Esther (ĕs'ter), a star, the planet Venus. A Hebrew maiden, the daughter of Abihail, of the tribe of Benjamin. At the death of her father and mother she was adopted by her cousin Mordecai, the descendant of a Jew who had been carried away captive with Jehoiachin. Mordecai resided at Shushan, or Susa. See Mordecai. On the repudiation of Vashti, Ahasuerus, king of Persia, ordered a large number of young virgins to be collected throughout his realm, and brought into his harem. Esther (her Persian name was Hadassah) was distinguished among these, and was chosen to bear the title of queen. By her influence the plot of Haman to destroy the Jews was frustrated. Haman was hanged. The Jews revenged themselves on their foes, and Mordecai was advanced to a high place in the empire. It was common with Persian kings to have many wives, and Esther was one of these.

This book is more purely historical than any other book of Scripture; and it has this remarkable peculiarity that the name of God does not occur in it from first to last in any form. It has, however, been well observed that "though the name of God be not in it, his finger is." The book wonderfully exhibits the providential government of God.

(a) (4th century BCE) First cousin of Mordecai, selected as King Ahasuerus's queen after Vashti's execution. At Mordecai's behest, she brought about Ahasuerus's annulment of Haman's decree calling for the extermination of the Jews. (b) A common Jewish name.

fast observed on the thirteenth of Adar in commemoration of Queen Esther�s fast at the time of the miracle of Purim

The Persian name of Hadassah, daughter of Abihail, son of Shimei, son of Kish, a Benjamite. Being an orphan she was brought up by her cousin Mordecai. She was fair and beautiful and was thought suitable to be presented to the king. God gave her favour in the eyes of the royal household, and also caused the king to choose her for his queen, though she was a captive. The king is called Ahasuerus, but he is supposed to have been the Xerxes of history. Mordecai, refusing to bow to Haman the Agagite, roused the wrath of the latter, who procured an edict for the destruction on a certain day of all the Jews in the empire. Esther was hereupon charged by Mordecai to plead with the king for their deliverance. She therefore called all the Jews in Shushan to fast with her three days and nights, saying she would go in to the king unbidden, and if she perished she perished. God gave her favour in the eyes of the king and he held out the sceptre to her. At a banquet she told the king that Haman had sold her and her people. The king was enraged, and being told at this moment of the gallows on which Haman intended to hang Mordecai (who had been the means of the king's life being saved), orders were at once given to hang Haman thereon. Esther had again to endanger her life by appearing before the king unbidden; but again the king received her graciously and gave her the desired authority to rescue the Jews from their threatened calamity: they were allowed to defend themselves when attacked by their enemies. By a remarkable providence, the king not being able to sleep one night, Mordecai had been brought into favour, and he was now exalted to fill the office of Haman. This gave the Jews great advantage, for the provincial rulers all stood in fear of Mordecai. When the appointed day arrived, instead of the Jews being destroyed, they were able, not only to defend themselves, but avenge themselves on their enemies, ending with a day of feasting and gladness. The days of deliverance were appointed by Esther and Mordecai as an annual festival. See ESTHER, BOOK OF.

The queen of Ahasuerus, and heroine of the book that bears her name. She was a Jewess named Hadas'sah (the myrtle), but when she entered the royal harem she received the name by which she henceforth became known (Esther 2:7 ). It is a Syro-Arabian modification of the Persian word satarah, which means a star. She was the daughter of Abihail, a Benjamite. Her family did not avail themselves of the permission granted by Cyrus to the exiles to return to Jerusalem; and she resided with her cousin Mordecai, who held some office in the household of the Persian king at "Shushan in the palace." Ahasuerus having divorced Vashti, chose Esther to be his wife. Soon after this he gave Haman the Agagite, his prime minister, power and authority to kill and extirpate all the Jews throughout the Persian empire. By the interposition of Esther this terrible catastrophe was averted. Haman was hanged on the gallows he had intended for Mordecai (Esther 7 ); and the Jews established an annual feast, the feast of Purim (q.v.), in memory of their wonderful deliverance. This took place about fifty-two years after the Return, the year of the great battles of Plataea and Mycale (B.C. 479). Esther appears in the Bible as a "woman of deep piety, faith, courage, patriotism, and caution, combined with resolution; a dutiful daughter to her adopted father, docile and obedient to his counsels, and anxious to share the king's favour with him for the good of the Jewish people. There must have been a singular grace and charm in her aspect and manners, since 'she obtained favour in the sight of all them that looked upon her' (Esther 2:15 ). That she was raised up as an instrument in the hand of God to avert the destruction of the Jewish people, and to afford them protection and forward their wealth and peace in their captivity, is also manifest from the Scripture account."

(ehss' thuhr) Persian personal name meaning, “Ishtar.” Heroine of biblical Book of Esther whose Jewish name was Hadassah. Esther is the story of a Jewish orphan girl raised by her uncle, Mordecai, in Persia. She became queen when Queen Vashti refused to appear at a banquet hosted by her husband, King Ahasuerus. Esther did not reveal that she was Jewish. Mordecai heard about a plot against the king's life which he reported through Esther. Haman was made prime minister and began to plot against Mordecai and the Jews because they would not pay homage to him. The king issued a decree that all who would not bow down would be killed. Esther learned of the plot and sent for Mordecai. He challenged her with the idea, “Who knoweth whether those art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14 ). She asked Mordecai and the Jews to fast with her while she decided. She entered the king's presence unsummoned which could have meant her death. The king granted her request. Haman was tricked into honoring Mordecai, his enemy. At a banquet, Esther revealed Haman's plot to destroy her and her people, the Jews. Haman was hanged on the gallows prepared for Mordecai. Mordecai was promoted, and Esther got the king to revoke Haman's decree to destroy the Jews. The Jews killed and destroyed their enemies. The book closes with the institution of the festival of Purim. The Book of Esther The Book of Esther has been placed among the writings in the Old Testament. It, along with four others small books—Song of Solomon, Ruth, Ecclesiastes, and Lamentations, was placed on one scroll called the “Meghilloth” and was used for festival readings. Many scholars feel that the Book of Esther is a short historical novel or short story sprinkled with historical data and names to make its message more urgent and important. Thus it would be comparable to Jesus' parables. Others think it is an attempt to write history with free interspersion of speeches and conversation following the conventions of history writing of its day. Others insist on the historicity of every detail, pointing to Esther 10:2 . The Purpose of the Book The purpose is not clear from a reading of the book. It considers the question of destruction or survival of the Jews under persecution. Though the book deals with religious issues, the name of God is never mentioned in the book. The writer deliberately avoids the name of God. When Esther prepares herself to present herself unrequested into the presence of the king, prayer does not accompany fasting. Also vengeance is more prominent than devotion. An important function of the book is to explain the observance of the festival of Purim. The Purim festival was a Jewish commemoration of deliverance—deliverance of the Jews from the hands of the Babylonians. If this is the purpose of the book, then that explains the absence of the name of God. The book was intended to be read at the Purim festival—a festival of merrymaking, noise, and conviviality. Thus the major theme of the book, persecution returning on the head of those who initiate it, leads through all the details of the story to the final victory which Purim celebrates. Theological Teachings Many feel that the religious concepts taught in the book are sub-Christian. Probably the persons who can understand and appreciate the attitudes of Esther are those who have lived through persecution and occupation by others. In times of peace it is incomprehensible and unforgivable that hard suffering creates such rigidity and callousness. Though the book does not mention the name of God, it has a definite theology. Throughout, the book points to justice and indicates that faithfulness to the covenant people is a duty whether it pays or not. Mordecai's insistence that Esther must intervene to save her people is based on the idea that a good Jew must worship and be loyal to the covenant God and to Him alone. To be faithful to Him means to be faithful to His people. The book teaches the axiom that “the Lord helps those who help themselves.” During the days of oppressive persecution the very survival of the people depended upon the Jews doing something. The book shows the sovereignty of God working in a foreign land to preserve His people. It shows God working through people of unpretentious backgrounds as they prove faithful to Him. It shows ultimate punishment for those who oppose God's people. It calls for celebration of God's deliverance. Outline I. Humble faithfulness can lead to large responsibilities (Esther 1:1-2:18 ). A. Political power of ungodly rulers may be far-reaching (Esther 1:1-8 ). B. Protection of personal rights may result in loss of position and rights (Esther 1:9-15 ). C. Family relationships and respect cannot be enforced by political means (Esther 1:16-22 ). D. Self-giving love and loyalty to family, nation, and God may require hiding one's identity to gain opportunity to serve (Esther 2:1-11 ). E. Humble obedience can lead to opportunities to serve (Esther 2:2-18 ). II. Faithfulness to one's people can be expressed through service to a foreign ruler (Esther 2:19-3:15 ). A. Loyalty to one's people does not require participation in conspiracy against foreign rulers (Esther 2:19-23 ). B. Loyalty to the foreign ruler does not mean participating in immoral government practices (Esther 3:1-2 ). C. Loyalty to God and godly traditions over loyalty to foreign rulers may cause personal and even national persecution (Esther 3:3-15 ). III. Positions of influence bring responsibility to act for God's people (Esther 4:1-17 ). A. Mourning rites are appropriate responses to national danger (Esther 4:1-4 ). B. God's people must act and pray in times of danger (Esther 4:5-17 ). IV. Responsible actions for God are honored by God's actions for His people (Esther 5:1-8:17 ). A. Self-giving action is rewarded in unexpected ways (Esther 5:1-8 ). B. Human pride leads to rash actions (Esther 5:9-14 ). C. Honor comes to God's faithful at the opportune moment (Esther 6:1-3 ). D. Human pride often leads to humiliation (Esther 6:4-12 ). E. God's people will experience vindication eventually (Esther 6:13-14 ). F. Brave action for God's people brings deliverance (Esther 7:1-10 ). G. God's providence brings reward for faithfulness and joy to God's people (Esther 8:1-17 ). V. Celebration through the ages helps God's people remember His salvation and the lessons of history (Esther 9:1-32 ). VI. Work for God's people can bring new opportunities for service and honor (Esther 10:1-3 ). Jerry Stubblefield

