Esther #4 Ch. 8-10 — Chuck Missler

Tonight, we're going to continue, of course, and perhaps wrap up our first pass through the Book of Esther. I say it in that way, in that even if we finish tonight, I anticipate us doing two more sessions on the Book of Esther.

I've left some things out so as not to confuse the narrative of Esther. But what we will do next time is go and we'll have computer-driven displays to assist us. We'll take a look at the hidden codes in Esther.

The word, the name of Esther, the name of the book means something hidden. And there's many things hidden. And we'll look at what we call microcodes in the Book of Esther, acrostics and equidistant letter encryption in the Book of Esther next time.

Then the last time, one more session, and we'll finish the book, we will look at what I would call the possibility of macrocodes in Esther. And we'll explain that in our weirdness two weeks from tonight.

Esther Chapters 8–10: The Persian Edict and God’s Hidden Purposes

Let's jump in. We're in our fourth session on the Book of Esther, and we're going to plunge into chapters 8, 9, and 10, 10 being very short ones, on the Book of Esther. We have quite a bit of material to cover, so I don't want to spend too much time doing a comprehensive review.

If you are just joining us, don't worry about that, because we're going to have that review time after next anyway, because we want to put, we're going to stand back and look at Esther in a more strategic way, and we'll recap the book then.

But clearly the book deals with the villain Haman, who, yeah, there you go, right, right, right. Orthodox, orthodox Jews generally will hiss, stamp their feet every time the name is mentioned, you know.

I made the mistake of mentioning that on our first session. The good news is most of you have either forgotten or have been kind not to disrupt our recording, but anyway, Haman did get the king to issue a decree in effect banning to death the Jewish community, and recognize the Persian Empire ruled at that time, and so we're talking essentially the majority of the Jewish community, it would have exterminated the nation.

And again, in a sense of speaking, the problem wasn't just in Susa or in Persia proper. After Persia conquered Babylon, the remnant that went back to rebuild the temple were struggling. They would have been included in that edict, you see, so you can recognize that God had His purposes here.

The most fascinating sense of ironies occurred when Haman ends up suffering on the very, they keep calling it a gallows, it really wasn't hanging gallows, it was an impaling, it was more like a crucifixion cross, but in any case, he ends up suffering that death.

But at this point now, the villain is dead, Haman is history. There still is a major predicament to be faced, and that's this peculiar law that pertained at that time in Persia, which even an edict of the king which he signed could not be reversed, and that's a very strange law.

In fact, maybe this is an occasion to get into a little piece of background you might find interesting, and I won't take you to the passage to save time, I'll just paraphrase and remind you of Daniel chapter 6.

You may recall that the prophet Daniel, when he was in Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar, there was the issue of the fiery furnace and all of that, you remember that story in Daniel chapter 3. In Daniel chapter 5, Babylon falls to the Persian Empire, and Daniel chapter 6, Daniel has found favor with Darius, the king of Persia, running things, but he gets, in effect, snookered into signing an edict which ends up causing Daniel to be thrown into the lion's den.

And I think most of us all are familiar with the story of how Daniel was thrown into the lion's den overnight, and of course, as you all know, he came out just fine, and God took care of him. But very few of us recognize what was probably really going on.

Daniel had been appointed the head of the Median priesthood, remember the Persian Empire was a coalition of the Medes and the Persians, and the Medes brought to the table a very powerful priesthood, the Median priests, which were called Magi, that's where we get the term magistrate.

They were court advisors, they were magicians in the sense that they advised and they had special skills, not magicians like we use today, the terms come to mean something a little different in that direction.

But they were the priesthood and the king makers, they were a very, very powerful priesthood, but they were a hereditary priesthood, and Daniel gets appointed to head them up. You have to see the text in the Hebrew to pull this all together, he gets a title called the Rab Magi, which is the head of the Magi, but the point is, so you can imagine how this established priesthood regarded a Jew being put in charge of their hereditary priesthood, and so they very likely contrived this way to get Daniel out of the way.

But the point I wanted to make, when you read Daniel 6, you'll notice that the king was upset when he realized the results of his own edict. He loved Daniel, he worried about Daniel, he rushed there the next morning to see how Daniel was, he didn't want this to happen, he was stuck, because as it's put in Daniel chapter 6 verse 15, a edict of even a Persian king could not be reversed, even though he signed it, he couldn't undo it, that's just their peculiar law.

