Esther 8-9:19 - Vengeance

Esther and Mordecai now gain from the death of Haman, Esther receiving  his estate and Mordecai the signet ring.

The matter of the decree to kill all the Jews had not yet been dealt with, so Esther pleads with the king to rescind that decree. So Mordecai was given the right to override the earlier instruction to kill the Jews. In fact it went somewhat further than this, giving the Jews the right to defend themselves and to attack their enemies.

So the Jews rejoiced and many people became Jews as well (8:17). The emphasis in chapter 9 is on how there was a complete reversal of what looked like happening. In our own lives we need to be careful of thinking we can predict the future, for so often we do, and it is usually a bad future that we predict. Instead we should live our lives in ever increasing trust in the Lord.

In the midst of this many enemies were killed. This is actually a final fulfilment of the command given in Exodus to destroy the Amalekites (Ex 17:14), but note also the refusal to take any plunder from them.

Things get increasingly bloodthirsty in v 13. In v16 many enemies were killed.