Esther 9-10
The violence in chapter 9 is a little disarming. The Jews are spared by the king’s edict, but then they turn and take vengeance on those who were plotting against them. They do so with the cooperation of the Persian leadership. One of the differences of the Persian occupation compared to that of the Assyrians and the Babylonians is that the subjects were allowed to be self-governing as long as they were cooperative. Chapter 9, verse 10 says that they did not take any of the possessions of the people they killed. This seems to be for Jewish purity reasons.
The total recorded dead from these counter-attacks was 75,800+. Obviously, the effort by Haman was to eventually exterminate all the Jews in the Persian empire. This was when Persia was at its greatest expansion, a geographically huge area. There seems to be some things in the story that we don’t know. For instance, did the reversal of the edict happen only after many Jews has been killed? If so, the massive slaughter of the enemies of the Jews may be have been either in vengeance or in protection from future attacks. But what if the pent up anger from years of subjugation got loose and they simply got carried away? In the history of the Crusades, the Muslims attacked some Christians. In response, under the directive of a pope, thousands of Muslims were massacred with their bodies left out in public for everyone to see. What a blend of faith and nationalism, something we all live with as USAmericans. It can be good when we celebrate with scouts their "God and country" efforts. It can be evil when religious faith and even God's chosing of us as license to murder and destroy. When we sing “God Bless America” to express our repentance and our need for God's presence or are we singing that we want God to bless us and what we already do, as in, “Bless us more than those other countries?”
Chapter 9:18-32 describes the institution of the Feast of Purim. Notice that the name of the feast is taken from the casting of the lots to see which Jews would be destroyed (“the pur”). A final epilogue concludes the book of Esther. I must admit, this is the closest reading of Esther I have done. It certainly doesn’t lack for drama and intrigue.
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