Esther 8:11

11. The king granted the Jews… to stand for their life But would not the Jews have defended themselves without any such order from the king? They could expect nothing but death at the worst, and every human instinct would have prompted them to have fought with all energy for their lives and their families. True; but without special grant from the king they would not have been allowed to arm and prepare themselves for self-defence at all. Any movement looking to a general preparation to stand on the defensive would have been watched by the rulers of the provinces, and crushed at its very inception as an act of treason. A spasmodic defence with empty hands would have accomplished nothing; but the king’s decree gave the Jews authority to arm themselves with the sword. Esther 9:5. Observe, the Jews were not authorized by this second edict to take the offensive, and destroy whom they would, but only to defend themselves when any would assault them. There would be no slaughter at all if their enemies did not first attack the Jews. This again obviates the objection often urged against the credibility of this history, that no king would have authorized such a civil war throughout all his dominions. The probability was, that when the Jews were thus permitted to arm themselves and stand on the defensive, there would be no conflict at all. But the result showed that so bitter was the hatred of the heathen towards the Jews, that in many parts of the empire they endeavoured, in spite of all the danger, to destroy the Jewish population. The result was the slaughter of seventy-five thousand men, (Esther 9:16,) besides those that fell in Shushan. All arguments based on an assumption of what ordinary rulers would have done or would not have done are futile and foolish when dealing with such a king as Xerxes.

Little ones and women These would hardly be expected to assault the Jews, but Mordecai would make his letters as broad and comprehensive as those of Haman. Compare Esther 3:13. This clause authorized the Jews to carry their vengeance to the wives and children of those who assaulted them, for their enemies would not spare the Jewish wife and child.