Esther 9 is the ninth chapter of the Book of Esther in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible, The author of the book is unknown and modern scholars have established that the final stage of the Hebrew text would have been formed by the second century BCE. Chapters 9 to 10 contain the resolution of the stories in the book. This chapter records the events on the thirteenth and fourteenth of Adar and the institution of the Purim festival after the Jews overcome their enemies.
The events on the thirteenth and fourteenth of Adar (9:1–19)
The opening verse of this section explicitly describes the power reversal on the very day that the enemies of the Jews were to have vanquished them, but the opposite happened: 'the Jews would gain power over their foes'. On the thirteenth of Adar the Jews struck down 75,000 in the provinces and 500 in the citadel of Susa of those who hated them, also on the fourteenth of Adar, by a special additional edict, the Jews killed 300 remaining enemies in the city of Susa, while at the same time, in accord with that additional royal edict, they hang the bodies of the ten sons of Haman on the gallows. A parallel with is that Saul spared Agag, and therefore lost his kingship as well as his life, so this time Esther determined not to make the same mistake with Haman and his sons. One important point is that they refrained from plundering, which indicates an echo in Esther 9 of, resuming the parallel set up between Mordecai/Saul and Haman/Agag. After Saul defeated the Agagites, he kept the best sheep and cattle as spoils in disobedience to God's command, thus earned divine disapproval and God regretting the choice of Saul as king. This time, unlike Saul, Mordecai and the Jews refrained from taking booty. However, the narrative overall focuses more on the pacific results of the bloodletting, gaining relief from hostile neighbors and the day of rejoicing as celebration after the triumphant self-defense.
Verse 1
"The king's commandment and his decree": in contrast to , here the king's responsibility is not shielded.
Verse 17
The Jews in the Persian empire celebrate on the fourteenth, except those in Susa who celebrate on the fifteenth.
Verse 18
The Jews in Susa have a different date of celebration than those outside the city because there were still fights in Susa until the fourteenth, so the celebration in that city was on the fifteenth.
Verse [|19]
"Sending portions one to another": points to the spirit of generosity as one significant nature of this celebration.
On Purim 1942, ten Jews were hanged by Nazi in Zduńska Wola to "avenge" the hanging of Haman's ten sons. In a similar incident in 1943, the Nazis shot ten Jews from the Piotrkówghetto. In an apparent connection made by Hitler between his Nazi regime and the role of Haman, Hitler stated in a speech made on January 30, 1944, that if the Nazis were defeated, the Jews could celebrate "a second Purim". On October 16, 1946, Julius Streicher, one of ten Nazi members sentenced to hanging for the crimes against humanityafter the Nuremberg trials, was heard to sarcastically remark "Purimfest 1946" as he ascended the scaffold. According to Rabbi Mordechai Neugroschel, there is a code in the Book of Esther which lies in the names of Haman's 10 sons. Three of the Hebrew letters—a tav, a shin and a zayin—are written smaller than the rest, while a vav is written larger. The outsized vav—which represents the number six—corresponds to the sixth millennium of the world since creation, which, according to Jewish tradition, is the period between 1240 and 2240 CE. As for the tav, shin and zayin, their numerical values add up to 707. Put together, these letters refer to the Jewish year 5707, which corresponds to the secular 1946–1947. In his research, Neugroschel noticed that ten Nazi defendants in the Nuremberg Trials were executed by hanging on October 16, 1946, which was also that year's date of Hoshana Rabbah. Additionally, Hermann Göring, the eleventh Nazi official sentenced to death, committed suicide, parallel to Haman's daughter in Tractate Megillah.
The institution of the Festival of Purim (9:20–32)
This section, perhaps an addition to the coherent narrative of through, recapitulates the core reversals: relief from persecution, turning 'sorrow into gladness' and 'mourning into a holiday'. For commemoration by future generations, a two-day holiday is newly instituted, reflecting the original feasting on the fourteenth of Adar in the provinces and a day later in Susa, with Haman's casting of lots providing an etymology for the festival. Mordecai and Esther as officeholders in the Persian empire harnessing 'the resources of the chancellery and the imperial postal system' dispatched a set of letters to Jews in 'all the provinces' and thus using the same language as in the accounts of earlier royal edicts. Together they wrote these official letters enjoining Jews to celebrate Purim, as well as a second letter. Esther's royal authority in establishing Purim is reaffirmed at the end of this section, where she is named as the one establishing the customs of the holiday.
Verse 29
The name of the festival calls the attention to "the day of reversal", when the day of determined defeat became a day of salvation.
