Esther 9:10 Meaning and Explanation

The ten sons of Haman, here called once more the enemy of the Jews, are gathered into a single summary statement of his fallen house. The narrator binds the sons to the father and to his hatred, closing the account of the family that sought a nation’s ruin.

Then comes a detail repeated with care: on the spoil laid they not their hand. Though the second decree had permitted them to take the goods of their attackers, the Jews refuse the plunder. This was self-defense, not gain. The restraint sets their cause apart and recalls an older account, where a king was condemned for sparing Agag and seizing spoil; here the people make the opposite choice.