Esther 8:11 – “The king’s edict granted the Jews in every city the right to assemble and protect themselves; to destroy, kill and annihilate any armed force of any nationality or province that might attack them and their women and children; and to plunder the property of their enemies.”

An interesting feature of the story of Esther is that even when the King discovers the plot to exterminate the Jews (Haman was planning to commit genocide), there was no measure taken to prevent this from occurring.  Instead, Mordecai and Esther convinced the King to authorize resistance by God’s people against their enemies.  This was partly due to an unusual feature of ancient Persian law, which made the previous edict irrevocable; the best they could do was try to offset it or cancel it out with an equal counter-measure.  Instead of prohibiting anyone from attacking the Jews, the new edict simply authorized the Jews to assemble and to protect themselves, and to destroy any who attacked them.

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Esther 8:8 - “Now write another decree in the king’s name on behalf of the Jews as seems best to you, and seal it with the king’s signet ring—for no document written in the king’s name and sealed with his ring can be revoked.“

The ancient Persians had an unusual custom in their legal system – the king’s official decrees were irrevocable or permanent.  This created problems when the king wanted to undo something he had already decreed – he could not retract his edict (see Daniel 6:11-15 for another story where this problem arose).  This strict Persian custom brought stability in their legal system, but sometimes produced unjust results.  In the book of Esther, the only way the king can counteract his first edict is to give a second one authorizing resistance against the first edict.

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