Esther 9:12, commentary and pictures

The king's words to Queen Esther report that the Jews have slain and destroyed five hundred men in Shushan the palace and the ten sons of Haman, ask what they have done in the rest of the king's provinces, and offer that her petition shall be granted and her further request shall be done. The verse belongs to the account in which Haman plotted and a decree threatened to destroy all the Jews in the Persian Empire, after which a counter-decree saved them and the Jews defended themselves against their enemies.

It shows Heaven's intervention and God's overruling providence to frustrate the plot, vindicate His people, and save them from their enemies. It belongs to the account of the triumphant vindication of God's people and the utter defeat and overthrow of Haman as the devil's agent. This deliverance preserved the godly line through whom the promised Man-child would come.

The ten sons of Haman were the last remnant of the Amalekites, so their deaths mark the end of Amalek's war against the Lord's cause and people and the defeat of Satan's attack against God's work on earth. The ninth chapter to which the verse belongs gives the origin of the feast of Purim from the word Pur meaning lot, referring to the casting of lots. The account illustrates that conflict over worship can lead to persecution and threatened death, and that God will deliver His people.

The reversal of the deadly threat came through the efforts of Mordecai and Esther and the united prayers of the people, illustrating that great danger can be turned aside and followed by great joy. The verse stands in the middle 2000 years when God's people lived under Assyrian, Babylonian, Medo-Persian, and Grecian rule, after 2000 years under the patriarchs and before 2000 years under Rome in its imperial, kingly, and papal form. The whole 6000 years ends in 1843 in the third day when Christ will come, revive and raise up His people, and they will live in His sight and reign with Him a thousand years.