How many people died at Purim?

Question

King Ahashuarus(sp) only decreed that the Jews could defend themselves. Was there a battle? How many peopled died?

Answer 1

according to the Biblical account... ONE person was hanged.

The 2 decrees by Xerxes (second name for the same king) effectively canceled each other.

The way society operated back then (appx 2700 years ago) once the King made a decree, he could not cancel it. If he realized he made a mistake he had to make a new decree that didn't say the old one was void, but was worded such that it made following the old one impossible.

Thus the second decree which said the Jews could defend themselves was worded in a way that made it stupid for anyone to try attacking a Jew in compliance with the first decree.

Answer 2

458.

Answer 3

There were 11 people hanged(Haman and his 10 sons)

(~)500 people killed in Shushan(the capital) on the first day of war

(~)300 People killed in Shushan on the second day of war

(~)75,000 people killed in the other cities (there there was only 1 day of war)

Which is a total of about 75,800 people

These casualties were only because the non-Jews were attacking the Jews, we know that the Jews weren't fighting just to fight because they didn't take any spoils of war.