THE SCROLL OF
Hadassah
(Esther)
CHAPTER 1
1. Now [this is what] took place during the days of Akhashwerosh (he is the Akhashwerosh who reigned from Hodu as far as Kush—127 provinces):
Hodu: India. Kush: in this case, Ethiopia.
2. In those days, when Akhashwerosh the king sat on the throne of his kingdom (which was in Shushan the citadel,
Citadel: It was the capital of Persia. (See picture at left.)
3. in the third year of his reign, he made a drinking-banquet for all his princes and servants. The army of Persia and Maday, the nobles and the princes of the provinces were in his presence,
4. when he showed off the riches of the reputation of his kingdom and the splendor of his majesty’s finery for many days—180 days [to be exact].
5. And when those days had been completed, the king made a banquet for all the people who were in Shushan the citadel, from great to small, for seven days in the courtyard of the garden of the king’s palace
6. [with] fine white and blue linen fastened with cords of costly linen to knobs of silver and pillars of marble. The couches were of gold and silver on a pavement of red and blue porphyry, mother or pearl, and black marble.
7. They provided drinks in golden vessels, each vessel being different from the others, and royal wine aplenty from the king’s hand.
8. And the drinking was according to [each one’s] custom; no one was compelled, because that is what the king had established in regard to every chief in his household—that they should do as each man desired.
9. Washti the queen also prepared a women’s banquet [in the] royal house that belonged to King Akhashwerosh.
10. On the seventh day, when the king’s heart was [feeling] pleasant with wine, he told M’human, Biztha, Kharbona, Bigtha, as well as Abagtha, Zethar, and Kharkas, the seven eunuchs who waited on King Akhashwerosh in his presence,
11. to bring Washti the queen into the king’s presence with the royal crown to let the people and the princes see her beauty, because she was fine to look upon.
12. However, Queen Washti refused to come in at the word of the king by the hand of the eunuchs, and the king was very displeased, and his anger was lit within him.
The king: According to rabbinic tradition, whenever the text simply says “the king” without direct reference to his name, we can draw inferences about the King of the Universe, YHWH, as well. Here we see the pre-Adamic history of the creation relived, for we know that haSatan was in the most exalted position, below only YHWH Himself, yet then let her beauty go to her head and was cast down to being an “ordinary citizen”. (Y’hezq’El/Ezek. 28:12-19) Follow this theme through the story.
13. And the king said to the wise men who knew the times (because such was the king’s custom in the presence of all custom and legal proceedings,
14. and the ones nearest to him were Karshna, Shethar, Admatha, Tharshish, Meres, Marsna, [and] M’mukhan, the seven princes of Persia and Maday, who sat in the first place in the kingdom),
15. “By custom, what should be done with Queen Washti, on account of the fact that she has not carried out what King Akhashwerosh said by the hand of the eunuchs?”
By custom: already we see how the kingdoms in Nevukhadnetzar’s dream (Daniel 2:31ff) are becoming more and more inferior with each succession. This king does not make a decision until he hears what is customary. There is much to be said for legal precedent, and YHWH Himself does only what is according to His own Word, but Persia’s is not as strong a leader as Babylon had.
16. So M’mukhan said, in the presence of the king and the princes, “Not in regard to the king alone has Washti the Queen done perversely, but in regard to all the princes and all the people who are in all of King Akhashwerosh’s provinces,
17. “because word [about] the queen will go out to all the women, causing them to hold their husbands in contempt when they are told that King Akhashwerosh said to bring Washti the queen into his presence, but she did not come in.
18. “And this day the princesses of Persia and Maday who have heard of the matter of the queen will say [the same] to all the king’s princes, and [there will be] plenty of contempt and provocation.
19. “If it seems appropriate to the king, let a royal decree go out from before his face, and let it be written among the edicts of the Persia and Maday so it will not be bypassed, that Washti may no longer come before King Akhashwerosh, and let her royal position be given to one of her fellow [women] who is more appropriate than she.
20. “Then when the king’s sentence which he will carry out is heard throughout his whole kingdom (because it is great), all the wives will give their husbands honor, from the great to the small.”
This is one verse in which YHWH’s name appears in acrostic form in reverse order, because here the words are spoken by a Gentile (as is the pattern throughout the book), but it highlights an example of YHWH’s reversing the progress of His adversary.
21. And what [he] said seemed appropriate in the eyes of the king and the princes, so the king did what M’mukhan had said.
22. That is, he sent documents to all the king’s provinces--province by province according to its script, and to each ethnic group according to its language, so that each man would be ruler in his own household and speak according to the language of his ethnicity.
CHAPTER 2
1. After these things, when the rage of King Akhashwerosh had subsided, he remembered Washti what she had done, as well as the decree that had been made against her.
