13.30–31 Nehemiah’s summary of his activities shows well how he would like to be remembered: as a religious reformer rather than simply a civil governor and restorer of Jerusalem’s walls.
ESTHER
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Purim and Esther
THE BOOK OF ESTHER appears in the Hebrew Bible as one of the Five Scrolls read on festivals or commemorative days of the Jewish year. Read at Purim, Esther legitimizes this celebration of the deliverance of Jews from threatened destruction. Yet tension exists between the theme of the festival, as set out in ch. 9, and the story in chs. 1–8. Many suggest that this connection is a later development in a story of court intrigue and conflict, one that ended in a triumphant celebration for the Jews, but not the massive slaughter of the enemy described in 9.1–19 (seventy-five thousand in v. 16!) and the particulars of Purim in 9.20–32.
Some suggest that Purim reflects a form of New Year’s festivity current in the ancient Persian Empire. Diaspora Jewish communities were caught up in the celebrations, which were often linked with casting lots to determine the destinies of peoples and nations for the coming year. The story of Esther and Mordecai linked this popular celebration (called “Mordecai’s Day” in 2 Macc 15.36) to events specific to Jewish history. Esther’s link to Purim explains the presence of this otherwise nonreligious book in the Jewish canon.
Setting, Plot, Characters, Themes, and Worldview
THE STORY IS SET in the Persian capital of Susa, and its main characters are Jews living in close proximity to foreign rulers. It was composed in the eastern Jewish Diaspora of the Persian Empire in the late Persian or very early Hellenistic period (fourth century BCE).
The story represents a type found in Jewish tradition: an account of the trials and triumphs of figures involved in intrigues in foreign courts, e.g., Joseph and Daniel (Gen 39–41; Dan 1–6). Readers were attracted to stories of contests and conflicts where power and wealth rewarded those clever enough to gain royal favor. Moreover, the story is extremely well told, engaging readers through sustained suspense. Human initiative combines with seeming coincidence to bring about a resolution in which good triumphs over evil.
Characters are sketched with broad strokes. Haman is the archetypical villain. The king is the stock figure of ancient court tales. Mordecai and Esther are more complex. Characters like Vashti and Zeresh make brief and telling appearances; others, including ever present eunuchs, are agents who keep the plot moving.
Emphasis is on plot rather than development of character. A plot laced with twists, turns, and sudden reversals joins rather stock characters, leading to rich depths of irony. Readers experience the universe as ultimately just, a satisfaction real life rarely provides. Three among many ironic elements in the story merit attention.
First, the central figure is a woman. Within postexilic Jewish communities women’s roles were quite circumscribed; in public arenas they were generally marginal. It is striking that diaspora Jewish communities, themselves marginal within their larger worlds, placed a woman at the center of a story of deliverance from potential destruction (see also Judith). Esther is a role model for the diaspora Jew.
Second, Esther and Mordecai seem remarkably unconstrained by Torah regulations, which defined Jewish identity for many. Esther can conceal her Jewish identity, and nothing about her dress, diet, or behavior reveals her secret. Her marriage to a Gentile also passes without comment.
Third, absence of any direct mention of the deity in a story about Jews delivered from danger in an alien setting has provoked comment by scholars. The “other quarter” mentioned by Mordecai in 4.14 is sometimes understood as an oblique reference to the deity and providential guidance, and readers are free to assume the activity of the divine behind the so-called coincidences of the plot. Nevertheless, failure to mention God in any direct way lends a remarkably secular and contemporary tone to the story. God works through human instruments to achieve God’s purpose, in this case the survival of the Jewish people.
The Greek Text
THE SHORTER AND LONGER FORMS of Greek Esther contain what tradition calls “Additions” addressing perceived problems within the story (for the longer form, see Esther, the Greek Version Containing the Additional Chapters, in the Apocrypha). In spite of qualities of the Greek Esther that align it with traditional Jewish piety, including direct reference to God, prayers, and the keeping of the dietary laws, the shorter Hebrew form of the book was in time included in the Writings of the Hebrew Bible. Its inclusion was not accepted without debate and dissent (Esther is not represented among the Dead Sea Scrolls). This form is also preserved in the Protestant OT.
Other Christian Bibles preserve fuller Greek forms of Esther and, like the Protestant, place the story among the historical books. [W. LEE HUMPHREYS, revised by SIDNIE WHITE CRAWFORD]
ESTHER 1
King Ahasuerus Deposes Queen Vashti
1This happened in the days of Ahasuerus, the same Ahasuerus who ruled over one hundred twenty-seven provinces from India to Ethiopia.a 2In those days when King Ahasuerus sat on his royal throne in the citadel of Susa, 3in the third year of his reign, he gave a banquet for all his officials and ministers. The army of Persia and Media and the nobles and governors of the provinces were present, 4while he displayed the great wealth of his kingdom and the splendor and pomp of his majesty for many days, one hundred eighty days in all.