(See ESTHER.)

A Jewess of Benjamin, descendant of the captivity carried to Babylon with Jeconiah, 599 or 597 B.C.; born abroad, of a family which chose to remain instead of returning to Jerusalem. Kish, the ancestor of Mordecai (Esther 2:5-7; Esther 2:15), had been carried away with Jeconiah; thus Mordecai was contemporary with Xerxes, which harmonizes with the view that (See AHASUERUS is Xerxes. Mordecai and his uncle Abihail's daughter (his own adopted ward) lived at Shushan, the Persian royal city. Mordecai probably held some office in "the palace" (Esther 2:5; Esther 2:21-23). Her original name Hadassah means "myrtle." Her Persian name Esther means and is akin to "star," implying like Venus good fortune. Vashti the queen having been divorced for refusing to show the people and the princes her beauty, Esther was chosen out of the fairest virgins collected out of all the provinces, as her successor. Ahasuerus, unaware of her race, granted leave to Haman his favorite, who was offended with Mordecai for not doing him reverence, to destroy the whole people to which Mordecai belonged. Esther, at the risk of her own life, uninvited entered the king's presence, and obtained a virtual reversal of the decree against the Jews. Haman was hung on the gallows designed by him for Mordecai (Psalms 7:16). The Jews defended themselves so effectually on the day appointed by Haman for their slaughter that in Shushan the palace alone they slew 500 and Haman's ten sons on one day, and, by Esther's request granted by the king, slew 300 at Shushan; and the Jews in the provinces, "standing for their lives," slew 75,000, "but on the spoil laid they not their hand." So thenceforward the feast Purlin (lots) on the 14th and 15th of the month Adar (February and March) was kept by the Jews as "a day of gladness and of sending portions to one another, and gifts to the poor." "Esther the queen wrote with all authority to confirm this second letter of Purim" (Esther 8:7-14; Esther 9:20; Esther 9:29-32); "her decree confirmed these matters of Purlin." The continuance of this feast by the Jews to our day confirms the history. It is also confirmed by the casual way in which 2 Maccabees 15:36 alludes to the feast ("Mardochaeus' day") as kept by the Jews in Nicanor's time. In the 3rd year of Xerxes (Esther 1:3-4) the disastrous expedition against Greece (foretold in Daniel 11:2, "by his strength through his riches he shall stir up all against the realm of Grecia") was determined on in an assembly at Susa (Herodotus vii. 8). The Book of Esther describes in the same year, the 3rd, the lavish feasting during which Vashti was deposed, 488 B.C. In his 7th year the battles of Plataea and Mycale, according to secular history, drove Xerxes in fright from Sardis to Susa. So, in Scripture, it was not until the tenth month of this 7th year that Esther was made queen. The long delay between Vashti's deposal and Esther's accession is satisfactorily accounted for by the Greek expedition which intervened. On returning from it Xerxes tried to bury his disgrace in the pleasures of the seraglio (Herodotus vii. 35,114); as indeed he had begun it and, according to Herodotus, at intervals continued it with feastings. Possibly Vashti answers to the Amestris of secular history, who was queen consort from the beginning to the end of his reign, and was queen mother under his son and successor Artaxerxes. Esther cannot be Amestris, since the latter was daughter of a Persian noble, Otanes; if Vashti be Amestris, then her disgrace was only temporary. Or else Vashti and Esther were both only "secondary wives" with the title "queen." A young "secondary wife" might for a time eclipse the queen consort in the favor of the king; but the latter would ultimately maintain her due position. Esther's influence lasted at least from Ahasuerus: 7th to the 12th year and beyond, but how far beyond we know not (Esther 3:7; Esther 3:10). His marriage to a Jewess was in contravention of the law that he must marry a wife belonging to one of the seven great Persian families. But Xerxes herein, as previously in requiring the Queen Vashti to appear unveiled before revelers (such an outrage on oriental decorum that she refused to come), set at nought Persian law and prejudice. The massacre of 75,000 by Jews (Esther 9:16) would be unlikely, if they were Persians; but they were not, they were the Jews' enemies in the provinces, idolaters, naturally hating the spiritual monotheism of the Jews, whereas the Persians sympathized with it. The Persians in the provinces would be only the officials, whose orders from court were not to take part against the Jews. The persons slain were subject races, whose lives as such Xerxes made little account of. The Book of Esther supplies the gap between Ezra 6 and Ezra 7. Xerxes, or the Ahasuerus of Esther, intervenes between Darius and Artaxerxes. The "feast unto all his princes," etc., for "an hundred and fourscore days" (Esther 1:3-4) was protracted thus long in order that. all the princes in their turn might partake of it; for all could not, consistently with their duties in the provinces, have been present all that time. The Book of Esther describes the stare of the exiled people of God in Persia, and thus complements the narratives by Ezra and Nehemiah of what took place in the Holy Land. Possibly Mordecai was the author; for the minute details of the banquet, of the names of the chamberlains and eunuchs, of Haman's wife and sons, and of the usages of the palace, imply such an intimate acquaintance with all that concerned Esther as best fits Mordecai himself. Similarly, Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, who held official posts in the Persian court, wrote under inspiration the books which bear their names, and which describe the relations of the Jews to the pagan world power. This view accords with Esther 9:20; Esther 9:23; Esther 9:32; Esther 9:10. Ezra and the men of the great synagogue at Jerusalem probably edited and added it to the canon, having previously received it, and the book of Daniel, while at the Persian court. The last of the great synagogue was Simon the Just, high priest 310-291 B.C. The canon contained it at latest by that time, and how long earlier is unknown. "The chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia" (Esther 10:2) were at the time of the writer accessible, and the very order whereby Media is put before Persia implies it cannot have been much later than the time of the events recorded, the former and middle part of Xerxes' reign, before Artabanus became Xerxes' favorite, and Mordecai's (perhaps = Matacas the eunuch) influence waned. The Book of Esther was placed by the Jews among the Kethubim (hagiographa), in the portion called the five volumes, Megilloth. Maimonides says that in Messiah's days the prophets and hagiographa shall pass away, except "Esther," which will remain with the Pentateuch. It is read through in the synagogues during Purim. The scribes wrote the names of Haman's ten sons in three perpendicular columns of three, three, four, hanging upon three parallel cords, three upon each, one above another, representing the hanging of Haman's sons. The absence of the name of GOD is unique to this book; the Song of Solomon similarly has no express mention of GOD. The design apparently was, in the absence of the visible theocracy while God's people were under the pagan world power, that the historic facts should speak for themselves with expressive silence (just as the book of nature does: Psalm 19; Romans 1:20), attesting God's providence even when God hid His name and verbal manifestation. When God is invisible He is not the less active. The very absence of the name sets believers about inquiring why? and then they discover that God works no less by His providence in the world where He is veiled than by His grace in the church wherein He is revealed. The hand of Providence is to be traced palpably in the overruling of the king's reckless feastings and wanton deposing of Vashti because she shrank from violating her own self respect, to laying the train for His appointed instrument, Esther's elevation; in Mordecai's saving the king's life from the two would-be assassins, and the recording of the fact in the royal chronicles, preparing the way for his receiving the royal honors which his enemy designed for himself; in Haman's casting Pur, the lot, for an auspicious day for destroying the Jews, and the result being, by God's providence which counterworked his appeal to chance, that the feast of Purlin is perpetually kept to commemorate the Jews' preservation and his destruction; in Esther's patriotic venture before the king after previous fasting three days, and God's interposing to incline the king's heart to hold out to her the golden scepter, ensuring to her at once life and her request (Proverbs 21:1); in Haman's pride at being invited to the queen's banquet and his preparing the gallows for Haman, and Providence, the very night before it, withdrawing sleep from the king so that the chronicles were read for his pleasure, and Mordecai's service was thus brought to his remembrance, so that when Haman came to solicit that Mordecai should be hanged the king met him with the question, "What shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honor?" Then, in Haman supposing himself to be the object of honor, and suggesting the highest royal honors (such as Joseph had from the Egyptian king, Genesis 41:43), and thus unwittingly being constrained with his own voice and hand to glorify him whom he had meant to destroy; then in the denouement at the queen's banquet, and Haman's execution on the very gallows he erected for Haman (Psalms 7:14-16); and the consequent preservation from extinction of the holy race of whom Messiah must spring according to prophecy, and of whom Isaiah (Isaiah 54:17) writes, "no weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against thee thou shalt condemn." Compare Isaiah 6:13; Isaiah 65:8; Jeremiah 30:10-11; Zechariah 2:8-9. The Septuagint, at, a much later date, interpolated copiously the name of GOD and other apocryphal additions. The purity of the Hebrew canon stands out in striking contrast with the laxity of the Alexandrian Greek version. The style of the Hebrew in Esther is like that of the contemporary Ezra and Chronicles, with just such a mixture of Persian and Chaldee words as we should expect in a work of the age and country to which Esther professes to belong. Jerome (Proleg. Gal.) mentions the book by name. So Augustine, De Civit. Dei; and Origen (in Eusebius, Hist. Ecclesiastes, 6:25). Haman the Agagite (Esther 3:1; Numbers 24:7; Numbers 24:20), as being of the blood royal of Amalek, was doomed to destruction with that accursed nation (Exodus 17:14-16). His wife and all his friends shared his guilt (Esther 5:14), and therefore by a retributive providence shared his punishment (Esther 9). Esther's own character is in the main attractive: dutiful to her adoptive father, and regardful of his counsels though a queen; having faith in the high destiny of her nation, and believing with Mordecai that even "if she held her peace at the crisis deliverance would arise to the Jews from another place," and that providentially she had "come to the kingdom for such a time as this" (Esther 4:14); brave, yet not foolhardy, but fully conscious of her peril, not having received the king's call for 30 days, with pious preparation seeking aid from above in her patriotic venture; "obtaining favor in the sight of all them that looked upon her "(Esther 2:15). At the same time Scripture does not hide from us the fact of her not being above the vindictiveness of the age and the country, in her requesting that Haman's ten sons should be hanged, and a second day given the Jews to take vengeance on the enemies who had sought to kill them.

Scroll of Esther, The: The book of Tanach describing Haman's plot to annihilate the Jews, Mordecai and Esther's successful foiling thereof, and the institution of the holiday of Purim. It is read every year on Purim. [16 related articles; www.c