Decree: literally, cutting off, separation, or exclusion.
2. Then the young men who waited on the king said, “Let fine-looking young virgins be sought out for the king,
3. “and let the king have overseers appointed in all the provinces of his kingdom, and let them gather every fine-looking young virgin to Shushan, the citadel, to the harem under the jurisdiction of Hege, the king’s eunuch who guards the women, and let them be given scouring [treatments].
Eunuch: or official/chamberlain, since not everyone with this title was castrated (e.g., Acts 8:27), but this man probably was, because the women of the palace were put in his custody. Harem: literally, house of women.
4. “Then let the young woman who is [most] pleasing in the king’s eyes reign in the place of Washti.” And what [they] said pleased the king, so that is what he did.
5. There was a man in Shushan, the citadel, a Jew named Mordekhai, the son of Yair, the son of Shim’i, the descendant of Qish, a man of Binyamin
Qish: the father of King Sha’ul.
6. who was taken from Yerushalayim along with the exiles who were carried off with Y’khonyah the king of Yehudah, whom Nevukhadnetzar, king of Bavel, had taken into exile.
Bavel: Babylon.
7. And he was supporting Hadassah (she is Esther), his uncle’s daughter, because she had no father or mother, and she was [both] beautiful of shape and fine-looking.
Hadassah: Hebrew for a myrtle, the tree that stays green the longest, and thus symbolizing life after death. For this reason it is commonly laid on graves and is included in the wedding crown. It is also one of the species waved each day during the Feast of Sukkoth. Esther (her Persian name) means “star”.
8. So it came about that when the king’s word and edict were heard and many young women had been gathered to the custody of Hege [at] Shushan, the citadel, that Esther was taken into the king’s household, into the jurisdiction of Hege, who guarded the women.
9. And the young woman was pleasing in his eyes, and she obtained kindness in his presence, and he hurried to give her scouring [treatments] and preparations, and saw to it that seven maids were provided for her from the king’s household. Then he changed her and her maids to the best place in the harem.
Hurried: with the sense of nervousness.
10. Esther had not made known her ethnicity or her ancestry, because Mordekhai had given her orders not to tell.
11. But every day Mordekhai would walk back and forth in front of the harem to find out about Esther’s welfare and what would be done with her.
12. And when each young woman’s came to go in to King Akhashwerosh, at the end of the twelve months she was given according to the decree for women (because this is how the days of their scourings were filled—six months of [being rubbed down with] oil of myrrh and six months with sweet-smelling spices and [other] women’s cleansing [treatments].
13. And this is [how] the young woman would go in to the king: anything she requested would be given to her when she went from the harem to the king’s house.
14. She would go in the evening and return in the morning to the custody of Shaashgav, the guard of the concubines, in a different harem, and would not come to the king again unless the king took pleasure in her and called for her by name.
15. Now when the Esther’s turn had arrived to go in to the king, she ([being the] daughter of Avikhayil, Mordekhai’s uncle, whom he had taken as his own daughter) did not request anything except what Hege, the king’s eunuch, the women’s guard, had told [her], and Esther was obtaining favor in the eyes of all who saw her.
16. And Esther was taken to King Akhashwerosh in his royal house in the tenth month (that is, the month Teveth) in the seventh year of his reign.
17. And the king loved Esther more than all of the [other] women, and she obtained favor and kindness before his face more than any of the [other] virgins, and he set the royal crown on her head, and made her queen in place of Washti.
18. Then the king made a great banquet for all his princes and servants—the Banquet of Esther—and gave the provinces a day off, and gave out lavish gifts such as a king had the power [to give].
19. Now when the virgins gathered together the second time, then Mordekhai sat at the king’s gate.
20. Esther had not told [anyone] her ancestry or ethnicity, just as Mordekhai had ordered her, and Esther was carrying out the orders of Mordekhai just as she had done when she was supported by him.
This is a picture of YHWH’s bride continuing to follow Hebraic ways even though we now have a direct relationship with Him and have been given favor (grace), despite the many who would say we do not need to.
21. Now in those days, while Mordekhai was sitting at the king’s gate, Bigthan and Theresh,
two of the king’s eunuchs who guarded the threshold, became angry and were seeking to stretch out a hand against King Akhashwerosh,
22. and the matter became known to Mordekhai, and he notified Esther, and Esther told the king in Mordekhai’s name.
23. And when inquiry was made into the matter, it was discovered [to be true], and both of them were hanged on a tree, and it was written in the Record of the Chronicles in the king’s presence.
Chronicles: literally, matters (words) of the days.
CHAPTER 3
1. After these things, Akhashwerosh the king advanced Haman the son of Hamdatha the Agagite and began to promote him and appoint his seat to a place above all the underrulers who were with him.
