What Does Esther 9:15 Mean?
For the Jews who were in Shushan assembled on the fourteenth day also of the month Adar, and slew three hundred men in Shushan; but on the plunder they did not stretch out their hand.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
For the Jews that were in Shushan gathered themselves together on the fourteenth day also of the month Adar, and slew three hundred men at Shushan; but on the prey they laid not their hand.THE KEY
The hand that refuses the spoils is still the hand that has killed; refusing to take does not disguise the violence.
THE MEANING
You see the sentence hold two facts together: three hundred men are killed, and the hands of those who kill do not reach for their possessions. Refusing the plunder leaves the killing fully visible; the text does not let one fact erase the other.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Refusing to profit from a killing does not undo the killing.
THE ROOT
שָׁלְחוּ אֶת יָדָם
shalĕḥu et-yadam
GROWS FROM
שׁלח
shin-lamed-ḥet
Send forth, send away, release.
“did not stretch out their hand” in this verse is shalĕḥu et-yadam. The Hebrew says they did not send forth their hand toward the spoil; the English “laid” can make the act sound static. The root keeps the choice active: their hands do not reach out to take, even as the verse states that they kill.
ALSO GROWS
shalach: Send, send forth, or release.
שָׁלַח
This is the verb in the verse: the hand is not sent out toward the plunder.
mishloach: A sending or dispatch; in Esther, sending portions.
מִשְׁלוֹחַ
The same book later uses this root for portions sent from one person to another, showing how the root carries the act of extending or sending something outward.
shilleach: Send away or release.
שִׁלֵּחַ
This branch makes the withheld hand legible as a refusal to extend toward what could be taken.
בִּזָּה
bizzah
GROWS FROM
בזז
bet-zayin-zayin
Plunder or seize as spoil.
“plunder” in this verse is bizzah. The word rendered “prey” means plundered goods, the property available to be seized after a defeat. The sentence distinguishes the killing from taking what belonged to the slain: the refusal of the spoil is real, but it does not erase the deaths.
ALSO GROWS
bizzah: Booty or plunder.
בִּזָּה
This is the word for the possessions they leave untouched.
baz: Prey or spoil.
בַּז
This related noun keeps the focus on what can be claimed as spoils, rather than on prey as an animal.
bazaz: Plunder or loot.
בָּזַז
The verb names the act the verse says they do not carry out against the possessions.
THE PATTERN
Being able to claim another’s goods does not make taking them inevitable; withholding the claim remains a distinct act.
The ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the one who presses the Jews, they slew; but on the plunder they did not stretch out their hand.That I will not take from a thread even to a sandal strap, and that I will not take anything of yours, lest you say, I have made Abram rich.I have set my desire on no one's silver, gold, or clothing.THE THREAD
The ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the one who presses the Jews, they slew; but on the plunder they did not stretch out their hand.The same Hebrew clause appears in both verses: they did not send forth their hand toward the spoil. Its repetition keeps the refusal of plunder visible alongside the account of killing.
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