Esther

1. THE FIRST TWO FEASTS—VASHTI IS DEPOSED (1:1–22)

1:1–9. The book of Esther begins with a description of its historical background. The events of the book occur when the city of Susa is serving as the capital of Persia and the empire includes 127 provinces (possible hyperbole) that extend from India to Cush (Ethiopia) (1:1–2). During the third year of his reign, Ahasuerus organizes a lavish feast that will last 180 days and at which event he will display before the male nobility of his kingdom his affluence and his distinguished fame as the ruler of the vast Persian Empire (1:3–4).

Ahasuerus’s weeklong banquet is marked by indulgence in wine and strong drink, gastronomic extravagance, and excessive reveling (1:4–8), as was common in royal feasts of this period. The event corresponds well with the war council of 483 BC, when the king assembled his officials to plan a campaign to conquer Greece. While the king is entertaining his guests in the palace, his wife Queen Vashti also holds a feast for women in another section of the royal citadel (1:9).

1:10–12. On the seventh day of the celebration, while King Ahasuerus is in high spirits and drunk with wine, he commands seven eunuchs to bring Queen Vashti to his palace in order to display her magnificent beauty (1:10–11). To the king’s astonishment, Queen Vashti categorically refuses to obey the orders and leaves her husband publicly humiliated and irate in the presence of his waiting guests (1:12). It is likely that the queen has previously experienced such ordeals when the king’s drunkenness has seriously affected his ability to make moral decisions. Her unflinching response to the king’s request seems to indicate so.

The biblical text provides a number of accounts where reckless decisions are made by drunk leaders, like King Ahasuerus (Est 1:10). For example, King Belshazzar (Dn 5:2), Nabal (1 Sm 25:36), and Amnon (2 Sm 13:28) suffer great personal losses shortly after becoming inebriated.

1:13–22. Though Vashti holds a position of authority, her status is noticeably subordinate to that of the king’s aristocrats. Not only is she subjected to her husband’s narcissistic caprices, but she is also at the mercy of his court officials, whose masculinity seems to have been threatened by her refusal to parade herself before them. Drawing on their alleged legal expertise (1:13–15), the king’s officials pronounce the harshest possible judgment on the queen: she is publicly dethroned (1:19–20). The anxiety of the king’s advisers has been fueled by the unlikely hypothesis that women would rebel en masse against the patriarchal system of the day and destroy the peace of the kingdom (1:16–18). How ironic that the decision to depose one queen opens wide the door through which another queen will deliver the entire Jewish population of Persia.

2. THE THIRD FEAST—ESTHER BECOMES QUEEN (2:1–20)

2:1–7. In chapter 2, physical beauty and sexual attraction become once again major themes of the story. In chapter 1, the author informed us that Vashti was stunning (1:11). After her removal from royalty, the king’s attendants seek attractive young virgins from all the provinces of the empire and bring them to the citadel of Susa (2:2–4). Following twelve months of beauty treatments, these young women are to be presented to the king as would-be queens (2:12). The young virgins who have been chosen for the royal pageant are confined inside the palace and triply secure in the citadel of Susa, in the royal harem, under the watchful eye of a eunuch named Hegai. Once in the harem, the young women seemingly have very little contact with the outside world (see 2:11).

Mordecai the Jew, of the tribe of Benjamin, appears on the scene as Esther’s older cousin who has adopted her after the death of her parents and who has raised her in his own household (2:5–7; cf. 2:15; 5:13). Mordecai is an exiled Jew who is well entrenched in the culture of Persia and who has risen through the ranks in the courts of the king.

