Esther 9

Why is the book called Esther?

The Greek version of Esther has 6 additional chapters. Catholic Bibles today place these chapters in a separate section after the Book of Esther. Most European Christians used the additional chapters until the Reformation. Protestant and Jewish Bibles use only the 10 Hebrew chapters.

The Reformers didn’t generally like Esther.

Neither Luther nor Calvin wrote commentaries on Esther. Luther criticized the books of 2 Maccabees and Esther this way:

Structure: 10 banquets and a Chiasm.

Fasting

Chiasm X

Ahasuerus aka Achashverosh aka Xerxes

Purpose of Esther

Explain why we Jews celebrate Purim.

Show God working where we don’t expect him.

Esther 1: Queen Vashti Deposed

King Ahasuerus (Xerxes I) holds a lavish banquet for his nobles in Susa.

On the final day, he commands Queen Vashti to appear to display her beauty.

Vashti refuses, and the king, advised by his counselors, deposes her to prevent other women from disobeying their husbands.

A decree is issued that every man should be ruler of his own household.

Esther 2: Esther Becomes Queen

A search begins for a new queen.

Esther, a beautiful Jewish woman raised by her cousin Mordecai, is taken to the palace.

She keeps her Jewish identity secret, as instructed by Mordecai.

Esther wins favor with everyone, including the king, and is crowned queen.

Mordecai later discovers a plot to assassinate the king and reports it through Esther. The conspirators are executed, and the event is recorded in the royal chronicles.

Esther 3: Haman’s Plot Against the Jews

The king promotes Haman to a high position.

Everyone bows to Haman, but Mordecai refuses.

Haman is enraged and plots not just to punish Mordecai but to destroy all Jews in the empire.

He convinces the king to issue a decree for their extermination, and the date is set by casting lots (“Purim”).

Esther 4: Esther’s Decision to Act

Mordecai mourns publicly and urges Esther to plead with the king.

Initially hesitant, Esther fears approaching the king uninvited (a capital offense).

Mordecai challenges her, saying, “Who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

Esther agrees to act and asks the Jews to fast for three days as she prepares to approach the king.

Esther 5:

Esther bravely approaches the king and invites him and Haman to two banquets, while Haman, consumed by pride and anger at Mordecai, plots to have him executed.

summarize

Esther 6:

The king can’t sleep and learns that Mordecai was never honored for saving his life. Haman, thinking the honor is for himself, suggests a grand reward—only to be told to give it to Mordecai. Haman is humiliated and warned that his downfall is coming.

Esther 7:

Queen Esther reveals to King Xerxes that Haman is plotting to destroy her people. The king is furious, and when he sees Haman begging Esther for mercy, he misinterprets it as an assault. Haman is then executed on the gallows he built for Mordecai.

Esther 8:

After Haman’s death, King Xerxes gives his estate to Esther and promotes Mordecai. Esther pleads with the king to save the Jews from Haman’s decree. The king allows Mordecai to write a new decree, permitting the Jews to defend themselves. That decree is sent throughout the empire. The Jews rejoice, and many people begin to support them out of fear.

Esther 9:1–2 CSB

The king’s command and law went into effect on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month Adar. On the day when the Jews’ enemies had hoped to overpower them, just the opposite happened. The Jews overpowered those who hated them. In each of King Ahasuerus’s provinces the Jews assembled in their cities to attack those who intended to harm them. Not a single person could withstand them; fear of them fell on every nationality.

Esther 9:3–4 CSB

All the officials of the provinces, the satraps, the governors, and the royal civil administrators aided the Jews because they feared Mordecai. For Mordecai exercised great power in the palace, and his fame spread throughout the provinces as he became more and more powerful.

Esther 9:5–9 CSB

The Jews put all their enemies to the sword, killing and destroying them. They did what they pleased to those who hated them. In the fortress of Susa the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men, including Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha, Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha, Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai, and Vaizatha.

Esther 9:10 CSB

They killed these ten sons of Haman son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews. However, they did not seize any plunder.

Esther 9:11–12 CSB

On that day the number of people killed in the fortress of Susa was reported to the king. The king said to Queen Esther, “In the fortress of Susa the Jews have killed and destroyed five hundred men, including Haman’s ten sons. What have they done in the rest of the royal provinces? Whatever you ask will be given to you. Whatever you seek will also be done.”

Esther 9:13–15 CSB

Esther answered, “If it pleases the king, may the Jews who are in Susa also have tomorrow to carry out today’s law, and may the bodies of Haman’s ten sons be hung on the gallows.” The king gave the orders for this to be done, so a law was announced in Susa, and they hung the bodies of Haman’s ten sons. The Jews in Susa assembled again on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and killed three hundred men in Susa, but they did not seize any plunder.

Esther 9:16–17 CSB

The rest of the Jews in the royal provinces assembled, defended themselves, and gained relief from their enemies. They killed seventy-five thousand of those who hated them, but they did not seize any plunder. They fought on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar and rested on the fourteenth, and it became a day of feasting and rejoicing.

Esther 9:18–19 CSB

But the Jews in Susa had assembled on the thirteenth and the fourteenth days of the month. They rested on the fifteenth day of the month, and it became a day of feasting and rejoicing. This explains why the rural Jews who live in villages observe the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a time of rejoicing and feasting. It is a holiday when they send gifts to one another.

Esther 9:20–22 CSB

Mordecai recorded these events and sent letters to all the Jews in all of King Ahasuerus’s provinces, both near and far. He ordered them to celebrate the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar every year because during those days the Jews gained relief from their enemies. That was the month when their sorrow was turned into rejoicing and their mourning into a holiday. They were to be days of feasting, rejoicing, and of sending gifts to one another and to the poor.

Esther 9:23–28 CSB

So the Jews agreed to continue the practice they had begun, as Mordecai had written them to do. For Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them. He cast the pur—that is, the lot—to crush and destroy them. But when the matter was brought before the king, he commanded by letter that the evil plan Haman had devised against the Jews return on his own head and that he should be hanged with his sons on the gallows. For this reason these days are called Purim, from the word pur. Because of all the instructions in this letter as well as what they had witnessed and what had happened to them, the Jews bound themselves, their descendants, and all who joined with them to a commitment that they would not fail to celebrate these two days each and every year according to the written instructions and according to the time appointed. These days are remembered and celebrated by every generation, family, province, and city, so that these days of Purim will not lose their significance in Jewish life and their memory will not fade from their descendants.

Esther 9:29–32 CSB

Queen Esther, daughter of Abihail, along with Mordecai the Jew, wrote this second letter with full authority to confirm the letter about Purim. He sent letters with assurances of peace and security to all the Jews who were in the 127 provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, in order to confirm these days of Purim at their proper time just as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had established them and just as they had committed themselves and their descendants to the practices of fasting and lamentation. So Esther’s command confirmed these customs of Purim, which were then written into the record.

How does Esther 9 relate to the Gospel?

Salvation of the Jews is realized after 12 months. Our salvation will be make real one day too.

Reversal of fate in Esther is like the reversal of the cross… and the reversal we receive as Christians.

Purim is a feast to memorialize salvation. The Lord’s Supper is a feast to memorialize our salvation.

God is always working.