Understanding the Book . For many Christians, the Book of Esther is the basis for a Jewish festival that found no counterpart in the Christian calendar. The book is never alluded to in the New Testament or Dead Sea Scrolls, and even comments about it by the church fathers are rare. The book appears to be anthropocentric, and apart from fasting (4:16), there are no distinctly religious practices or concepts. God, prayer, the covenant, sacrifice, the temple, the promised land, as well as virtues such as love, kindness, mercy, and forgiveness are not mentioned. Because of the many omissions, the Greek version of Esther added personal prayers of the two main characters and reference to God. Moreover, a number of the moral and ethical practices of Esther have been considered questionable. Esther hid her identity from the king, was willing to marry a Gentile, did not feel out of place in a harem, had no mercy on Haman, did not observe dietary laws, was at first not willing to help her own people, and sanctioned the plundering of enemies. Furthermore, the author never explicitly condemns her shortcomings, but seems to describe her triumphs with approval. In spite of this, the Book of Esther was included in the canon and has significant theological value. The Place of Haman . There is at least one aspect in Esther that is often overlooked: the association of Haman with the house of Agag, the king of Amalek (1 Samuel 15:30 ), the enemy of Israel. Long before Esther, God had ordained that there would be war with Amalek for generations (Exodus 17:16 ), and that his name would be blotted from heaven (Deuteronomy 25:19 ; 1 Samuel 15:17-18 ). Although the Amalekite king Agag was captured, Saul spared him (he was ultimately slain by Samuel); thus his descendant Haman survived to contend with the Jews. (The Chronicler describes the destruction of the Amalekites later during the reign of Hezekiah ^[1], but the writer of Esther believes that they did not come to a complete end. ) Likewise, the mention of Kish (the father of Saul) at the end of Mordecai's genealogy (2:5) shows that he was descended from the mortal enemy of the Agagites. Mordecai would thus fulfill the command of God to Saul. The Jews did not take the spoils of Haman because of the dictum of not dividing the booty of Amalek (1 Samuel 15:21 ). Although falling down before a superior in Israel was common, it is easier in this context to understand why Mordecai did not fall prostrate before Haman. Mordecai was not exhibiting pride in this case, but refused to bow down before a descendant of Agag. Josephus understands Mordecai as following the law of vendetta; his personal conflict was part of the providential plan. The author of Esther sees the destruction of Haman as salvation from God, who pursued his plan independent of human action. The Jews were saved, not so much for their sake, but for the fulfillment of the destruction of the Amalekites. Their deliverance became a part of a universal pattern of history. Purim . Another purpose of the book is to provide the historical grounds and cultic significance for the celebration of Purim, a festival that is not mentioned in the Torah. The writer, however, spends little time on the subject (3:7; 9:20-32). It is not certain whether it was a pagan festival (either Babylonian, Persian, or indigenous) that was appropriated for Jewish purposes. Even the names of Mordecai and Esther betray a pagan background. Purim appears to be an Akkadian term for lot or chance; its etymology, however, does not help us retrieve the source of the festival. The lots were used in dice throwing, serving a purpose to those who had a widespread belief in a predestined fate with which people needed to cooperate if they were to succeed. The dice were thrown to establish auspicious dates for all known events. The Jews lived in such a culture in Persia; they needed to theologically comprehend a belief in the power of God to overrule the way the dice fell. God was able to annul the good or bad omen to deliver his people. This may explain why God is not overtly mentioned in Esther. The assurance provided by Purim was that no matter how severe the threat to God's people, he would help them. Human responsibility is prominent in Esther but not isolated from God's work; Esther and Mordecai were placed providentially to act in behalf of the people. Purim answered questions the Jews had about their future as scattered groups in alien cultures. Like the Passover, it celebrated deliverance from death. The writer of Esther kept the original story, even with its questionable brutality, nationalism, intrigue, and secularism, but gave it a new theological interpretation within the worship and sacred tradition of Israel. The story of Esther was made relevant for future generations, while Purim was drawn into the orbit of Israel's religious heritage. Furthermore, the writer of Esther has stated the strongest case for the religious significance and survival of the Jewish people in the ethnic sense. In fact, the inclusion of Esther in the Christian canon has mitigated the attempt to spiritualize the concept of Israel. Mark W. Chavalas See also Feasts and Festivals of Israel Bibliography . J. Baldwin, Esther: An Introduction and Commentary ; S. Berg, The Book of Esther ; E. Bickerman, Four Strange Books of the Bible: Jonah, Daniel, Koheleth, and Esther ; T. Gaster, Purim and Hannakah in Custom and Tradition ; W. W. Hallo, BA (1983): 19-27; F. B. Huey, Esther ; J. Lewy, Revue Hittite et Asianique 5 (1939): 117-24; C. A. Moore, Esther ; S. Talmon, VT 13 (1963): 419-55.

ESTHER (‘star’). The Jewish name, of which this is the Persian (or Babylonian) form, is Hadassah (cf. Esther 2:7 ), which means ‘myrtle.’ She was the daughter of Abihail, of the tribe of Benjamin, and was brought up, an orphan, in the house of her cousin Mordecai , in Shushan. Owing to her beauty she became an inmate of the king’s palace, and on Vashti the queen being disgraced, Esther was chosen by Xerxes, the Persian king, to succeed her. The combined wisdom of Mordecai and courage of Esther became the means of doing a great service to the very large number of Jews living under Persian rule; for, owing to the craft and hatred of Haman , the chief court favourite, the Jews were in danger of being massacred en bloc ; but Esther, instigated by Mordecai, revealed her Jewish nationality to the king, who realized thereby that she was in danger of losing her life, owing to the royal decree, obtained by Haman, to the effect that all those of Jewish nationality in the king’s dominions were to be put to death. Esther’s action brought about an entire reversal of the decree. Haman was put to death, and Mordecai was honoured by the king, while Esther’s position was still further strengthened; the Jews were permitted to take revenge on those who had sought their destruction. Mordecai and Esther put forth two decrees: first, that the 14th and 15th days of the month Adar were to be kept annually as ‘days of feasting and gladness, and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor’ ( Esther 9:22 ); and, second, that a day of mourning and fasting should be observed in memory of the sorrow which the king’s first decree had occasioned to the Jewish people ( Esther 9:29-32 , cf. Esther 4:1-3 ). The attempt to identify Esther with Amestris, who, according to Herodotus, was one of the wives of Xerxes, has been made more than once in the past; but it is now universally recognized that this identification will not bear examination. All that is known of Amestris her heathen practices, and the fact that her father, a Persian general named Otanes, is specifically mentioned by Herodotus proves that she cannot possibly have been a Jewess; besides which, the two names are fundamentally distinct. As to whether Esther was really a historical personage, see the next article. W. O. E. Oesterley.

