This is where I would like to see the end of the Purim story. Even the execution of Haman seems superfluous (for bad intentions – execution!). But still: the attacker is executed. The carnage is prevented. The Jewish people are saved. Here it would be better to read: "The end. And glory to God!"

But it is here that a turn takes place so abruptly that one is amazed, amazed at the deafness of those who do not notice this turn to this day and keep saying that Purim is a holiday of necessary self-defense.

So, what happens after the king agrees with Esther? "And then the king's scribes were called in the third month, that is, in the month of Sivan, on the twenty-third day thereof, and all things were written as Mordecai had commanded" (Est. 8:9).

Mordecai, on behalf of the king, drew up a decree about the upcoming pogroms: "That the king allows the Jews who are in every city to gather together and defend their lives,[248] to destroy, kill and destroy all the mighty in the people and in the region that are at enmity with them, children and wives, and to plunder their possessions" (Est. 8:10-11)

This is a decree issued at a time when all danger hanging over the Jews had already been removed, when they already had practically all power in the Persian Empire. Esther demanded from the king a decree allowing the Jews to destroy everyone at will, after the execution of Haman himself (Est. 7:10). Here is a biblical text from which the sequence of events is clear: "And King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and Mordecai the Judahite, 'Behold, I have given the house of Haman to Esther, and he himself was hanged on a tree because he laid his hand on the Jews; write ye also concerning the Jews, what ye please. And the king's scribes were called in the third month, that is, in the month of Sivan, on the twenty-third day thereof, and it was written as Mordecai had commanded. And he wrote in the king's name, that the king permitted the Jews who were in every city to assemble and defend their lives, and to destroy, and to kill, and to destroy all the mighty men and in the provinces that were at enmity with them, children and women, and to plunder their possessions, in one day in all the provinces of king Ahasuerus, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month; that is, the month of Adar."

Now imagine the horror that hung over the country: the decree written in the name of the king by Mordecai was not secret. It was announced immediately after signing and in all cities... For more than half a year, the people lived knowing that "on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month of Adar," their Jewish neighbors would be able to enter any house and kill anyone they wished. "And the fear of the Jews came upon them" (Est. 8:17).

By the way, do you think there were more or fewer anti-Semites in the Persian Empire as a result of those events? And if there are more of them, then this cannot be considered a reaction to the behavior of the Jews?

In the month of Adar, revenge reached the children of the long-slain Haman. Ten of his children were hanged. More precisely, first his children were executed. But this was not enough for Esther: she asked to hang their corpses on a tree. Here, perhaps, it is worth quoting this biblical text in full:

"In the twelfth month, that is, in the month of Adar, on the thirteenth day thereof, the Jews gathered together in their cities in all the provinces of king Ahasuerus, to lay their hand on their ill-wishers; and no one could stand before them, because the fear of them fell upon all the nations. And all the princes in the provinces, and the satraps, and the governors, and the executors of the king's affairs, supported the Jews, because the fear of Mordecai had come upon them. And the Jews smote all their enemies, slaying them with the sword, killing them, and destroying them, and dealt with their enemies according to their will. In Shushan, the throne city, the Jews slew and killed five hundred people; and they slew the ten sons of Haman. On the same day they reported to the king the number of those who had been killed in Shusani, the throne city. And the king said to Esther the queen, In Shushan, the throne city, the Jews slew and slew five hundred men, and the ten sons of Haman. What did they do in the other provinces of the king? What is your wish? and it will be satisfied. And what other request is yours? it will be fulfilled."

Well, it would seem that this is it! But you know when the appetite comes.

"And Esther said, If it pleases the king, let it be lawful for the Jews who are in Shushan to do the same tomorrow as today, and let the ten sons of Haman be hanged on a tree. And the king commanded them to do so; and a decree was given to this effect in Shushan, and the ten sons of Haman were hanged. And the Jews who were in Shushan gathered together also on the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and slew three hundred men in Shushan And the rest of the Jews who were in the kingdoms gathered together to defend their lives, and to be at rest from their enemies, and slew seventy-five thousand of their enemies" (Est. 9:1-16).

Who are these 75,000 exterminated Persians? It is unlikely that these were peasants - those Jews who voluntarily stayed in Mesopotamia, probably not for the sake of farming and digging irrigation ditches, neglected to return to their homeland. If the Jews were better off in the Persian Empire than in Palestine, then they had infiltrated the imperial state and trade elites. This means that they had competitors and enemies there. And, therefore, the country's elite was also massacred. Everyone who could be competitors[249]. The fate of the Persian Empire was sealed – in just a hundred years, it would be powerless in the face of Alexander the Great.

Purim's apologists say, "Vengeance is cruel. But did not the king and the Psalmist say of the wicked, "He dug a pit, and dug it, and fell into the pit which he had prepared"? (Psalm 7:16). And on the night of the Judas betrayal, was it not the Savior Himself who said: "All who take up the sword shall perish by the sword"? (Matt. 26:52)"[250].

Would these same "liberals" approve if the Moscow Patriarchate openly and noisily celebrated the storming of Kazan by the troops of Ivan the Terrible every year, while stressing that it sees in him a model for dealing with all the enemies of Holy Russia? Wouldn't they call such behavior insane and fraught with the shedding of new blood? But then their reaction to the celebration of the "merry holiday of Purim" should be just as negative.