Footnote 5 – Eight Questions Most Frequently Asked About the Book of Esther

The verse reads that Mordecai wrote in the name of King Xerxes “to the effect that the king had given permission to the Jews in every single city to organize themselves and to defend themselves, to wipe out, slaughter and annihilate every armed force of any people or province that was hostile to them, along with their children and women, and to plunder their personal property.”