5When these days were completed, the king gave for all the people present in the citadel of Susa, both great and small, a banquet lasting for seven days, in the court of the garden of the king’s palace. 6There were white cotton curtains and blue hangings tied with cords of fine linen and purple to silver ringsb and marble pillars. There were couches of gold and silver on a mosaic pavement of porphyry, marble, mother-of-pearl, and colored stones. 7Drinks were served in golden goblets, goblets of different kinds, and the royal wine was lavished according to the bounty of the king. 8Drinking was by flagons, without restraint; for the king had given orders to all the officials of his palace to do as each one desired. 9Furthermore, Queen Vashti gave a banquet for the women in the palace of King Ahasuerus.
10On the seventh day, when the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha and Abagtha, Zethar and Carkas, the seven eunuchs who attended him, 11to bring Queen Vashti before the king, wearing the royal crown, in order to show the peoples and the officials her beauty; for she was fair to behold. 12But Queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s command conveyed by the eunuchs. At this the king was enraged, and his anger burned within him.
13Then the king consulted the sages who knew the lawsc (for this was the king’s procedure toward all who were versed in law and custom, 14and those next to him were Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucan, the seven officials of Persia and Media, who had access to the king, and sat first in the kingdom): 15“According to the law, what is to be done to Queen Vashti because she has not performed the command of King Ahasuerus conveyed by the eunuchs?” 16Then Memucan said in the presence of the king and the officials, “Not only has Queen Vashti done wrong to the king, but also to all the officials and all the peoples who are in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus. 17For this deed of the queen will be made known to all women, causing them to look with contempt on their husbands, since they will say, ‘King Ahasuerus commanded Queen Vashti to be brought before him, and she did not come.’ 18This very day the noble ladies of Persia and Media who have heard of the queen’s behavior will rebel againstd the king’s officials, and there will be no end of contempt and wrath! 19If it pleases the king, let a royal order go out from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes so that it may not be altered, that Vashti is never again to come before King Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal position to another who is better than she. 20So when the decree made by the king is proclaimed throughout all his kingdom, vast as it is, all women will give honor to their husbands, high and low alike.”
21This advice pleased the king and the officials, and the king did as Memucan proposed; 22he sent letters to all the royal provinces, to every province in its own script and to every people in its own language, declaring that every man should be master in his own house.e
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a Or Nubia; Heb Cush
b Or rods
c Cn: Heb times
d Cn: Heb will tell
e Heb adds and speak according to the language of his people
1.1–9 Descriptions of the king and his banquets, the extent of the Persian Empire, and of the royal court and its festivities set an opulent stage for a story in which power and wealth are at stake for those engaged in court intrigues. The lavish setting, however, cloaks an underlying hollowness, a lack of deeper ethical and moral concerns.
1.1 Ahasuerus (Ezra 4.6; Dan 9.1), whose name means “the chief of rulers,” is usually identified as Xerxes I (486–465 BCE), sometimes (as in the Greek and Josephus) as Artaxerxes I or II (465–424 BCE, 404–358 BCE). At its fullest extent the Persian Empire comprised thirty-one satrapies. Xerxes had twenty according to Herodotus (History 3.89), each composed of several provinces.
1.2 As a royal and religious complex, the citadel of Susa was a city within the larger city of Susa, the winter residence of Persian rulers, whose capital was Persepolis.
1.3 Most of the terms for officials, ministers, nobles, and governors are general, hinting at the complex administrative structures that managed the vast Persian Empire.
1.5 The king’s palace was an open-air colonnade structure.
1.6 Greek authors mention lavish Persian feasts, with an emphasis on drinking.
1.7–8 Banquets and drinking mark many of the critical events in this story (see 2.18; 3.15; 5.4–8; 7.1–8; 8.17; 9.17–19).
1.9 Vashti is otherwise unknown. Herodotus names Amestris, from a noble Persian family, as Xerxes’ queen. Women could dine with men in Persia; Vashti’s separate banquet is a necessary literary device.
1.10–22 King Ahasuerus deposes Queen Vashti.
1.10 Eunuchs, men who had been castrated, were functionaries in the Persian court; they appear at key points to facilitate the actions of other characters and move the story along. Lists of names (see also v. 14) give the story an air of authenticity.
1.11 Some rabbinic commentators suggest this summons meant she was to wear only the royal crown.
1.12 It is ironic that Vashti is rejected for disobeying the king by refusing to appear when summoned, while in 4.16–5.1 Esther, who refused to obey royal law and stay away until called, is rewarded for disobedience. The timing of events along with good fortune and the ability to capitalize on it bring success to an able courtier.
1.13 The sages are possibly a privy council (Ezra 7.14; Herodotus, History 3.31).
1.14 Only the most trusted officials were allowed physical access to the king.
1.15 The rash decision to do something to Vashti without investigating the causes for her refusal as well as his dependence on others for advice characterize this king as cloaked in symbols of power but actually malleable and controlled by others.
1.18 These noble ladies included, of course, the wives of those advising the king.
1.19 The unalterable laws of the Persians and the Medes (see 3.12–14; 8.8–14; Dan 6.8) is a literary motif, not otherwise known and historically most improbable. Ironically, because Vashti will not come, she is forbidden ever to come before the king.
