Haman's plot defeated; the first Purim
Haman won the king's decree to destroy every Jew in the empire; Esther risked her life to plead for her people, Haman was hanged, and the Jews were delivered.
For if you remain silent now, then relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Who knows if you haven’t come to the kingdom for such a time as this?
Esther 4:14 (World English Bible)
Mordecai urged Esther that she may have come to royal position “for such a time as this.” After three days of fasting she went to the king uninvited, which could have cost her life. On a sleepless night the king read of Mordecai's unrewarded loyalty, and the story turned. The feast of Purim still celebrates the deliverance.
God is never named in the book of Esther, yet his hand is visible in every turn of the story.
Places
Dating notes
Haman cast lots in the king's 12th year (Esther 3:7), which is 510 BC on Ussher's identification of Ahasuerus with Darius I. On the Xerxes identification it would be about 474 BC.