Esther Saves Her People
A Jewish orphan raised by her cousin Mordecai becomes queen of Persia without disclosing her background. When Mordecai refuses to bow to the king's favourite Haman, Haman secures a decree to destroy every Jew in the empire on a date chosen by lot.
Mordecai sends word to Esther, who points out that approaching the king unbidden carries the death penalty. His reply is the pivot of the book: do not think you will escape because you are in the palace — and who knows whether you have come to your position for such a time as this.
She goes, and works by two banquets rather than a plea. Haman is hanged on the gallows he built for Mordecai, and the Jews are permitted to defend themselves. The festival of Purim is named from the lot Haman cast. The book never mentions God — the argument is made entirely through the pattern of events.
Where in scripture
[1] 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. [2] He came even before the king’s gate, for no one is allowed inside the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth. [3] In every province, wherever the king’s commandment and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes. [4] Esther’s maidens and her eunuchs came and told her this, and the queen was exceedingly grieved. She sent clothing to Mordecai, to replace his sackcloth; but he didn’t receive it. …
Esther 4:1–17 — opening verses
[1] So the king and Haman came to banquet with Esther the queen. [2] The king said again to Esther on the second day at the banquet of wine, “What is your petition, queen Esther? It shall be granted you. What is your request? Even to the half of the kingdom it shall be performed.” [3] Then Esther the queen answered, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request. [4] For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had been sold for male and female slaves, I would have held my peace, although the adversary could not have compensated for the king’s loss.” …
Esther 7:1–10 — opening verses
[20] Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, both near and far, [21] to enjoin them that they should keep the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month Adar yearly, [22] 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 good day; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, and of sending presents of food to one another, and gifts to the needy. [23] The Jews accepted the custom that they had begun, as Mordecai had written to them; …
Esther 9:20–32 — opening verses
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, a public-domain translation.
