The Book of

Esther

King James Version

10 CHAPTERS

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Queen Esther tells king Ahasuerus of Haman's plot to kill the Jews including herself. Haman is then ordered by the king to be hanged from the gallows he had built to hang Mordecai, Esther's foster parent. By Jan Lievens (circa 1625). Image Source

Esther Summary

Esther is a Jewish woman who becomes the queen of Persia and prevents a genocide of her people. The book forms the core of the Jewish festival Purim.

Esther was a member of the Israelites who had been exiled from Jerusalem after its destruction by king Nebuchadnezzar. Esther became an ophan after the death of her parents and is fostered by her cousin, Mordecai. Esther is described as "fair and beautiful", and is chosen as as a concubine for the king and eventually becomes the queen of Persia to replace the former queen who fell from the favor of the king.

Mordecai also becomes a member of the king's palace after he reveals an assasination plot against the king. However, Mordecai is disliked by the king's viceroy Haman who plots to kill Mordecai and builds a gallows to do so. When the king is reviewing court records and realizes that Mordecai had once saved his life but never recieved formal recognition for it, he asks Haman how such a heroic person should be treated. Haman, thinking the king is referring to himself, says the king should dress him in king's clothing and be paraded around on horseback proclaiming his good deeds. And so the king orders Haman to do so on behalf of Mordecai.

Later, the king and queen Esther host a feast to which Haman is invited. At the feast, Esther suddenly reveals that Haman is plotting to kill all the Jews including herself. The king orders Haman hanged on the very gallows Haman had planned to have Mordecai hanged on. In addition, rather than just canceling the decree that Haman and his men be allowed to destroy the Jews, the king reverses it, allowing the Jews to attack their enemies. The Jews are victorious, killing Haman's sons and other opponents of the Jews. Esther sends a letter instituting an annual commemoration of the Jewish people's redemption in a holiday called Purim celebrated ever since. King Ahasuerus remains powerful thereafter and continues his reign with Mordecai as

Most Searched Verse in Esther 
Most searched verse in Esther with 4,400 average monthly searches on Google.

  • For 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 4:14



Sources

The King James Bible text is sourced from the BibleForgeDB database (https://github.com/bibleforge) within the BibleForge project (http://bibleforge.com). Popularity rankings are based on search volume data from the Google AdWords Keyword Planner tool.


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