Bible Strands
Esther 8:11
By these letters the king permitted the Jews in each and every city the right to assemble and defend themselves, to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the forces of any people or province hostile to them, including women and children, and to plunder their possessions.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The king, acting through Mordecai’s sealed correspondence, addresses royal provinces to grant Jews legal authorization to assemble and defend themselves against hostile forces.
The words — The text uses נָתַן (na.Tan) to record the king’s formal legal authorization and בְּכָל עִיר (be.khol 'ir) to stress that the decree applied to every city without exception.
The thread — This decree directly counters Haman’s prior order in Esther 3:13 to annihilate the Jews, while Psalm 146:6 situates the king’s sovereign power under the faithful governance of the Maker of heaven and earth.
Why it lands — The passage demands recognition that legal authority can be weaponized for collective violence, requiring readers to distinguish between state-sanctioned retaliation and the moral boundaries of justice.
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
Wherein the king granted the Jews which were in every city to gather themselves together, and to stand for their life, to destroy, to slay, and to cause to perish, all the power of the people and province that would assault them, both little ones and women, and to take the spoil of them for a prey,
Cross-references
- 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.
- Psalms 37:14 The wicked have drawn the sword and bent the bow to bring down the poor and needy, to slay those whose ways are upright.
- Psalms 146:6 the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them. He remains faithful forever.
- Ezekiel 39:10 They will not gather wood from the countryside or cut it from the forests, for they will use the weapons for fuel. They will loot those who looted them and plunder those who plundered them, declares the Lord GOD.
- Esther 9:2 In each of the provinces of King Xerxes, the Jews assembled in their cities to attack those who sought to harm them. No man could withstand them, because the fear of them had fallen upon all peoples.
- Psalms 137:8 O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, blessed is he who repays you as you have done to us.
- Psalms 68:3 But the righteous will be glad and rejoice before God; they will celebrate with joy.
- 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.