We're going to encounter that same thing here in the book of Esther, now before I leave Daniel in the lion's den, he's out, what most people don't realize is that he established a cabal, a secret sect within the medium of priesthood, that preserved a prophecy that he had been given.

You may recall on more than one occasion, Gabriel visits with Daniel and gives him some most profound prophecies in the scripture, but the point is, these are the guys that four, five centuries later, come and visit the Christ child, these are the Magi, fulfilling a prophecy, and there's a whole thing, many people don't, you know, you always picture these three guys on camels coming Christmas Eve or something, you know, no, it was within two years, when the shepherds were there, they were in the manger, in the cave with the manger and all that, like we always picture on our pageants.

By the time the Magi arrive, if you read that carefully, they're in a home, and when Herod goes to kill the babes, he gets two years and younger, so we don't know how long it was, but it was something approaching, but less than two years, that the Magi finally arrived presumably, it may not have been full two years, it might have been months, but the point is, it wasn't that night kind of thing.

The point is, what you also probably don't get, unless you've studied the political scene at that time, is that Judea was a buffer state between two rival empires, Rome, the Roman Empire, and the Parthian Empire, which was the successor to the Persian Empire.

Not as powerful as Rome, but Judea was contested back and forth. Pompey, Mark Anthony, there's a number of times that the Romans drove them out, and then got clobbered by the Parthians. Just to touch a little bit on that, just give you a quick picture here so I do this right, the first conqueror of Jerusalem was Pompey in 63 BC, and he attacked an Armenian outpost of the Parthian Empire in doing that.

In 55 BC, Crassus led a Roman legions in sacking Jerusalem from the Parthians, and then finally attacked on Parthia proper. The Romans were decisively defeated, they lost 30 ,000 troops, including their commander, and the Parthians counterattacked with the invasions of Armenia, Syria, and Palestine.

And finally, a nominal Roman rule was established by Antipater, the father of Herod, who in turn had to retreat in 40 BC from another Parthian invasion. So you've got to get the picture, Judea was a contested area.

Mark Anthony reestablished Roman sovereignty in 37 BC, but he also got clobbered ultimately in another expedition. After his defeat, the Parthians swept all the Roman opposition completely out of Palestine, including Herod himself, who had to flee to Alexandria and then to Rome.

So Herod was the king of Judea, but he couldn't be there, it was a war zone, you follow me? And it was, by the way, with Jewish collaboration that Parthian Empire established sovereignty again in Jerusalem.

By Herod now, Ben-Rom got the title from Augustus to be, you know, that he was king of the Jews. But it took him three years to get the place safe enough to show up, if you will. And they did a five month siege with Roman troops, and he was finally able to occupy his own capital.

So this is the climate, then, that a Parthian entourage comes. Not three guys on camels, they came with cavalry and all the, with armed troops. For all they knew, the Parthians may have been trying to create a border incident for another issue.

And when the Magi come to Herod and say, where is he that's born king of the Jews? That's an insulting question, because he was not Jewish, and he was appointed by the Romans, you see. But they're saying, where is he that was born to be king of the Jews?

Well, he has the scribes check Micah 5 .2, he's going to be born in Bethlehem, and you know the story. And so it's not a couple of guys that wandered, the whole city, if you read the text, the whole city is disturbed by this incredible arrival.

It wasn't just three guys on camels, anyway, so, for what it's worth. So there's a whole background, if you want to get into that, we have a briefing package on Christmas, what really happened. But I mentioned this, I bring this up primarily to make the point that we're facing the same predicament in a sense that was in Daniel 6, where a king could not even reverse his own edict.

Esther 8: Mordecai Receives Haman’s Authority

And so here we are in Esther chapter 8, Mordecai's been put in the power of Haman, Haman is a done deal, but they've still got a problem. They've got almost a year away that the Jews are scheduled to be wiped out.

And so let's jump in chapter 8 verse 1 in Esther. On that day did King Hazarus give the house of Haman, the Jew's enemy, unto Esther, the queen. See, his house, he was thus considered a criminal. So his property was as cheap to the crown.

And so they give it to Esther, and she of course establishes Mordecai to look over it. It says, And Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had told what he was unto her. In other words, Esther now has declared, he obviously, the king knows that she's Jewish, and Mordecai was in effect her guardian and so forth.

Now the king gave the property of Haman as a gift to Esther, she either as compensation for the alarm or just as a sign of favor and so forth. And then verse 2, The king took off his ring, remember the signet ring, that was back in chapter 3, that was the symbol, the ability that he gave to Haman, so that Haman could seal something with the signature of the king in effect.

