Esther 6
About EstherWritten by AI
Esther is the story of how a Jewish orphan became queen of Persia and how her people were saved from a plot to destroy them. It is set in the court of King Xerxes, around 480 BC, among the Jews who stayed in Persia rather than returning home. The author is unknown; Jewish tradition suggests Mordecai or the men of the Great Assembly.
The book is famous for one thing it never does: it never mentions the name of God. Yet the story is full of turning points that are hard to call luck: a sleepless king, a well-timed banquet, a gallows that serves the wrong man. Many readers see God's hidden hand here, working through ordinary choices.
Watch Esther grow from a quiet young woman who hides who she is into someone who risks her life for others. The key moment is Mordecai's question: “who knows if perhaps you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” The book ends by explaining the Jewish feast of Purim.
Before you read Esther 6Written by AI
That night the king cannot sleep and has the royal records read to him. He hears how Mordecai saved his life and was never rewarded. Just then Haman arrives to ask for Mordecai's death, and is instead made to lead Mordecai through the city in honor. Watch for the reversals.
Mordecai Is Honored
That night sleep escaped the king; so he ordered the Book of Records, the Chronicles, to be brought in and read to him. And there it was found recorded that Mordecai had exposed Bigthana and Teresh, two of the eunuchs who guarded the king’s entrance, when they had conspired to assassinate King Xerxes.
The king inquired, “What honor or dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this act?”
“Nothing has been done for him,” replied the king’s attendants.
“Who is in the court?” the king asked.
Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the palace to ask the king to hang Mordecai on the gallows he had prepared for him. So the king’s attendants answered him, “Haman is there, standing in the court.”
“Bring him in,” ordered the king.
Haman entered, and the king asked him, “What should be done for the man whom the king is delighted to honor?”
Now Haman thought to himself, “Whom would the king be delighted to honor more than me?”
And Haman told the king, “For the man whom the king is delighted to honor, have them bring a royal robe that the king himself has worn and a horse on which the king himself has ridden—one with a royal crest placed on its head. Let the robe and the horse be entrusted to one of the king’s most noble princes. Let them array the man the king wants to honor and parade him on the horse through the city square, proclaiming before him, ‘This is what is done for the man whom the king is delighted to honor!’”
“Hurry,” said the king to Haman, “and do just as you proposed. Take the robe and the horse to Mordecai the Jew, who is sitting at the king’s gate. Do not neglect anything that you have suggested.”
So Haman took the robe and the horse, arrayed Mordecai, and paraded him through the city square, crying out before him, “This is what is done for the man whom the king is delighted to honor!”
Then Mordecai returned to the king’s gate. But Haman rushed home, with his head covered in grief.
Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened. His advisers and his wife Zeresh said to him, “Since Mordecai, before whom your downfall has begun, is Jewish, you will not prevail against him—for surely you will fall before him.”
While they were still speaking with Haman, the king’s eunuchs arrived and rushed him to the banquet that Esther had prepared.