The Book of Esther

The chronicle, and one sentence about Mordecai

Movement I 10:1–3

King Ahasuerus laid a tribute on the land and on the islands of the sea.

Aren’t all the acts of his power and of his might, and the full account of the greatness of Mordecai, to which the king advanced him, written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia?

For Mordecai the Jew was next to King Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews and accepted by the multitude of his brothers, seeking the good of his people and speaking peace to all his descendants.

seeking the good of his people and speaking peace to all his descendants

Esther 10:3

Stop · Esther 10:3

The last chapter is three verses: a tax, a chronicle reference, and one sentence about what Mordecai did with the position.

How are you using your influence for the good of others?

Writes it to your vault, and answers once.

The book ends here. Return to the shelf.

The same code, run twice. It finds “Yahweh” 26 times in Jonah, and no word for God here. The book’s one constant subject is the king, 196 times.

The scale comes first. The number is in the opening sentence, before anyone but the king is named.

ch1 v3 the king for his princes and his servants
ch1 v5 the king seven days, for everyone in Susa
ch1 v9 Vashti the queen for the women, in the royal house
ch2 v18 the king “even Esther’s feast”
ch5 vv5–6 Esther for the king and Haman
ch7 vv1–2 Esther the second day
ch9 vv17–22 the Jews for one another, sending food between houses

Seven of its gatherings, and the last one is nobody’s court. Several of the book’s turns happen at a banquet.

Translators’ footnote · ESTHER 9:26 “Purim is the Hebrew plural for pur, which means lot.”

The date was thrown for. The first month decides, the twelfth month is the answer, and the festival keeps the name of the throw.

ESTHER 3:12–13 · the first month written as Haman commanded

ESTHER 8:9–11 · the third month written as Mordecai commanded

“to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish”
“to plunder their possessions”
“to every province according to its writing, and to every people in their language”

ESTHER 1:19 “so that it cannot be altered” ESTHER 8:8 “may not be reversed by any man”

The same words, on the other side. The second letter cannot cancel the first; it can only be written against it.

The king’s ring ch3 v10 “gave it to Haman” ch8 v2 “gave it to Mordecai”

The gallows ch5 v14 “so he had the gallows made” ch7 v10 “hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai”

The horse and the robe ch6 v9 “that they may array the man whom the king delights to honor” ch6 v11 “arrayed Mordecai”

What is worn ch4 v1 “put on sackcloth with ashes” ch8 v15 “in royal clothing of blue and white”

The month ch4 v3 “great mourning among the Jews” ch9 v22 “from sorrow to gladness”

but it turned out that the opposite happened, that the Jews conquered those who hated them the text’s own parenthesis · ESTHER 9:1

Five pairs of verses, and one sentence. The book records the turn in a bracket and never says who made it.

A reading — not a finding