Esth 3:13

“And letters shall be sent Heb. וְנִשְּׁלוֹחַ. And letters shall be sent, יtre tramis in O.Fr., to be sent, which is of the [same grammatical] structure as (Jud. 11:25): “did he ever fight? (נִלְחוֹם נִלְחַם)”; (I Sam. 2:27): “Did I appear? (נִגְלֹה נִגְלֵיתִי) (Hos. 10:15): “was silenced (נִדְמֹה נִדְמָה).” on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month On the thirteenth day of that month, which is the twelfth month of the year.”

“And the letters were sent by post into all the king's provinces,.... Or by the runners (x); by which it seems as if these letters were carried by running footmen, men swift of foot; or rather they were running horses, on which men rode post with letters, and which the Persians called Angari; a scheme invented by Cyrus, for the quick dispatch of letters from place to place, by fixing horses and men to ride them at a proper distance, to receive letters one from another, and who rode night and day (y), as our mail men do now; and nothing could be swifter, or done with greater speed; neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor night, could stop their course, we are told (z): the purport of these letters was: to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar; see Est 3:7. The orders were to destroy, by any means whatsoever, all the Jews, of every age and sex, all in one day, in all the provinces which are here named, that they might be cut off with one blow: and to take the spoil of them for a prey; to be their own booty; which was proposed to engage them in this barbarous work, to encourage them in it to use the greater severity and dispatch. (x) "in manu cursorum", Montanus; so the Tigurine version, Drusius, V. L. Junius & Tremellius, Piscator. (y) Xenophon. Cyropaedia, l. 8. c. 43. (z) Herodot. Urania, sive, l. 8. c. 98.”

“To destroy, so kill, and to cause to perish - To put the whole of them to death in any manner, or by every way and means. Take the spoil of them for a prey - Thus, whoever killed a Jew had his property for his trouble! And thus the hand of every man was armed against this miserable people. Both in the Greek version and in the Latin the copy of this order is introduced at length, expressing "the king's desire to have all his dominions in quiet and prosperity; but that he is informed that this cannot be expected, while a certain detestable people are disseminated through all his provinces, who not only are not subject to the laws, but endeavor to change them; and that nothing less than their utter extermination will secure the peace and prosperity of the empire; and therefore he orders that they be all destroyed, both male and female, young and old," etc.”

“Messengers. Literally, “runners.” (Haydock) — Posts were first established in Persia, and were the admiration of other nations, though nothing compared with ours, as they were not regular, nor for the people. They called these messengers Astandę, or Angari, Matthew v. 41. Darius Condomanus was one of these postilions, before he came to the crown. (Calmet) — At first the kings had people stationed on eminences, at a convenient distance, to make themselves heard, when they had to communicate some public news. (Diod. xix. p. 680.) — Cyrus afterwards appointed horsemen, to succeed each other. (Xenophon, Cyrop. viii.) — Cęsar made some regulations on this head, which were perfected by Augustus and Adrian; but being neglected, Charlemagne strove to restore them: yet it is thought that the posts were not established, in France, till the reign of Louis XI. (Calmet)”