ESTHER, BOOK OF 1. Place in the Canon . The Book of Esther belongs to the second group of the third division of the Hebrew Canon the Kethubim , or ‘Writings’ a group which comprises the Megilloth , or ‘Rolls,’ of which there are five, Song of Songs, Ruth, Lam., Eccles., Esther. It was not without much discussion that Esther was admitted into the Canon, for its right to be there was disputed both by the Jewish authorities and by the early Christian Church. As late as the 2nd cent. a.d. the greatest Jewish teacher of his day, Rabbi Jehudah, said, ‘The Book of Esther defileth not the hands’ ^[1]. In some of the earlier lists of the Biblical books in the Christian Church that of Esther is omitted; Athanasius (d. 373) regarded it as uncanonical, so too Gregory Nazianzen (d. 391); Jacob of Edessa ( c ^[2] . 700) reckons it among the apocryphal books. It is clear that Esther was not universally accepted as a book of the Bible until a late date. 2. Date and authorship . The language of Esther points unmistakably to a late date; it shows signs, among other things, of an attempt to assimilate itself to classical Hebrew; the artificiality herein betrayed stamps the writer as one who was more familiar with Aramaic than with Hebrew. Further, the Persian empire is spoken of as belonging to a period of history long since past (cf. ‘in those days,’ Esther 1:2 ); the words, ‘There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of thy kingdom’ ( Esther 3:8 ), show that the ‘Dispersion’ had already for long been an accomplished fact. Moreover, the spirit of the book points to the time when great bitterness and hatred had been engendered between Jew and Gentile. The probability, therefore, is that Esther belongs to the earlier half of the 2nd cent. b.c. Of its authorship we know nothing further than that the writer was a Jew who must have been in some way connected with Persia; the book shows him to have been one whose racial prejudice was much stronger than his religious fervour; it is extraordinary that a book of the Bible should never once mention the sacred name of God; the secular spirit which is so characteristic of the book must have been the main reason of the disinclination to incorporate it into the Scriptures, which has been already referred to. 3. Contents . The book purports to give the history of how the Jewish feast of Purim (‘Lots’) first originated. Xerxes, king of the Medes and Persians, gives a great feast to the nobles and princes of the 127 provinces over which he rules; the description of the decorations in the palace garden on this occasion recalls the language of the Arabian Nights . Vashti , the queen, also gives a feast to her women. On the seventh day of the feast the king commands Vashti to appear before the princes in order that they may see her beauty. Upon her refusing to obey, the king is advised to divorce her. In her place, Esther, one of Vashti’s maidens, becomes queen. Esther is the adopted daughter of a Jew named Mordecai , who had been the means of saving the king from the hands of assassins. But Mordecai falls out with the court favourite, Haman , on account of his refusing to bow down and do reverence to the latter. Haman resolves to avenge himself for this insult; he has lots cast in order to find out which is the most suitable day for presenting a petition to the king; the day being appointed, the petition is presented and granted, the promised payment of ten thousand talents of silver into the royal treasury ( Esther 3:9 ) no doubt contributing towards this. The petition was that a royal decree should be put forth to the effect that all Jews were to be killed, and their belongings treated as spoil. On this becoming known, there is great grief among the Jews. Esther, instructed by Mordecai, undertakes to interpose for her people before the king. She invites both the king and Haman to a banquet, and repeats the invitation for the next day. Haman, believing himself to be in favour with the royal couple, determines to gratify his hatred for Mordecai in a special way, and prepares a gallows on which to hang him ( Esther 5:14 ). In the night after the first banquet, Ahasuerus, being unable to sleep, commands that the book of records of the chronicles be brought; in these he finds the account of Mordecai’s former service, which has never been rewarded. Haman is sent for, and the king asks him what should be done to the man whom the king delights to honour; Haman thinking that it is he himself who is uppermost in the king’s mind, describes how such a man should be honoured. The king thereupon directs that all that Haman has said is to be done to Mordecai. Haman returns in grief to his house. While taking counsel there with his friends, the king’s chamberlains come to escort him to the queen’s second banquet ( Esther 6:1 ff.). During this Esther makes her petition to the king on behalf of her people, as well as for her own life, which is threatened, for the royal decree is directed against all Jews and Jewesses within his domains; she also discloses Haman’s plot against Mordecai. The king, as the result of this, orders Haman to be hanged on the gallows which he had prepared for Mordecai, the latter receiving the honours which had before belonged to Haman (ch. 7). Esther then has letters sent in all directions in order to avert the threatened destruction of her people; but the attempt is yet made by the enemies of the Jews to carry out Haman’s intentions. The Jews defend themselves with success, and a great feast is held on the 14th of Adar, on which the Jews ‘rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness.’ Moreover, two days of feasting are appointed to be observed for all time; they are called Purim , because of the lot ( pûr ) which Haman cast for the destruction of the Jews (chs. 8, 9). The book concludes with a further reference to the power of Ahasuerus and the greatness of his favourite, Mordecai (ch. 10). 4. Historicity of the book . There are very few modern scholars who are able to regard this book as containing history; at the most it may be said that it is a historical romance, i.e . that a few historical data have been utilized for constructing the tale. The main reasons for this conclusion are, that the book is full of improbabilities; that it is so transparently written for specific purposes, namely, the glorification of the Jewish nation, and as a means of expressing Jewish hatred of and contempt for Gentiles (see also § 5 ); that a ‘strictly historical interpretation of the narrative is beset with difficulties’; that the facts it purports to record receive no substantiation from such books as Chron., Ezr., Neh., Dan., Sirach, or Philo (cf. Hastings’ DB ^[3] s.v .). Besides this, there is the artificial way in which the book is put together: the method of presenting the various scenes in the drama is in the style of the writer of fiction, not in that of the historian. 