The Importance of Context

In a day where so many people are simply opening a Bible and pulling quotes to serve their purpose, I have learned a good lesson this evening about reading Scripture in context.

As an example, I take the book of Esther. One might get to the point I was at, namely 9:5 - "Thus the Jews struck all their enemies with the sword, killing and destroying; and they did what they pleased to those who hated them." (NASB)

Wow. Those Jews were a bunch of sadistic killing machines weren't they? (Or, another possible interpretation of this passage could be that it is okay to kill those who hate us).

Sure - you can say that if you do not know the entire story presented in the book of Esther. And you can also make that assumption depending on the translation you have at your fingers.

First off, this is why the Jews were killing their enemies: "For Haman, the son of Hammedatha, the Apagite, the adversary of all the Jews, had schemed against the Jews to destroy them and had cast Pur, that is the lot, to disturb them and destroy them." (Esther 9:24, NASB)

Going a little further in the same chapter shows that the Jewish people had been schemed against and their enemies were plotting to destroy (kill) them. The people that they killed in that above passage were prepared to make the first strike. The Jews were defending themselves (see Esther 8:11).

Sure - I can see defense as an "honorable" excuse - but what about the fact that it said they "did what they pleased" to them?

That is where your Bible translation and a lack of exegesis might let you down.

With the word "pleased" - I checked a few translations I have and it is rendered as also being "would," "desired," and "pleasured." A check of a concordance - to see what the original language meant to say - does show that H7522 (the word in question) is derived from the word "delight" (H7521) - however, it is also defined as being "willed" and "acceptable." While I do not want to put words into God's mouth, or say my interpretation of this passage is correct - I think that, looking in context, it could be said that the Jews did what was willed and acceptable to those who had schemed to destroy them (while also NOT feeling the need to loot the enemies as they had planned to do the Jews - Esther 9:10, 15).

Why all this for a simple passage in a, probably, hardly read book in Scripture? Well, while I was reading, my first (emotional) response was the "Wow - that just does not seem right." BUT, with further study into the situation and what the text was originally trying to say - I realized that my original conclusion was incorrect.

Do we take this same process for interpreting those highly-read pieces of Scripture?