Content
In Protestant Bibles, Esther appears at the end of the Historical Books, whereas Jewish Bibles group it with the Writings (Job-Song of Songs). The Greek translation (Septuagint) and Roman Catholic Bible incorporate more than ioo extra verses, the Apocrypha's Additions to Esther, into a 16-chapter version. This longer Esther displays a greater emphasis on religion than the shorter book.
The events described in Esther occur during the height of Persia's political dominance in the early to mid-5th century B.c. The first return of the Jews to Judah (538) takes place 55 years before the account in Esther begins (483). Many Jews remain in Persia, and Esther concentrates on the fortunes of this Jewish dispersion, in contrast to Ezra and Nehemiah, which focus on the Jewish community back in Judah during roughly the same period.
Content
According to Esther, the Persian king Xerxes (Heb. "Ahasuerus," 486-465) replaces his insubordinate queen with a young Jewish woman, Esther, in 479. That she is a Jew remains hidden at first. After Esther becomes queen, Xerxes' recently promoted second in command, Haman, plots to kill all the Jewish people as punishment for the refusal of one Jew - Esther's cousin Mordecai - to pay him homage. As the plot unfolds, the brave Esther becomes the key figure in reversing the fortunes of her people. The survival of the Jews through this most serious of ancient threats to their survival provides the basis for the Jewish festival of Purim.
Surprisingly, the book of Esther contains no mention of God, nor does it anywhere refer to prayer. It implies God's work on behalf of his people rather than asserting divine providence outright. In this way, Esther conveys the re sponsibility of humans to take practical, righteous action in accomplishing God's divinely orchestrated plan of salvation.
Background
Scholars recognize the accuracy of the many historical details in Esther - the extent of the Persian Empire from India to Ethiopia (1:1); the Persian postal system; the practice in Persia of lot-casting, confirmed archaeologically by the word "puru" (= "lot") inscribed on an ancient die; and the execution by hanging or impalement of the condemned. Nevertheless, some consider the events too improbable and coincidental and thus view the book as a historical novel valued primarily for its theological message concerning God's continued care for his people. But the very existence of the Feast of Purim argues for the historical nature of the Esther account.
Authorship and Date
The unnamed author exhibits a pro-Jewish outlook and good knowledge of Persian royal court customs. These factors may argue for a Hebrew writer employed by the central Persian government. The notation that many Gentiles converted to Judaism as a result of Haman's downfall and Mordecai's promotion (8:17) allows the possibility that a Persian convert authored the book.
No known literary sources refer to the book of Esther, and therefore estimates as to its time of authorship rest solely on internal evidence gleaned from the account. The book views the reign of Xerxes as a past event. Although some scholars suggest that the author wrote Esther during the reign of Artaxerxes I (465-424), others date it as late as the 4th or 3rd century.
1 Xerxes Deposes Queen Vashti
Three years have passed since the vastly wealthy and powerful Darius I, during whose reign Ezra and the postexilic Jewish community finished rebuilding the Jerusalem temple, passed the Persian throne to his son Xerxes I (Heb. "Ahasuerus," Ezra 4:6). Having quelled early opposition to his succession, Xerxes now securely rules a far-reaching empire that stretches from the Indus River (located in modern Pakistan some 1800 mi. east of Babylon) westward around the Fertile Crescent and south through Palestine and Egypt to the Upper Nile in northern Sudan. At the beginning of the account in Esther (483), Xerxes has just spent six months publicly showing off his wealth in his winter capital of Susa.
Described by the Greek historian Herodotus as unpredictable, sensual, and cruel, Xerxes caps off his exhibition with a weeklong stag party (vv. 5-8). On the last day of the celebration, the drunken king decides to show off his beautiful (chief?) wife Vashti ("best" or "beloved"). But the queen refuses to be put on display.