2:8–20. After hearing of the search for beautiful young women, Mordecai decides to release Esther into the care of Hegai but seeks daily confirmation of her welfare from the officials in the harem (2:8–11). Not only is Mordecai concerned with Esther’s physical and emotional well-being, but given the potential dangers of living as a Jew in a foreign land, he is worried that her Jewish identity might be revealed and might draw unnecessary attention (2:20). [Myrrh]

Following the elaborate process of a royal beauty pageant (2:12–14), radiant Esther enters the royal residence, wins the favor of the king, and becomes the new queen of Persia (2:15–17). What better way to commemorate the event than to have a coronation banquet, proclaim a national holiday, and distribute gifts throughout the kingdom (2:18)?

An ancient cosmetic case

© Baker Publishing Group and Dr. James C. Martin. Courtesy of the Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chicago.

3. MORDECAI RESCUES THE KING (2:21–23)

All seems to go well in the kingdom. The king’s anger against Vashti has subsided, a new queen has been appointed, and the celebrations that accompany the coronation have blessed everyone. Yet trouble is brewing on the horizon, as Bigthan and Teresh, two eunuchs of the king, openly devise a plot to assassinate him (2:21). While sitting at the King’s Gate, Mordecai discovers the plan, and without delay he informs Queen Esther. In turn, Esther makes the plot known to the king and credits Mordecai with providing this crucial life-saving information (2:22). The king’s quick reaction puts an end to the scheme, and Bigthan and Teresh are investigated, found guilty, and condemned to death (2:23). Disaster is averted, and Mordecai’s name is appropriately inscribed in the annals of the king.

4. HAMAN’S PLOT TO ANNIHILATE THE JEWS (3:1–15)

3:1–13. After being exalted to the highest seat of honor, pompous and egotistical Haman begins to receive reverence and admiration by all, except Mordecai, who refuses to bow down and kneel before him at the King’s Gate (3:1–2). Informed by royal officials that Mordecai is a Jew, Haman devises a plan to exterminate both Mordecai and his people (3:4–6) by a royal decree sealed with the signet ring of the king (3:10–12).

Mordecai’s refusal to bow before Haman (Est 3:2) mirrors the courage of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who categorically refuse to bow before the statue of Nebuchadnezzar—a daring move that earns them a visit to the fiery furnace (Dn 3:1–21). In both accounts, God intervenes, delivers his servants from certain death, and exalts them to positions of leadership in the kingdom.

The decree commands the leaders of all the provinces of Persia “to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the Jewish people” (3:13). The edict is obtained by Haman through deceptive means that dehumanize the Jews and present them as an unassimilated people who habitually disobey the king’s laws (3:8). Convinced by Haman’s arguments, the king condemns the entire Jewish population of the kingdom to death.

3:14–15. After the decree is sent out to all the provinces, the king and Haman sit down in the palace to celebrate the event. Meanwhile, outside the palace the mood grows somber, and the inhabitants of Susa become confused and mystified by the sudden news of the impending “final solution.” The Hebrew word translated “confusion” (3:15) appears in only two other passages in the Hebrew Bible (Ex 14:3; Jl 1:18). In all three cases, feelings of disorientation, bewilderment, and vulnerability describe the condition of the communities, and such is the atmosphere in Susa.

5. MORDECAI’S PETITION TO ESTHER (4:1–17)

4:1–3. Contributing to the state of confusion is distraught Mordecai, whose wailing is heard throughout the city, and whose transformed outward appearance—the wearing of sackcloth and ashes—is noticeably out of character for a man of his social status (4:1). In the Bible, sackcloth and ashes typically accompany laments and mourning for the dead, and in certain cases, fasting for the deliverance of a people (e.g., Gn 37:34; Lm 2:10–12). Mordecai’s demeanor and unusual garb appropriately reflect the mood of the community in Susa.

4:4–9. When Esther hears about Mordecai’s distress, she is deeply troubled and seeks to find out the reason for her cousin’s unusual behavior. Mordecai sends a detailed report to Esther describing Haman’s edict and his offer to pay a sum of money into the royal treasury in order to have all the Jews killed (4:4–7). Together with this report, Mordecai gives a copy of the royal decree to Esther and pleads with her to request an audience before the king in order to intercede on behalf of her people (4:8).

