The first decree to destroy the Jews had gone out on April 17, 474 B.C. (3:12).93Ahasuerus published this one allowing the Jews to defend themselves on June 25, 474 B.C. The Jews had over eight months to prepare for the day their enemies might attack them, which was March 7, 473 B.C.
The king gave the Jews permission even to take the lives of the enemy "which might attack them, . . . [their] children and women"(v. 11). The children and women in view seem to be those of the Jews (cf. 3:13), not the enemies of the Jews.94This extreme measure enabled the Jews to defend themselves completely. It neutralized the enemy's former advantage (cf. 3:13).
"It has often been observed that this [fourteenth verse] provides a remarkably cogent illustration of missionary work today. God's death sentence hangs over a sinful humanity, but He has also commanded us to hasten the message of salvation to every land (cf. Prov. 24:11). Only by a knowledge of, and a response to, the second decree of saving grace through the Lord Jesus Christ can the terrible effects of the first decree of universal condemnation for sin be averted."95
