A thought crossed my mind when reading this verse. There the book of Esther tells us about Haman's genocidal plan against the Jewish people, which was overturned when the king permitted the Jews to fight back.
On the day when the enemies of the Jews had planned to slaughter them to the very last one, the tables were turned and the Jews decimated their enemies. 'In that day the number those slain in Shushan the capital came before the king."
I thought how ironic - and how familiar. Previously, when the plan was to wipe out all the Jewish people, nobody batted an eyelid. Nobody had an issue with that.
It was only when the Jews fought back, that suddenly numbers are very important. All of a sudden there's talk about proportionality, have they gone too far, etc. etc...
It seems history repeats itself.