History · Old Testament · 10 chapters
The book of Esther
A hidden God, but never an absent one
- Author
- Unknown; a Jew of Persia close to the events (some traditions attribute it to Mordecai)
- Written
- After 465 BC (probably)
- Time covered
- From the 3rd to the 12th year of King Ahasuerus (Xerxes I), around 483–473 BC, at Susa
- Key word
- Providence
King Ahasuerus deposes Queen Vashti, who refused to appear at his banquet (1). Esther, a Jewish orphan raised by her cousin Mordecai, becomes queen without revealing her origins (2). Mordecai refuses to bow down to Haman, the king’s favorite. Furious, Haman secures a decree to exterminate all the Jews on the 13th of Adar (3). Encouraged by Mordecai, Esther fasts for three days, then risks her life before the king (4-5). A sleepless night for the king changes everything: Mordecai is honored, and Haman is hanged on the gallows he had built for him (6-7). A counter-decree lets the Jews defend themselves, and their mourning turns into the joy of Purim (8-10).
Main theme
Without his name ever being spoken, God governs the details of history to save his people from extermination and to turn evil back on those who devised it.
Outline
- Esther 1-2 — A Jewish queen at the Persian court
Vashti is deposed, Esther is crowned, and Mordecai foils a plot against the king.
- Esther 3-4 — Haman’s plot
Mordecai’s refusal to bow sets off a decree of extermination; Esther is called to act.
- Esther 5-7 — The great reversal
Two banquets, a sleepless night, and Haman falls into the trap he had prepared.
- Esther 8-10 — Deliverance and the feast of Purim
A counter-decree saves the Jews, Mordecai is exalted, and the feast of Purim is established.
Key points
- God’s name never appears in the book, yet his providence orchestrates every detail.
- Vashti is deposed for refusing to appear before the king, which opens the way for Esther (1:12, 19).
- Mordecai refuses to bow down to Haman: an act of faithfulness that sets off the crisis (3:2-6).
- The “Pur,” the lot cast by Haman, gives its name to the feast of Purim (3:7; 9:26).
- “Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (4:14).
- A sleepless night for the king turns history around: Mordecai is honored by his worst enemy (6:1-11).
- Haman is hanged on the gallows he had built for Mordecai (7:10).
- Since the law of the Medes and Persians cannot be revoked, God opens a way out through a second decree (8:8-11).
For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father’s house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?
Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish.
On that night could not the king sleep, and he commanded to bring the book of records of the chronicles; and they were read before the king.
Jesus in Esther
By preserving the Jews from extermination, God protects the line from which the promised Messiah would be born. Esther, who stakes her life to stand before the king on behalf of her condemned people, foreshadows Jesus, the perfect intercessor who gave his life for us (Heb 7:25). The final reversal, in which the enemy is defeated by his own weapons, points to the cross, where Christ triumphed over the powers of evil (Col 2:15).
Did you know?
- Haman is called “the Agagite” and Mordecai is a Benjamite descended from Kish: the conflict echoes that of King Saul, son of Kish, with Agag, king of Amalek (3:1; 2:5; 1 Sam 15:8-9).
- Esther is the only book of the Hebrew Bible of which no fragment has been identified among the Dead Sea Scrolls.
- Haman had the decree drafted on the 13th of the first month (3:12): the three-day fast that Esther then requests probably coincided with the Passover, celebrated on the 14th of that same month (Exod 12:6).
Quiz on Esther
How were Mordecai and Esther related?
Esther was “his uncle’s daughter,” so Mordecai was her cousin, and when her father and mother were dead, he took her for his own daughter. Esther 2:7
Why was Queen Vashti deposed?
“The queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s commandment by his chamberlains: therefore was the king very wroth.” Esther 1:12
What does the word “Pur,” which gave the feast of Purim its name, mean?
Before Haman, “they cast Pur, that is, the lot,” to fix the day of the massacre; hence the name Purim. Esther 3:7
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