Es 9:1
9:1 Now in the twelfth month, that [is], the month Adar, on the
    thirteenth day of the same, when the king's commandment and
    his decree drew near to be put in execution, in the day that
    the enemies of the Jews hoped to have power over them,
    (though it was {a} turned to the contrary, that the Jews had
    rule over them that hated them;)

    (a) This was by God's great providence, who turns the joy of
        the wicked into sorrow, and the tears of the godly into
        gladness.

Es 9:3
9:3 And all the rulers of the provinces, and the lieutenants,
    and the deputies, and officers of the king, {b} helped the
    Jews; because the fear of Mordecai fell upon them.

    (b) Honoured them and befriended them.

Es 9:5
9:5 Thus the Jews smote all their {c} enemies with the stroke of
    the sword, and slaughter, and destruction, and did what they
    would unto those that hated them.

    (c) Who had conspired their death by the permission of the
        wicked Haman.

Es 9:6
9:6 And in Shushan the palace the Jews slew and destroyed {d}
    five hundred men.

    (d) Besides the three hundred that they slew the second day,
        Es 9:15.

Es 9:10
9:10 The ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of
     the Jews, slew they; but {e} on the spoil laid they not
     their hand.

     (e) By which they declared that this was God's just
         judgment on the enemies of his Church as they fought
         not for their own gain, but to execute his vengeance.

Es 9:13
9:13 Then said Esther, If it please the king, let it be granted
     to the Jews which [are] in Shushan to do to morrow also
     according {f} unto this day's decree, and let Haman's ten
     sons be hanged upon the gallows.

     (f) This she requires not out of a desire for vengeance but
         with zeal to see God's judgment's executed against his
         enemies.

Es 9:16
9:16 But the other Jews that [were] in the king's provinces
     gathered themselves together, and stood for {g} their
     lives, and had rest from their enemies, and slew of their
     {h} foes seventy and five thousand, but they laid not their
     hands on the prey,

     (g) Read Es 8:11.
     (h) Meaning, that they laid hands on no one that was not
         the enemy of God.

Es 9:17
9:17 On the {i} thirteenth day of the month Adar; and on the
     fourteenth day of the same rested they, and made it a day
     of feasting and gladness.

     (i) Meaning, in all places saving Shushan.

Es 9:19
9:19 Therefore the Jews of the villages, that dwelt in the
     unwalled towns, {k} made the fourteenth day of the month
     Adar [a day of] gladness and feasting, and a good day, and
     of sending portions one to another.

     (k) As the Jews do even to this day, calling it in the
         Persian language Purim, that is, the day of lots.

Es 9:20
9:20 And Mordecai wrote {l} these things, and sent letters unto
     all the Jews that [were] in all the provinces of the king
     Ahasuerus, [both] nigh and far,

     (l) The Jews gather from this that Mordecai wrote this
         book, but it seems that he wrote only these letters and
         decrees that follow.

Es 9:22
9:22 As the days wherein the Jews rested from their enemies, and
     the month which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy,
     and from mourning into a good day: that they should make
     them days of feasting and joy, and of {m} sending portions
     one to another, and gifts to the poor.

     (m) He sets before our eyes the use of this feast which was
         for the remembrance of God's deliverance, the
         maintenance of mutual friendship and relief of the poor.

Es 9:24
9:24 Because Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy
     of all the Jews, had devised against the Jews to destroy
     them, and had {n} cast Pur, that [is], the lot, to consume
     them, and to destroy them;

     (n) Read Es 3:7.

Es 9:25
9:25 But when {o} [Esther] came before the king, he commanded by
     letters that his wicked {p} device, which he devised
     against the Jews, should return upon his own head, and that
     he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.

     (o) That is, Esther.
     (p) These are the words of the kings commandment to
         disannul Haman's wicked enterprise.

Es 9:27
9:27 The Jews ordained, and took upon them, and upon their seed,
     and upon all such as joined themselves unto them, so as it
     should not fail, that they would keep these two {q} days
     according to their writing, and according to their
     [appointed] time every year;

     (q) Meaning, the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month
         of Adar.

Es 9:30
9:30 And he sent the letters unto all the Jews, to the hundred
     twenty and seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus,
     [with] {r} words of peace and truth,

     (r) Which were letters declaring to them quietness and
         assurance and putting them out of doubt and fear.

Es 9:31
9:31 To confirm these days of Purim in their times [appointed],
     according as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had
     enjoined them, and as they had decreed for themselves and
     for their seed, the matters of the {s} fastings and their
     cry.

     (s) That they would observe this feast with fasting and
         earnest prayer, which in Hebrew is signified by this
         word (they cry).