But on the spoil laid they not their hand The king had granted them leave to take it, Esther 8:11, but they declined to do it; that it might appear what they did was not done out of malice or covetousness, but out of mere necessity, and according to the great law of self-preservation; that they might not so much as seem to desire any thing but their own safety; and that the king might have the greater kindness for them, in whose exchequer these goods were to come, if he pleased so to appoint, or to go to the children of such as were slain.

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