Esther

About Esther

Esther tells how a Jewish orphan girl became queen of Persia and risked her life to stop a plot to wipe out her people. Famously, God is never named in the book — yet His care runs quietly through every so-called coincidence. In the Bible's big story, it shows God protecting His scattered people in exile, keeping alive the family through whom His promises would come, and it explains the joyful festival of Purim.

Written by

The author is unknown; suggestions have included Mordecai or another Jew living in Persia, but the book itself never says.

When

The story is set in Persia around 483 to 473 BC under King Xerxes, and the book was probably written sometime in the following century.

Themes

• God's hidden hand
• Courage for such a time as this
• Evil turned upside down
• God preserves His people

Key verses

• Esther 4:14For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but 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?
• Esther 6:1On that night could not the king sleep, and he commanded to bring the book of records of the chronicles; and they were read before the king.
• Esther 9:22As the days wherein the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning into a good day: that they should make them days of feasting and joy, and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor.