The Bible does not give a long account of Esther’s childhood. She was a descendant of people taken from Jerusalem into exile, and after her parents died, her cousin Mordecai raised her as his own daughter. Her Hebrew name was Hadassah. She lived in Susa, the citadel of the Persian Empire, during the reign of Ahasuerus. The king held a great feast to display his wealth and power to officials and nobles from his provinces, while Queen Vashti held a feast for women. On the final day the king ordered Vashti to appear before the guests so that her beauty could be displayed. She refused. The king and his advisers treated the refusal as a matter affecting the order of the palace and empire, and Vashti lost her position as queen.
Young women were gathered from the provinces to find a new queen. Esther too was brought to the palace in Susa and placed under the care of an official named Hegai. Mordecai told her not to reveal her people or family, and Esther obeyed. Hegai favored her, provided what she needed, and gave her a good place among the women. When it was Esther’s turn to go before the king, she asked for nothing except what Hegai advised. Those who saw her favored her, and the king loved Esther more than the other women. He placed the royal crown on her head and made her queen. He held a feast in her honor, granted a holiday in the provinces, and gave gifts. Esther was now queen, but she still had not disclosed her Jewish identity.
Mordecai sat at the king’s gate. At one point he overheard two royal guards, Bigthan and Teresh, speaking of a plot against Ahasuerus. He told Esther, and Esther reported it to the king in Mordecai’s name. The matter was investigated, found to be true, and the two men were punished. The event was written in the book of royal chronicles. At that time the text does not say that Mordecai received a reward. The record would become important on another night in the palace.
The king promoted Haman the Agagite above all the other officials. People at the king’s gate bowed to Haman as the king commanded, but Mordecai would not bow. When Haman learned that Mordecai was Jewish, he did not seek to destroy only Mordecai. He told the king that a people scattered through the empire kept different laws and asked for permission to destroy them. The king gave Haman his signet ring. Haman cast lots to choose the date, and the lot fell on the thirteenth day of Adar in Ahasuerus’s twelfth year. In the king’s name, letters were written and translated into the languages of the provinces, ordering that Jewish men, women, and children be destroyed on that day and their possessions taken. Susa was thrown into confusion while the king and Haman sat down to drink.
When Mordecai learned of the decree, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and cried out loudly in the middle of the city. Jews in every province fasted, wept, and mourned. Esther’s servants and eunuchs told her what was happening. She sent clothes to Mordecai, but he would not accept them. Through the eunuch Hathach, Mordecai sent Esther a copy of the decree and told her to go to the king and plead for her people. Esther answered that anyone who entered the inner court without being summoned was subject to death unless the king held out the golden scepter. She had not been summoned to the king for thirty days.
Mordecai sent back a warning that Esther should not think she would escape simply because she was in the palace. He said that relief and deliverance for the Jews would arise from another place, then asked whether she had come to royal position for such a time as this. Esther asked him to gather the Jews of Susa and fast for her for three days. She and her young women would fast as well. Then she said she would go to the king though it was against the law. “If I perish, I perish,” she said, knowing the danger she was choosing to face. Mordecai did as she asked.
On the third day Esther put on royal robes and stood in the inner court of the palace. The king saw her, was pleased, and held out the golden scepter. Esther came near and touched its tip. The king asked what she wanted, offering even half the kingdom. Esther asked the king and Haman to come that day to a banquet she had prepared. When the king asked again at the banquet, Esther invited him and Haman to a second banquet the next day. Haman left in high spirits, but when he saw Mordecai at the king’s gate neither rising nor trembling before him, he became furious. His wife and friends advised him to prepare a tall gallows for Mordecai, and Haman had it made.
That night the king could not sleep and ordered the book of chronicles to be read. It contained the account of Mordecai exposing the plot of Bigthan and Teresh. The king asked what honor had been given to Mordecai and learned that nothing had been done. Early the next morning he asked Haman what should be done for a man the king wished to honor. Haman assumed the king meant him, so he proposed royal robes, the king’s horse, and a public procession through the city. The king ordered Haman to do exactly that for Mordecai. Haman dressed Mordecai, led him on the horse through the city, and proclaimed what is done for the man the king wishes to honor. He returned home grieving and was soon called to Esther’s second banquet.
At that banquet the king again asked Esther for her request. Esther asked that her own life and the lives of her people be spared. She said that she and her people had been sold to destruction. When the king asked who had planned such a thing, Esther answered, “The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman.” The king went out into the garden. Haman begged Esther for his life and fell on the couch where she was reclining. When the king returned and saw him, he was enraged. A court official told the king that Haman had prepared a gallows for Mordecai, who had saved the king. Haman was hanged on it. Esther received Haman’s estate, and the king gave his signet ring to Mordecai.
The first decree could not simply be revoked, because it had been issued in the king’s name and sealed with his ring. Esther again went before the king, weeping and asking him to stop Haman’s plan. On the twenty-third day of Sivan, the king’s scribes wrote the new decree in the king’s name for the Jews. It went to all 127 provinces in the scripts and languages used throughout the empire. The decree gave Jews in every province the right to assemble and defend their lives against armed attackers. In every province reached by the decree, Jews celebrated, and many people of other nationalities identified themselves with the Jews. Mordecai left the king wearing blue and white royal robes, a great golden crown, and a purple linen garment. The city of Susa rejoiced. Scripture says there was light, gladness, joy, and honor among the Jews.
On the day set by the first decree, Jews throughout the provinces stood together against those who sought to harm them. In Susa, Haman’s ten sons were killed. The king allowed another day in Susa, and the Jews gathered again against those who opposed them. The book repeatedly says that they did not lay hands on the plunder. Jews in the provinces rested on the fourteenth day of Adar and made it a day of feasting and joy; Jews in Susa rested on the fifteenth. Mordecai wrote letters directing that these days be observed every year. Esther the queen and Mordecai also wrote to establish the observance of Purim. Esther’s final biblical appearance is as queen, joining Mordecai in confirming that decision. Scripture does not tell us where or how she lived afterward, or when she died.