thedirtysailor.com

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Esther+8&version=NIV

⁵ “If it pleases the king,” she said, “and if he regards me with favor and thinks it the right thing to do, and if he is pleased with me, let an order be written overruling the dispatches that Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, devised and wrote to destroy the Jews in all the king’s provinces. ⁶ For how can I bear to see disaster fall on my people? How can I bear to see the destruction of my family?”

⁷ King Xerxes replied to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, “Because Haman attacked the Jews, I have given his estate to Esther, and they have impaled him on the pole he set up. ⁸ Now write another decree in the king’s name in behalf of the Jews as seems best to you, and seal it with the king’s signet ring—for no document written in the king’s name and sealed with his ring can be revoked.”

We’ve hit the climax of the drama and are in a long denouement, where the various loose ends of the story are wrapped up.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Esther+7&version=NIV

⁵ King Xerxes asked Queen Esther, “Who is he? Where is he—the man who has dared to do such a thing?”

⁶ Esther said, “An adversary and enemy! This vile Haman!”

Then Haman was terrified before the king and queen. ⁷ The king got up in a rage, left his wine and went out into the palace garden. But Haman, realizing that the king had already decided his fate, stayed behind to beg Queen Esther for his life.

⁸ Just as the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet hall, Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was reclining.

The king exclaimed, “Will he even molest the queen while she is with me in the house?”

Such drama

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Esther+6&version=NIV

¹¹ So Haman got the robe and the horse. He robed Mordecai, and led him on horseback through the city streets, proclaiming before him, “This is what is done for the man the king delights to honor!”

¹² Afterward Mordecai returned to the king’s gate. But Haman rushed home, with his head covered in grief, ¹³ and told Zeresh his wife and all his friends everything that had happened to him.

His advisers and his wife Zeresh said to him, “Since Mordecai, before whom your downfall has started, is of Jewish origin, you cannot stand against him—you will surely come to ruin!”

What do the advisers and Haman’s wife know that he does not? Why do they make a big deal about Mordecai’s Jewishness?

Perhaps this is a literary device to give the audience a premonition of what is coming next.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Esther+5&version=NIV

Esther prepares a banquet for the king, and the only thing she asks is that the king come back the next night for another banquet. Why does she do two banquets? Why not just ask the king the first night?

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Esther+4&version=NIV

9 Hathak went back and reported to Esther what Mordecai had said. 10 Then she instructed him to say to Mordecai, 11 “All the king’s officials and the people of the royal provinces know that for any man or woman who approaches the king in the inner court without being summoned the king has but one law: that they be put to death unless the king extends the gold scepter to them and spares their lives. But thirty days have passed since I was called to go to the king.”

12 When Esther’s words were reported to Mordecai, 13 he sent back this answer: “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. 14 For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”

A couple of call-outs here.

Esther seems to be saying with her initial response, “I can’t do anything, my hands are tied. The king hasn’t asked to see me for 30 days.” Perhaps the king has a new favorite girl?

Mordecai says: (1) being in the king’s house won’t save you, (2) the Jews will be saved by divine provenance, but (3) perhaps you are in fact that divine provenance (~!)

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Esther+3&version=NIV

5 When Haman saw that Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor, he was enraged. 6 Yet having learned who Mordecai’s people were, he scorned the idea of killing only Mordecai. Instead Haman looked for a way to destroy all Mordecai’s people, the Jews, throughout the whole kingdom of Xerxes.

7 In the twelfth year of King Xerxes, in the first month, the month of Nisan, the pur (that is, the lot) was cast in the presence of Haman to select a day and month. And the lot fell on[a] the twelfth month, the month of Adar.

8 Then Haman said to King Xerxes, “There is a certain people dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom who keep themselves separate. Their customs are different from those of all other people, and they do not obey the king’s laws; it is not in the king’s best interest to tolerate them. 9 If it pleases the king, let a decree be issued to destroy them, and I will give ten thousand talents[b] of silver to the king’s administrators for the royal treasury.”

Two things here: genocide is an overwhelming response to a personal insult. Also, fear / hatred of the “other” is xenophobia.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Esther+2&version=NIV

More about Esther: she’s very beautiful and humble and listens to her elders. The king is so taken with her that he appoints her to become the queen.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Esther+1&version=NIV

The introduction to the Esther story; written in such a lovely style, it reads like a bedtime fairy tale told to the children – but the best kind of story.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nehemiah+13&version=NIV

Nehemiah tries to get the exiles back on track by kicking out the foreigners, not intermarrying with other tribes, and keeping the temple and the priesthood pure.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nehemiah+12&version=NIV

A list of priests. Also, the wall is dedicated.

46 For long ago, in the days of David and Asaph, there had been directors for the musicians and for the songs of praise and thanksgiving to God. 47 So in the days of Zerubbabel and of Nehemiah, all Israel contributed the daily portions for the musicians and the gatekeepers. They also set aside the portion for the other Levites, and the Levites set aside the portion for the descendants of Aaron.

Notice that the musicians are paid