5. Purim . The main purpose for which the book was written was ostensibly to explain the origin of, as well as to give the authority for, the continued observance of the Feast of Purim; though it must be confessed that the book does not really throw any light on the origin of this feast. Some scholars are in favour of a Persian origin, others, with perhaps greater justification, a Babylonian. The names of the chief characters in the book seem certainly to be corrupted forms of Babylonian and Elamite deities, namely, Haman = Hamman, Mordecai = Marduk, Esther = Ishtar; while Vashti is the name of an Elamite god or goddess (so Jensen). Thus we should have the Babylonian Marduk and Ishtar on the one hand, the Elamite Haman and Vashti, on the other. Purim may, in this case, have been, as Jensen suggests, a feast commemorating the victory of Babylonian over Elamite gods which was taken over and adapted by the Jews. In this case the origin of the name Purim would be sought in the Babylonian word puru , which means a ‘small round stone,’ i.e . a lot. But the connexion between the feast and its name is not clear; indeed, it must be confessed that the mystery attaching to the name Purim has not yet been unravelled. W. O. E. Oesterley.

In the article on ESTHER the principal events of the book are glanced at, but a few remarks are needed as to the object of the book. It has been a sad puzzle to Christians. It looks very much like a tale, they say; and how can it be inspired, they ask, without the name of God from beginning to end? How different is Mordecai from Ezra or Nehemiah, captives like him, but who were not content to spend their lives at the gate of a heathen's palace when they had the opportunity of returning to Jerusalem. That it is a true history is manifest. The great feast with which it opens is just such as a Persian monarch would celebrate with the nobles and princes of the various provinces. If Xerxes was the Ahasuerus of the book, as is generally supposed, it quite agrees with his character, that when elatedwith wine he should send for the queen; and, on her refusal to be thus exposed, to cast her aside, and seek another queen. The way this was accomplished was exactly Persian. The posts also, on horses, mules, camels, and young dromedaries, according to the nature of the country traversed — fromIndia to Ethiopia — was also the method adopted. The main teaching of the book is that God was watching over and caring for His ancient people during their captivity, altogether apart from their faithfulnessto Him, or their desire to return to the land of promise. They were scattered over the entire kingdom, and it is not revealed what sort of lives they were living: the only two described in the book are Mordecai and Esther. God was their God, and they were His people, and, without His name being mentioned in the book, He was surely secretly watching over them, and making things work together for their protection. The king being unable to sleep on the very night when it was needed he should remember Mordecai is a signal example of His watchfulness. Esther and Mordecai may not have acted well in wishing a second day of vengeance, and in killing the sons of Haman, and petitioning to have them hanged on the gallows: how few can have power over their enemies without abusing it! The good behaviour of the Jews forms no part of the book:they are cared for whether good or bad. God in His government would in duetime set all that right. In fine, we have an illustration of how Godcared providentially for His earthly people, when they were under the Lo-ammi sentence, and He was unable to own them publicly as in relationship with Himself. Historically Esther comes in between the beginning of Ezra and its close; that is, at the end of Ezra 6 the Artaxerxes of Ezra 4:7 being the pseudo-Smerdis; and the Artaxerxes of Ezra 7:1 , being Artaxerxes Longimanus. The Ahasuerus of Esther (Xerxes) comes in between them. For a list of the kings see PERSIA. There are several apocryphal additions to the book of Esther in the LXX and the Vulgate. The principal of these are: 1. A preface containing Mordecai's pedigree, his dream of what was about to happen, and his appointment to sit at the king's gate. 2. In chap. 3 a copy of Artaxerxes' decree against the Jews. 3. In chap. 4 a prayer of Mordecai, followed by a prayer of Esther, in which she excuses herself for being the wife of an uncircumcised king. 4. In chap. 8 a copy of the king's letter for reversing the previous decree, in which Haman is called a Macedonian! and the statement made that he had been plotting to betray the kingdom of Persia to the Macedonians! 5. In chap. 10 Mordecai shows how his dream had been fulfilled, and gives glory to God. Some parts of these additions are declared to be 'thorough Greek' in style, and the patchwork is very manifest elsewhere.

The Biblical book of Esther.

(Hebrew: star, happiness) Queen of Persia and wife of Assuerus, who is identified with Xerxes (485-465 B.C.). She was a daughter of Abihail of the tribe of Benjamin, her Jewish name being Edissa. She had been adopted by her father's brother, Mardochai, and her beauty caused Assuerus to choose her as his queen instead of his divorced wife Vasthi. In this position she was able to protect her people against the plots of Aman, a royal favorite, the feast of Purim being observed by the Jews in commemoration of their delivery.

A book of the Bible, relating the history of a Jewish orphan girl named Edissa, later Esther, written probably not later than the time of Esdras, by an unknown author. Catholic scholars regard it as true history. It portrays Persian court life with great exactness of detail and apparently is based upon court annals and written Jewish sources. The Jews read it on the feast of Purim. The text of Esther has come down to us in two recensions; The Hebrew is shorter than the Greek. The Latin Bible follows the Hebrew, but the missing passages are supplied from the Greek version, as an appendix (10-16); they are necessary to complete the narrative. These so-called "deuterocanonical parts" were originally in Hebrew. Theodotian translated them from that language.

