Bible Strands
Esther 3:13
And the letters were sent by couriers to each of the royal provinces with the order to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the Jews—young and old, women and children—and to plunder their possessions on a single day, the thirteenth day of Adar, the twelfth month.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The royal couriers deliver Haman’s sealed decree to every governor and people across the Persian Empire.
The words — הָרָצִים (ha./ra.Tzim) = the runners/couriers and סְפָרִים (se.fa.Rim) = documents/letters.
The thread — The dispatch method echoes 2 Chronicles 30:6, while the commanded annihilation parallels 1 Samuel 15:3, and the restriction on plunder anticipates Esther 9:10.
Why it lands — The text records a legally binding, empire-wide execution order targeting Jews by age and gender on a fixed date. It demands readers recognize how state machinery can weaponize law against a defenseless minority.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And the letters were sent by posts into all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to take the spoil of them for a prey.
Cross-references
- 2 Chronicles 30:6 At the command of the king, the couriers went throughout Israel and Judah with letters from the king and his officials, which read: “Children of Israel, return to the LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, so that He may return to those of you who remain, who have escaped the grasp of the kings of Assyria.
- Esther 9:10 They killed these ten sons of Haman son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews, but they did not lay a hand on the plunder.
- 1 Samuel 15:3 Now go and attack the Amalekites and devote to destruction all that belongs to them. Do not spare them, but put to death men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camels and donkeys.’”
- Esther 8:10 Mordecai 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.
- 1 Samuel 22:19 He also put to the sword Nob, the city of the priests, with its men and women, children and infants, oxen, donkeys, and sheep.
- Esther 7:4 For my people and I have been sold out to destruction, death, and annihilation. If we had merely been sold as menservants and maidservants, I would have remained silent, because no such distress would justify burdening the king.”
- Job 9:25 My days are swifter than a runner; they flee without seeing good.
- Isaiah 10:6 I will send him against a godless nation; I will dispatch him against a people destined for My rage, to take spoils and seize plunder, and to trample them down like clay in the streets.
- Jeremiah 51:31 One courier races to meet another, and messenger follows messenger, to announce to the king of Babylon that his city has been captured from end to end.
- Romans 3:15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;