4:10–17. Upon learning that Esther has not been summoned to appear before the king for over thirty days (4:10–12), Mordecai urges Esther to take the greatest risk of her life and request a special royal audience. According to the law of Persia, a refusal by the king would result in certain death for the queen (4:11).

Although Esther lives a privileged life in the royal palace, she finds herself desperately constrained, unable to communicate directly with her cousin Mordecai outside and unable to freely approach the king inside. The glory of queenship begins to fade as Esther faces the realities of her confined existence. But, prompted by Mordecai’s urgency, she accepts the challenge, knowing full well that her decision could cost her her life. Esther quickly heeds Mordecai’s famous words, “Who knows, perhaps you have come to your royal position for such a time as this” (4:14). She urgently calls a fast and declares, “If I perish, I perish” (4:16).

6. THE FOURTH FEAST—ESTHER’S FIRST BANQUET (5:1–8)

5:1–3. After three days of fasting, Esther clothes herself with royal garments and makes her way to the palace, where her fate and that of her people will be determined. When the king sees Esther entering his chamber, he extends his royal scepter and invites her to make her petition known to him (5:1–2). The king offers her “even to half the kingdom” (5:3), an idiom that is not to be taken literally but rather signifies that the petitioner has gained great favor in the eyes of the king (see Mk 6:23).

5:4–8. In response to the king’s question, Esther invites the king and Haman to a private banquet on that day in her royal quarters. Without delay, the king accepts, and he and Haman make their way to Esther’s residence (5:4–5). Reclining on the couch with a drink in his hand, the king inquires once again concerning Esther’s petition. Seemingly without hesitation, Esther craftily withholds the answer to the question and invites her two guests to join her again the next day for another banquet at which she will disclose her request (5:6–8). The purpose for Esther’s calculated delay is never revealed.

7. HAMAN’S HATRED OF MORDECAI (5:9–14)

Full of joy and inebriated, Haman leaves Queen Esther’s banquet and returns home to boast of his great wealth and honored position in the courts of the king. On the way home, Haman encounters his nemesis Mordecai, who refuses once again to bow before him (5:9). Seething with rage, pretentious Haman vows revenge.

After bragging to his family and friends about the special privileges he has received from the royals, Haman expresses severe discontentment at Mordecai’s refusal to honor him (5:11–13). Haman’s concerned wife, Zeresh, quickly recommends an unconscionable solution, one that will both humiliate Mordecai and vindicate her husband (5:14). Delighted with his wife’s suggestion and convinced that the king will concur, Haman has the gallows set up in preparation for his revenge.

8. THE KING REWARDS MORDECAI (6:1–14)

6:1–10. Afflicted by insomnia, King Ahasuerus requests that the royal records be read to him. Providentially, the report of Mordecai’s heroism regarding his disclosure of the assassination plot is read by the attendant (6:1–2). Rather than falling asleep, the king becomes intrigued by the details of the account and asks if the hero has been honored for his bravery. The king’s attendant replies that nothing has been done to honor him (6:3). Eager to recompense the one who saved his life, the king asks who is in the court, in order to discuss the best possible way to honor this brave man. The timing could not be better! Haman has just entered the courtyard to approach the king with his despicable request for permission to hang Mordecai (6:4).

Summoned to the king’s presence, Haman rushes to his side, anticipating that his request will be quickly granted. The king asks Haman: “What should be done for the man the king wants to honor?” (6:5–6a). Who other than himself would narcissistic Haman consider worthy of the king’s honor (6:6b)? Haman offers what he considers to be the most ingenious proposition of his life, one that will exalt him above everyone in the kingdom, or so he thinks! He proposes that the honoree should be dressed in royal garb and be paraded through the city streets on a royal horse with attendants proclaiming: “This is what is done for the man the king wants to honor” (6:7–9). Without hesitation, the king agrees and commands Haman to personally grant this royal treatment to Mordecai the Jew (6:10).

