We follow the momentous battle between two edicts, Haman's and Mordecai's (Esther chapters 8 and 9). Mordecai's edict sought to cancel Haman's, which legally must be implemented in spiite of Haman's death and would have seen the Jews exterminated. We saw last time that Mordecai had no option but to make his new edict take effect on the same day as Haman's prior edict. A civil war seemed unavoidable, with the Jews an easy target for their enemies. How could they survive? By the sovereign intervention of God, fear of whom paralyzed the enemy and gave the Jews an almost bloodless victory.