Daughter of Abihail. See her history, Book of Esther 1:1 - Esther 10:3. Her name means secret, from Sathar.

THE Ahasuerus of the Book of Esther was the same sovereign as the Xerxes of Herodotus and Plutarch and Thirlwall and Grote. The Ahasuerus of Holy Scripture was the Xerxes who, after he had subdued Egypt, set out to invade Greece with an army and a navy of absolutely fabulous size and strength. He was the madman who beheaded his chief military engineers, and bastinadoed the Hellespont, and laid fetters of iron upon its waves, because a terrible storm had risen on its waters and had destroyed his great bridge of pontoon boats. He was that incubus of carnage who seated himself on a throne of gold on a hill-top of Greece to see his vast fleet of ships sweep off the sea the sea-forces of Athens. A king sat un a rocky brow,Which looks o'er sea-born Salamis:And ships by thousands lay below,And men in nations all were his.He counted them at break of day,But when the sun set, where were they?'That Ahasuerus,' says an old Hebrew treatise called the Second Targum on Esther, 'whose counsels were perverse, and whose orders were not right: who commanded Queen Vashti to appear unveiled before him, but she would not appear. That Ahasuerus in whose time the house of Israel was sold for nought, and in whose time Israel's face became black like the side of a pot. That Ahasuerus in whose days was fulfilled the threatening that in the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were evening! and in the evening, Would God it were morning!' The sacred writer makes us respect Queen Vashti amid all her disgusting surroundings. Whether or no the drunken despot actually sent to her the whole cruel order that the Targumist reports, the sacred writer does not in as many words say. But, whatever the royal order that came to her out of the banqueting-hall exactly was, the brave queen refused to obey it. Her beauty was her own and her husband's; it was not for open show among hundreds of half-drunk men. And in the long-run, the result of that night's evil work was that Vashti was dismissed into disgrace and banishment, and Esther, the Hebrew orphan, was promoted into her place. The whole story of Vashti's fall and Esther's rise would take us into too many miry places for us tonight to wade through. I shall leave this part of the unsavoury story veiled up in all the restrained and dignified language of the sacred writer. Only, let us take heed to note that the sacred writer's whole point is this, that the Divine Hand was, all the time, overruling Ahasuerus's brutality, and Vashti's brave womanliness, and Esther's beauty, and her elevation into Vashti's vacant seat, all this, and more than all this, to work together for the deliverance and the well-being of the remnant of Israel that still lay dispersed in the vast empire of Persia. Mordecai was the uncle and the foster-father of the orphaned Esther. He had brought Esther up, and his one love in his whole life, after his love for Israel and for the God of Israel, was his love for his little adopted daughter. You may be sure that the devout old man had many thoughts in his heart that he could not get to the bottom of, as he stood by and watched his sister's child lifted up in a moment from her exile and poverty, and actually made the queen of the greatest empire then standing on the face of the earth; and, what was to him still more full of faith, and hope, and love, the favourite queen of the absolute earthly master of all Mordecai's brethren of the house of Israel both at home in Jerusalem, and still scattered abroad over the whole of the Persian empire. I leave you to imagine what were the prayers and psalms that Mordecai offered up with his window open towards Jerusalem, as he saw all Esther's election, and promotion, and coronation, and all her splendour and all her power. And Mordecai walked every day before the court of the women's house, to know how Esther did, and what should become of her. You would need to transport yourselves away east to the Constantinople of our day at all to understand Haman, and all his diabolical plots against Esther, and against Mordecai, and against all the people of Israel. Diabolically wicked as our own hearts often are with jealousy and with revenge, at the same time, our hearts are so held down and covered over by religion and civilisation that we do not know ourselves. There is no difference, says Paul. All vices are in us all, says Seneca; only, all vices are not equally extant in us all. But you will see all but all the vices extant in Haman, the favourite, for the time, of Ahasuerus. How Haman rose, and how he fell: how his seat was set above all the other princes of the empire at the beginning, and how his face was covered at the end; how he and Ahasuerus arranged it between themselves that Israel should be exterminated on a set day by a universal slaughter: how Haman had a gallows of fifty cubits high built for Mordecai yesterday, only to be hanged himself on that same gallows today: how Israel was sold to Haman by the seal of Ahasuerus, and was delivered by the perilous but successful interposition of Esther, all that is told as only a sacred writer could tell it. He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it. And he that rolleth a stone, it shall return upon his own head. Such, then, was Esther's circle, so to call it. But what, exactly, was her opportunity? What was Esther's great opportunity that put her watchful uncle Mordecai into such sleepless anxiety lest she should either miss it, or betray it? Esther's splendid opportunity rose out of that extraordinary combination and concentration of circumstances in the very heart of which she had been so providentially placed. Haman, as we have seen, was the very devil himself. Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, was seven devils rolled into one. He was a very devil of pride, and of jealousy, and of revenge, and of an insatiable thirst for Hebrew blood. How almighty God should have let so many devils loose in one devil-possessed man is another mystery of His power, and wisdom, and judgment, and love. But there it is, as plain as inspired words can write it. Only, when the end comes, we see that all the time the God of righteousness had His rope round Haman's neck. And when Haman got to the end of his rope, God said over Haman also: Hitherto thou shalt go in thy diabolical wickedness, but no farther. And, then, as another stepping-stone up to Esther's incomparable opportunity, Ahasuerus, Haman's master, was a fit master, as we have seen, for such a servant of Satan as Haman was. Till, between them, the children of Israel of that day were on the very point of being exterminated all over the land by a universal and prearranged assassination. But, as God's providence would have it, step after step, Esther was on the throne, and was in all the fulness of her first influence with Ahasuerus just at that critical moment for the Church of God in the empire of Persia. The great war with Greece; the great national feast consequent on that great war; the absolute intoxication of the king's mind with pride, and with ambition, and with wine; the brutal summons to Vashti; her brave refusal of her master's brutal demand; her fall and her banishment; the election and elevation of Esther, and her immense influence with the despot; all these things were so many stepping-stones on which Esther had so providentially risen to her splendid opportunity. And, then, to complete and finish it all, there was added to it all, Mordecai's so watchful solicitude over the wickedness of Haman, and over the caprice of Ahasuerus, and over the safety of Israel, and over the miraculous opportunity of Esther. What a long, and complex, and shining chain, link after link, till Mordecai fashioned its last link and bound it with his strong but tender hands upon both the imagination, and the conscience, and the heart of Esther in these noble words: 'Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's house, more than all the Jews. For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but both 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?' Then Esther bade them return to Mordecai this answer: 'I will go in unto the king, and if I perish, I perish.' But she did not perish. For she obtained favour in the sight of the king; and the king held out to her the golden sceptre that was in his hand, and said to her, 'What wilt thou, Queen Esther? And what is thy request? For it shall be given thee to the half of the kingdom.' And the end was that Haman and all his murderous plots fell, and Mordecai was promoted to sit in Haman's seat, and Israel was saved. And all because, under God, Esther had her opportunity pointed out to her till she saw it and seized it. The Book of Esther is surely a very clear prophecy and a very impressive parable of the plots, and the persecutions, and the politics of our own day. Armenia under the Sultan is Israel over again under Haman and Ahasuerus. Western Christendom, and England especially, is Esther with her opportunity and her responsibility over again, and the voice of warning by whomsoever spoken is the summons of Mordecai to Esther over again. It is three hundred years of God's long-suffering since Bacon wrote his Holy War. 'There cannot but ensue a dissolution of the State of the Turk,' said Bacon, 'whereof the time seemeth to approach. The events of the times do seem to invite Christian kings to a war in respect of the great corruption and relaxation of discipline in the empire of the enemy of Christendom.' So wrote Bacon in 1622. But our Christian kings, if not our Christian people, are still, at the end of the nineteenth century, keeping Haman in his seat, and holding up his hands. In a very fine sermon on my present text, Mr. Spurgeon, in the very spirit and power of Mordecai, has warned England that the God of all the earth has raised her up to her supreme position among the nations of the earth, not for her own aggrandisement, and power, and glory-but for the glory of God, and for the good of mankind. And, that there is no respect or immunity of nations, any more than of men, with the Judge of all the earth. And that if England, for fear, or for favour, or for ease, or for herself only, flinches and fails God and man in the hour of her opportunity, deliverance will come somehow to the cause of God and man; and,-one holds back his tongue from saying it, and his pen from writing it-'Thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed.' As I read Captain Mahan's masterly and noble Life of Nelson the other day with Esther in my mind, I could not but mark such things as these in that great sea-captain who had such a hand in setting England up on her high opportunity. 