Esther

Vashti

“Ahasuerus who reigned from India even to Ethiopia, over one hundred twenty-seven provinces” (Esth 1:1) sat on his throne in Susa (Esth 1:2), and in the third year of his reign he made a feast for all his princes and servants (Esth 1:3).

On the seventh day, “when the heart of the king was merry with wine” (Esth 1:10), he sent his eunuchs to bring Queen Vashti before him wearing the royal crown, “to show the people and the princes her beauty” (Esth 1:11). “But the queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s commandment by the eunuchs. Therefore the king was very angry, and his anger burned in him” (Esth 1:12). On the advice of Memucan, one of his princes, the king decreed “that Vashti may never again come before King Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal estate to another who is better than she” (Esth 1:19), and he sent letters into all the provinces (Esth 1:22).

Made Queen

The king’s servants proposed gathering beautiful young virgins from all the provinces, “and let the maiden who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti” (Esth 2:4).

“There was a certain Jew in the citadel of Susa whose name was Mordecai” (Esth 2:5), one of those carried away from Jerusalem (Esth 2:6). He brought up his uncle’s daughter Hadassah, that is, Esther, “for she had neither father nor mother”; “when her father and mother were dead, Mordecai took her for his own daughter” (Esth 2:7).

Esther was taken into the king’s house, to the custody of Hegai, keeper of the women (Esth 2:8). “Esther had not made known her people nor her relatives, because Mordecai had instructed her that she should not make it known” (Esth 2:10). “Mordecai walked every day in front of the court of the women’s house, to find out how Esther was doing, and what would become of her” (Esth 2:11). “So Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus into his royal house in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign” (Esth 2:16); the king “set the royal crown on her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti” (Esth 2:17).

In those days two of the king’s eunuchs sought to lay hands on the king. “This thing became known to Mordecai, who informed Esther the queen; and Esther informed the king in Mordecai’s name” (Esth 2:22), and it was written “in the book of the chronicles in the king’s presence” (Esth 2:23).

Haman’s Plot

“After these things King Ahasuerus promoted Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him” (Esth 3:1). All the king’s servants in the king’s gate bowed down to Haman, “But Mordecai didn’t bow down or pay him homage” (Esth 3:2); “he had told them that he was a Jew” (Esth 3:4).

“When Haman saw that Mordecai didn’t bow down nor pay him homage, Haman was full of wrath” (Esth 3:5), and he “sought to destroy all the Jews who were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus” (Esth 3:6). “In the first month, which is the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast Pur, that is, the lot, before Haman,” and chose the twelfth month, the month Adar (Esth 3:7). Haman told the king that there was a certain people, and “it is not for the king’s profit to allow them to remain” (Esth 3:8); the king gave him his ring (Esth 3:10). Letters went out to every province: on the thirteenth day of Adar, in one day, “to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women” (Esth 3:13). “The king and Haman sat down to drink; but the city of Susa was perplexed” (Esth 3:15).

For Such a Time as This

“Now when Mordecai found out all that was done, Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the middle of the city, and wailed loudly and bitterly” (Esth 4:1); in every province “there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing” (Esth 4:3). “The queen was exceedingly grieved” (Esth 4:4), and she sent the eunuch Hathach to ask. Mordecai urged her “to go in to the king to make supplication to him, and to make request before him for her people” (Esth 4:8).

Esther sent word back: whoever comes to the king into the inner court without being called, “there is one law for him, that he be put to death,” and “I have not been called to come in to the king these thirty days” (Esth 4:11). Mordecai answered: “For if you remain silent now, then relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Who knows if you haven’t come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esth 4:14).

Esther said: “Go, gather together all the Jews who are present in Susa, and fast for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day. I and my maidens will also fast the same way. Then I will go in to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish” (Esth 4:16).

Two Banquets and That Night

“Now on the third day, Esther put on her royal clothing and stood in the inner court of the king’s house” (Esth 5:1). “The king held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand” (Esth 5:2) and asked what she wanted: “It shall be given you even to the half of the kingdom” (Esth 5:3). She asked the king and Haman to come to the banquet she had prepared (Esth 5:4); at the banquet, she asked them to come again the next day (Esth 5:8).

As Haman went out that day, he saw that Mordecai “didn’t stand up nor move for him, he was filled with wrath against Mordecai” (Esth 5:9). He said, “Yet all this avails me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate” (Esth 5:13), and on the advice of his wife and friends, “he had the gallows made” (Esth 5:14).

“On that night, the king couldn’t sleep. He commanded the book of records of the chronicles to be brought, and they were read to the king” (Esth 6:1). What was read was the record of Mordecai saving the king (Esth 6:2). The king asked what honor had been given to Mordecai, and his servants said, “Nothing has been done for him” (Esth 6:3). In the end Haman, who had come to ask the king to hang Mordecai, “took the clothing and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and had him ride through the city square” (Esth 6:11).

At the second banquet, Esther said, “let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request” (Esth 7:3), and “An adversary and an enemy, even this wicked Haman!” (Esth 7:6). “So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king’s wrath was pacified” (Esth 7:10).

The Decree and the Days of Purim

The king gave the house of Haman to Esther and his ring to Mordecai (Esth 8:1-2). But Haman’s decree still stood. Esther “fell down at his feet and begged him with tears to put away the mischief of Haman the Agagite” (Esth 8:3), and said, “For how can I endure to see the evil that would come to my people? How can I endure to see the destruction of my relatives?” (Esth 8:6). The king let Mordecai write a new decree and “seal it with the king’s ring” (Esth 8:8), granting the Jews in every city, on the same day, “to gather themselves together and to defend their lives” (Esth 8:11). “The Jews had light, gladness, joy, and honor” (Esth 8:16).

On the thirteenth day of Adar, “on the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to conquer them, (but it turned out that the opposite happened, that the Jews conquered those who hated them)” (Esth 9:1). The passage records: “In the citadel of Susa, the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men” (Esth 9:6), and the ten sons of Haman (Esth 9:10). When the king asked Esther what more she wanted, she said, “If it pleases the king, let it be granted to the Jews who are in Susa to do tomorrow also according to today’s decree, and let Haman’s ten sons be hanged on the gallows” (Esth 9:13). On the next day the Jews in Susa “killed three hundred men in Susa” (Esth 9:15). The Jews in the provinces “killed seventy-five thousand of those who hated them; but they didn’t lay their hand on the plunder” (Esth 9:16).

Mordecai wrote to the Jews in all the provinces, telling them to keep these two days every year, “as the days in which the Jews had rest from their enemies, and the month which was turned to them from sorrow to gladness, and from mourning into a holiday” (Esth 9:22). “Therefore they called these days ‘Purim’, from the word ‘Pur’” (Esth 9:26). “Then Esther the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew wrote with all authority to confirm this second letter of Purim” (Esth 9:29). “The commandment of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim; and it was written in the book” (Esth 9:32).

The last line of the book of Esther is about Mordecai: “For Mordecai the Jew was next to King Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews and accepted by the multitude of his brothers, seeking the good of his people and speaking peace to all his descendants” (Esth 10:3).