He gives that ring now, which he'd taken from Haman, gave it to Mordecai. This makes Mordecai the grand vizier. This makes Mordecai the prime minister, as we might call him. So Mordecai, that was so disdained by Haman, is now in his shoes.

He's the most powerful guy next to the king in the empire. The king obviously doesn't trouble himself with affairs of state. That makes his number two guy extremely, extremely powerful. And that's of course the situation that Mordecai is in.

And Esther sent Mordecai over the house of Haman. Now this is the same signet ring that had authorized the edict against the Jews. It's interesting to notice how throughout the scripture God says, them that honor me I will honor.

And through all the dark days of the earlier chapters in Esther, Mordecai was faithful. And how interesting it is, the great irony that Haman's out of the picture. Mordecai is now the most honored, not only is he honored, he's the most honored guy in the realm.

Interesting thing. The tables are turned against Haman, even after his death, because now Mordecai has the power that Haman had. And Haman, who had hoped to confiscate the Jews' property, now has his own property removed and given to, of all people, Mordecai, through Esther, but to Mordecai.

Anyway, now we get to a second proclamation that's going to go out. The first one's the problem one. Now we've got another one going out in the next dozen verses here. Verse 3, Esther spake again before the king and fell down at his feet, and besought him with tears to put away the mischief of Haman the Agagite and his device that he had devised against the Jews.

Now by the way, it's interesting, we read this so casually now, going before the king was subject to death unless he extended the golden scepter. And this happens again. And of course he does. But the point is, let's not reckon, at least she at this point has at least some basis for some confidence to go before the king.

But you need to understand this edict, the exterminate the Jews, was still in effect. So she again appears before the king without an invitation, and she makes her plea. Verse 4, then the king held out the golden scepter toward Esther, which means she doesn't die.

She's, you know, rise, okay. So Esther arose and stood before the king. One thing about this gal, she's obviously very attractive, she's obviously got her, she's charming, she's terrific. But she also knew how to manage her husband.

That's no mean accomplishment in any woman's life. I'll leave it at that. Let's move on. Verse 5. And said, If it pleased the king, and if I have found favor in his sight, and the things seem right before the king, and I be pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman the son of Hamadathah the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews which are in all the king's provinces.

Her request is very simple. She wanted a second decree written to set off the first one. She cleverly describes that first decree to Haman. Now it's done in the name of the king, but of course it was Haman's engineering.

Now the simple reversing, of course, is not possible under the law, we've covered all that. For how can I endure to see the evil that shall come to my people? Or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?

Notice her whole basis for this petition is that her identity with her people as being Jewish. She spoke of my family and my people and so forth. I'll come back to that. It's interesting, she doesn't plead on the basis of their worth, that they're loyal and neat and all that.

No, no, no. It's very interesting. That's going to be very, very important to us as we double back on a broader picture of the book of Esther to understand what the Holy Spirit's really telling you and I.

But anyway, let's just stay with the historical record for the moment. Verse 7. Then the king Ahasuerus said unto Esther the queen and to Mordecai the Jew, Behold. By the way, it's obvious that Mordecai's with her, you see, so I don't know quite how to stage manage this thing.

Does that mean they were both at risk of death? I don't know. Or once she's rising, he walks in. Anyway, they're both there. Behold, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and him they have hanged upon the gallows because he had laid his hand upon the Jews.

See what the king is noting for both Esther and Mordecai is that they now have the power that Haman has. And they should use that power to their own advantage. Haman's decree couldn't be revoked, but a second decree could offset it or could in effect supersede it.

Verse 8. So it continues. Write ye also for the Jews, as it liketh you, in the king's name, and seal it with the king's ring. For the writing which is written in the king's name and sealed with the king's ring may no man reverse.

He's saying, you know, you've got the magic, you've got the blank check, you've got my credit card. Run with it. Okay. Okay. Verse 9. Then were the king's scribes called at that time in the third month, that is the month of Sivan, on the three and twentieth day thereof.

And it was written according to all that Mordecai commanded unto the Jews, and to the lieutenants, and the deputies, and the rulers of the provinces which were from India to Ethiopia. You know, you've got to understand this isn't, we're not talking Iran here, we're talking a empire.

Okay. A hundred and twenty-seven provinces. Unto every province according to the writing thereof, and unto every people after their language. We're talking many, many languages. This was a big deal. This wasn't, you know, penned out and run on horseback.

