Deeper Commentary

Esther 4:1 Now when Mordecai found out all that was done, Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and wailed loudly and a bitterly- Mordecai's sinful personality clash with Haman now forced him to 'come out' as a Jew, and this shows God's hand in leading His people forward. He wished to now come out openly as a Jew. He doubtless realized that so much suffering was going to come on God's people because of his refusal to bow to Haman, due to his personality clash with him (see on Esther 3). And this in itself was good for him spiritually- for he openly identified himself now with God's people, instead of teaching Esther not to do so, and not being known to Haman as a Jew initially (Esther 3:4). His wailing is recorded in the LXX: "A nation that has done no wrong is going to be destroyed". If this is indeed so, he was far from understanding the persistent prophetic message- that Judah had indeed done wrong and were therefore in exile, and were worthy of complete destruction.

The cry of Mordecai is a direct quote from that of Esau when he realizes that his blessings have been taken away and he has been rejected: "When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a loud and a bitter cry" (Gen. 27:34). I have pointed out elsewhere that it was God's intention to slay the Jews in dispersion, unless they repented and returned to their land. And it seems that through Haman, He is now going to do this. And so the connection between Mordecai's cry and the cry of rejected, cursed Esau is absolutely on point relevant. The fact Judah are saved from this is therefore a case of extreme grace from God. Likewise, Amalek- apparently represented by Haman the Agag man, king of Amalek- is descended from Esau (Gen. 36:11-16). Yet it is Haman the descendant of Esau who is judged- by Mordecai's plot, a man who also has the characteristics of Esau. The destruction of Haman at Mordecai's hand was therefore by grace alone. It was Esau vs. Esau. Note too how Haman "disdained to lay his hands on Mordecai alone" (Esther 6:3), making Mordecai the one “disdained”. But this Hebrew verb appears in this form in only one other place in the Bible; when we read that  “Esau disdained the birthright” (Gen. 25:34). Again there is the connection between the rejected Esau and Mordecai.

Esther 4:2 He came even before the king’s gate; for no one was allowed inside the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth- He was hoping to thereby be noticed and the message relayed somehow to Esther, with whom he didn't have constant contact. He wanted her to "come out" and do as he was doing. The final phrase of :2 and the first phrase of :3 in Hebrew contains words where every seventh letter spells 'El Shaddai'. Another example of God being stamped onto the record- in this case, at the apparent nadir of Judah's fortune. Even then, God was subtly stamped as still present.

Esther 4:3 In every province, wherever the king’s commandment and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, weeping and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes- This may well be the language of repentance. God's plan had been that the exiles would repent and then return to restore the Kingdom. But they generally didn't return, preferring the kingdom of Babylon and their own wealth to that of Yahweh. This persecution was the sending of "hunters" to chase them back, and bring them to repentance (Jer. 16:16). And they did repent- but when their destruction was averted by the prayer and repentance of a minority, they returned to their old position. Which is why the book of Esther finishes rather sadly, with the Jews again wealthy and even more prosperous and established within their local societies, and thereby even less likely to return to the land.

Esther 4:4 Esther’s maidens and her eunuchs came and told her this, and the queen was exceedingly grieved. She sent clothing to Mordecai, to replace his sackcloth; but he didn’t receive it- She thus began to openly identify herself with Mordecai and the Jews, although at this point she had not heard about the decree; for it was known that Mordecai was a Jew, and now she is moved to identify with him. This first response from her was then developed by God until she totally "came out" in self-identification as a Jewess. She did what was not worldly-wise, because of her grief for people. God likewise gives us opportunities to make small responses to Him, He develops our consciences until we are then given larger opportunities to respond. She could of course have disowned any knowledge of Mordecai or stressed she was only his adopted daughter. There are many such stories from the holocaust of secular Jews doing just this. But we must ask how we would have responded; how emotionally do we feel connected to the rest of God’s people?

