Esther Saves Her People

At this time Mordecai was among those nearest to the king and had the whole charge of the household. He had revealed to the king a plot formed by two eunuchs, and for that he had become a greater favorite and been given the highest honors. There was at that time a man named Haman, a close confidant of the king, whom the king had made his equal and, in the manner of sovereign rulers, had ordered to be worshiped. Mordecai was the only man of them all who refused to do it, and he had fiercely stirred up the Persian’s anger against himself. So Haman, setting his mind on destroying the Hebrew, went to the king and declared that there was in his kingdom a race of people with wicked superstitions, hateful alike to God and to men. He said that since they lived by foreign laws, they deserved to be destroyed, and that it was right to hand the whole nation over to death. At the same time he promised the king immense wealth out of their possessions. The barbarian prince was easily persuaded. A decree was issued for the slaughter of the Jews, and men were sent out at once to publish it through the whole kingdom, from India to Ethiopia. [a]

When Mordecai heard of it, he tore his clothes, dressed himself in sackcloth, and scattered ashes on his head. He went to the palace and made the whole place ring with his wailing and complaints, crying out that it was a shameful thing for an innocent nation to perish when there was no cause for its destruction. The sound of mourning caught Esther’s attention, and she learned how matters really stood. But she did not know what step to take. By the custom of the Persians the queen is not allowed to come to the king unless she has been sent for, and even then not at any time the king pleases, but only at a fixed time; and it happened that by this rule Esther was kept from the king’s presence for the next thirty days. Yet she thought she ought to take some risk for her countrymen, even if certain death awaited her. Ready to meet death in so noble a cause, she called on God and went into the king’s court.

The barbarian was amazed at first by this unusual event, but he was gradually won over by a woman’s charms and at last even went with the queen to a banquet she had prepared. With him also went Haman, the king’s favorite but a deadly enemy of the Jewish nation. When, after the feasting, the banquet began to grow merry with the many cups that were drunk, Esther threw herself at the king’s knees and begged him to stop the destruction that threatened her nation. The king promised to refuse her nothing, if she had any further request to make. Esther seized the moment at once and demanded Haman’s death as satisfaction for her nation, which he had wanted to see destroyed. But the king could not forget his friend. He hesitated a little and went out for a short time to consider the matter. Then he came back, and when he saw Haman clutching the queen’s knees, he flew into a rage, cried out that violence was being done to the queen, and ordered him to be put to death. Then it came to the king’s knowledge that Haman had prepared a cross on which Mordecai was to suffer. So Haman was fastened to that very cross, all his goods were handed over to Mordecai, and the Jews as a whole were set free. Artaxerxes reigned sixty-two years and was succeeded by Ochus.