The Bible, King James version, Book 17: Esther — Context and Discussion

(1 User reviews) 179

In Category - Theology

Authors: Anonymous Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2005 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Bible. Esther Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

Edition facts

Words 8,765

Reading time 39 min

Text sections 2

The Bible, King James version, Book 17: Esther — Context and Discussion can be approached with a clearer sense of reading commitment from its source measurements: 8,765 words, 39 min estimated reading time, and 2 detected text sections.

The text analysis averages about 30.3 words per sentence, while the detected sections provide another way to judge how the source is divided.

Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “Bible. Esther,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.

Source: Project Gutenberg record #8017

An editorial note on the structure and imagery of the Book of Esther, focusing on the movement between palace feasts, decrees, and reversals, and the recurring motifs of royal garments, rings, and gallows.

Editorial Edition Score 4.4/5

★★★★★ ★★★★★

Calculated from edition completeness, EPUB availability, text structure and catalogue metadata. Not a user rating.

How this score is calculated

Description quality20 pts
Title & short description10 pts
Source metadata20 pts
Text length15 pts
Chapters / structure15 pts
EPUB file integrity20 pts

Total of 100 points, scaled to a 2.5-5.0 range. Editions with an empty description or a missing EPUB file are not scored.

Edition quality

File: pg8017

Read the Text

Mordecai had charged her: for Esther did the commandment of Mordecai, like as when she was brought up with him.

17:002:021 In those days, while Mordecai sat in the king's gate, two of the king's chamberlains, Bigthan and Teresh, of those which kept the door, were wroth, and sought to lay hands on the king Ahasuerus.

17:002:022 And the thing was known to Mordecai, who told it unto Esther the queen; and Esther certified the king thereof in Mordecai's name.

17:002:023 And when inquisition was made of the matter, it was found out; therefore they were both hanged on a tree: and it was written in the book of the chronicles before the king.

17:003:001 After these things did king Ahasuerus promote Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all the princes that were with him.

17:003:002 And all the king's servants, that were in the king's gate, bowed, and reverenced Haman: for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence.

17:003:003 Then the king's servants, which were in the king's gate, said unto Mordecai, Why transgressest thou the king's commandment?

17:003:004 Now it came to pass, when they spake daily unto him, and he hearkened not unto them, that they told Haman, to see whether Mordecai's matters would stand: for he had told them that he was a Jew.

17:003:005 And when Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence, then was Haman full of wrath.

17:003:006 And he thought scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone; for they had shewed him the people of Mordecai: wherefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews that were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even the people of Mordecai.

17:003:007 In the first month, that is, the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of king Ahasuerus, they cast Pur, that is, the lot, before Haman from day to day, and from month to month, to the twelfth month, that is, the month Adar.

17:003:008 And Haman said unto king Ahasuerus, There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of thy kingdom; and their laws are diverse from all people; neither keep they the king's laws: therefore it is not for the king's profit to suffer them.

17:003:009 If it please the king, let it be written that they may be destroyed: and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver to the hands of those that have the charge of the business, to bring it into the king's treasuries.

17:003:010 And the king took his ring from his hand, and gave it unto Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the Jews' enemy.

17:003:011 And the king said unto Haman, The silver is given to thee, the people also, to do with them as it seemeth good to thee.

17:003:012 Then were the king's scribes called on the thirteenth day of the first month, and there was written according to all that Haman had commanded unto the king's lieutenants, and to the governors that were over every province, and to the rulers of every people of every province according to the writing thereof, and to every people after their language; in the name of king Ahasuerus was it written, and sealed with the king's ring.

17:003:013 And the letters were sent by posts into all the king's provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to take the spoil of them for a prey.

17:003:014 The copy of the writing for a commandment to be given in every province was published unto all people, that they should be ready against that day.

17:003:015 The posts went out, being hastened by the king's commandment, and the decree was given in Shushan the palace. And the king and Haman sat down to drink; but the city Shushan was perplexed.

17:004:001 When Mordecai perceived all that was done, Mordecai rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and cried with a loud and a bitter cry;

17:004:002 And came even before the king's gate: for none might enter into the king's gate clothed with sackcloth.

17:004:003 And in every province, whithersoever the king's commandment and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.

