The interpretation timeline

Esth 9:5

How this passage has been read — the sources, oldest to newest.

From the early Church Fathers to now.

Esth 9:5 · Douay-Rheims
“So the Jews made a great slaughter of their enemies, and killed them, repaying according to what they had prepared to do to them:”
Post-Reformation c. 1650 – 1900
1771
A.D.
John Gill Reformed
1697–1771
“Thus the Jews smote all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, and slaughter, and destruction,.... Some with swords, and others with clubs, and staves; as the Targum; and such like slaughtering weapons of destruction: and did what they would unto those that hated them; being then entirely at their will, and under their power.”
Source
1871
A.D.
1871
“Thus the Jews smote all their enemies--The effect of the two antagonistic decrees was, in the meantime, to raise a fierce and bloody war between the Jews and their enemies throughout the Persian empire; but through the dread of Esther and Mordecai, the provincial governors universally favored their cause, so that their enemies fell in great numbers.”
Source
Modern · 1953 →

The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.