Esther 4:5 Then Esther called for Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs, whom he had appointed to attend her, and commanded him to go to Mordecai, to find out what this was, and why it was- As noted on :4, Esther at this point didn't know about the decree; but she had been moved to identify with the Jews by deciding to openly care for Mordecai and thus identify herself with him. And God was going to move her further along the path of "coming out" for Him.

Esther 4:6 So Hathach went out to Mordecai, to the city square which was before the king’s gate- See on :10.

Esther 4:7 Mordecai told him of all that had happened to him, and the exact sum of money that Haman had promised to pay to the king’s treasuries for the destruction of the Jews- Meaning apparently that he would pay this if he had permission to plunder the Jews (Esther 3:9). This meant they had acquired significant wealth; and this was doubtless why most of them didn't return to the land under Cyrus, and thereby precluded the reestablishment of God's Kingdom which was then possible. They therefore chose their little kingdom rather than the things of God's kingdom. And this is the problem with wealth. The huge financial offer was perhaps attractive for the king because of the need to prepare for the upcoming war with Greece which was then looming.

Esther 4:8 He also gave him the copy of the writing of the decree that was given out in Shushan to destroy them, to show it to Esther, and to declare it to her, and to urge her to go in to the king to make supplication to him, to make request before him for her people- These are the Hebrew words for Daniel 'making supplication' and 'making request' before God (Dan. 9:3), whereas here Mordecai urges Esther to do this before the human king. Again, as with eating the food of captivity, Daniel is presented as far spiritually superior to Mordecai and Esther.

Heb. 'ask for favour'. The passion and love of God leads Him time and again to apparently contradict Himself. He says that He will cast Judah out of their land, they would go to Babylon and serve other gods there, “where I will not show you favour” (Jer. 16:13). But actually Esther and her people were shown favour there [s.w. Esther 4:8; Esther 8:5]. She was to ask the king for favour, but clearly she was asking God for favour, even though they were unworthy of it. And God was gracious [s.w. ‘show favour’] to those in exile (Is. 30:18,9; Am. 5:15; Mal. 1:9), and their deliverance from Haman is an example of it. But Jer. 16 goes on to state that God would not ever hide His eyes / face from the iniquity they had committed, i.e. the reason why they were in captivity (Jer. 16:17). But actually He did do just that- He hid His eyes from the sin of Judah and the sin of the exiles (Is. 65:16); the hiding of His face from them was in fact not permanent but for a brief moment (Is. 54:8). God then outlines a plan- He will recompense their sin double, and this would lead them back to Him (Jer. 16:18). But this was to be an unrepeatable, once-for-all program that would “cause them to know My hand… and they shall now that My name is The Lord” (Jer. 16:21). This double recompensing of Judah’s sin happened in the exile in Babylon (Is. 40:2), and therefore the joyful news was proclaimed to Zion in Is. 40 that now the Messianic Kingdom could begin. But there wasn’t much interest nor response to the call to return to Judah in order to share in it. The exile didn’t cause God’s people to repent nor to know His Name. It wasn’t the once-for-all program which He intended. Now none of this makes God out to be somehow not serious or unreliable. Rather is it all an indication of His passion and how deeply He wishes His plans of redemption for us to work out. He’s not ashamed to as it were humiliate Himself, lay Himself open to petty critics, in His passion for us. Thus God was so [apparently] sure that the exile would bring about Judah’s repentance and return to Him: “Your lovers shall go into captivity: surely then shall you be ashamed and confounded for all your wickedness” (Jer. 22:22). But actually the very opposite happened. It’s rather like “They will reverence my son” (Mt. 21:37)- when actually they crucified Him.

Esther 4:9 Hathach came and told Esther the words of Mordecai- LXX adds that Mordecai appealed to her to respond, "remembering, said he, the days of thy low estate, how thou wert nursed by my hand: because Aman who holds the next place to the king has spoken against us for death". Her own salvation by grace was to move her to save others; and this again is a timeless principle for us all.

