Esther 1

1 In the second year of the reign of Artaxerxes the great king, on the first day of Nisan, Mordecai the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, saw a dream. He was a Jew living in the city of Susa, a great man, who served in the court of the king; and he was one of the captives whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away from Jerusalem with Jeconiah king of Judah. [a]

This was his dream. Voices and uproar, thunder and earthquake — confusion over the earth. Then two great serpents came forward, both ready to fight, and a great cry went up from them; and at their cry every nation made itself ready for war, to make war on the nation of the righteous. It was a day of darkness and gloom, of affliction and anguish, of oppression and great confusion over the earth. And the whole righteous nation was in turmoil, dreading the evils coming upon them, and they made themselves ready to perish, and they cried out to God. And from their cry, as if from a little spring, there came a great river — water in abundance. Light came, and the sun rose; and the lowly were lifted high, and they devoured the honored. When Mordecai woke, having seen this dream and what God had resolved to do, he kept it in his heart, and until nightfall he tried by every means to understand it.

Now Mordecai was resting quietly in the court with Gabatha and Tharra, the king's two eunuchs who guarded the court, and he heard their reasonings and probed their designs, and learned that they were preparing to lay hands on King Artaxerxes; and he informed the king about them. The king questioned the two eunuchs, and when they admitted it they were led off to execution. And the king had the matter written down as a record, and Mordecai too wrote an account of it. Then the king ordered Mordecai to serve in the court, and gave him gifts for what he had done. But Haman the son of Hammedatha, a Bugaean, stood high in honor before the king, and he set himself to do harm to Mordecai and his people over the affair of the king's two eunuchs.

It was after these things, in the days of Artaxerxes — the same Artaxerxes who ruled a hundred and twenty-seven provinces, from India onward — 2 in those days, when King Artaxerxes sat enthroned in the city of Susa, 3 in the third year of his reign, he gave a banquet for his friends and for the other nations, for the nobles of the Persians and the Medes, and for the chief men of the satraps. 4 And afterward — after he had shown them the wealth of his kingdom and the glory of his rich celebrations through a hundred and eighty days — 5 when the days of the wedding feast were completed, the king held a drinking feast for the people of the nations present in the city, six days long, in the courtyard of the king's house. [g]

6 The court was hung with fine linen and cotton stretched on cords of fine linen and purple, fastened to studs of gold and silver on pillars of Parian marble and of stone. There were couches of gold and silver on a pavement of emerald-green stone, of mother-of-pearl and of marble, and coverings of sheer cloth embroidered with flowers of every kind, with roses strewn all around. 7 The cups were gold and silver, and a small cup cut from carbuncle was set out on display, valued at thirty thousand talents; and there was wine in plenty, and sweet — the same the king himself drank. [h] 8 This drinking feast did not run by the law laid down; the king wanted it so, and he directed the stewards to carry out his own wishes and the wishes of the company. 9 Vashti the queen also held a drinking feast for the women, in the royal palace where King Artaxerxes lived. [i]

10 On the seventh day, when the king was in high spirits, he told Aman, Bazan, Tharra, Boraze, Zatholtha, Abataza, and Tharaba — the seven eunuchs who waited on King Artaxerxes — [j] 11 to bring the queen in to him, to seat her in royal state and set the royal diadem on her, and to show her to all the rulers — and her beauty to the nations — for she was beautiful. 12 But Queen Vashti would not listen to him and refused to come with the eunuchs. And the king was hurt, and his anger rose,

13 and he said to his friends, “This is what Vashti has said. Give a ruling of law and judgment, then, on her case.” 14 So Arkesaeus, Sarsathaeus, and Malesear came forward — the rulers of the Persians and Medes who were closest to the king, who sat first in rank at his side — [k] 15 and they declared to him what the laws required to be done with Queen Vashti, since she had not carried out what the king had commanded her through the eunuchs.

16 Then Memucan said to the king and the rulers, “Queen Vashti has wronged more than the king alone; she has wronged all the king's rulers and leaders as well — [l] 17 “for what the queen said, and how she answered the king back, has been told to them all. And just as she answered King Artaxerxes back, 18 “so today the wives of the rest of the rulers of the Persians and Medes, when they hear what she said to the king, will dare to treat their own husbands with the same dishonor. 19 “If it seems good to the king, then, let him issue a royal decree, and let it be written into the laws of the Medes and the Persians, never to be altered: the queen is not to come in to him again, and the king shall give her royal place to a woman better than she. 20 “And let this law of the king, whatever he makes, be heard through his whole kingdom. Then all the wives will give honor to their husbands, from the poorest man's to the richest man's.”

21 The word pleased the king and the rulers, and the king did as Memucan had said. 22 He sent word through all his kingdom, province by province, each in its own language, so that men would be treated with respect in their own houses. [m]