8:11 The king thereby allowed the Jews who were in every city to assemble and to stand up for themselves – to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate any army of whatever people or province that should become their adversaries, including their women and children, 1 and to confiscate their property.
137:9 How blessed will be the one who grabs your babies
and smashes them on a rock! 2
1 tn Heb “children and women.” As in 3:13, the translation follows contemporary English idiom, which reverses the order.
2 sn For other references to the wholesale slaughter of babies in the context of ancient Near Eastern warfare, see 2 Kgs 8:12; Isa 13:16; Hos 13:16; Nah 3:10.