Taking his advisers' counsel, Xerxes punishes Vashti by deposing her for defying his summons, lest wives throughout the empire follow the queen's supreme example of spousal disobedience. Copies of the king's edict declaring Persian husbands' ultimate familial authority (v. 22) circulate by the efficient courier system established earlier by Cyrus. Yet the circumstances that provoke the decree highlight the irony that the unapproachably powerful Xerxes rules over 127 provinces spanning nearly 4000 miles (v i), yet he sees his personal authority publicly defied under his own roof.
2:1-18 Esther Becomes Queen
After four years and two disastrous battles against the Greeks (at Thermopylae and Salamis), Xerxes finally replaces Vashti (v. i6). Apparently, none of his current concubines will do. In typically extravagant style, he follows the advice of his underlings in summoning to his harem "all the beautiful young virgins" from throughout the empire for a year's worth of beauty treatments in preparation for their tryout with the king. From among them Xerxes will choose his queen.
Reliefs depicting tribute-bearing delegates, on the eastern stairway of the audience hall (apadana) of Darius I at Persepolis. (Oriental Institute, University of Chicago)
Enter Mordecai, guardian of his beautiful orphaned cousin Esther - both Jews descended from important Hebrew families taken captive by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar more than a century earlier. The names in Mordecai's Benjamite family line recall King Saul's father Kish and Saul's fiercely supportive relative Shimei N. 5). Esther's Hebrew name, Hadassah, means "myrtle." Once settled in the palace precincts, Esther quickly becomes the favorite of the harem manager, Hegai. Esther maintains her respect for Mordecai by following his instructions not to reveal her Jewish identity.
Esther's willingness to follow the advice not only of Mordecai but also of Hegai serves her well when her time comes to spend the night with the king in December/January 479. She becomes Xerxes' favorite too, and he crowns her queen, still unaware of her ancestry.
2:19-23 Mordecai Exposes a Conspiracy
While sitting at the king's gate, where officials conduct the business of the court, Mordecai - himself possibly now an official (cf. 3:2) - overhears two palace guards plotting against Xerxes' life. He reveals the conspiracy to his cousin the queen, who passes the word on to her husband and credits Mordecai for thwarting the assassination. The conspirators hang and the incident is recorded in the royal annals (v 23), but Mordecai goes unrewarded for his loyalty to the king.
3 Haman Plots to Kill the Jews
Chapter 3 introduces the villain - Haman, a descendant of King Agag who ruled Israel's natural enemies, the Amalekites, and whose sparing cost Saul his kingship (Exod. 17:8-16; Deut. 25:17-19;1 Samuel 15). Xerxes has recently appointed the non-Persian Haman as his righthand man and has ordered Persian subjects to bow in his presence. The account thus pits Haman, a descendant of Saul's enemy, against Mordecai, a descendant in Saul's Benjamite line.
Mordecai's revelation of his Jewish roots in association with his refusal to bow before Haman gets more than just Mordecai into trouble. Xerxes' supremely offended prime minister resolves not only to execute Mordecai but also to exterminate all Jews throughout the empire.
Initially, Haman shows patient restraint by postponing the slaughter nearly one year, in accordance with the determination by lot-casting (= "Pur," v. 7) of a lucky day for the slaughter (contrast 5:9-14). Ironically, the lot falls on the 13th of a month, a number considered unlucky by the Persians. Haman easily obtains Xerxes' approval of the murderous plan by accusing "a certain people" (the Jews, whom he never names to the king) of a bent toward civil disobedience and by arguing that the diverse geographical distribution throughout the empire of this supposedly subversive people poses a threat to the Persian government. In reality, Haman's concern lies less with Jewish conformity to Persian law than with Mordecai's perceived personal insult.
Haman's bribe, in which he promises to donate to the royal treasury a hefty weight of silver (two-thirds of the government's annual budget), tips the scales in his favor, and the king hands over his signet ring to sign the proposal into law. The Persian postal service quickly delivers the order to wipe out the Jewish race and to plunder their possessions on the 13th of Adar (February/March; cf. v. 7). The edict throws the city of Susa into disarray, while Haman and the king relax with a drink.