Esther 4:10 Then Esther spoke to Hathach and gave him a message to Mordecai- All this communication through a messenger meant that surely the news of the Esther-Mordecai relationship and her intended actions would have not been secret and would have started to spread within the palace and further. We think of all the messages between David and Bathsheba by the hand of messengers. Mordecai perhaps made such a scene and then made communications with Esther precisely so that she now could not hide her Jewishness. He saw her as the only hope for reversing the decree. He is ensuring that she is now identified as a Jewess. This is why he will reason that even if all Israel are spared, he and therefore she will for sure be slain unless she does something to change the situation. He was now using her to save his own skin. He could have hoped, as did many in the Holocaust, that somehow she would survive where she was, since she had concealed her Jewishness so far. Whatever his motives, Mordecai forces Esther to come out as one of God's people.

Esther 4:11 All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that whoever, whether man or woman, comes to the king into the inner court without being invited, there is one law for him, that he be put to death; except those to whom the king might hold out the golden sceptre, that he may live. I have not been called to come in to the king these thirty days- Not having been called to come in to her husband for 30 days gives us another insight into the miserable lot Esther had as queen. This lack of invitation would have made her wonder whether she had fallen out of favour with him; although he had many wives and concubines. "To come in to the king" could possibly allude to the sexual act; and "thirty days" might suggest she was menstruating. There is a purposefully ambiguity in these things. Because we are being invited to imagine how it might have been, to enter thereby into her angst. She was initially unwilling to risk death in order to save her people. She needed to be persuaded by the later reflection of Mordecai that she would be found out as a Jewess and also be slain herself; and that God would indeed deliver His people but her refusal to cooperate with His plan would result in her death anyway (:13,14). We see again her development; from selfish self-preservation to a wider sense of responsibility for her entire people. And in broad outline terms, this is something we are all to pass through. See on Esther 6:4; 8:3.

Esther 4:12 They told to Mordecai Esther’s words- See on :10.

Esther 4:13 Then Mordecai asked them to return answer to Esther, Don’t think to yourself that you will escape in the king’s house any more than all the Jews- As noted on Esther 3:6, we have here an insight into the thought processes of Esther which only an inspired record could give. The Bible continually emphasizes the importance of self-talk and how we think in our hearts. She was tempted to adopt a path of thought which was effectively saying that she would be the only Jew who would survive; and that was not going to happen. The 'house of the kingdom' of Babylon would not save her from death.

Esther 4:14 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?- "Silent now" is AV "at this time"; the same words at the end of the verse, "a time as this". This was her time. "Who knows if...?" is surely rhetorical, as if to say, 'Anyone could surely realize / know that you became queen for this time'. I do wonder whether some people are born to achieve one thing at one time in God's purpose. This could be such a case. And yet "Who knows if?" has an answer: God. Again, God isn't mentioned, but Mordecai is brought to seeing and implying God's presence and knowledge. "Place" is Hebrew maqom, usually used of a holy place. He implies "God" but can't bring himself to say so in so many words. Mordecai speaks with authority, but he is only making assumptions; that if help came from another quarter, then Esther and her family, including Mordecai, would "perish" even if the other Jews didn't. And the source of that 'perishing' would be God's judgment, not Haman. Mordecai also seems confident that deliverance would arise from "another place". "From another place" clearly means "God", but God is never mentioned in the book of Esther. Perhaps at the time Mordecai just had a distinct hunch that deliverance would come, but when he thought about who else, humanly, apart from Esther, could effect this deliverance... he would conclude that it would have to be God alone. So we see this otherwise secular, weak believer being provoked by circumstance to have a greater faith. Everyone in the story is being nudged towards greater faith and spirituality through the dysfunction of them all. This is the marvel of God's working. But the basis for Mordecai's confidence that "deliverance" would arise is because the same word was used by the prophets for how God's people would be "delivered" from the lands of their exile to return and reestablish His Kingdom in Zion (e.g. Ez. 34:10,12,27). Mordecai was taken into exile as a young man and would have heard or known these words of Ezekiel.