This was a, you're dealing with a global empire, many languages. And to every people after the language, and to the Jews according to their writing and according to their language. Now this, the decree that Mordecai wrote, was sent out on the third month, the month of Sivan.

We associate that with the May-June time period. And this was probably about 474 BC. Sivan, by the way, even though it's the name of the Jewish month, is a name they got from Babylon. It's named after the moon god whose name was Sin, okay, as an aside.

Kind of interesting ellipse there, if you will. We use the term Sin in the English language from the ancient English archery term, to miss the mark. It also is a pun of sorts that the ancient name of the moon god was Sin.

That was in Mesopotamia. In Arabia, it was called Elah. The moon god was Al-Elah, which later becomes El. But anyway. Now, by the way, this was a little about, this was about two months after Haman's decree.

Remember, Haman issued his decree, but the date was set almost a year later. Because he did it by casting a lot, remember? A poor. That's where you get poor, and we'll come to that in a minute. So they had, it was almost a year between the time that Haman set up the decree and the date that they were all going to be exterminated.

A couple months have gone by. So we've still got something over eight months in front of us here. So the Jews have now, when they finally get this announcement put through the empire, they have about eight months to get ready for the big event, for the big conflict that was coming.

It was the thirteenth day of the twelfth month that was the date chosen by Haman, or I should say chosen by lot for Haman, back then in chapter three, as you recall. By the way, I know what the Holy Spirit tells us it was the twenty-third, particularly.

It was the twenty-third day. That means that when they're putting this, that means the decree went out on the twenty-fourth. And I think the twenty-four is an interesting number because it's the number of the church.

We find that in Revelation chapter four and five and elsewhere. The month of Sivan is interesting, too, because that's the month that the Feast of Pentecost occurs. The Feast of Shavuot, as Hebrews would say, we would call it after the Greek, the Pentecost.

That was the Feast of the Torah that, in effect, predicted the church. And it was on that date that it was celebrated that the church started with the events of Acts chapter two. So is there a coincidence here?

I don't know. I'm stirring that up. We'll look at more of those kinds of things in our next couple of sessions. There's far more here in Esther than would meet the eye, the casual eye. Verse ten, And he wrote in the king Ahasuerus' name, and sealed it with the king's ring, and sent letters by post on horseback and riders on mules, camels, and young dromedaries.

That is an unfortunate translation. There really, in the original, there are neither mules nor camels nor dromedaries. A better translation has been suggested that the riders on coursers of royal stud, the offspring of thoroughbreds.

Herodotus and other ancient authorities speak of horses alone being used in carrying Persian dispatches. There's a subtle translation problem in verse ten. Not a big deal, but I mention it in passing.

But just like the previous decree, this one is also dispatched throughout the entire empire from India to Kush, and was written in appropriate languages, obviously, for each province. Verse eleven, 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 the little ones and women, and to take spoil of them for a prey.

By the way, the language here, the experts believe the language may even have been excerpted from the decree, because it's very legalese, you know, to stand for their life, to destroy, to slay, to cause to perish.

That sounds like a lawyer. You follow me? And I'm not being flippant. I mean, I obviously, I frequently am, but I mean, no, that is the kind of remarks you do find in most of the major commentaries. But this edict gives the Jews the right to protect themselves, giving them the right of defense.

The other edict caused them to be destroyed, you can't change that, but you can give them the right to defend themselves and to annihilate and plunder any group that fought against them. And the Jews could take away the property of their enemies, just as Mordecai had taken away the property of Haman, in effect.

So it continues, verse 12. Upon one day in all the provinces of King Hazorus, namely the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, a copy of the writing for a commandment to be given to every province was published unto all people, and that the Jews should be ready against that day to avenge themselves on their enemies.

We're going to talk a little bit about the word, avenge, I want to see, I want to make sure we use our time carefully before we get into some of these little side issues, but this whole is, what's the difference between retaliate and retribution, retaliation and retribution?

They're very, they're opposites actually, we'll look at that in a minute. But verse 14, so the posts that rode up on the mules and camels, whatever, went out and being hastened and placed on by the king's commandment, the decree was given at Shushan the palace.

So now at this point, as this word goes out, the sentence of death has been lifted, right? In effect, they've got a right to defend themselves. So the next few verses will deal with that. Verse 15, and Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal apparel of blue and white with a great crown of gold and with a garment of fine linen and purple, and the city of Shushan rejoiced and was glad.