4 Mordecai's Challenge to Esther
Mordecai and all Jews throughout the empire respond to the news of their impending doom with intense mourning. Mordecai adds public protest to his display of grief by wailing his way through Susa till he reaches the palace gate. His mourning attire bars him from entering the palace precincts and therefore from making direct contact with Esther. But Esther also learns of the plot against her people and of Mordecai's state. Her gift of clothes to her former guardian may signal a desire to see him personally, but by rejecting the gift Mordecai also rejects any invitation it might represent.
By courier Mordecai relays the details of the plot and orders Esther to intervene with the king. By now, some five years have passed since she became queen, and Esther no longer accepts Mordecai's direction without analyzing its personal consequences. Her objection to his appeal rests in the risk that her unbidden approach of the king would pose to her own life. Mordecai replies that Esther's own last chance lies in pleading with the king, for the law requires her execution too, despite her position as queen.
Mordecai reveals his conviction that deliverance for the Jews will arise from elsewhere even if Esther remains silent. Then he suggests that perhaps her destiny as an (unlikely) ascendant to Persian royalty lies in playing a role in that deliverance.
Persuaded by Mordecai's reasoning, Esther accepts his challenge. But she requires Susa's Jews to join her in a three-day fast to bolster her courage and prepare her spiritually for this risky encounter with the king.
5 Dinner for Three
The sight of Esther breaks Xerxes' monthlong neglect of his queen. He knows the risk Esther takes in approaching him unsummoned and suspects something serious must be troubling her. Rather than taking immediate advantage of Xerxes' offer to solve her problem, Esther extends a dinner invitation to the king and his second in command - her own enemy, Haman.
Sated with food and wine, Xerxes again invites Esther to express her request, but again she sidesteps the matter and delicately maneuvers the king's offer of help toward a royal commitment to grant her request. The wording of Esther's response ensures that, by accepting another invitation to dinner the next day, Xerxes is promising to do what she asks, even though he has no clue as to what's coming (v. 8).
The account leaves us in suspense by omitting the king's reply to Esther's second invitation. Instead, the self-important Haman, after leaving the first evening's banquet, curbs his disdain for the unsubjecting and unflappable Mordecai by boasting to family and friends. The prime minister emerges as a mini-Xerxes, whose great ego requires constant stroking and who cannot tolerate personal opposition.
Haman's friends offer a solution to his distress over Mordecai: execute him publicly (even before the legislated Jewish doomsday) on a 75-ft.-high gallows and then celebrate! Completely unaware of Mordecai's relationship to the queen and of Esther's Jewish ancestry, to say nothing of Mordecai's key role in thwarting the king's assassination (2:21-23), Haman orders the construction of the gallows in blissful ignorance of his own impending fate.
6 The Tables Start to Turn
As Haman prepares Mordecai's execution, Xerxes plans to honor the loyal Jew. Midnight readings on the king's sleepless night between Esther's banquets remind him of Mordecai's part in saving his life. Fully aware that Mordecai is a Jew but oblivious of the approaching slaughter (3:8-15), Xerxes determines to grant Mordecai a long-overdue reward.
When Haman arrives in the morning, ready to present his charge against Mordecai, Xerxes solicits the prime minister's ideas on celebrating an as-yet-undisclosed honoree. Believing the king has him in mind, Haman suggests dressing the honoree in the king's clothes, mounting him
on the king's horse, and having a royal dignitary parade him through the city square while proclaiming his greatness.
Mordecai apparently accepts the king's honor, perhaps finding irresistible the irony of Haman's visible, public role in rewarding the one who refuses to honor Haman. In any case, the mortified but duty-bound prime minister ends up humiliating himself by advertising his intended victim's royal recognition under the prominent shadow of the gallows he built for Mordecai's execution. Haman's family and friends see the handwriting on the wall for him.