The text can legitimately be translated: "Will then relief and deliverance come to the Jews from another place? You and your father’s house will perish". There is no "but..." in the original. This opens up the question of whether God automatically reassigns a task and possibility to another; or whether if we let the ball drop, His intention will not be realized. The lack of clarity is intentional. We are to appreciate the degree to which we matter. The Lord's parables speak of Him giving His wealth to His servants to trade with. How far His work prospers is over to them; for He has 'gone into a far country', He is far away in the sense that He has delegated to us authority to do His work on His behalf, and will review that work at His return.

But to return once more to the text. We can also read this as Mordecai saying that if Esther doesn't intercede, then the Jews generally will be saved from "another place". He seems not spiritual enough to say "God" in so many words. Although there was no other source of deliverance apart from Yahweh. But, he is confident that she and he will perish, even though God would save the Jews generally. He felt that for sure, Haman would ensure that he died, and he was sure that Haman would soon figure [if not already] that Esther was his relative- so she for sure would also be slain. Mordecai therefore doesn't have the faith to believe that God ["from another place"] will save him personally; salvation is indeed for God's people, He is the God of Israel, His promise to preserve Abraham's seed will come true; but not for me personally. I can't believe it for myself. We've all encountered this mentality, it is psychologically credible. And Mordecai may well imply that he knows that Esther likewise is not exactly much of a believer in Yahweh. So she also cannot expect any salvation from Him. And yet he considers that she might be able to save him, and herself, by a special appeal to her husband the king. By implication, this salvation would not be from God ["from another place"], but by dint of her feminine charms. He sees that perhaps it was meant to be that she had become queen, to save him and herself from death. 'It was meant to be' is hardly strong faith in God, but it at least veers that way. But nothing more. It is at least a recognition that there is at least something above the ordinary going on in human life.

There is the element of uncertainty in Mordecai's words. We as readers surely perceive that of course Esther had come to the throne for this time. But that is only a possibility for Mordecai. Again he presents as without full faith and limited spiritual perception. We would rather him exhort her about the clear hand of God in their lives, urging her in faith to make full use of where she had been placed by God. All this further reflects a selfish and weak spiritual streak in Mordecai. He presents as more concerned with his own salvation than that of his people. When Esther's personal salvation is assured, she to her credit then begs the king to save her people. In a very short time, a day or so, she matures beyond her adopted father very quickly.

Esther 4:15 Then Esther asked them to answer Mordecai- LXX "Esther sent the man that came to her to Mordecai, saying"; see on :10.

Esther 4:16 Go, gather together all the Jews who are present in Shushan and fast for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day. I and my maidens will also fast the same way. Then I will go in to the king, which is against the law- 

Mordecai's sackcloth and ashes, and now a total fast without water ["do not drink" = Jonah 3:7 "shall not drink"], all recalls Nineveh's repentance and the altering of the Divine decree of destruction. Jonah was fairly recent history in Esther's time. We wonder whether consciously or unconsciously, she was influenced by this. “Who knows but that God may turn and relent… so that we do not perish” (Jonah 3:9 NJPS) may be the basis for Esther's similar fatalism mixed with faith, when she too uses the word "perish": "If I perish, I perish". Both Nineveh and the Jews had a period defined before they would be destroyed- 40 days for Nineveh, 12 months for the Jews in Persia. "Who knows, perhaps you have attained to royal position for just such a crisis" (Esther 4:13,14) recalls "Who knows but that God may turn and relent?" (Jonah 3:9).  “When the news ['the word'] reached the king of Nineveh” (Jonah 3:6) parallels “When Mordecai learned all that had happened” (Esther 4:1) and the word reaching the Jews (Esther 4:3- the same Hebrew words are used). And yet the king of Nineveh cries out and fasts to God, openly repenting, urging others to do so. Mordecai apparently only laments the pain of Divine judgment. And he seeks Esther's help in getting out of that pain. For the prophets had said that Judah in captivity would suffer if they refused to repent. This was to be the curse for breaking the covenant.