1.21–22 All official resources and protocol of state are needed to deal with the danger posed to men by one willful woman! This is the first in a series of letters and decrees sent by means of the famed Persian courier service. Vashti’s banishment creates a place for Esther to enter the royal court and the story.
ESTHER 2
Esther Becomes Queen
1After these things, when the anger of King Ahasuerus had abated, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what had been decreed against her. 2Then the king’s servants who attended him said, “Let beautiful young virgins be sought out for the king. 3And let the king appoint commissioners in all the provinces of his kingdom to gather all the beautiful young virgins to the harem in the citadel of Susa under custody of Hegai, the king’s eunuch, who is in charge of the women; let their cosmetic treatments be given them. 4And let the girl who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti.” This pleased the king, and he did so.
5Now there was a Jew in the citadel of Susa whose name was Mordecai son of Jair son of Shimei son of Kish, a Benjaminite. 6Kishe had been carried away from Jerusalem among the captives carried away with King Jeconiah of Judah, whom King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had carried away. 7Mordecaib had brought up Hadassah, that is Esther, his cousin, for she had neither father nor mother; the girl was fair and beautiful, and when her father and her mother died, Mordecai adopted her as his own daughter. 8So when the king’s order and his edict were proclaimed, and when many young women were gathered in the citadel of Susa in custody of Hegai, Esther also was taken into the king’s palace and put in custody of Hegai, who had charge of the women. 9The girl pleased him and won his favor, and he quickly provided her with her cosmetic treatments and her portion of food, and with seven chosen maids from the king’s palace, and advanced her and her maids to the best place in the harem. 10Esther did not reveal her people or kindred, for Mordecai had charged her not to tell. 11Every day Mordecai would walk around in front of the court of the harem, to learn how Esther was and how she fared.
12The turn came for each girl to go in to King Ahasuerus, after being twelve months under the regulations for the women, since this was the regular period of their cosmetic treatment, six months with oil of myrrh and six months with perfumes and cosmetics for women. 13When the girl went in to the king she was given whatever she asked for to take with her from the harem to the king’s palace. 14In the evening she went in; then in the morning she came back to the second harem in custody of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch, who was in charge of the concubines; she did not go in to the king again, unless the king delighted in her and she was summoned by name.
15When the turn came for Esther daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had adopted her as his own daughter, to go in to the king, she asked for nothing except what Hegai the king’s eunuch, who had charge of the women, advised. Now Esther was admired by all who saw her. 16When Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus in his royal palace in the tenth month, which is the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign, 17the king loved Esther more than all the other women; of all the virgins she won his favor and devotion, so that he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. 18Then the king gave a great banquet to all his officials and ministers—“Esther’s banquet.” He also granted a holidayc to the provinces, and gave gifts with royal liberality.
Mordecai Discovers a Plot
19When the virgins were being gathered together,d Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate. 20Now Esther had not revealed her kindred or her people, as Mordecai had charged her; for Esther obeyed Mordecai just as when she was brought up by him. 21In those days, while Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate, Bigthan and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs, who guarded the threshold, became angry and conspired to assassinatee King Ahasuerus. 22But the matter came to the knowledge of Mordecai, and he told it to Queen Esther, and Esther told the king in the name of Mordecai. 23When the affair was investigated and found to be so, both the men were hanged on the gallows. It was recorded in the book of the annals in the presence of the king.
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a Heb a Benjaminite 6who
b Heb He
c Or an amnesty
d Heb adds a second time
e Heb to lay hands on
2.1–4 The search for a new queen.
2.1 Just what he remembered of Vashti is left vague; readers must determine among the many possibilities.
2.2 Servants are here personal pages, ad
ept at reading the king’s mind and addressing his concerns without his speaking a word.
2.3 Harem, lit. “the house of the women.”
2.4 This is an undertaking in which it seems the king can only benefit. The needs or desires of the young women involved are not taken into consideration.
2.5–7 Esther and Mordecai.
2.5 Mordecai is introduced as a Benjaminite linked to Saul, Israel’s first king. Shimei. See 2 Sam 16.5–14; 19.16–23; 1 Kings 2.8, 36–46. Kish, Saul’s father; see 1 Sam 9.1. Generations are telescoped, as the phrase son of can mean “descendant of.”
2.6 Others understand Mordecai, not Kish, to be the one exiled by Nebuchadnezzar in 597 BCE with Jeconiah, who is elsewhere called Jehoiachin (2 Kings 24.6–17). This poses chronological problems for a story set in the reign of Xerxes; thus the NRSV has v. 6 refer to Kish as Mordecai’s great-grandfather and the one exiled.
2.7 Esther, like other Jews in Diaspora, had both Jewish and non-Jewish names (Dan 1.6–7). Hadassah means “Myrtle” in Hebrew. Esther is an orphan, a particularly powerless position. Beautiful. Esther clearly fits the requirements of v. 3, but has no other defining characteristics.
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