Agagite: descendants of Agag, the Amaleqite king whom King Sha’ul was told to exterminate, but whom he kept as a prisoner until Shmu’el the prophet came and finished him off. (1 Shmu’el 15) Apparently he had time to father a son during that intervening time. If Sha’ul had obeyed, he would have prevented the problems that form the plot for the story of Hadassah. Amaleq was an Edomite, which prophetically pictures Rome in Jewish tradition (and may have physical ties to Rome). Haman, therefore, is a foreshadowing of the Counterfeit Messiah.
2. And all of the king’s servants who were at the king’s gate would bow down and prostrate themselves [in homage] to Haman, because the king had given such orders for him. But Mordekhai would not bow down or prostrate himself.
Tradition says that this was because Haman wore an idol on his belt. Ordinary bowing in homage to a ruler is not in violation of the Torah’s command to worship YHWH alone. (2 Shmuel 14:22)
3. So the king’s servants who were at the king’s gate said to Mordekhai, “Why do you cross the king’s order?”
4. And when they had spoken to him day after day but he [still] would not listen to them, they then reported it to Haman to see whether Haman’s words would stand up, because he had informed them that he was a Jew.
5. When Haman saw that Mordekhai [was] not bowing or prostrating himself [in homage] to him, Haman was filled with rage,
6. and as he saw it, it was contemptible to stretch out a hand against Mordekhai alone, because they had made Mordekhai’s ethnicity known to him. So Haman was seeking to have all the Jews—Mordekhai’s people—in Akhashwerosh’s kingdom annihilated.
7. In the first month (which is the month of Nisan) in the twelfth year of the reign of Akhashwerosh, they cast a pur (that is, a lot) in Haman’s presence from day to day, and from month to month, [until] the twelfth month (that is, the month of Adar) [was chosen],
Pur: the root word for the plural form, Purim, the name of the festival by which this account is commemorated to this day. From day to day: i.e., they narrowed down the date by the equivalent of today’s dice in an occult ritual to determine the most auspicious time to carry out their purpose. Nisan is the season of Passover, which, if Haman had known, he might have been more cautious about again provoking YHWH’s wrath upon a people that oppressed YHWH’s.
8. and Haman told King Akhashwerosh, “There is a certain ethnic group scattered widely and separated out among all the provinces of your kingdom, and their customs differ from [those of] every [other] ethnicity, and they are not carrying out the king’s edict. So it is not in the king’s best interest to allow them to remain.
9. “If it seems right to the king, let it be recorded [that] they may be exterminated, and I will weigh out ten thousand kikkars of silver onto the hands of those who carry out the deed to bring into the king’s storehouses.”
I.e., he would compensate for the tax revenue so many people would have brought to the king’s treasuries, for, greedy man that he was, he anticipated that this would be the king’s primary objection to killing them.
10. So the king removed the signet ring from his hand and entrusted it to Haman the son of Hamdatha the Agagite—the one who caused the Jews’ distress.
11. And the king told Haman, “The silver is granted to you, along with [this] ethnic group, to do to it whatever is best in your eyes.”
12. And the king’s scribes were summoned on the thirteenth day of the first month, and it was recorded just as Haman had ordered the king’s deputies and provincial governors according to the script they [wrote in], and to every ethnicity according to its language. It was written in the name of King Akhashwerosh, and sealed with the king’s signet ring.
This was the day before Passover.
13. Then the documents were sent by the hand of runners into all the king’s provinces that all Jews, from the young to the old, [even] toddlers and women, might be annihilated, murdered, or exterminated in one day, the thirteenth of the twelfth month (that is, the month of Adar), and their spoils seized as plunder.
The month of Adar falls just before spring, usually around February.
14. A copy of the document to be permitted as a decree in every single province was carried off to every ethnic group, so [they would] be prepared for that day.
15. The runners went out, being driven on by the king’s word to hurry. The edict was issued in Shushan, the citadel. Then the king and Haman sat down to eat, but the city of Shushan was in a disoriented panic.
CHAPTER 4
1. When Mordekhai found out about all that had been done, then Mordekhai tore his cloak and put on burlap and ashes, and went out into the middle of the city and cried out with a loud and bitter cry [of distress].
Burlap and ashes: symbols of deep mourning.
2. And he came as far as the front of the king’s gate, because no one wearing burlap was [allowed to] enter the king’s gate.
3. Also, in every province [or] district—anywhere that the king’s word and decree reached—[there was] great mourning among the Jews, as well as fasting and weeping and lamentation. An abundant number had burlap and ashes spread [over them].
4. When Esther’s maids and eunuchs came to report [this] to her, the queen was deeply pained [with anguish], and she sent cloaks to clothe Mordekhai and to get him to take off his burlap, but he did not accept it.