The people would not only be sent into captivity, but God would send a sword to pursue them there: Lev. 26:33 "I will scatter you among the nations, and I will draw out the sword after you; and your land will be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste"; "I will scatter them also among the nations... and I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them", (Jer. 9:16); "I will pursue after them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence, and will deliver them to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth, to be an object of horror, and an astonishment, and a hissing, and a reproach, among all the nations where I have driven them" (Jer. 29:18).  It was God's intention to destroy them in the lands where they were sent captive: "You will perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies will eat you up" (Lev. 26:38). Only a very small remnant of the captives would "escape the sword among the peoples, when you shall be scattered through the nations" (Ez. 6:8); "I will preserve a few men of them from the sword, from the famine, and from the pestilence; that they may declare all their abominations among the nations where they come" (Ez. 12:16). Yahweh will scatter you among the nations [cp. the Jews being present is all 127 provinces of the Persian empire] and you shall be left few in number among the nations where Yahweh shall lead you away" (Dt. 4:27); "Among these nations you shall find no ease and there shall be no rest for the sole of your foot. Yahweh will give you there a trembling heart and failing of eyes and pining of soul" (Dt. 28:65); "He would overthrow their seed among the nations, and scatter them in the gentile lands" (Ps. 106:27). The Psalms frequently appeal for God's people to remember Him and declare His glory "among the nations", and "among the nations" is the language of the curse for breaking the covenant (Ps. 18:49; 44:11,14; 46:10; 57:9; 67:2; 79:10;  96:3,10; 106:47; 108:3; 110:6; 126:2). This is all some evidence that God intended to destroy the majority of Jews in exile who didn't return. He didn't carry this out- by grace alone. The Esther story is an example of His desperate attempt to get them to return, giving them 12 months from the edict of Haman so that they had time to go.

Just as the Gentile Vashti presents as more sexually moral than Esther, the king of Nineveh and his people present as more spiritual than Mordecai and the Jews. Mordecai mourns not from repentance but from lament at the prospect of loss of life. Nineveh repented (Jonah 3:4), but the same word is used of how the decree to kill the Jews is turned about (Esther 9:1). Nineveh's repentance was the basis of God turning back or re-thinking their judgment; He likewise turned back the judgment of the Jews but by grace and His gracious manipulation of Esther to that end. Again, as often in Esther, we are not left with a great picture of Esther's faith nor spirituality; but rather of God's sovereign grace. The whole Haman incident was a case of fishers and hunters being sent to make the Jews return to Judah. But the book of Esther shows they refused to take the prod, and yet in love and pity God saved them even from the pain of that prod when they refused it.

The decree to kill the Jews was issued on the 13th day of the month Nisan, the day before Passover. We can assume that the news spread immediately, and that the Jews in Shushan heard of it immediately (Esther 3:12,15). The dialogues between Esther and Mordecai therefore took place on the 13th or 14th of Nisan- Passover. Yet Esther commands a total fast from both food and water. This would have meant that those fasting would not have celebrated Passover. She realized, or was made to realize, that cultural, technical obedience to religious laws was overshadowed by the urgent need to intensely connect with God. Although she doesn't ask for prayer, surely that is the implication of her asking Jews to fast immediately and thus not keep Passover. To fast "for me" suggests the fasting was to be no mere lament, but to somehow empower her to success; and that implies appeal to a higher power. On the other hand, seeing the date for destruction was still 12 months off, she could have put God's law first and called for the fast [and approached the king] a few days later, after Passover.