17:004:004 So Esther's maids and her chamberlains came and told it her. Then was the queen exceedingly grieved; and she sent raiment to clothe Mordecai, and to take away his sackcloth from him: but he received it not.

Continue Reading →

The Book of Esther opens with a hundred-and-eighty-day feast in Shushan the palace, a display of “the riches of his glorious kingdom” that establishes a world of sumptuous surfaces—white, green, and blue hangings, gold and silver beds, and diverse golden vessels. This lavish setting is not mere backdrop; it is the stage for a series of public spectacles and private negotiations that drive the narrative. The text moves quickly from the king’s drunken command to Queen Vashti’s refusal, and then to the search for a new queen, each scene pivoting on the tension between royal decree and personal will.

Feasts and Their Reversals

The narrative is structured around three major feasts: the king’s opening banquet, Esther’s two banquets for the king and Haman, and the eventual feast of Purim. Each feast marks a turning point. The first feast ends with Vashti’s deposition, setting the plot in motion. Esther’s first banquet (chapter 5) is a deliberate delay—she invites the king and Haman but does not yet make her request. The second banquet (chapter 7) is the climax: Esther reveals Haman’s plot, and the king’s anger leads to Haman’s execution on the very gallows he built for Mordecai. The feast of Purim (chapter 9) transforms a day of destruction into one of joy and gift-giving. This pattern of reversal—where a feast intended for one purpose becomes the occasion for its opposite—is the book’s central structural device.

Garments, Rings, and Royal Insignia

Clothing and objects of authority recur as markers of status and reversal. Vashti is summoned “with the crown royal” to display her beauty; her refusal strips her of that crown. Mordecai, after Haman’s fall, is dressed in “royal apparel of blue and white” with a gold crown and a garment of fine linen and purple—the very colors of the palace hangings. The king’s ring, first given to Haman to seal the decree against the Jews (3:10), is later taken from Haman and given to Mordecai (8:2). This transfer of the signet ring symbolizes the complete inversion of power: the instrument of destruction becomes the seal of deliverance. The gallows Haman builds for Mordecai (5:14) becomes his own death device, a literal and ironic reversal.

Movement Between Public and Private Spaces

The action oscillates between the open court of the palace and private chambers. The king’s decrees are issued publicly, but crucial conversations occur in intimate settings: Esther’s banquets are held in the “inner court” (5:1) and the “banquet of wine” (7:2). Mordecai learns of the assassination plot while “sitting in the king’s gate” (2:21), a liminal space between public and royal domains. Esther’s approach to the king without being summoned (4:11) is a dangerous crossing from private to public, resolved by the golden sceptre. This spatial choreography underscores the precariousness of access to power and the need for strategic timing.

The Rhythm of Decrees and Their Reversals

The plot is propelled by a series of written decrees that are issued, then countered. Haman’s letters, sealed with the king’s ring, order the destruction of the Jews on a single day (3:12-13). Mordecai’s counter-decree, also sealed with the king’s ring, authorizes the Jews to defend themselves (8:9-11). The text emphasizes the irrevocability of Persian law: “the writing which is written in the king’s name, and sealed with the king’s ring, may no man reverse” (8:8). Yet the second decree effectively nullifies the first by granting permission to fight. This legalistic framework creates a suspenseful countdown to the appointed day, and the final victory is achieved not by overturning the law but by working within its constraints.

Readers attentive to the book’s structure will notice how each scene mirrors or inverts an earlier one. The repeated mention of months and dates—from the third year of the king’s reign to the thirteenth day of Adar—gives the narrative a calendrical urgency. The Book of Esther is a tightly constructed drama of reversals, where feasts become traps, gallows become instruments of justice, and a hidden identity becomes the key to survival. Its power lies not in divine intervention but in human courage and the cunning use of royal protocol.

Reading the commentary on Esther, I kept returning to that silent, unspoken tension beneath the elaborate robes and royal rings—how much of our fate is hidden in what we wear, and what we’re given. It felt, oddly, like a quiet echo of something older, a concern with what endures beyond the throne room’s shifting doors. That led me back to Egyptian Ideas of the Future Life — Reading Companion, where the same hushed wonderment about unseen reversals hangs in the air.