5. So Esther called for Hatakh from among the king’s eunuchs, who was appointed to remain in her presence, and she gave him an order concerning Mordekhai, to find out what this [was about].
6. So Hatakh went out to Mordekhai [who was] on one of the city’s plazas in front of the king’s gate,
7. and Mordekhai recounted to him all that had happened to him and the exact sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king’s treasuries for the destruction of the Jews.
8. He also gave him a copy of the document [containing the] decree that was given at Shushan to exterminate them to show Esther and to let her know and to bid her to come to the king and implore his favor and to make a request from his presence on behalf of her compatriots.
9. So Hatakh came and relayed Mordekhai’s words to Esther.
10. Again Esther spoke to Hatakh and ordered him to [go tell] Mordekhai,
11. “All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that [for] any man or woman who approaches the king [while he is] in his inner chamber without being called for, he had one law—that [they be] put to death, except those to whom he extends the golden scepter so that he may remain alive. But I have not been called to approach the king these thirty days.”
Though we have been given favor by YHWH, we may not just approach Him on our own terms or on a whim. Joseph Good points out that the word for scepter is a later form of the term used as a symbol of the Messiah. (Gen. 49:10; Num. 24:17) The Aramaic targums actually substitute the word Messiah where the Hebrew text reads “scepter”! Indeed, Y'shua said no one approaches the Father except through Him. (Yochanan 14:6) Esther may have been recalling how Washti had acted independently when she went without being summoned.
12. So they reported Mordekhai’s words to Esther.
13. And Mordekhai told [them] to take [this message] back to Esther: “Don’t imagine within yourself that you can make yourself slip by, [any] more than any of the Jews, [just because you are] in the king’s house,
In the same way, when persecution comes upon Israel and we who have found refuge in who have found refuge in Y'shua hide behind our apparently Gentile identity while the Jews (whose identity is more obvious) suffer will not be allowed to stay in that place of protection, for our selfishness disqualifies us from it.
14. “because if you indeed remain silent at this time, relief and rescue will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s household will be lost. But who knows if you have been brought to attain the royal [position] for a time like this?”
Relief: literally, being brought into a wider space where one can breathe more freely.
15. And Esther told [them] to take [this reply] back to Mordekhai:
16. “Go, gather together all the Jews that can be found in Shushan, and fast for me. Don’t eat or drink [anything] for three days, night or day, and I and my maids will fast in the same way, and that is how I will go [make my] approach to the king [in this way] that is not customary.”
17. So Mordekai left and did according to all the orders Esther had given him.
CHAPTER 5
1. So it was that on the third day, Esther put on her regalia and stood in the inner court of the king’s house right in front of the king’s house [where she could be seen] when the king [was] sitting on the throne of his kingdom in the royal house within sight of the entryway to his house.
The third day: counting from 3:12, this is the sixteenth day of Nisan, which falls during the Feast of Unleavened Bread—a fast of a different kind.
2. And what came about was that as [soon as] the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, she rose in favor in his eyes, and the king extended the golden scepter that was in his hand, and Esther approached and touched the head of the scepter.
Note how, though she already had the position of queen, she made herself attractive to the king. Tradition says that in the scroll of Esther, whenever it simply says “the king” without mentioning the name of Akhashwerosh, there is an analogous reference to YHWH. So we should see in it instruction as to how to approach “THE King”.
3. And the king said, “What [will it be] for you, O Esther the Queen? And what is your request? Even up to half of the kingdom, it will be granted to you!”
4. So Esther said, “If it is pleasing to the king, let the king and Haman come today to the drinking-banquet that I have prepared for him.”
It is often said that YHWH’s Name never appears in the book of Hadassah. Overtly it does not. However, it does appear at least three times in acrostic form, and his parallel name, “Ehyeh” (I will [continue to] exist” (Ex. 3:14) appears in a different type of acrostic. The phrase “Let the king and Haman come today” is four words in Hebrew of which the initial letters are “Y-H-W-H”. Some other cases will be noted at their proper verse, as they appear in other forms. For him: ambiguous as to whether it was prepared for the king or for Haman. This parallels the “feast of Leviathan”, to which the fowls of the air are invited to feast on the flesh of those who follow the counterfeit Messiah. (Rev. 19:17) Leviathan (a Hebrew term for a sea-serpent) “attends”, but as the main course rather than the guest.
5. So the king said, “Have Haman hurry to carry out the word of the queen!” And the king and Haman came to the drinking-banquet that Esther had prepared.
6. And at the banquet of wine, the king said to Esther, “What is it you are asking for? It will be given to you! And what is your request? Even up to half of the kingdom, it will be carried out.”
7. So Esther responded by saying, “My petition and my request?
8. If I have found favor in the eyes of the king, and if it seems appropriate to the king to grant what I ask for and carry out my request, let the king and Haman come to the drinking-banquet that I will prepare for them, and tomorrow I will do as the king says.”
