Esther 8:13

Haman’s letters had gone out in the first month, sealed with the king’s ring, ordering that every Jew in the empire be destroyed on one day (Esther 3:12–15). Since then everything at court has changed. Haman has been exposed and hanged (Esther 7:9–10), and Mordecai has been raised to Haman’s place and given the king’s signet ring (Esther 8:1–2). Esther has pleaded with the king to reverse what Haman wrote (Esther 8:3–6).

Yet Haman’s decree still stood, and the king gives the reason: “the writing which is written in the king’s name, and sealed with the king’s ring, may no man reverse” (Esther 8:8). A sealed royal decree was fixed under the law of the Medes and Persians (Esther 1:19, Daniel 6:8), and the king himself, for all his power, was bound by his own word. What he could do was give Mordecai and Esther leave to write a second decree with the same authority as the first, one that would let the people marked for death defend themselves. These six verses tell how that decree was written, what it allowed and how it went out. The day itself is told in Esther 9.

The king’s scribes were called “in the third month, that is, the month Sivan, on the three and twentieth day thereof.” Çîyvân is the name of the third month, around late May and early June. Haman’s decree had been written on the thirteenth day of the first month (Esther 3:12), so the Jews had lived a little over two months under sentence of death. From this day there were still nearly nine months before the thirteenth of Adar, time for the letters to reach the farthest province and for the Jews to prepare. Summoning the scribes meant that a formal, binding document was about to be made, and the exact date shows how carefully the Persian court dated its official papers.

The letter was written “according to all that Mordecai commanded.” Mordecai, now holding the king’s authority, dictates the terms himself. He addresses the Jews, whom the decree protects, and the officers who would have to uphold it: the lieutenants or satraps, the deputies or governors, and the rulers of the provinces. Their reach was enormous, “from India unto Ethiopia, an hundred twenty and seven provinces”, from Hodu in the east to Cush in the west, as the book said at its start: “from India even unto Ethiopia, over an hundred and seven and twenty provinces” (Esther 1:1). The word for province, mᵉdîynâh, means a district, properly a jurisdiction, and the same word returns in verse 12, “in all the provinces of king Ahasuerus.” Haman’s threat had reached every one of those provinces, and so does the answer to it.

Each province received the decree “according to the writing thereof”, in its own script, and each people “after their language”. The word lâshôwn is literally the tongue, and so speech or a language. “Language” stands twice in this verse, and the second time it belongs to the Jews, who received the decree “according to their writing, and according to their language.” The letter that saved them came to them in their own words, so that every Jewish community could understand what it allowed and act on it. The scribes, the ring and the couriers that had served Haman’s plot now served their rescue.

“He wrote in the king Ahasuerus’ name, and sealed it with the king’s ring.” Writing in the king’s name gave the letter the full legal weight of the throne. The verb châtham means to close up or to seal, and a royal seal was made by pressing the signet ring into soft clay or wax. That impression made Mordecai’s words the king’s own command, as binding as Haman’s letters, which had carried the same seal.

The letters went “by posts on horseback, and riders on mules, camels, and young dromedaries.” The posts, rûwts, are literally runners, from the verb to run, and the word names the royal couriers. The Persian empire was known for its royal post, sometimes called the angareion: relay stations along the main roads kept fresh horses and riders ready so that a message could travel on without pause, and ancient historians such as Herodotus praised its speed. “Young dromedaries” translates bên rammâk. Bên means son, and rammâk is given as a brood mare, so the phrase speaks of young animals of good breeding. For that reason some take these animals to be a swift breed of horse from the royal stud. Whatever the exact animal, the list names the fastest mounts the king had, and the mix suited the empire’s many kinds of country: mules were sure-footed on rough and mountain roads, and camels could cross the desert.

Verse 14 sends them off: “So the posts that rode upon mules and camels went out, being hastened and pressed on by the king’s commandment.” The same word for posts, rûwts, comes back here. Two verbs drive the riders. Bâhal can mean to be alarmed, and so to hurry anxiously, and dâchaph means to be urged or pushed on. They left at once with the king’s word behind them. The dispatch of Haman’s decree is told in much the same language (Esther 3:15), and the echo is deliberate: the road that carried death now carries life.

“And the decree was given at Shushan the palace.” The word for decree, dâth, means a royal edict or law, the kind of law the Persians held to be fixed. Shushan was the seat of royal power, where the Persian kings spent the winter, and the decree went out from there with the full authority of the throne.

Verse 11 is the heart of the letter. The king granted the Jews “which were in every city to gather themselves together, and to stand for their life.” Scattered families could now gather and act as one body. To stand for their life is to defend it, and the word for life, nephesh, from a root meaning to breathe, is the breathing creature, life, soul or self. The decree gave them the right to fight for their lives.