Part of the contrast here that's implied, I think, in the text is the contrast to Mordecai when he was fasting on behalf of his people, putting on sackcloth and bemoaning the fact that his people were under sentence of death.

At this point, he goes out in royal garb in the apparel of his office and the whole city is rejoicing. You do get the impression that he commanded respect and that the people were relieved at this change of destiny here.

The Persian royal colors are here described, of course, and the king added the emblems to embellish Mordecai's standing in all of this. You may recall when Haman's edict was set out in chapter 3, the city was bewildered.

They're puzzled at such a strange edict from the king. But now under the edict of Mordecai, they have a joyous celebration and obviously the Jews are related. So verse 16, the Jews had light and gladness and joy and honor.

They found peace. Kind of interesting, where did they find their peace? By trusting the word of the king. That's kind of interesting. I'm just making a footnote here, setting the stage later. Moving to verse 17.

In every province and in every city, whithersoever the king's commandment and decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness in the feast and a good day. Many of the people of the land became Jews, for the fear of the Jews fell upon them.

Can't lick them, join them, right? There is the tone here and you do find it amplified in the rabbinical commentaries on this book. That they're quite cynical about the people that became Jews, the proselytes, that proselyted Judaism.

Some of the rabbis even argue that's why today, when the Jews celebrate Purim, they do it masquerading in wild costumes. They're mimicking, if you will, these strange people that decided to become Jewish at this time.

So they treat that somewhat cynically. But it does seem that the scripture does tell us that many converted to Judaism. It is interesting that even a city or a nation can exhibit a character of its own.

And perhaps that's what's so disturbing about our country, is that the character that it exhibits has certainly changed in the last few years, the last 10 years, quite different in the last few decades, let alone the last century or so.

It's interesting, many of these converted very likely could have been cynically just looking for power, wanting to make sure they didn't get slaughtered, not knowing what was coming. But at the same time, it's also clear, I think, to any thinking person that by now it's pretty obvious that God's hand is upon these people.

The whole events of Esther and Mordecai and Haman, all that, clearly God's fingerprints are all over this thing. And I think more and more these events are not looked at as a happenstance. The people, I think, were beginning to realize that the hand of God was upon them.

Very analogous to Rahab. Remember in Jericho, the word had gotten around that God was protecting these strange people that had exited Egypt some 40 years earlier and are now crossing the Jordan. And Rahab cut her deal, if you will, in recognition that God's hand was upon these strange people.

Active Faith, Diligence, and Responsible Stewardship

Well, in any case, back to Esther, it was now the Jews' turn. But I want you to notice something. God didn't hand them their result on a platter. What He gave them was the right to fight for it. They had to take an active part in their deliverance.

This, I believe, is a very profound principle of faith. And I would like to take you to one of my favorite verses, even as a teenager, in Joshua chapter 1, verse 8. It was somewhat, in a certain sense, one of my special verses that took me through the Naval Cavalry.

I was given it in a special way before I left and kept it in front of me during those very, very formative years. Joshua chapter 1, verse 8. This is the admonition that God has put there. It says, This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein.

For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. I'm sure you've all heard this verse at one time or another, and at first it sounds like it's simply a strong admonition to keep the Word of God close to you and to be obedient to it.

But I want you to notice some very specific subtleties to this verse. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do.

You don't just hear it, you do it. God has called us, even as New Testament Christians, He's called us to obedience. Thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein. Notice the promise.

Notice the quid pro quo for that. If you do that, then thou shalt make thy way prosperous. And then thou shalt have good success. Now that doesn't mean your success is a result of your own efforts. No, it's because God has favored you because of the foregoing.

But the foregoing is a prerequisite to your being able to enjoy success. That's what He's saying here. But I want you to notice it's not a passive thing. Your success that He's alluding to here is not passive.

It's active on your part. And it disturbs me when I find so often people saying, well, I'm just trusting God when facing some particular issue of stewardship. Who brushes your teeth in the morning, you know?

Or to be a little more serious, you know, how many of us have fire insurance on our house? Everybody raise your hand, sure. Well, why? How many of us are expecting a fire? All of us have fire insurance on our homes, I hope.

And yet none of us are expecting a fire, but we understand that it's irresponsible not to take that step in anticipation of that kind of a calamity. There's no excuse for it in today's society. I don't want you to go to your banker and say, I know I've got this mortgage, but I'm trusting God not to burn our house down.