Note her attitude of deference even in her high position, in stark contrast to Washti’s. This, not the latter, is the type of wife THE King wants.
9. And Haman went out that day joyful and glad of heart. But when Haman saw Mordekhai at the king’s gate, and Mordekhai neither rose up nor moved because of him, then Haman was filled with rage on account of Mordekhai.
Moved: or, trembled. I.e., he did not budge, and he did not fear Haman.
10. But Haman restrained himself, and when he arrived at his house, he sent for his friends and his wife Zeresh, and had them come,
11. and Haman recounted for them the weight of his wealth and his many sons and all [to] which the king had promoted him, and how he had advanced him beyond the princes and the king’s own servants.
He was “counting his chickens before they hatched”, but in contrast, Hadassah never appears to have responded with such pride even when chosen as the queen.
12. Haman also said, “Heck! Queen Esther didn’t let anyone come with the king to the banquet she had prepared except me! And I am also summoned to it with the king tomorrow!
13. “Yet none of this is up to my standard any time that I see Mordekhai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.”
None of this is up to my standard: YHWH’s name appears in an acrostic from the last word of this phrase to the first, made up of the last letters of the words in Hebrew, showing that what he said was the opposite of what YHWH was like and backwards according to HIS standards.
14. So his wife Zeresh and all his friends told him, “Make a timber fifty cubits high, and speak to the king in the morning so they can hang Mordekhai on it, then [you can] go with the king to the banquet with joy!” And the word was appropriate before Haman, and he had the timber prepared.
Fifty cubits: about 75 feet. Like Izevel (Jezebel) with Akhav, his wife is the real mastermind behind the scheme.
CHAPTER 6
1. That night, sleep retreated from the king, and he said to bring the document of records of the chronicles. While they were being read in the king’s presence,
He probably thought this was be sufficiently monotonous material to bore him and put him to sleep. However, it actually kept him from sleeping:
2. it was found documented that Mordekhai had made a report about Bigthana and Theresh, two of the king’s eunuchs that guarded the threshold, who were looking [for a way] to stretch out a hand against King Akhashwerosh.
3. And the king said, “What has been done to honor or promote Mordekhai on account of this?” And the king’s youths who served him said, “Not a thing has been done with him.”
4. So the king said, “Who is in the courtyard?” Now Haman had [just] come into the outer courtyard of the king’s house to speak to the king [about] hanging Mordekhai on the timber that he had made ready for him.
5. So the king’s youths told him, “There’s Haman standing in the courtyard!” So the king said, “Let him come in.”
6. When Haman arrived, the king said to him, “What should be done with the man whom the king is pleased to honor?” And Haman said in his heart, “Whom would the king be pleased to honor besides me?”
7. So Haman said to the king, “A man whom the king is pleased to honor…
8. “Let royal clothing be brought which the king himself has worn, a horse on which the king has ridden, and on whose head is set a royal crown,
9. “and let the apparel and the horse be entrusted into the hand of a man—[one of] the king’s most noble princes—and let them dress the man whom the king is pleased to honor, and have him ride on the horse through the city’s plaza, and announce ahead of him, ‘This is what is done for the man whom the king is pleased to honor!’”
10. So the king told Haman, “Quickly! Get the clothing and the horse, just as you have said, and do just that to Mordekhai the Jew, who sits at the king’s gate! Don’t let a thing of which you have spoken fail [to be done]!”
11. So Haman took the apparel and the horse, dressed Mordekhai, and had him ride through the plaza of the city, and announced ahead of him, “This is what is done for the man whom the king is pleased to honor!”
12. Then Mordekhai went back to the king’s gate, but Haman hurried to his house mournful and with his head covered,
13. and Haman recounted to Zeresh his wife and to all his friends everything that had befallen him. Then his skilled [administrators] and his wife told him, “If Mordekhai, before whom you have begun to be inferior, is of the seed of the Jews, then you will not be able to overcome him, but you will certainly fall before him.”
14. But while they were still talking with him, the king’s eunuchs arrived, and anxiously hurried to bring Haman to the drinking-banquet that Esther had prepared.
CHAPTER 7
1. When the king and Haman had come to feast with Esther the queen,
2. the king also said to Esther on the second day at the banquet of wine, “What is your petition, O Queen Esther? It will be given to you! And what is your request? Even up to half of the kingdom, it will be carried out.”
3. So Esther the Queen answered and said, “If I have found favor in your eyes, O king, and if it seems appropriate to the king, let me be given my life as my petition, and my people as my request,
4. “because we have been sold—I and my people—to annihilate, to murder [out of hand], and to exterminate! Now if we had only been sold as slaves or maidservants, I would have kept silent, since the oppression is no equal to the damage [to] the king.”
