Revenge in the Book of Esther?

Many troubling questions arise as the story of Esther concludes with two bloody days of revenge. Chapter 9, verse 16 says, " Now the rest of the Jews who were in the king's provinces also gathered to defend their lives, and got relief from their enemies and killed 75,000 of those who hated them..." Despite searching through various commentaries and articles on the subject, it seems that there are very few satisfactory explanations for such wholesale violence. I invite you to "listen in" on a conversation among Jewish rabbis discussing this issue here: Rabbi Dev Noily and others on the Book of Esther and to take some time reading various understandings of the passage here: A Violent Ending by Rabbi Jill Jacobs. Though neither of these sites provides a definitive "answer," they offer various interpretations, concerns, and discussion points.

Briefly, the various interpretations include the possibility that Esther is an allegory, or at the very least, an exaggerated story. It is the closest thing to a Shakespearean drama that can be found in the scriptures - full of drama, courts, and plot twists. It is a story of danger and deliverance. The deliverance is swift and total. Perhaps the purpose is to communicate God's total love for the people, God's fury against those who mistreat the people of Israel, and the intent of God to deliver the people completely one day? Other commentators look carefully at the verses and draw the conclusion that only those who had directly oppressed the Israelites were killed. The text says, "The Jews struck all their enemies with the sword, killing and destroying them, and did as they pleased to those who hated them." This is taken to mean that they did not kill the rest, only plundered and humiliated them. Still, 75,000 seems like an awfully large number. Still others commentators deal with the story as just a story. Just because the story is in the Bible doesn't make every action in it right, though we can certainly learn something.