I don't think he'd be too impressed even if he's a Christian. So the point is, when Joseph was in Egypt, he was warned of seven good years before seven bad years and persuaded Pharaoh to respond to that.

And because of that, it changed the entire history of the nation Egypt for a lot of reasons. And Noah didn't just sit in his driveway, he built a barge. So there are issues in front of us that when God raises up a warning and calls us to stewardship, it is irresponsible to use some of those verses as an excuse for our flight from diligence.

God expects us to be diligent, I believe. Anyway, we've made it to chapter 9, we're doing well here, okay. Now the Jews get ready to defend themselves, the first 19 verses here, so let's just jump in.

Esther 9: The Jews Defend Themselves and Establish Purim

Now, in the twelfth month, that is the month of Adar, on the thirteenth day of the same, when the king's commandment and his decree drew near to be put into execution, in the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to have power over them, though it was turned to the contrary, that the Jews had rule over them that hated them, when the appointed day of battle came, the tables were now turned on the enemies of the Jews.

The Jews gathered themselves together in their cities throughout all the provinces of the king, the king of Hazaras, to lay hand on such as sought their hurt, and no man could withstand them, for the fear of them fell upon the people.

See, as the Jews gathered in all the cities to prepare themselves against their would-be attackers, the attackers were terrified. Verse 3, and all the rulers of the provinces, and the lieutenants, and the deputies, and the officers of the king helped the Jews.

See, the government was on their side. That's a change. Because of the fear of Mordecai fell upon them. So you've got to remember, not only were they sympathetic to the Jews' plight, I'm sure there's some of that, but also the big boss was Jewish.

So, you know, to get the picture. And so, the government authorities were helping the Jews. Now, the people who attacked the Jews may have seen this as an opportunity to enrich themselves at somebody else's expense.

But since they had no backing from others, they had a cause which they could not win. So those that even had designs, obviously recognized they were swimming upstream, so to speak. Verse 4, for Mordecai was great in the king's house, and his fame went throughout all the provinces.

For this man, Mordecai, waxed greater and greater. But let's remember, it was only by God's sovereign intervention that Mordecai was now in a position of authority. So let's keep that in mind. Verse 5, thus the Jews smote all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, and slaughter, and destruction, and did what they would unto those that hated them.

Verse 6, in Shushan the palace, the Jews slew and destroyed 500 men. That's just in the palace. Don't get confused here. See, on the day of the battle, March of 473, roughly, in the citadel of Susa, the Jews killed 500 men, plus the 10 sons of Haman.

And by the way, they're listed here. I can demonstrate my inability to pronounce these properly. Parshandatha, Dalfon, Aspatha, the Paratha, and Adalia, and Eridatha, and Parmashta, and Erisai, and Eridai, and Vajesatha.

Is anyone here with those names? I apologize if I offended you. We're going to talk about the meaning of those names in the session after next. It's very interesting that in the Hebrew text, these things are listed vertically.

They're not concatenated serially. It's and this one, and this one, and this one, and they're listed that way. It stands out in the Hebrew text very strangely. Verse 10, And the ten sons of Haman, the son of Hamadathah, the enemy of the Jews, slew they, but on the spoil laid they not their hand.

Very interesting. They had the authority. The Jews had the authority to take the property of those that were attacking them. They chose not to. Very interesting. They could have. When the Jews left Egypt in the Exodus, they were told the night before, Borrow everything you can from your Egyptian friends.

They really did. Even in the Ten Commandments movie, they played upon that. And when they left, they left with goods. Here they could have. The edict allowed them to. That was the program. That's how Haman's house was as cheek to the crown, and so forth.

And the ones that were attacking the Jews were expected to take the Jews' properties, part of the incentive. They were justified in reversing the attack. In fact, they didn't. It says this a couple of times.

I think they're trying to make the point they're not doing this for money. So, three times it's stated, I believe, in this chapter, that they did not lay hands on plunder. Now, by the way, the execution of the ten sons of Haman ends the house of Amalek.

We talked about that, how he was a descendant of the one that Saul failed to kill, according to God's commandment. And Samuel finally does, but not before Agag had a son, or at least conceived a son. And so that's part of what's being sealed off here in the killing of the ten sons of Haman.

Sobering issue. And we're going to talk more about that in one of the subsequent sessions. Verse 11. On that day, the number of those that were slain in Shushan the palace was brought before the king.