Jubilation breaks forth among the Jews! No longer helpless victims, they now have several months to organize their defense.

8:17​—How did people ‘declare themselves Jews’?

The Septuagint says that these Persians “were getting circumcised and Judaizing.” Evidently taking the counterdecree as a sign of divine backing for the Jews, many Persians became Jewish proselytes. Similarly today, “a great crowd” of “other sheep” have taken their stand alongside the anointed remnant.​—Revelation 7:9; John 10:16; Zechariah 8:23.