7 Haman's Last Meal
The (presumably providential) coincidences of the previous chapters now reach a tragic climax for Haman. During the second banquet with Xerxes and his right-hand man, Esther reveals her request to the king - the sparing of her life and those of her people. Again, Xerxes does not realize that Mordecai shares the Jews' death sentence. Neither does Xerxes know about Haman's evil plans for Mordecai, or of his queen's blood relationship to her doubly doomed cousin - a relationship about which Haman presumably is also unaware.
When Esther identifies Haman as mastermind of the murderous plan that orders her own execution, Xerxes reins in his rage. Unwittingly, Haman has tricked the king into signing his queen's death warrant. To reason out the situation for himself, Xerxes steps out to get some air. Now it is the entrapped and terrified Haman who must beg for his life, and he must do so before a Jewish woman. Again, timing works against Haman, for as the king reenters the banquet hall he observes his pleading prime minister falling all over the queen, who lies prostrate on her couch. At best, the scene looks to Xerxes like an assault. This additional, personal offense seals Haman's doom. The covering of Haman's face (v. 8) presages his execution, which follows swiftly on the gallows now identified to Xerxes as Haman's intended instrument of death for the faithful Mordecai.
8 Mordecai Replaces Haman and Issues a New Edict
Only after Haman's execution does Xerxes become aware of Esther's relationship to Mordecai and of the queen's identity as a Jew. Esther inherits Haman's household - thanks to ancient Near Eastern law, which dictated that the property of condemned criminals revert to the crown. Her cousin receives Haman's authority, represented by the king's giving of his signet ring to Mordecai (v 2). Nevertheless, the decree ordering the annihilation of the Jewish race cannot be cancelled according to Persian law, intended to save face for the king. But Xerxes can and does answer Esther's impassioned plea for her people by suggesting the proclamation of a new, unalterable edict, the contents of which he leaves up to his Jewish queen and prime minister.
By declaring the Jews' right to organize and defend themselves - even to destroy and plunder their would-be murderers (cf. 3:13) - on the day of their intended doom, Mordecai words the decree in a way that effectively annuls Haman's edict. The new proclamation results in the conversion to Judaism of many fearful Persians.
9 The Jews Celebrate
Nine months later, on Haman's intended doomsday for Mordecai's people, Jews attack their would-be assassins throughout Persia and prevail completely. The reported number of slain enemies, though suspiciously high, is still far lower than a slaughter of all Jews living in Persia would have been (vv. 6,15-16). The Jews follow their forefather Abraham's example in forgoing the right to plunder their defeated enemies' property (8:11; cf. Gen. 14:21-24).
Haman's io sons (vv. 7-9) die during the fight in Susa. Esther accepts Xerxes' offer of an additional request by asking for a one-day extension of the Jews' permission to pursue their enemies in Susa and by petitioning for the hanging (perhaps impalement) of Haman's dead sons, presumably as public humiliation. Through his generous behavior toward Esther, Xerxes displays a degree of respect for the queen that his earlier treatment of Vashti sorely lacked (1:1off.).
Jews throughout the provinces celebrate their reversal of fortunes with feasting. Mordecai writes legal orders that all future generations of Jews commemorate their survival by celebrating on the anniversary of the two days when first the provincial Jews and then their Susan relatives rejoiced. A summary of the events leading to the formal establishment of this festival, called Purim, explains its basis (vv 24-28). Empire-wide, Esther sends royal written confirmation of the new "appointed seasons."
Haman's failed genocidal plot thus solidified the Jewish community rather than eradicating it. Modern observance of Purim includes fasting on the 13th of Adar (February/March) followed by feasting, gift-giving, charity, and reading aloud the book of Esther on the following two days.
10 An Addendum
This postscript diverts attention away from Esther and onto Mordecai. By emphasizing the far-reaching geographical extent of Xerxes' authority coupled with the great influence and widespread popularity that his Jewish righthand man firmly commands, the addendum conveys the security the Jews now enjoy as subjects of the Persian crown.