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The Book of Esther tells a story of the deliverance of the Jewish people. We are shown a Persian emperor, Ahasuerus (loosely based on Xerxes, 485–464 B.C.), who makes momentous decisions for trivial reasons, and his wicked minister, Haman, who takes advantage of the king’s compliance to pursue a personal vendetta against the Jews by having a royal decree issued ordering their destruction. The threat is averted by two Jews, Esther and Mordecai. Their influence and intervention allow the Jews to turn the tables on their enemies and rout their attackers. This deliverance is commemorated by the inauguration of the Jewish festival of Purim on the fourteenth and fifteenth of Adar (mid-February through mid-March). The book confronts the modern reader with important themes, the evils of genocide and racism.

Esther’s character matures over the course of the narrative. As a girl she is recruited for the king’s harem because of her physical beauty. But at a key moment in the book, she rises to the challenge to risk her life for the salvation of her people. At that point, she transforms her status as queen from a position of personal privilege to one of power and public responsibility.

Esther’s uncle, Mordecai, appears first as an adoptive father, whose solicitude for Esther leads him to the king’s gate, where he foils a plot to assassinate the king. When he learns of the edict against the Jews, he encourages Esther to confront the king. The book ends with Mordecai as the king’s chief minister.

The Book of Esther

That night the Lord took sleep from the king, so he gave orders to his secretary to bring the book of daily records, and to read to him. He found the words written about Mordecai, how he had told the king about the two royal eunuchs who were on guard and sought to lay hands on King Artaxerxes. The king said, 


"What honor or dignity did we bestow on Mordecai?" 


While the king was inquiring about the goodwill shown by Mordecai, Haman was in the courtyard. The king asked, 


Now Haman had come to speak to the king about hanging Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared. The servants of the king answered, "Haman is standing in the courtyard." 


"What shall I do for the person whom I wish to honor?" 


"Whom would the king wish to honor more than me?" 


"For a person whom the king wishes to honor, let the king's servants bring out the fine linen robe that the king has worn, and the horse on which the king rides, and let both be given to one of the king's honored Friends, and let him robe the person whom the king loves and mount him on the horse, and let it be proclaimed through the open square of the city, saying, 


'Thus shall it be done to everyone whom the king honors.'" 


"You have made an excellent suggestion! Do just as you have said for Mordecai the Jew, who is on duty in the courtyard. And let nothing be omitted from what you have proposed." 


So Haman got the robe and the horse; he put the robe on Mordecai and made him ride through the open square of the city, proclaiming, 


"Thus shall it be done to everyone whom the king wishes to honor." 


Then Mordecai returned to the courtyard, and Haman hurried back to his house, mourning and with his head covered. 


Haman told his wife Zosara and his friends what had befallen him. His friends and his wife said to him, 


"If Mordecai is of the Jewish people, and you have begun to be humiliated before him, you will surely fall. You will not be able to defend yourself, because the living God is with him."


Mordecai’s Reward from the King