The couriers go out in haste by the king's command, and the law is issued in Susa the capital, while the king and Haman sit down to drink, apparently indifferent to the consequences of what they have set in motion, yet the city of Susa is in confusion. This juxtaposition of the king and Haman's indifference—sitting down to drink—with the confusion and distress that sweeps through the capital reveals the human cost of their decision and suggests that the announcement of the decree has immediate and devastating effects on those who hear it. The verse demonstrates the theological principle that human authorities who make decisions affecting the lives and deaths of others often remain insulated from the actual consequences of those decisions, while those affected must live with the terror and despair that such decrees produce.

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