The permission went on: “to destroy, to slay, and to cause to perish, all the power of the people and province that would assault them.” The middle verb, hârag, means to kill, and the three verbs together leave the threat wholly broken. The word for power, chayil, means strength, wealth or an army, here the armed force of any people or province that would attack. Every blow the decree allowed was aimed at those who “would assault them.”

Two further phrases trouble readers. “Both little ones and women” refers to the families of the attackers, and it echoes Haman’s own edict, which had ordered the death of Jewish little ones and women in the same breath as the men (Esther 3:13). Its three verbs echo his too. “And to take the spoil of them for a prey” was also in the terms of Haman’s decree, and in war of that day taking the spoil marked a complete victory. The second decree turns the first back on those who would carry it out. The authority Haman wrote for the Jews’ destruction becomes the authority for their defense, and the pit the wicked dig becomes their own (Psalm 7:15–16).

Verse 12 names the day: “Upon one day in all the provinces of king Ahasuerus, namely, upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar.” The phrase ʼechâd yôwm, “one day”, means that the decree took effect everywhere at once, so every community in every province could defend itself on the same date. In shâlôwsh ʻâsâr yôwm, the thirteenth day, shâlôwsh is the number three. ʼĂdâr is the twelfth month, around late February and early March.

This is the date Haman had fixed after casting lots in the first month (Esther 3:7), and verse 12 repeats the date of his decree almost word for word (Esther 3:13). The day set for the Jews’ destruction becomes the day they stand and win. Joseph told his brothers that what they meant for evil God meant for good (Genesis 50:20), and that same truth runs through this date. A man devises his way, and the LORD directs his steps (Proverbs 16:9). Hannah sang of the LORD who brings low and lifts up (1 Samuel 2:7), and on the thirteenth of Adar the Jews were lifted up and their enemies brought low (Esther 9:1–19). The day became the root of the feast of Purim, which the Jews kept from then on (Esther 9:28).

These verses read like a page of palace business: scribes, dates, seals and couriers. God’s name appears nowhere in the book of Esther, yet through all of this he is at work, guiding royal offices and human choices to save his people. The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD (Proverbs 21:1), and here is a clear case of it, as the king who signed away the Jews’ lives signs the letter that lets them live. The LORD overturns the plans of the nations, and his own counsel stands for ever (Psalm 33:10–11). He rules even the wrath of men (Psalm 76:10), and the weapon formed against his people fails (Isaiah 54:17).

The same unseen hand set Esther on the throne (Esther 2:17) and brought Mordecai his unexpected honour (Esther 6:11). God is his people’s refuge and strength in trouble (Psalm 46:1), and he works all things together for good for those who love him (Romans 8:28). A royal word that goes out and does what it was sent to do is a small picture of God’s own word, which accomplishes his purpose (Isaiah 55:11), and the couriers who rode at once on the king’s command are a picture of the angels who do his commandments and listen for his voice (Psalm 103:20).

The shape of this rescue points us to the gospel. Because of sin we stood under a sentence of death, for sin’s wages are death (Romans 6:23). God’s law is holy and its sentence on sin stands, and God upheld it by sending his Son to bear it. Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). On the cross he fulfilled the law’s demand, forgave our trespasses, and disarmed the powers of darkness, triumphing over them (Colossians 2:13–15). Through death he destroyed the devil, who had the power of death, and set free those held in fear of it (Hebrews 2:14–15). So the day of our deserved judgment became the day of salvation, and his resurrection gives us the victory over death (1 Corinthians 15:54–57). God commended his love toward us while we were yet sinners (Romans 5:8) and made us alive together with Christ (Ephesians 2:4–5), and those who are in Christ Jesus are free from condemnation (Romans 8:1–2).

Mordecai, who stood before the king and wrote a letter of life for his people, points to Christ, who ever lives to make intercession for us (Hebrews 7:25) and is the mediator of the new covenant (Hebrews 9:15). Mordecai’s decree was sealed with a king’s ring, and the decree of grace is sealed with Christ’s own blood.

The letter went to “every people after their language”, and the good news of God’s love for the world (John 3:16) goes to every nation, until a great multitude from every nation and tongue stands before the throne (Revelation 7:9). The haste of the posts has its counterpart in the command to go into all the world and preach the gospel (Mark 16:15), given by the one who said, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth” (Matthew 28:18–20). The Jews stood for their life on one day with the weapons of that day. Believers stand against the schemes of the devil in the armour God provides (Ephesians 6:11), Christ builds his church and “the gates of hell shall not prevail” against it (Matthew 16:18), and the accuser of the brethren is cast down (Revelation 12:10–11).

These verses show us a God who keeps his people even when the law of the land has been turned against them. He works through scribes, seals and riders, and his hand is plain on a page where his name is unwritten. He can take the very day appointed for his people’s ruin and make it the day of their deliverance. The letter reached the Jews in their own language, and the word of a greater King reaches us just as plainly. The decree of death that stood over us has met a stronger decree of life in Christ, and the same urgency that sent the posts out from Shushan still carries that word to every people.