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Esther

Old Testament · History · Traditionally attributed to Unknown · 10 chapters

Esther is set in the Persian court of King Ahasuerus (Xerxes), where a young Jewish woman becomes queen while concealing her people. When the villain Haman plots to destroy all the Jews of the empire, Esther is urged by her cousin Mordecai to intervene — 'who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?' (4:14).

At great risk she exposes the plot, Haman falls, and the Jews are delivered — the deliverance still celebrated at the feast of Purim. Famously, God is never named in the book, yet his providence works unmistakably behind every 'coincidence' of the story.

People appearing in Esther