assault them, both little ones and women
Esther 8:11
8:11 assault them, both little ones and women. It is likely that the intended sense of this edict was that the Jews were authorized to defend themselves and to slay those who essayed to “assault them, both little ones...for a prey.” That is, the section beginning with “assault” and ending with “prey” was merely a quote from Haman’s earlier decree (Esther 3:13). As far as the record goes, the Jews in defending themselves slew only the men (Esther 9:6,15) and took no prey for themselves (Esther 9:10,15-16).