6:11–14. How devastating for egomaniac Haman to realize that the lavish reward he has devised is to be granted to his nemesis Mordecai and not to him! Once again, Haman’s hopes are shattered, and his mood quickly changes from exhilaration to devastation, a clear example of the recurring reversal motif. How could this be happening to him? How can he now petition the king to have Mordecai killed? With these questions haunting him, Haman obeys the king’s orders and parades Mordecai through the city streets in the exact manner he has suggested to the king earlier that day (6:11). What a disgrace for Haman!

Humiliated by the events, Haman rushes home to his wife and advisers and tells them everything that happened to him that day (6:12). After listening to the distressing report, his counselors utter one of the most critical statements of the narrative (6:13). The repetition of the key Hebrew word napal (“fall”/“downfall”) is significant, as it foreshadows Haman’s impending fall from nobility (cf. 7:8). No sooner has Haman’s disgrace been predicted than he is whisked away to Esther’s second banquet (6:14).

9. THE FIFTH FEAST—ESTHER’S SECOND BANQUET AND HAMAN HANGED (7:1–10)

7:1–7a. The moment has now come for Esther to make her petition known to the king. Only with great care can she proceed with her accusation of Haman, since he is the grand vizier of the kingdom and she is only a vulnerable queen. Will the king believe her story? Will she obtain the favor needed to prevent the execution of the royal decree? As these thoughts race through her mind, Esther reveals to the king the impending plan to slaughter and annihilate her people (7:3–4).

Startled by the details of this looming atrocity, the king immediately asks Esther for the name of the instigator (7:5). Without hesitation, Esther turns and points to Haman, who is seized with horror at the potential consequences of his conspiracy (7:6). Enraged, King Ahasuerus bolts out of the banquet hall and exits to the garden in order to regain his composure and decide the fate of Haman (7:7a).

7:7b–10. On his return, King Ahasuerus finds foolish Haman fallen (Hb napal) on the couch where Esther is reclining; he is begging her for mercy (7:7b–8a), but the king thinks he is attempting to assault her. Furious at this outrageous behavior, the king cries out (7:8b).

One of the royal attendants who has witnessed the unfolding events informs the king that Haman has recently set up a gallows in order to hang Mordecai, the recent honoree. Without wavering, the king declares: “Hang him on it” (7:9). Haman is now condemned to death, the very fate he has devised for Mordecai and the Jews of Persia. At once, the king’s fury is appeased (7:10), and hope is renewed for the Jewish population of the kingdom.

10. THE KING’S EDICT TO SPARE THE JEWS (8:1–17)

8:1–8. The day of Haman’s execution ironically becomes the day of Esther and Mordecai’s exaltation, a clear reversal of events. Following Haman’s death, King Ahasuerus gives Haman’s estate to Queen Esther and rewards Mordecai by giving him the royal signet ring that was used to seal the first decree against the Jews (8:1–2).

Although Haman is now dead and gone, Mordecai and Esther face the grim reality that their ordeal is far from over. Unless the unchangeable law established by Haman is canceled, overturned, or neutralized, the Jews will continue living in peril for their lives. Mordecai and Esther have to act swiftly in order to prevent the massacre and annihilation of their own people.

Once again, Queen Esther approaches the king, this time with a tearful and deeply emotional plea (8:3). She receives immediate favor and is given permission for her and Mordecai to issue a new royal decree that will allow the Jews in Persia to defend themselves against their enemies (8:4–8).

8:9–17. Although Esther is the one who pleaded before the king, the focus quickly shifts to Mordecai, who assumes the leadership in issuing the new decree. By this time, Mordecai has replaced Haman in the royal courts, another striking case of reversal.

Gold signet ring from Egypt. The king’s signet ring is mentioned four times in Esther (3:10; 8:2, 8, 10).

© Baker Publishing Group and Dr. James C. Martin. Courtesy of the British Museum, London, England.