The damage to the king: i.e., since he was being paid by Haman, she would not begrudge him this if merely meant hardship for her and her people.
5. And King Akhashwerosh spoke and said to Esther the queen, “Who is this one, and where is he—this one who has satisfied his heart to do such a thing?”
This one and where is he: The final letters in each of the four Hebrew words here spell out Ehyeh—“I will be”, the name by which YHWH introduced Himself to Moshe when He was about to deliver His people en masse in much the same way on that earlier occasion. (Ex. 3:14)
6. And Esther said, “An oppressor and an enemy! This evil one is Haman!” Then Haman was overtaken by sudden terror because of the presence of the king and queen.
7. And the king got up from the wine banquet in his rage into the palace garden, but Haman stayed to beg Esther the queen for his life, because he perceived that injury was determined against him from the king.
Determined: literally, finished or used up; i.e., the king’s mind was made up that he would hurt Haman. The final letters in each word of this phrase form an acrostic spelling “YHWH”—another of the times He hid His Name “behind the scenes” in the text though it never appears overtly.
8. When the king came back from the palace garden into the banquet-house of wine, Haman was throwing himself down onto the couch that Esther was on, and the king said, “Will he even forcibly violate the queen with me [right] in the house?” [As soon as] the word went out from the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face.
Covered… face: i.e., the executioners came to escort him away.
9. Then Harvonah, one of the eunuchs in the king’s presence said, “Look! Even the fifty-cubit-high timber [gallows] that Haman made for Mordekhai, who spoke well toward the king, is [already] standing at Haman’s house!” So the king said, “Hang him on it!”
10. And they did hang Haman on the timber that he had set up for Mordekhai, and the king’s rage subsided.
Counting the four days from 3:12, this took place on the 17th of Nisan or Aviv—the day deliverance came on numerous other occasions: it was th same day of the year that Noach’s ark came to rest, the day the Israelites under Moshe had emerged from the Reed Sea, the day the Temple services was restored by King Hizqiyahu, and the day Yahshua the Messiah would be resurrected from the dead.
CHAPTER 8
1. On that day the king, Akhashwerosh, gave Esther the queen the house of Haman, the one who [had] caused the Jews distress. Then Mordekhai came before the king, because Esther had informed [him] of what he was to her.
2. Then the king took off his signet ring, which he had transferred [back] from Haman, and gave it to Mordekhai, and Esther set Mordekhai over the house of Haman.
3. And Esther did it again—that is, she spoke before the king and fell before his feet and begged his favor with tears to let the evil of Haman the Agagite pass, along with the plan that he had thought up in regard to the Jews.
4. Then the king extended the golden scepter to Esther, and Esther stood [back] up and remained in the presence of the king,
5. and said, “If concerning the king it [seems] appropriate and if I have found favor before him and the matter is acceptable in the king’s presence and I am pleasing in his eyes, then let it be recorded to revoke the edict-documents—an invention of Haman, son of Hamdatha, the Agagite—which he wrote to exterminate the Jews who are in all of the king’s provinces,
Acceptable: Heb., kosher.
6. “because how could I endure when I saw the evil that would come upon my people? Or how would I be able to watch the destruction of my relatives?”
Relatives: literally, those I was born to.
7. Then the king, Akhashwerosh, said to Esther the queen and to Mordekhai the Jew, “Indeed, I have given the house of Haman to Esther, and they have hanged him on the timber because he stretched out his hand against the Jews.
8. “But you [will have to] write in regard to the Jews as it [seems] right in your eyes in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s signet ring, because a document that is written in the name of the king and sealed with the king’s signet ring—there is no [way] to reverse it.”
9. So the king’s scribes were summoned at that time, in the third month (that is, the month Siwan) on its twenty-third [day], and according to all that Mordekhai ordered, it was written to the Jews as well as to the deputies and governors and rulers of the provinces that were from India to Ethiopia—127 provinces—to each province according to its script, to each ethnicity according to its language, and to the Jews according to their script and their language.
10. And he wrote in the name of the king, Akhashwerosh, and sealed [them] with the king’s signet ring, and by the hand of couriers on horse[back], riders on swift steeds, royal stallions, sons of mares, he sent letters
11. [in] which the king provided for the Jews who were in each and every city to assemble themselves and stand up for their lives, to eliminate, to kill, or to nullify all the ability of [any] ethnicity and province that [should] cause distress to themselves, toddlers and women, and to seize their plunder
Note that the survival of each Jew depended on their being assembled in groups.
12. on one day in all the provinces of the king, Akhashwerosh—on the thirteenth of the twelfth month (that is, the month of Adar).