'Opportunity,' says the excellent biographer, 'flitted by, but Nelson was always ready and grasped it.' Again, and again, and again the same thing is said of Nelson. Till it shines out above all his other great gifts, and becomes the best description of his great genius. Opportunity, opportunity, opportunity! And, again, 'duty, not ease; honour, not gain; the ideal, not the material-such, not indeed without frailty and blemish, were ever Nelson's motives.' This new Nelson is a noble book for sailors and for all men to read. It is a noble book to be written and read at any time, but especially at this present time of gain with dishonour, and of ease at the sacrifice of duty. But we are not great queens like Esther, with the deliverance of Israel in our hands; nor are we great sea-captains like Lord Nelson, with the making of modern England in our hands. No. But we are what we are; and what God has made us to be and to do. We all have our own circle set round us of God, and out of our own circle our own opportunities continually arise. Our opportunities may not be so far-reaching or so high-sounding as some other men's are; but they are our opportunities, and they are far-reaching enough for us. Our opportunities are life or death to us and to others; they are salvation or condemnation to our immortal souls; and is that not circle and opportunity enough? We are all tempted every day to say: If I only were Esther! If I only had a great opportunity, would I not rise to it! Would I not speak out at any risk! Would I not do a work, and win a name, and deliver Israel, and glorify God! Did you ever read of Clemens, and Fervidus, and Eugenia, and their imaginary piety? Clemens had his head full of all manner of hypothetical liberalities. He kept proposing to himself continually what he would do if he only had a great estate. Come to thy senses, Clemens. Do not talk what thou wouldst be sure to do if thou wast an angel, but think what thou canst do as a man. Remember what the poor widow did with her two mites, and go and do likewise. Fervidus, again, is only sorry he is not a minister. What a reformation he would have worked in his own life by this time, and in his whole parish, if only God had made him a minister! He would have saved his own soul, and the souls of his people, in season and out of season. Do not believe yourself, Fervidus. You are deceiving yourself. You hire a cabman to drive you to church, and he sits in the wet street waiting for you, and you never ask him how he manages to live with no Sabbath. It is not asked of you, Fervidus, to live and die a martyr; but just to visit your cabman's wife and children, and have family worship with them on a Sabbath night as you would have done if you had been a minister. Eugenia, again, is a young lady full of the most devout dispositions. If she ever has a family she will let you see family religion. She is more scandalised than she can tell you at the way that some of her school-fellows have married heathens, and at the life they lead without God's worship in their newly-married houses. But, Eugenia, you may never be married so as to show married people how to live. At the same time, you have a maid already, all to yourself. She dresses you for church, and then you leave her to have as little religion as a Hottentot. You turn her away when she displeases you, and you hire another, and so on, till you will die unmarried, and without a godly household, and your circle will be dissolved and your opportunity for ever lost. Your maid, and her sister, and her widowed mother, and her ill-doing brother, and her lover, all are your circle at present, and your opportunity is fast flitting by; and, because it is so near you every day, you do not discover it. Oh, Eugenia, full to the eyes of so many vain imaginations! You never heard of Eugenia, and Fervidus, and Clemens before, and do not know where to find them. But, no matter. You and I are Fervidus and Eugenia ourselves. You and I are Mordecai and Esther ourselves. We are in that circle, and we are amid those opportunities, the very best that all the power, and all the wisdom, and all the love of God can provide for us. If it had been better for you and me that we had been born in Jerusalem, and had been exiles in Shushan, and subjects of King Ahasuerus, instead of the free-men of Queen Victoria, Almighty God could as easily have ordered it so when He was ordering all such matters. But, according to His best judgment, you are in the very best place for you in all the world. He could as easily have made you rich as poor. He could have made you successful in life, and married, and at the head of a house of your own, as easily as He has made you what you are. He could have made you a captain as easily as a common sailor. A queen, also, is as easy to God as a kitchen-maid. But we are all talented of God, each according to our several ability. And the servant-maid has as good an opportunity, in the long-run, as her mistress. And the cabin-boy as the captain. A cabin-boy saved Nelson's life at Teneriffe, and thus won the Nile, and Copenhagen, and Trafalgar, for England. And he who with love and prayer and sweet civility keeps a door in God's house, has a far easier and a far safer life of it; he has his salvation at far less risk than he who has to work out his own salvation, and the salvation of so many others, on the slippery floor of a popular pulpit. All God's very best wisdom, and all His very deepest counsel, and all His very greatest love, have all been laid out in collecting and concentrating our circle round us, and in evoking our opportunities out of our surroundings, and we pay Him back with grumblings, and with neglect, and with the loss of our own souls and the souls of all who have anything to do with us. Only open your eyes, and you will see all around you your circle set of God, and all dazzling you with its endless and splendid opportunities. Your most commonplace, most monotonous, most uninteresting, and most every-day circle so shines, if you only saw it aright. What a magnificent and unparalleled opportunity-you dare not deny it-is yours, for your self-control, for the reducing of your pride, for the extermination of your temper, for your humility and your patience, for the forgiving of your injuries, and for hiding your hungry, broken, bleeding heart with God I And what more would you have? Yours is a circle with opportunities in it that an elect angel might well envy. Look, O my soul! how many, and what manner of people, are in thy very family and all around thee, and every one in his evil, even more than in his good, a divine stepping-stone laid there of God for thee whereon to climb up to the place that He has prepared for thee in His heavenly kingdom. What an antipathy you feel, and cannot get over, at that pestilential man. What an ever-gnawing envy at that other man. What an everlasting resentment and retaliation at such and such a man. What a genius has that fourth man for finding out for you the most corrupt places in your so corrupt and so deceitful heart. And so on, till there is nobody on earth, or in hell, like you. What a circle for a soul like your soul to be set in! What a sin-discovering and sin-exasperating circle! What a seven-fold furnace you walk in every day! There is nobody like you. There never was. O, man, what a chance you have! They know nothing about it sitting there in their soft seats. But what is the chaff to the wheat, if only you will let God cleanse you? These are they-the elders in heaven look down and say over you-who come up hither out of great tribulation! The chaff think that I am describing a monstrosity and an impossibility in my poor description of you. Never mind them. They and their thoughts are nothing to you. You know that the half of your temptations, and exasperations, and mortifications, and humiliations, and harassments of God, and men, and devils, has not been told. There is no tongue to tell it in, and no ear on earth to hear it with. Never mind them. All the deeper, then, is God's so deep plot for thee. All the more secret and unfathomable are His judgments for thee. All the richer set about thee is thy circle. All the more a miracle of grace are thy endless opportunities. All the more incomparable will be thy salvation, and all the more lustrous and weighty thy crown. Let neither man nor devil take it. Have it on thy head, all shining with pearls out of thy seas of sorrow, to cast at thy Saviour's feet on that day. There is just one circle in the whole universe better than yours for a sinful man's most superb sanctification and salvation, and that is the pulpit, and the pastorate round about the pulpit. I do not wonder that Fervidus never forgave his father for not having made him a minister. For the divine subtlety has surpassed itself in the circle and in the opportunity it has set round every pulpit. O, all you who are our very best young men, all you, our ablest, foremost at college, most gifted, most many-sided, most original, most speculative, most intellectually pioneering and enterprising young men, I beseech you with all my might, do not miss the magnificent opportunity that the pulpit offers to him who can fill it as you could. Even we who will never now fill it-unless it is with tears and prayers night and day-we see, when it is too late, the incomparable life it at one time held out to us, and now holds out to you. There is no circle anywhere under heaven for individual interest; for all kinds of influence, the most immediate and the most lasting; and for the ever-deepening discipline of your own mind, and heart, and life, like the evangelical pulpit. O young men of Scotland, our choicest and our best young men, why stand ye so long hesitating? Open your eyes. Look around. Look within. Look at the church. Look at the world. Look forward to death and to the last day. And then look at the everlasting reward. They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever. Then Esther bade them return to Mordecai this answer: Fast ye, and pray for me, and so will I go in unto the king.