The new decree, originally written in the Persian language, is dictated by Mordecai and transcribed into the scripts and languages of all peoples and provinces in Persia (8:9). The composition and diffusion of this new legal document in 8:9–14 echo with great precision Haman’s earlier verdict in 3:12–15.

Royal secretaries are summoned.	3:12	8:9
The decree is written in the languages of the empire.	3:14	8:9
The decree is written in the name of the king and sealed with his signet ring.	3:12	8:10
Couriers are dispatched.	3:13	8:10
The edict gives permission to kill and annihilate enemies.	3:13	8:11
The events are to take place on the thirteenth of Adar.	3:13	8:12
The decree is issued by messengers throughout the city of Susa.	3:15	8:14

In both cases, the people of the city of Susa react with deep emotions. Following Haman’s decree, the people of Susa are confounded and the Jews fear for their lives (3:15). Following Mordecai’s decree, the city of Susa holds “a celebration and a holiday,” and the Jews of every province cheer with dancing and feasting (8:15–17).

11. THE JEWS TRIUMPH OVER THEIR ENEMIES (9:1–17)

9:1–4. Eleven months have passed since Haman’s original decree to annihilate the Jews. Haman’s planned catastrophe has turned into deliverance, and his intended terror has turned into feasting. Once again a reversal of fortune has occurred (9:1). For the Jewish communities of Persia, there is a renewed sense of security. The Jews can now live peacefully throughout the kingdom of Persia, at least as long as Mordecai and Esther remain influential in the courts of the king (9:3–4).

9:5–17. The day anticipated by all has now come, and contrary to earlier expectations, the Jews emerge as victors rather than victims. The events of the day are costly for the enemies of the Jews, as more than seventy-five thousand lose their lives (9:16). What was originally intended to be a defensive approach is described in the chapter in offensive terms, virtually depicting the Jews as calculated aggressors who violently annihilate all who hate them (9:5–10).

Scholars have struggled with the grim details of this chapter, questioning the merciless slaughter of Persian women and children, the excessive number of people who are killed, and Esther’s request to continue the killing for a second day (9:13), when apparently the Jews have already put “all their enemies to the sword” (9:5). Some have suggested that Esther’s request to continue the slaughter and to have Haman’s sons hanged reveals her vindictive and bloodthirsty nature. Others have justified her behavior by pointing to her need to ensure complete safety for her people and to remove all possible future enemies from the kingdom. Public humiliation by hanging is not unique to the book of Esther. This practice was common in the ancient Near East and occurs in other biblical accounts (e.g., 1 Sm 31:8–10, Saul and his sons).

12. PURIM (9:18–32)

With the endorsement of the king, Mordecai sends a letter to all the Jews of the kingdom and institutes the feast of Purim (or “Lots”; 9:20–27). Since then, on the fourteenth and fifteenth of Adar, Jewish communities around the world celebrate the triumph of the deliverance of the Jews of Persia (9:28). During this feast, the book of Esther is read in synagogues, and active participation by the congregation is strongly encouraged. Cheers are shouted at the mention of Esther and Mordecai, while hisses and jeers are yelled at the mention of Haman. Families commemorate the event by “sending gifts to one another and to the poor” (9:22).

13. MORDECAI IS EXALTED (10:1–3)

Surprisingly, the book ends with an exposition of Mordecai’s fame rather than a description of Esther’s accomplishments. Queen Esther’s role seems to have faded, while Mordecai is exalted and granted the ultimate reward. His deeds are recorded in the royal annals (10:2) and recompensed by the king with a promotion to the highest position in the royal courts, second in command to the king himself (10:3).

Decades earlier the prophet Jeremiah told the exiles in Babylon to settle down to life in exile and to “pursue the well-being of the city I have deported you to . . . for when it thrives, you will thrive” (Jr 29:5–7). Mordecai’s rise to a prominent position, not to mention Esther’s position as queen, is in many ways a fulfillment of these words.