"On the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, they killed seventy-five thousand of those who hated them but did not take any plunder." Esther 9:17
That's ok then. So long as they didn't take any plunder. There were only 75000 people slaughtered. No worries.
Excuse my sarcasm but I sometimes struggle with the barbarity of the Old Testament. I love the book of Esther but it ends on a sour note for me. This probably isn't a particularly uplifting blog today but a mere observation.
Ok. So the entire Jewish race was going to be wiped out until the king realised that Mordecai had once warned of an assassination attempt against him. So the king repealed the law that Haman had petitioned for, the extermination of the Jews, and instead allowed Mordecai & Esther to order the slaughter of those who hated them.
Where is the justice in this? I'm afraid I can't see it. They weren't protecting themselves as such as the king had already repealed his original order. This was just revenge for revenge's sake. Bloodthirsty, barbaric, and I suspect indiscriminate killing. I would be staggered if there weren't at least several thousand completely innocent people butchered amongst the 75000 killed in the frenzy that a government sanctioned ethnic cleansing created.
I would like to think that I would have acted differently but history tells us that humanity has a habit of committing inhumane acts. Revenge & justice are two different things. Whilst the indiscriminate killing of people is something that isn't a part of our culture in Australia, thank goodness, revenge in its different forms is.
Justice - yes, fight for it. Revenge - no.
No comments:
Post a Comment