Esther 8:9-17
Light and Gladness
9At once the royal scribes were summoned, and on the twenty-third day of the third month (the month of Sivan), they recorded all of Mordecai’s orders to the Jews and to the satraps, governors, and princes of the 127 provinces from India to Cush—writing to each province in its own script, to every people in their own language, and to the Jews in their own script and language.
10Mordecai wrote in the name of King Xerxes and sealed it with the royal signet ring. He sent the documents by mounted couriers riding on swift horses bred from the royal mares.
11By these letters the king permitted the Jews in each and every city the right to assemble and defend themselves, to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the forces of any people or province hostile to them, including women and children, and to plunder their possessions.
12The single day appointed throughout all the provinces of King Xerxes was the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar.
13A copy of the text of the edict was to be issued in every province and published to all the people, so that the Jews would be ready on that day to avenge themselves on their enemies.
14The couriers rode out in haste on their royal horses, pressed on by the command of the king. And the edict was also issued in the citadel of Susa.
15Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal garments of blue and white, with a large gold crown and a purple robe of fine linen. And the city of Susa shouted and rejoiced.
16For the Jews it was a time of light and gladness, of joy and honor.
17In every province and every city, wherever the king’s edict and decree reached, there was joy and gladness among the Jews, with feasting and celebrating. And many of the people of the land themselves became Jews, because the fear of the Jews had fallen upon them.
Berean Standard Bible
All of this has happened before, in the same order, for the opposite purpose. The scribes are summoned. The orders go to the satraps, the governors and the princes of every province, each in its own script, and this time to the Jews in their own script and language as well. It is written in the king's name and sealed with the royal ring, and the couriers ride out in haste.
Chapter three ran exactly like that. The same machine, turned the other way.
What the letters permit is hard to read, and softening it would be dishonest. The Jews may assemble and defend themselves, and they may destroy, kill and annihilate any armed force that comes against them, including women and children, and take their possessions. Those are the words of the first decree given back.
The second decree does not cancel the first one. Nobody has that power, as the king had just finished explaining. Both documents now stand, aimed at the same day, and the thirteenth of Adar is going to happen. What has changed is that the people named in the first one are no longer required to stand still.
Then the book does something it has not done since the story began. It lets somebody enjoy himself.
Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal garments of blue and white, with a large gold crown and a purple robe of fine linen. And the city of Susa shouted and rejoiced.
The man who sat at the gate in sackcloth, kept outside by a rule about clothing, walks out of the palace dressed like that, and the city that was in confusion after the first decree is now shouting in the street.
For the Jews it was a time of light and gladness, of joy and honor.
Four words for the same thing, which is what people do when one will not carry it. Set that beside chapter four, where the same communities were fasting, weeping and lying in ashes. The book is deliberately putting the two pictures in the same frame.
The last sentence is stranger. In every province there was joy and feasting, and many of the people of the land became Jews, because the fear of the Jews had fallen on them.
The book reports it and does not applaud it. People changed sides because the wind had changed. That is what happens when power moves, and Esther is honest enough to write it down without pretending it was faith.
How We Know
The second decree is described in the vocabulary of the first, item by item.
Esther 3:12 has royal scribes summoned, orders written to satraps, governors and the officials of each people, in the script of each province and the language of every people, written in the king's name and sealed with the royal signet ring.
Esther 8:9 repeats that list and adds the Jews in their own script and language.
Esther 8:16 answers Esther 4:3, where the same communities were mourning and fasting in sackcloth and ashes.
Structure this exact, reused to carry the reverse of its first meaning, strongly supports a book built as a whole.
Questions
1 What is the same about this decree and the one in chapter three?
AnswerAlmost everything. The same scribes, the same officials, the same languages, the same royal name and seal, the same hurrying couriers. The machinery does not care which way it is pointed.
2 Does the new decree cancel the old one?
AnswerNo, and the king had already said it could not. Both orders stand for the same day. What changes is that the people in the first one are now permitted to defend themselves.
3 The new decree uses the same violent words as the first. How does that sit with you?
AnswerUncomfortably, and it should. The book does not tidy it up or explain it away. It records what the letters said, including the parts we would rather were not there, and leaves us to deal with it.
4 Many people became Jews because they were afraid. What does the book say about whether that was a good thing?
AnswerNothing at all. It tells us why they did it and moves on. People go where the power is, and the book is honest enough to say so without dressing it up as belief.
What This Means for Us
The same offices, the same couriers, the same seal. In chapter three that apparatus carried an order to kill children, and here it carries the news that saves them, and it worked exactly as well both times.
Structures are not good or bad on their own. A school, a company, a church, a government: each one will carry whatever it is given, efficiently, and the people inside it will mostly do their part either way.
So the question is never only whether our institutions are working well. It is what they are carrying while they work. Both decrees went out on time.
Prayer
Father, the same hands that do harm can carry help, and we are those hands. Show us what we are carrying. Make this family the kind that notices what it is serving, and give us joy that does not depend on which way the wind is blowing. Amen.