What Does Esther 9:5 Mean in the King James?

Thus the Jews smote all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, and slaughter, and destruction, and did what they would unto those that hated them.

Esther 9:5 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The verse’s “destruction” is ⁨אֲבַדָּן⁩ (ʾăḇaddān, “perishing”), from ⁨אבד⁩ (ʾābad, “to perish or be lost”), the same root used for Haman’s planned destruction of the Jews, now the target has turned.

THE MEANING

The verse meets you without euphemism: the Jews strike their enemies with the sword, killing, and destruction, and act against those who hate them. It holds the reversal and its violence in the same frame, leaving the cost visible rather than abstract.

THE ROOT

אֲבַדָּן

ʾăḇaddān

GROWS FROM

אבד

ʾābad, to perish, to be lost.

The English word “destruction” can sound like a settled outcome; this root keeps the image grounded in perishing and being lost. Esther 9:24 uses the same root for the destruction planned against the Jews, so the word-family makes the passage’s reversal visible: the intended loss changes targets.

ALSO GROWS

ʾāḇad: to perish, be lost

אָבַד

This verb gives “destruction” its underlying motion: something or someone passes into loss.

ʾōḇēḏ: perishing, lost

אֹבֵד

This participle makes the outcome personal and ongoing, bringing the lives at stake into focus.

THE PATTERN

Scripture can depict the reversal of hostile power through explicit force and destruction.

Now in the twelfth month, that is, the month Adar, on the thirteenth day of the same, when the king’s commandment and his decree drew near to be put in execution, in the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to have power over them, (though it was turned to the contrary, that the Jews had rule over them that hated them;)

Esther 9:1 · KJVThe anticipated domination turns around, setting the reversal of power that this verse renders as physical violence.

I have pursued mine enemies, and overtaken them: neither did I turn again till they were consumed.

Psalm 18:37 · KJVThe speaker describes hostile power answered with pursuit that ends in the enemies’ destruction.

But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.

Matthew 22:7 · KJVThe parable depicts a king’s response to hostility through armies, destruction, and a city burned.

THE THREAD

Because Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had devised against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast Pur, that is, the lot, to consume them, and to destroy them;

Esther 9:24 · KJV

The Hebrew ⁨לְאַבְּדָם⁩ (ləʾabbədām, “to destroy them”) in Esther 9:24 shares the root ⁨אבד⁩ (ʾābad, “to perish or be lost”) with “destruction” here. The same word-family names Haman’s intended outcome for the Jews and, in this verse, the destruction of their enemies.

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