel the decree of judgment against sin, but to fulfill it on our behalf. On the cross, Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, absorbed the full penalty of sin, transforming the day of humanity's deserved judgment into the day of salvation and new life for all who believe (Colossians 2:13-14). His glorious resurrection on the third day definitively reversed the power of death and the grave, turning what was meant for our ultimate destruction into the means of our eternal triumph and victory (1 Corinthians 15:54-57). Thus, Esther 8:12, in its specific timing and dramatic reversal of fate, points to the grander, cosmic reversal achieved by Christ, who secured our ultimate deliverance from sin, death, and the power of the enemy.