Esther Before the King · Purim

In context

On the third day Esther goes in to the king without being called, and he holds out his golden scepter to her (Esther 5:1–2); the Greek, in Catholic and Orthodox Bibles, tells the scene at more length (Esther (Greek) 5:1–2). She invites the king and Haman to a banquet, and then to a second one (Esther 5:4–8). Haman, angry at Mordecai, has a gallows built fifty cubits high, about 75 feet, to hang him on (5:9–14).

That night the king can’t sleep, hears in the records how Mordecai once reported a plot against him, and has Haman lead Mordecai through the city square in the king’s own clothing, on the king’s horse (6:1–11). At the second banquet Esther asks for her life and her people’s, and names their enemy, Haman, who is hanged on the gallows he built for Mordecai (7:3–10).

A new decree lets the Jews defend themselves on the day set for their destruction. It is a hard reading: they kill those who hate them, eight hundred men in Susa over two days and seventy-five thousand in the provinces, but take no plunder (8:11; 9:5–16). The days become Purim, from pur, the lot, a month “turned to them from sorrow to gladness,” kept with feasting, gifts of food and gifts to the needy (9:22–26). Purim is still kept today.