Esther 9:1

CHAPTER IX

On the thirteenth of the month Adar the Jews destroy their

enemies, and the governors of the provinces assist them, 1-5.

They slay five hundred in Shushan, and kill the ten sons of

Haman, but take no spoil, 6-10.

The king is informed of the slaughter in Shushan, 11.

He desires to know what Esther requests farther; who begs that

the Jews may be permitted to act on the following day as they

had done on the preceding, and that Haman's sons may be hanged

upon the gallows; which is granted; and they slay three hundred

more in Shushan, and in the other provinces seventy-five

thousand, 12-16.

A recapitulation of what was done; and of the appointment of the

feast of Purim to be observed through all their generations

every year, 17-28.

Esther writes to confirm this appointment, 29-32.

NOTES ON CHAP. IX

Verse Esther 9:1. Now in the twelfth month] What a number of providences, and none of them apparently of an extraordinary nature, concurred to preserve a people so signally, and to all human appearance so inevitably, doomed to destruction! None are ever too low for God to lift up, or too high for God to cast down. Must not these heathens have observed that the uncontrollable hand of an Almighty Being had worked in behalf of the Jews? And must not this have had a powerful tendency to discredit the idolatry of the country?