Esther 9:31

20-32 The observance of the Jewish feasts, is a public declaration of the truth of the Old Testament Scriptures. And as the Old Testament Scriptures are true, the Messiah expected by the Jews is come long ago; and none but Jesus of Nazareth can be that Messiah. The festival was appointed by authority, yet under the direction of the Spirit of God. It was called the feast of Purim, from a Persian word, which signifies a lot. The name of this festival would remind them of the almighty power of the God of Israel, who served his own purposes by the superstitions of the heathen. In reviewing our mercies, we should advert to former fears and distresses. When our mercies are personal, we should not by forgetfulness lose the comfort of them, or withhold from the Lord the glory due to his name. May the Lord teach us to rejoice, with that holy joy which anticipates and prepares for the blessedness...

Verse Esther 9:31. _AS THEY HAD DECREED FOR THEMSELVES AND FOR THEIR SEED_] There is no mention of their receiving the approbation of any _high_ _priest_, nor of any authority beyond that of Mordecai and Esther; the king could not join in such a business, as he had nothing to do with the Jewish religion, that not being the religion of the country....

THE MATTERS OF THE FASTINGS AND THEIR CRY - The Jews of the provinces had added to the form of commemoration proposed by Mordecai certain observances with respect to fasting and wailing, and Mordecai’s second letter sanctioned these....

EXPOSITION RESULT OF THE SECOND EDICT' THE JEWS RESIST THEIR ENEMIES, AND EFFECT A GREAT SLAUGHTER OF THEM, BUT DO NOT LAY HAND ON THEIR GOODS (Esther 9:1). The Jews of all the provinces, having had ample time to prepare themselves, "gathered themselves together in their cities," as the day fixed by the first edict approached (Esther 9:2), and made their arrangements. Their "enemies"_ _no doub

TO CONFIRM THESE DAYS OF PURIM IN THEIR TIMES APPOINTED,.... The fourteenth and fifteenth of Adar: ACCORDING AS MORDECAI THE JEW AND ESTHER THE QUEEN HAD ENJOINED THEM; in the letters written and signed by them both: AND AS THEY HAD DECREED FOR THEMSELVES, AND FOR THEIR SEED; see Esther 9:27, THE MATTERS OF THEIR FASTINGS AND THEIR CRY; in commemoration of their deliverance from those distresses and calamities which occasioned fastings and prayers during the time of them; and to this sense is the former Targum; though it is certain the Jews observe the thirteenth day, the day before the two days, as a fast, and which they call the fast of Esther y, and have prayers on the festival days peculiar to them; but the sense Aben Ezra gives seems best, that as the Jews had decreed to keep the fasts, mentioned in...

THE THIRTEENTH DAY OF ADAR AND THE FEAST OF PURIM CHAPTER 9 _ 1. The resistance and victory of the Jews (Esther 9:1)_ 2. Esther's petition (Esther 9:12) 3. The institution of Purim (Esther 9:17) 4. The messages of Mordecai and Esther (Esther 9:20) Esther 9:1. The fateful day, the thirteenth day of Adar, came and with it the retribution for the enemies of the Jews. On that day they gathered together to withstand all who would assault them. The princes and governors and all other officials of the king helped the Jews,

THE JEWS SUCCESSFUL AGAINST THEIR ENEMIES. Adar 13th, the dreadful day, comes at last. What were the Jews to do? There were many partisans of Haman, some 500 at least in the city alone; there were thousands more in the land, ready to carry out the first decree. Should Mordecai and all Jews sit still and see their wives and children butchered, and be butchered themselves? The Hamanites attack: the Jews defend themselves. There fell of those who attacked, in Shushan itself, some 500, and in all the empire 15,000 as the LXX says, although the Heb. exaggerates and says 75,000. Was this mere wanton bloodshed on the Jews-' part? The tale rather pictured for the suffering people of Judah how their brave comrades, the Maccabees, had faced and fought and felled the cruel armies of Antiochus under Nicanor. And now the writer adds a touch of fine national self-respect, saying: No Jew took booty of...

ENJOINED. ordained. Hebrew. _kum._ AS. according as. DECREED. ordained. Hebrew. _kum,_ as in verses: Esther 9:27; Esther 9:29; Esther 9:31....

Further injunctions on the part of Esther and Mordecai The Jews having readily agreed to the directions which Mordecai had given in the first letter, and expressed their readiness (Esther 9:28) to accept the obligation of keeping the annual festival as a perpetual one, a second communication is sent out to them, viz. a joint letter of Esther and Mordecai. An increased weight is given to it, as compared with the former, by the addition of the name of the queen who is also the heroine of the story. Moreover, in it the Jews are bidden to remember as well the duty of the preceding fast, even as Mordecai and Esther themselves fasted in the time of peril. But see note on Esther 9:31....

AND MORDECAI WROTE THESE THINGS, &C.— See the introductory note to this book. It is from the 20th verse that some have supposed Mordecai to have been the author of it: but it is very evident, that these words relate not to the book itself, but to the circular letters which Mordecai sent to the Jews in all the provinces of the Persian empire; signifying what a mighty deliverance God had vouchsafed them, and appointing in commemoration thereof an annual festival to be observed for ever. This festival was called פורים _Purim,_ (Esther 9:26.) or _the feast of lots; Pur_ in the Persian language signifying _a lot,_ from the event mentioned Esther 9:24 and chap. Esther 3:7 and it is to this very day celebrated by the Jews