# Who was Esther in the Bible?

Esther was a Jewish orphan raised by her cousin Mordecai in the Persian city of Susa. She became queen to King Xerxes. When the official Haman plotted to kill every Jew in the empire, she went to the king uninvited, at the risk of her life, and her people were saved. Jews remember it each year at Purim.

- When: In the reign of the Persian king called Ahasuerus in Hebrew, usually taken to be Xerxes I (486 to 465 BC).
- Read: Esther 1–10. Start with [Esther 2](https://www.lumin.faith/read/esther/2).

Source: https://www.lumin.faith/bible-people/esther. Scripture quotations are from the Lumin Translation.

## Esther’s life, in order

1. **A new queen** ([Esther 2:5-18](https://www.lumin.faith/read/esther/2#5-18)). The king puts away Queen Vashti and searches for a new queen. Esther is chosen, and at Mordecai’s word she keeps quiet that she is a Jew.
2. **Haman’s plot** ([Esther 3:1-11](https://www.lumin.faith/read/esther/3#1-11)). Mordecai will not bow to Haman. Haman gets the king to order every Jew killed on one day.
3. **“For such a time as this”** ([Esther 4:10-17](https://www.lumin.faith/read/esther/4#10-17)). Mordecai asks Esther to plead with the king. She asks the Jews to fast and says, “If I perish, I perish.”
4. **Before the king** ([Esther 5:1-8](https://www.lumin.faith/read/esther/5#1-8)). She goes in unbidden, and the king holds out his scepter. She invites him and Haman to a banquet.
5. **The plot exposed** ([Esther 7:1-10](https://www.lumin.faith/read/esther/7#1-10)). At the second banquet Esther names Haman as the man who wants her people dead. Haman is hanged on his own gallows.
6. **Purim** ([Esther 9:20-32](https://www.lumin.faith/read/esther/9#20-32)). The Jews defend themselves and are saved. Mordecai and Esther set the feast of Purim to remember it.

## Key verses

> For if you insist on keeping silent at this time, relief and rescue will come for the Jews from somewhere else, but you and your father’s household will perish. And who knows whether it was for a time like this that you came into royal power?” ([Esther 4:14](https://www.lumin.faith/read/esther/4#14))

> “Go and bring together all the Jews who can be found in Susa, and fast on my behalf. Take no food or drink for three days, night and day. My maids and I will fast the same way. After that I will go in to the king, which is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.” ([Esther 4:16](https://www.lumin.faith/read/esther/4#16))

> as the days on which the Jews got relief from their enemies, and as the month that had been turned for them from sorrow into joy and from mourning into a holiday. They were to observe them as days of feasting and joy, of sending portions of food to one another and gifts to the poor. ([Esther 9:22](https://www.lumin.faith/read/esther/9#22))

## What the Bible says, and what tradition adds

### Is God mentioned in the book of Esther?

**In the Bible.** Not by name, in the Hebrew text. Fasting, timing and reversals run through the story, and most readers see God working out of sight. The Greek version adds prayers that name God; Catholic and Orthodox Bibles include those additions.

### Was King Ahasuerus Xerxes?

**Readers disagree.** Most scholars identify him with Xerxes I, and many Bibles print “Xerxes”. A few have argued for another Persian king.

## Related people

- [Daniel](https://www.lumin.faith/bible-people/daniel): Taken to Babylon young. Served its kings. Kept praying.
- [Ruth](https://www.lumin.faith/bible-people/ruth): A widow from Moab who would not leave Naomi. David’s great-grandmother.
- [Joseph](https://www.lumin.faith/bible-people/joseph): Sold by his brothers. Rose to rule Egypt. Forgave them.