In them the king granted the Jews who were in each and every city the right to assemble and to defend their lives, to destroy, to kill and to annihilate the entire army of any people or province which might attack them, including children and women, and to plunder their spoil,It almost feels like there are two different commands here. First, there is the decree that the Jews can defend themselves and group together for protection. This makes sense, because as a group you're now into a numbers game in a fight, where at least any smaller group would be deterred from attacking, because they don't have the numbers to win. Since Jews normally stay grouped together, this turns into quite a number to stand off against, and therefore much less likely anyone would take a shot at them.
However, it then goes on to say they can go after anyone who might attack them. Not that does attack, but who might attack. This just went from a defense to a preemptive strike, with no quarter given. Anyone they think may be even thinking about attacking them, they can rally together and take out. Very "Old Testament," but that was what they themselves had been threatened with.
No comments:
Post a Comment