13. A copy of the edict to be issued as a decree in each and every province was unveiled to all the ethnicities and to let the Jews become prepared for that day to avenge themselves from their enemies.
14. The couriers, riders on swift steeds of the royal stallions, went out, being intensely hurried and driven on by the king’s word, and the decree was given at Shushan, the citadel.
15. And Mordekhai went out from the king’s presence wearing royal apparel of blue and white and a large golden crown, as well as a [costly] robe of fine white linen and purple, and the city of Shushan celebrated with shrill cries and rejoiced.
16. For the Jews there came to be light and gladness and joy and [high] esteem,
17. and in each and every province and each and every city—[any] place where the word of the king and his decree reached—[there was] gladness and rejoicing for the Jews, a drinking banquet and a holiday. And many of the peoples of the earth became Jews, because the awe of the Jews fell upon them.
Awe: or even terror, fear of doing anything to harm them, but also the longing to be in on their blessings, for it was obvious that they were favored by Heaven.
CHAPTER 9
1. Now in the twelfth month, on its thirteenth day, when [the time] approached [for the] word and the decree of the king to be carried out—the day on which the enemies of the Jews had waited [expecting] to overpower them (when in fact it was reversed in that the Jews overpowered the ones who hated them),
Overpower: exercise mastery or dominance over.
2. the Jews gathered together in their cities throughout all the provinces of the king, Akhashwerosh, to send out a hand on [any] who were seeking to harm them, and not a man presented himself before them, because the dread of them had fallen on all the peoples.
Presented himself before them: literally, stood in their presence.
3. And all the rulers of the provinces and the deputies and governors, and all who were doing the business that was for the king, were supporting the Jews, because the awe of Mordekhai had fallen on them,
4. because Mordekhai [had become] great in the king’s household, and his reputation went into all the provinces, because the man Mordekhai traveled and [became more and more] distinguished.
5. And the Jews struck down all their enemies with the blow of a sword and slaughter and destruction, and did with those who hated them whatever they wished.
6. Even in Shushan the citadel, the Jews killed and did away with five hundred men.
7. 
And Parshandatha,
And Parshandatha,and Dalfon,
Dalfon, and Asfatha,8. and Poratha,
and Poratha,and Adalya,and Aridatha,9. and Parmashta,
and Parmashta,and Arisai,and Aridai,and Vaizatha,10. ten sons of Haman, son of Hamdatha, who had caused the Jews distress, they put to death, but on the spoils they did not lay their hand.
In the Hebrew text of the list of the ten sons (vv. 7-9), the names are arranged like a gallows somewhat as depicted here. There are also three letters written smaller than the rest, which add up to the numeric value of 706. The normal Hebrew way to write a calendar year is to leave off the thousands place, so this could just as well read 706 as 5706, the equivalent of the early part of 1946 on the Gregorian calendar. Amazingly, in 1946 ten men—“sons” of Hitler--who had also tried to eradicate the Jews, were hanged on the last day of Sukkoth, having been tried at the Nuremberg War Trials, and among the last words of one of them (Julius Streicher) were “Purimfest 1946”! The first letter of Vaizatha is larger than the rest. It resembles a gallows like the one they were hung on, and Jewish tradition says this implies that all ten were hanged on the same gallows rather than on separate ones. Joseph Good points out that there were ten men later in the same century who wrote the laws of Rome, which still affect us today. And ten kings are associated in prophecy with the Counterfeit Messiah (Dan. 7; Rev. 7, 13, 17)
11. On that day the tally of those killed in Shushan the citadel came before the king,
12. and the king told Esther the queen, “In Shushan the citadel the Jews have killed and done away with five hundred men as well as the ten sons of Haman; what [must] they have done in the rest of the provinces of the king? But what is it you are asking for? It will be given to you! And what further request do you have? It too will be carried out.”
13. So Esther said, “If it is appropriate as regards the king, let it also be granted to the Jews who are in Shushan to do tomorrow what the decree [for] today [allowed], and let the ten sons of Haman be hanged on the timber.”
14. And the king promised that it was be done that way, and the decree was issued at Shushan and they hanged Haman’s ten sons.
15. Then the Jews who were in Shushan also gathered together on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and they killed three hundred men in Shushan, but did not lay their hand on the spoils,
16. while the rest of the Jews who were in the provinces of the king gathered together and stopped to catch their breath and [to have] a rest from their enemies, having killed 75,000 among those who hated them, but on the spoils they did not lay their hand.
Contrast the attitude of Akhan at Yerikho (Y’hoshua 7) and King Sha’ul with the Amaleqites (1 Shmuel 15:9). This property was too tainted with innocent blood to be desirable to those who could have enjoyed it, and they did not want to partake of anything that had belonged to such evildoers.
