Bible Strands
Esther 9:13
Esther replied, “If it pleases the king, may the Jews in Susa also have tomorrow to carry out today’s edict, and may the bodies of Haman’s ten sons be hanged on the gallows.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Esther addresses King Ahasuerus immediately after he reports that five hundred men, including Haman’s ten sons, were killed in the citadel of Susa. She responds directly to his inquiry regarding her petition and any further request.
The words — The phrase אִם־עַל־הַמֶּלֶךְ טוֹב (im-'al-haMelekh Tov) literally means "if it is good to the king," serving as a formal petition formula. The verb יִנָּתֵן (yi.na.Ten) carries the passive sense "let it be permitted" or "let it be granted."
The thread — The request to extend the edict continues the royal permission established in Esther 8:11, while the command to hang the bodies aligns with the execution pattern recorded in 2 Samuel 21:6. The practice of public display also intersects with the burial requirement in Deuteronomy 21:23.
Why it lands — The text records a direct petition to extend state-sanctioned violence and publicly display executed enemies. It requires the reader to observe how royal authority is exercised to secure the survival of a threatened group.
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
Then said Esther, If it please the king, let it be granted to the Jews which are in Shushan to do to morrow also according unto this day’s decree, and let Haman’s ten sons be hanged upon the gallows.
Cross-references
- 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.
- Deuteronomy 21:23 you must not leave the body on the tree overnight, but you must be sure to bury him that day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not defile the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.
- 2 Samuel 21:6 let seven of his male descendants be delivered to us so that we may hang them before the LORD at Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of the LORD.” “I will give them to you,” said the king.
- 2 Samuel 21:9 And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the hill before the LORD. So all seven of them fell together; they were put to death in the first days of the harvest, at the beginning of the barley harvest.
- Esther 9:15 On the fourteenth day of the month of Adar, the Jews in Susa came together again and put to death three hundred men there, but they did not lay a hand on the plunder.
- Galatians 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”