slaughter. Especially disturbing is Esther’s request for another day to attack the enemies. As usual, the book of Esther offers no evaluation of the motives of the various participants. We need not assume that all who took part in the destruction of the enemies acted out of pure motives of self-defense. There may have been a vengeful spirit on the part of some of the Jews. On the other hand, the account demonstrates that the Jews tried to protect themselves from charges of malice and selfishness.