Esther 8 Study Notes

8:1-2 All in the same day Haman was forced to honor Mordecai (6:4-11), went to the second banquet and was charged with trying to kill the queen and her people (7:1-8), and was hanged. The theme of reversal continues into chap. 8, as Esther, once threatened by Haman, was awarded his estate, which elevated her uncle Mordecai. Compare this verse with 3:10.

8:3-4 Many commentators have maintained that v. 3 introduces a new scene into the story, but the phrase then Esther addressed the king again need not be understood this way. While Esther was certainly pleased with the king’s honoring of Mordecai, the larger issue of the death sentence upon her people had not been addressed. Rather than being annoyed at Esther’s breach of royal protocol by falling at his feet, the king extended the gold scepter toward Esther, allowing her to state her request.

8:5-6 Esther prefaced her request with an extended version of the normal deferential statement one would make to a king. The first two phrases were standard (1:19; 5:4; 7:3), but she continued in order to make the king’s decision seem like a referendum on his love for her. Esther did not point out the injustice of the decree (which the king had approved), but focused on how it would impact her.

8:7-8 The king’s response is ambiguous in the Hebrew Bible. While some commentators think he was positive toward her request, others suggest a tone of exasperation or even irritation. Possibly the Greek (LXX) translation suggests this, as the king reminded her about all he had done for her and added, “What do you yet seek?” (Gk ti eti epizeyteis). Nevertheless, the king gave Esther and Mordecai the opportunity to write a new decree that would counter but not rescind his original order. Compare the king’s words to Mordecai in v. 8, Write in the king’s name whatever pleases you concerning the Jews, with his words to Haman in 3:11, “The money and people are given to you to do with as you see fit.”

8:9 Seventy-eight percent of the words in vv. 9-14 are the same as 3:12-15. Since the Jewish people were speaking Aramaic, as were many in the Persian Empire, the counter-edict that was written in their own script must have been written in Hebrew.

8:10 The edicts were sealed with the royal signet ring, once worn by Haman in order to destroy the Jews, but now worn by Mordecai to save the Jews.

8:11-12 Just as Haman’s edict decreed the destruction of the Jews on the thirteenth of Adar (3:12), the Jews now had the legal right to defend themselves that same day.

8:13-14 These verses are a repeat of 3:14-15, showing that this decree reversed the previous one.

8:15-17 Mordecai had once torn his clothes and gone around in “sackcloth and ashes” (4:1); now he wore the royal purple and white. Once the city of Susa was “in confusion” (3:15); now the people shouted and rejoiced. The Jews had once “fasted, wept, and lamented, and . . . lay in sackcloth and ashes” (4:3); now they celebrated with gladness, joy, and honor. While the Jews had once been in fear of the ethnic groups among whom they lived, now some of the ethnic groups were in fear of the Jews. The phrase professed themselves to be Jews is a single word in Hebrew (Hb mityahadim). Found only here in the OT, it is a reflexive verb derived from the proper noun Jew (Hb yehudi). Some understand the verb to mean “to become a Jew”—to convert to Judaism; this interpretation is supported by the Greek text (LXX). However, it is more likely that the term means that the people identified themselves with the Jewish people; this meaning may be supported by the Latin Vulgate.