The Book of Esther: Overview
prepared by Skylar Hamilton Burris

Background/Timeline:

486       

Reign of Xerxes of Persia begins

477       

Esther, who has become Xerxes's queen, uses her charm to thwart a plot to kill the Jews.

464       

Reign of Artaxerxes I of Persia begins

Literary Techniques:

This book is rich with numerous ironies and poetic justice.

Summary:

• Mordecai, a Jewish official in the court of the Persian King Xerxes (Ahasuerus), raises his niece Esther. 

• Xerxes divorces his wife, Vashti, because she refuses to appear when summoned.  He takes Esther from his harem and makes her queen in Vashti's stead.  

• Mordecai overhears a plot against Xerxes, and he spoils it. 

• Mordecai refuses to bow to Haman, a Persian official, who is consequently enraged. Determined to wipe out the Jews, Haman persuades Xerxes to issue a decree that the Jews be destroyed. Mordecai asks Esther to intercede, but she says she can not go into the king's presence without being summoned. Mordecai reminds her that she too is a Jew and will not survive, and that "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?" (4:14).  Esther therefore agrees to go to the king without being summoned,  "which is not according to the law," resolving: "if I perish, I perish" (4:16). 

• So Esther dresses nicely and stands in the king's inner court, for which he can have her killed; but instead, he holds out the golden scepter to her, allowing her to speak. She asks that the king and Haman both come to a banquet and hear her request.

• Haman, glorying in his prominence, brags of being invited by the queen to the banquet, but he is still upset about Mordecai.  His wife advises him to build a gallows and to ask the king if  Mordecai may be hung on it.

• That night, the king is reading his chronicles, and sees that Mordecai had disclosed the plot against the king's life. He determines to reward him, and just then Haman enters the court to ask the king if he can hang Mordecai.  The king asks him: "What shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honor?" Haman, thinking the king means him, suggests he be paraded on a horse and adorned with royal apparel.  The king tells him to make haste and to do just that for Mordecai.   So Haman must parade Mordecai. 

• At the banquet, Esther announces that her people have been sold to be killed by Haman.  The king rises and leaves in anger. Haman falls upon Esther's bed to plead for his life. The king, happening upon Haman in this compromising position, and thinking he would rape Esther, determines to hang him.  Ironically, Haman is hung on the very gallows he built for Mordecai. The king then sets Mordecai over the house of Haman.

• Since the king can not reverse a decree, he allows Mordecai to write a new one, and gives him his  ring to seal it.  The new decree commands the Jews to be ready to defend themselves.

• On the day Haman's decree is to be carried out, all of the rulers around help the Jews, "because the fear of Mordecai fell upon them." So the Jews prevail against their enemies.

Interesting Facts:

• Esther is the only book of the Bible, other than the Song of Solomon, that contains no mention of God.

• Esther's Hebrew name was Hadassah, which means "myrtle." Her Persian name, Esther, means "star."

• This event is still commemorated by Jews today as the Feast of Purim. The name comes from the fact that Haman had "devised against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast Pur, that is, the lot, to consume them" (9:24).

• It is interesting to me that the book is entitled "Esther" and not "Mordecai." Although the book begins and ends with the focus on Mordecai, it is the courageous risk that Esther assumes when she intercedes for the Jews that is remembered and celebrated.

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