So far in the story, Esther has been the passive, obedient young woman. Now for the first time she takes the initiative. No longer does she wear and do what Hegai suggests to charm the king, nor dumbly follow Mordecai's script. As for so many, the need becomes the call... to find and be themselves, and to turn to God. Albeit in the spirit of there being no atheist on a plane that's going down. Fasting of itself implies an attempt to flag the attention of a higher power. This was not fasting as mere lament over a situation. It was to be done before Esther went in to the king- so clearly, the implication was that help was being sought from a Divine being. Although there is no mention of prayer, which usually accompanies such fasting in the Bible. It's as if the record is at pains to avoid any mention of prayer or God... it is intentional. Exactly in order to flag up the ways of providence. God is so present, but as it were God is hiding in plain sight. Indeed this omission of God and prayer is so strong, that we could posit that it is a Divinely inspired rework of some official chronicle of the Kings of Persia, mentioned in Esther 10:2. This would explain the references to "Jews" in the third person and the title “Mordecai the Jew”. And also the way the record focuses on events rather than motives. It would also make sense of the detailed listing of the king’s advisors.

The text carefully omits any mention of prayer to God, perhaps because of His statement that He would hide His face from them in the captivity. She was being taught what the king had been taught in Esther 1:15 (see note there); that law could not save. She had to go outside the law for salvation, which meant a total casting of herself upon grace. She clearly feels her inadequacy; she feels the need for the fasting of others. And she is now unashamed to identify herself with the Jews, for this message was sent through a messenger (:15) which would have meant that her identification with the Jews was now going to be spread around everywhere. There was a large Jewish community in Shushan; able to kill 300 men (Esther 9:15).

And if I perish, I perish- The idea may be that she was going to perish anyway, if the decree wasn't changed. She had accepted Mordecai's warning about this in :13,14. And yet it is hard to avoid a sense of fatalism, using the same construction as in Gen. 43:14. She had faith and weakness at the same time, as we would likewise have had. Again we are left wondering whether she had faith, or was merely fatalistic. This is to help us enter deeper into her possible feelings and to identify with her.

Her fatalism rather than faith appears greater when we consider that the "if..." is more commonly translated "when", "where" or "how". "If..." in the sense of possibility isn't the usual meaning of this Hebrew word. It isn't the same word translated "if" in :14 "If you keep quiet...". The word suggests she felt she would perish either by going to the king uninvited, or in the pogrom. This saying of Esther is often referred to in Jewish thinking, as it is the basis of the Jewish principle of galut- choosing the least bad solution or outcome. It is hardly faith, but more a resigned fatalism. It was death or death, so she chose the death that had at least some chance of leading to life. Contrary to the image of Sunday School Christianity, or Shabbat school Judaism, this is not a case of heroic faith in God, nor of willingness to make some stellar self-sacrifice. And yet God worked through it; that's the point. It's rather a case of "out of weakness made strong", as Paul would put it. Indeed a relevant question could be: 'Would any person of whatever faith background have done anything other than what Esther did?'.

Esther 4:17 So Mordecai went his way, and did according to all that Esther had commanded him-

"Went his way" is literally 'passed over', i.e. over the river Ulai, on which Shushan was built, to the Jewish quarter. The allusion to the Ulai river is another point of unfavourable comparison with Daniel, who was apparently in prayer by the river Ulai, presumably because he also lived in the Jewish quarter where Mordecai lived, and was rewarded with a Divine vision: "I was in the citadel of Susa, which is in the province of Elam; and I saw in the vision, and I was by the river Ulai... I sought to understand it [presumably by praying]; and behold... I heard a man’s voice between the banks of the Ulai which called, and said, Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision" (Dan. 8:2,15,16).

The need was the call, and now the once dumbly obedient, passive Esther is taking the initiative and has men doing what she tells them, rather than the other way around. We notice twice that Esther was "taken"- by Mordecai, as his daughter; and into the harem (Esther 2:7,8). Esther's passivity will be changed by the hand of providence into her being a proactive worker on her own initiative for the salvation of God's people. Again we see a breaking of the paradigm that a woman was always to be obedient to a man. LXX adds various exaggerated claims about Esther's righteousness and prayers to God, e.g. "And having taken off her glorious apparel, she put on garments of distress and mourning; and instead of grand perfumes she filled her head with ashes and dung, and she greatly brought down her body, and she filled every place of her glad adorning with the torn curls of her hair".