Long ago, the people of Israel had been taken captive to Babylon and, later, to Persia. Many Jews lived scattered across the vast Persian empire. In the city of Susa, the capital, lived a Jew named Mordecai, who had raised his orphaned niece, Esther, as if she were his own daughter.

Esther was very beautiful, graceful, and kind-hearted. But she and Mordecai kept a secret: they were Jews. In that foreign land, revealing who they truly were could be dangerous.

The king of Persia was Ahasuerus, also called Xerxes, who ruled from India to Ethiopia, over a hundred and twenty-seven provinces. One day, the king grew angry with Queen Vashti, because she refused to appear at a banquet, and his counselors said she should lose her title. So the most beautiful young women of the whole empire were brought in, for the king to choose a new queen.

Esther was taken to the palace along with many other young women. Hegai, the keeper of the women's house, took a great liking to her and treated her with special kindness. When Esther's turn came to be presented to Ahasuerus, she won the favor of everyone who saw her. The king loved her more than all the others, set the royal crown upon her head, and made her queen.

Esther had not yet told anyone she was Jewish, just as Mordecai had advised her. He walked every day in front of the courtyard of the women's house, to find out how she was doing.

One day, Mordecai discovered a plot: two of the palace guards were planning to kill King Ahasuerus. Mordecai warned Esther, and Esther told the king in Mordecai's name. The matter was investigated and found to be true, and the two guards were hanged. It was all recorded in the book of the chronicles, in the king's presence. Mordecai had saved the king's life — and no one remembered to reward him.

After these events, King Ahasuerus promoted Haman, son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and gave him a position above all the princes. All the servants at the king's gate knelt and bowed down before Haman, for so the king had commanded. But Mordecai would not kneel or bow. He was a Jew, and he bowed only before God.

When Haman noticed that Mordecai would not bow to him, he was filled with fury.

Haman's rage grew so great that he decided not merely to punish Mordecai, but to destroy every Jew in the kingdom of Ahasuerus. He went to the king and said:

"There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom. Their laws are different from those of every other people, and they do not keep the king's laws. It is not fitting for the king to tolerate them. If it pleases the king, let a decree be issued for their destruction."

The king, not knowing he was speaking of his own queen's people, handed Haman his signet ring. Haman wrote a decree: on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, all the Jews — young and old, children and women — were to be killed.

The city of Susa was thrown into confusion. The Jews went into deep mourning, with fasting, weeping, and lamentation.

When Mordecai learned of everything, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth and ashes, and went through the middle of the city, crying out with a loud and bitter cry. Esther's maids told her, and the queen was deeply distressed. She sent someone to ask what was happening, and Mordecai sent her a copy of the decree, begging her to go to the king and plead for her people.

But Esther answered:

"Everyone knows that any man or woman who enters the inner court without being summoned faces a single sentence: death, unless the king holds out the golden scepter. And it has been thirty days since I was last called into the king's presence."

Going to the king unsummoned could cost her life, even as queen.

Mordecai sent Esther this reply:

Those words touched Esther's heart deeply. Perhaps God had placed her in that position for exactly this moment. She made her decision and sent word to Mordecai:

"Go and gather all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast as well. Then I will go to the king, even though it is against the law."

Esther was willing to die to try to save her people.

On the third day, after the fast, Esther put on her royal robes and went to the inner court of the palace, in front of the king's chambers. Ahasuerus was seated on his throne, facing the entrance. When he saw the queen standing in the court, she found favor in his eyes, and the king held out to her the golden scepter in his hand. Esther was safe.

She came near and touched the tip of the scepter, and the king asked:

"What is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? Even if it is half the kingdom, it shall be given to you."

Esther was wise and did not make her request at once. First, she invited the king and Haman to a banquet; at the banquet, she invited them both to another banquet the next day.

Haman left that day cheerful and pleased with himself. But when he saw Mordecai at the king's gate, neither rising nor stirring before him, he was filled with fury all over again. At home, he called his friends and his wife, Zeresh, boasted of his riches, his many sons, and the honors the king had given him, and told them that he alone had been invited to the queen's banquet. Then he grumbled:

"Yet all this means nothing to me, as long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate."

His wife and friends suggested:

"Have a gallows built, fifty cubits high, and in the morning ask the king to have Mordecai hanged on it."

Haman liked the idea and had the gallows raised.

That night, the king could not sleep. He ordered the book of the chronicles to be brought, and it was read to him — and there was the record of the day Mordecai had exposed the plot of the two guards, saving the king's life.

"What honor was given to Mordecai for this?" the king asked.

"None," his servants replied.

In the morning, when Haman arrived at the palace to ask for Mordecai's death, the king asked him first:

"What should be done for the man the king wishes to honor?"

Haman thought to himself, "Whom would the king wish to honor more than me?" And he suggested the greatest of honors: royal robes, the king's horse, and a procession through the city. Then the king commanded:

"Hurry — take the robes and the horse, just as you have said, and do all of it for Mordecai the Jew."

Haman was left speechless, but he had to obey. He himself dressed Mordecai in the royal robes and led him on horseback through the city, proclaiming:

"Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor!"

That evening came Esther's second banquet, and the king asked again what her request was. The moment had arrived. Esther answered:

The king rose in fury:

"Who is he, and where is he, who dared to do this?"

"The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman," Esther answered.

Haman was terrified before the king and queen. The king, seized with anger, went out into the garden; when he returned, Haman had thrown himself upon the couch where Esther was, begging for his life. Then one of the officials mentioned that beside Haman's house stood a gallows fifty cubits high, which he himself had ordered built for Mordecai. And the king commanded:

"Hang Haman on it."

So Haman died on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. That same day, the king gave Queen Esther Haman's estate, and Mordecai was promoted to the position Haman had held.

But the decree still stood: the letters ordering the destruction of the Jews had already been sent, and under Persian law a royal decree could not be revoked. The king, however, allowed Esther and Mordecai to write a new decree, giving the Jews the right to defend themselves. When the appointed day came, the Jews defended themselves against their enemies and, instead of being destroyed, they were saved. Mordecai became powerful in the palace, and his fame spread through all the provinces.

To celebrate this deliverance, the Jews established the feast of Purim. Esther risked her life, and God used her to save all her people. The orphan girl had become queen "for such a time as this" — for God's purpose.