17. As they [had] a rest on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, on its fourteenth day they made it a day of feasting and rejoicing,
18. while the Jews at Shushan gathered together on its thirteenth day and its fourteenth day, and rested on its fifteenth day, making it a day of feasting and rejoicing.
19. For this reason the rural Jews, who lived in the unwalled towns, make the fourteenth day of the month of Adar a holiday of rejoicing and feasting and each sending portions to one’s neighbor.
20. Now Mordekhai recorded these things and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of the king, Akhashwerosh, [both] those near and those far away
21. to impose upon them to start to observe the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and its fifteenth day in each and every year
22. as the days on which the Jews had rest from those who hated them and the month that was transformed for them from anguish to rejoicing and from mourning to a holiday, to make them days of feasting and joy and each sending portions to his neighbor and donations to the needy.
23. So the Jews accepted what they had begun to do and what Mordekhai had written to them,
Accepted: the singular form is used here, indicating that they were acting “as one man”.
24. since Haman son of Hamdatha the Agagite, who had caused the Jews distress, had planned in regard to the Jews to annihilate them, and had let the Pur (that is, the lot) fall to confuse them and destroy them,
Confuse: distract, unsettle, or torment.
25. but when she came before the king he said with the document that the evil plan that he had devised in regard to the Jews should turn back on his own head, and they hanged him and his sons on the timber.
26. That is why they therefore call these days Purim, on account of the name “the Pur” on account of all the words of this letter and what they had seen concerning this matter and what had befallen them.
That is why: Rabbi David Fohrman points out that this phrase would make more sense if it followed verse 24, unless there is something in verse 25 that explains the name Purim better—and there is. The holiday is not named after the tool the enemy used against the Jews, but the “turning back”—not the term itself but another place that describes how Hadassah accomplished this. The word Pur here is not the Hebrew term for "lot", but the Persian. Numbers 30:13ff speaks of a woman’s husband annulling vows she has made which he foresees will be problematic to the overall good, but he has a limited time frame in which to do so; if he held his peace past that time, the vow would stand. But the term “her husband”, without one dot which appears in the last letter, is the same as the word “a woman” (ishah), and since those dots do not appear in the actual ancient Hebrew scrolls, it can be read either way, with the alternate reading, “Every binding vow to afflict the soul [often an idiom for fasting], a woman may establish it or a woman may annul it.” Mordekhai urged Hadassah not to hold her peace (4:14) lest the king’s order stand. The weapon she used to accomplish this was fasting (4:16). The word for “annul” in Hebrew is parar (sometimes actually appearing in the form pur), which means to defeat, frustrate, nullify, make void, disappoint, dissolve, or cause to cease. Since this is what Hadassah did (8:5) multiple times in the story and the word purim is plural, it appears that the name of the holiday is actually rooted in the Hebrew word for “bring to naught” instead of (or in addition to) the Persian word for “lot”.
27. The Jews established and took [it] on themselves and their descendants and upon any who might join themselves to them to not fail to keep these two days as they had written and according to their season each and every year,
This gives us permission to celebrate Purim, as long as we do it along with the Jews. All who follow the Messiah are those from outside who join themselves to them—who take hold of the tzitziyoth of a Jew and ask to go with him. (Z’kharyah 8:23)
28. and [that] these days be remembered and observed in each and every generation family by family, province by province and city by city, so these days of Purim would not pass from among the Jews, nor the memory of them come to an end from their descendants.
29. Then Esther the queen, the daughter of Avikhayil, and Mordekhai the Jew wrote with all authoritative force to make binding this second letter of Purim,
30. and he sent scrolls to all the Jews—to the 127 provinces of the kingdom of Akhashwerosh—words of peace and truth
31. to confirm these days of Purim in their season when Mordekhai the Jew and Esther the queen had established and as they had imposed upon themselves and their descendants—the matters of the fastings and their outcries of distress.
32. And the word of Esther ratified these matters [regarding] Purim, and it was inscribed in the scroll.
CHAPTER 10
1. Then King Akhashwerosh imposed a tribute on the land and [even] the islands of the sea,
2. and all of the success of his prevalence and power and the distinction and dignity of Mordekhai, to which the king advanced him, aren’t they recorded on the scroll of the Chronicles of the Kings of Maday and Persia?
3. Because Mordekhai the Jew was second to King Akhashwerosh [did] great [things] for the Jews and was accepted favorably by many of his brothers, seeking what was best for his people and negotiating well-being for all of his descendants.
INTRODUCTION: Read in its entirety at Purim each year, this story takes place after the Medes and Persians had conquered Babylon, but before the seventy-year exile YHWH had decreed for the Jews was over. Therefore they had no homeland to escape to when their safety was threatened. YHWH’s name never appears overtly in the text, though it is encrypted in several places, but it is also an allegory about YHWH, Satan, and Israel.
