Esther
How the story of Esther is part of Israel's history.
In Genesis Chapter 12, God called Abraham to leave his country, his tribe and his close relations and go to a new country that God was going to give him and his family forever.
A long time later, Abraham had a son, Isaac, who then had 2 sons, Jacob and Esau.
Jacob had a lot of sons and a daughter but all of the family that came from Jacob ended up as slaves in Egypt.
At the right time, God made a way for his people to get away from Egypt and God led them back to the country that he had promised to Abraham.
God was their king. He wanted to look after them and he wanted to make them the winners over all their enemies.
When God's people were just about to go and take over the new country, God gave them a warning. He said that if they lived his way, they would have a good life in that new country. But if they did not live his way, they would have a hard life and he would take them out of the country that he had given them. And in the end that is what happened.
The trouble started when the Israelites asked Samuel, their leader at the time, to give them a man to be their king. God was not happy when his people turned away from him but he did what they asked and he made Saul their first king.
Saul did not do what God wanted and so God made David king of Israel. When David died, his son Solomon, was the next king.
But Solomon did not follow God all the way. God warned him, but Solomon did not take any notice. Then after Solomon died, God split Israel into 2 parts.
The north part was made up of 10 tribes and that part was called Israel. The south part had 2 tribes and it was called Judah.
The people in Israel did not follow God and so God let the Assyrian people come and grab all the people and take them away as prisoners. Then the Assyrians let other people from different nations go and live in Israel and later on, those people were called Samaritans.
The people in Judah, the south part, didn't follow God the right way either. So God let the Babylonian nation come and grab them and take them away as prisoners. And by that time, the people in the south were called Jews. This name comes from the name Judah.
The Babylonians took the Jews back to where Abraham, their grandfather from a long time ago, had come from. That country was called Babylonia. (See the map 1.)
Later on, the Persians came and had a fight with the Babylonians and the Persians were the winners. The Persians had done the same thing to a lot of smaller nations, so everything and everyone in Babylonia became part of the Persian country. One of the main nations in Persia was the Media nation and the people were called Medes. (See map 2.)
The story of Esther happened when Zerk-sees (Xerxes) was the king of Persia.
1
The king had a big party
1 This story comes from the time when Zerk-sees (Xerxes) was the king of a big country called Persia. Persia was made up of 127 different nations. On the east side of Persia there was a country called India and on the west side there was another country called Ethiopia. Ethiopia is to the south of Egypt.
2 King Zerk-sees lived in Susa, the main town of Persia. It was a very big town and part of that town had really strong walls around it to keep everyone safe. Susa was where King Zerk-sees made all the laws for his people.
3 Zerk-sees was the king for 2 years, and then in the third year he gave a party. He invited all the leaders from the Persian and the Median armies, and he invited the important people from all the other nations that were in Persia.
4 That party went on for half a year, and all that time Zerk-sees showed off to the people that were at the party. He wanted them to see that he was a great and powerful king and that his country was rich and powerful too.
5 When that party was finished and everyone had gone home, Zerk-sees had another party in the gardens of the palace, his big house in Susa. Zerk-sees gave that party for all the important people and everyone else that lived inside that part of Susa that had strong walls. And this second party went on for 7 days.
6 Around the gardens of his palace there were a lot of big strong poles made from smooth stone, and on the top of every pole there were metal rings made of silver. Shade cloths made of light purple and white material were tied to those silver rings using purple and white ropes.
At this party, the people lay down on long chairs made of silver and gold. The floor looked really beautiful. It was made of a lot of different coloured stones that cost a lot of money. It even had some pretty sea shells in it.
7 The people drank from gold cups and every cup looked different. The king wanted to be kind to the people and so he let them drink a lot of his private wine.
8 The king told his workers to let the people drink as much as they wanted.
9 King Zerk-sees had a wife who was called Queen Vashti. At the same time as Zerk-sees was having his party, Vashti was having a party for the women in Zerk-sees' palace.
10-11 On the last day of the party, King Zerk-sees had been drinking a lot of wine and he was feeling very happy. He sent his 7 special workers to go and get Queen Vashti to come to his party. The names of his special workers were Me-human, Biz-tha, Harbona, Big-tha, Abag-tha, Zethar and Karkas.
Zerk-sees wanted Vashti to come to the party wearing the queen's special hat called a crown. So he said to his workers, “Tell Queen Vashti to come to my party and tell her to wear her crown.”
Queen Vashti was very beautiful so Zerk-sees wanted to show her off to all the people at his party.
12 The workers did what Zerk-sees asked them to do. They went to Queen Vashti and said, “The king wants you to go to his party, and he wants you to wear your crown.”
But Queen Vashti said, “No, I will not go to his party.”
When the workers told Zerk-sees what Vashti said, he got really wild and it was like he had a fire inside him.
13 At that time the king had a group of helpers who knew about the Persian laws and how to do the right thing. And so Zerk-sees asked
14 Car-shena, Shethar, Ad-matha, Tar-shish, Mer-es, Mar-sena and Mem-u-can to help him. They were 7 of the important men in the country of Persia and Media. These men sat next to the king and were allowed to talk to him any time they wanted to.
15 And so King Zerk-sees said to them, “What do you think we should do to Queen Vashti? I sent my workers to tell her to come to my party but she said, ‘No!’ What does our law say should happen to her?”
16 One of the helpers named Mem-u-can got up and said to the king and all the important men there, “Queen Vashti has done the wrong thing to you King Zerk-sees. She has done the wrong thing to all the important men in your country too. And she has done the wrong thing to all the people in all your country that goes from India to Ethiopia.
17 All the wives in Persia and Media will hear what the queen said. They will not respect their husbands and might be, they will not do what their husbands tell them to do.
18 By the time the sun goes down tonight, all the wives of the important men in Persia and Media will know what Vashti did and all those women will copy her. They will not respect their husbands and there will be a lot of trouble everywhere.
19 And so King Zerk-sees, we think that you should make a new law, and you know that the laws written down in Persia and Media cannot be changed. You should have this new law written down on paper and sent out everywhere. That law will tell everyone that Vashti is not the queen anymore and that she can never go near the king again. King Zerk-sees, you should pick a better woman to be your queen.
20 You must have this law paper sent out everywhere in your big country. Then every important woman and all the other women in the country of Persia will respect their husbands.”
21 The king and all the important men were happy with this idea and so Zerk-sees did what Mem-u-can said. He made that new law.
22 In all the nations that were in the country of Persia there were a lot of different languages. And so King Zerk-sees got his men to put that law into every one of those languages. That way everyone in Persia would understand the new law. Then the papers were sent out so that all the people knew that every man in Persia was the boss in his own home.