Esther, the Book of. This book is so termed because Esther is the principal character in it, and not from any notion that she wrote it. It has generally been held in high estimation among the Jews, who class it with Ruth, Ecclesiastes, Solomon's Song, and the Lamentations, as the five megilloth or rolls, and solemnly read it at the feast of Purim. Its literary character is fully equal to the best of the other historical books of the Bible. The style is lively and almost dramatic. But the peculiarity of the book is that the name of God does not occur in any form. The omission was probably intentional, and in order to permit the reading of Esther at the joyous, even hilarious, festival of Purim, without irreverence. The language of the book contains several Persian words, translated "satrap," "post," "edict," "royal" (not "camel;" 8:10, and 14 read "swift steeds that were used in the king's service, bred of the stud," R. V.), "cotton," "crown," "nobles," "a copy," and "lot." The circumstantial minuteness of detail, the vividness of the portraits, the Persian words, and the whole tone of the book indicate that the author was a Jew who lived about the time of the events recorded, at the court of Persia, where he had access to the official documents of the kingdom. Rawlinson assigns the book to a period from 20 to 30 years after Xerxes's death, b.c. 444-434.

The book of Esther is so called, because it contains the history of Esther, a Jewish captive, who by her remarkable accomplishments gained the affections of King Ahasuerus, and by marriage with him was raised to the throne of Persia; and it relates the origin and ceremonies of the feast of Purim, instituted in commemoration of the great deliverance, which she, by her interest, procured for the Jews, whose general destruction had been concerted by the offended pride of Haman. There is great diversity of opinion concerning the author of this book; it has been ascribed to Ezra, to Mordecai, to Joachim, and to the joint labours of the great synagogue; and it is impossible to decide which of these opinions is the most probable. We are told, that the facts here recorded happened in the reign of Ahasuerus king of Persia, "who reigned from India even unto Ethiopia, over a hundred and twenty-seven provinces," Esther 1:1 ; and this extent of dominion plainly proves that he was one of the successors of Cyrus. That point is indeed allowed by all; but learned men differ concerning the person meant, by Ahasuerus, whose name does not occur in profane history; and consequently they are not agreed concerning the precise period to which we are to assign this history. Archbishop Usher supposed, that by Ahasuerus was meant Darius Hystaspes, and Joseph Scaliger contended that Xerxes was meant; but Dean Prideaux has very satisfactorily shown, that by Ahasuerus we are to understand Artaxerxes Longimanus. Josephus also considered Ahasuerus and Artaxerxes as the same person; and we may observe, that Ahasuerus is always translated Artaxerxes in the Septuagint version; and he is called by that name in the apocryphal part of the book of Esther. See ECBATANA , and See AHASUERUS .

A Persian name given to Hadassah, a daughter of Abihail, of the tribe of Benjamin. The family had not returned to Judea after the permission given by Cyrus, and she was born probably beyond the Tigris, and nearly five hundred years before Christ. Her parents being dead, Mordecai, her father's brother, took care of her education. After Ahasuerus had discovered Vashti, search was made throughout Persia for the most beautiful women, and Esther was one selected. She found favor in the eyes of the king, and he married her with royal magnificence, bestowing largesses and remissions of tribute on his people. She was thus in a position which enabled her to do a signal favor to her people, then very numerous in Persia. Their deliverance is still celebrated by the Jews in the yearly festival called Purim, which was instituted at that time. The husband of Esther is supposed to have been the Xerxes of secular history.

Has always been esteemed canonical, both by Jews and Christians, though certain additions to it, found in some versions and manuscripts, are apocryphal. Who was its writer is not certainly known. It has been ascribed to Ezra, to a high-priest name Jehoiakim, and to Mordecai. This last opinion is supported by the internal evidence; the book having been written in Persia, by an eye-witness of the scenes it describes, B. C. 509. It presents a graphic picture of the Persian court and customs, and is intensely Jewish in its spirit. The chief value of the book is to illustrate the wonder- working providence of God, his control of human passions, his righteous judgment of sinners, and his care for his covenant people- whom, even when captives in a strange land, he can exalt above all their foes.

Esther was a Jewess who lived in Persia and became queen to the Persian king Ahasuerus, also known as Xerxes I. He reigned from 486 to 465 BC. The story of Esther is found in the book that is named after her. The book does not say who wrote it. Features of the book When an earlier Persian king gave the Jews permission to return to their homeland, many preferred not to go. Rather than face the hardships and risks involved in rebuilding Jerusalem and its temple, they made life more comfortable for themselves where they were. Their prosperity increased, but they showed little interest in re-establishing the Jewish religious order as a spiritual force among the Jewish people. This attitude is reflected in the book of Esther, whose story is built around Jews in Persia. The book does not mention God, apart perhaps from one reference to some unseen force that determines events (Esther 4:14). The closest indication of any spiritual awareness in the people is in one reference to fasting, though even then there is no reference to any kind of prayer (Esther 4:16). But whether his people acknowledged him or not, God was still directing their affairs to ensure they were not destroyed. Summary of the story When the Persian king decided to replace his queen, the woman chosen was Esther, an orphan Jew who had been brought up by her cousin Mordecai. Mordecai worked around the palace where, on one occasion, he saved the king’s life by reporting an assassination plot (1:1-2:23). Some time later a proud and ambitious man named Haman became chief minister in the Persian government. Haman hated the Jews, and when Mordecai refused to bow to him, he determined to destroy all Jews throughout the Empire (3:1-15). While Haman cast lots (purim) to find the right day for the Jews’ slaughter, Mordecai persuaded Esther to appeal to the king to have mercy on her people (4:1-5:14). Esther then revealed to the king that she was Jewish. When the king discovered that Haman wanted to wipe out a people that included his queen, and in particular that he wanted to kill the man who had saved the king’s life, he executed Haman (6:1-7:10). Mordecai then became chief minister instead of Haman. The day that had been chosen by the casting of lots (purim) for the slaughter of the Jews now became the day when the Jews took revenge on their enemies. The Jews’ celebration of their victory was the origin of an annual Jewish festival known as the Feast of Purim (8:1-9:32). Through Mordecai the Jews enjoyed increased freedom and prosperity (10:1-3).