성경 주석서

Esther requested: “let it be granted to the Jews which are in Susa to do to-morrow also according to the decree of to-day (i.e., exactly as to-day), and let the ten sons of Haman be hanged upon the tree,” i.e., their dead bodies nailed on crosses - majoris infamiae causa , according to Hebrew and Persian custom; comp. Deuteronomy 21:22 and the explanation of Ezra 6:11. On the motive for this request, see above, p. 194.

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The king commanded it so to be done. “Then was a decree given at Susa, and they hanged the ten sons of Haman.” The decree given in Susa does not refer to the hanging of the sons of Haman, but to the permission given to the Jews to fight against their enemies on the morrow also. This is required not only by a comparison of Esther 8:13, but also by the connection of the present verse; for in consequence of this decree the Jews assembled on the 14th Adar (comp. ויּקּהלוּ , then they assembled themselves, Esther 9:15), while the hanging of the sons of Haman, on the contrary, is related in an accessory clause by a simple perfect, תּלוּ .

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And the Jews undertook to do as they had begun, and as Mordochai had written to them. They had begun, as Esther 9:22 tells us, by keeping both days, and Mordochai wrote to them that they should make this an annual custom. This they agreed to do in consequence of Mordochai's letters. The reason of their so doing is given in Esther 9:24 and Esther 9:25, and the name of this festival is explained, Esther 9:26, by a brief recapitulation of the events which gave rise to it. Then follows, Esther 9:26 and Esther 9:27, another wordy statement of the fact, that it was by reason of this letter, and on account of what they had seen, i.e., experienced, that the annual celebration of this feast was instituted for a perpetual memorial to all Jews at all times (Esther 9:28 and Esther 9:29).

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For Haman, the enemy of all the Jews, had devised against the Jews to destroy them (comp. Esther 3:1, Esther 3:6.), and had cast Pur, that is the lot (see on Esther 3:7), to consume them and to destroy them. המם , mostly used of the discomfiture with which God destroys the enemies, Exodus 14:24; Deuteronomy 2:15, and elsewhere.

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וּבבאהּ , and when it (the matter), not when she, Esther, came before the king, - for Esther is not named in the context, - he commanded by letters (Esther 8:8), i.e., he gave the written order: let the wicked device which he devised against the Jews return upon his own head; and they hanged him and his sons upon the tree.

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And that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city; and these days of Purim are not to pass away among the Jews, nor their remembrance to cease among their seed. The participles ונעשׂים נזכּרים still depend on להיות , Esther 9:27. Not till the last clause does the construction change in להיות לא to the temp. finit. יעבור ולא is a periphrasis of the adverb: imperishably, inviolably. כּכתבם , secundum scriptum eorum , i.e., as Mordochai had written concerning them (Esther 9:23). כּזמנּם , as he had appointed their time. מן סוּף , to come to an end from, i.e., to cease among their descendants.

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