Study Desk

You saw he was true and loyal to you, and you made an agreement with him. You promised to give him the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Jebusites, and Girgashites. But you promised to give that land to Abraham's descendants. And you kept your promise because you are good.

"Because of all these things, we are making an agreement that cannot be changed. We are putting this agreement in writing. Our leaders, Levites, and priests are signing their names to this agreement and sealing it with a seal."

"And we will also bring the first part of our harvest to priests to put in the storage rooms of our God's Temple. We will bring the first of our ground meal, the first of our grain offerings, the first fruit from our trees, and the first of our new wine and oil. And we will bring a tenth of our crops to the Levites, because they are the ones who collect these things in all the towns where we work.

So on that special day, the priests offered many sacrifices. Everyone was very happy because God had made them happy. Even the women and children were excited and happy. People far away could hear the happy sounds coming from Jerusalem.

That law was written because those people didn't give the Israelites food and water. And they had paid Balaam to say a curse against the Israelites. But our God changed that curse and made it a blessing for us.

You know that your ancestors did the same things. That is why our God brought all the troubles and disaster to us and to this city. Now you people are making it so that more of these bad things will happen to Israel. They are doing this because you are breaking the Sabbath by treating it just as if it were any other day."

You know that marriages like this caused Solomon to sin. In all the many nations, there was not a king as great as Solomon. God loved him and made him king over the whole nation of Israel. But even Solomon was made to sin because of foreign women.

Wine was served in golden cups, and every cup was different. There was plenty of the king's wine, because the king was very generous.

I say this, because all the other women will hear about what Queen Vashti did. Then they will stop obeying their husbands. They will say to their husbands, ‘King Xerxes commanded Queen Vashti to be brought to him, but she refused to come.'

Esther didn't tell anyone she was a Jew. She didn't tell anyone about her family background, because Mordecai had told her not to.

Every day Mordecai walked back and forth near the area where the king's women lived. He did this because he wanted to find out how Esther was, and what was happening to her.

And the king gave a big party for Esther. It was for all his important people and leaders. He announced a festival in all the provinces and sent out gifts to people, because he was a generous king.

Then Esther's message was given to Mordecai. When he got her message, Mordecai sent his answer back: "Esther, don't think that just because you live in the king's palace you will be the only Jew to escape.

Haman left the king's palace that day very happy and in a good mood. But when he saw Mordecai at the king's gate, he became very angry. Haman was very mad at him because Mordecai didn't show any respect when Haman walked by. Mordecai was not afraid of Haman, and this made Haman mad.

After that Mordecai went back to the king's gate, but Haman hurried home with his head covered because he was embarrassed and ashamed.

I ask this because my people and I have been sold to be destroyed—to be killed and wiped out completely. If we had just been sold as slaves, I would have kept quiet, because that would not be enough of a problem to bother the king."

The king was very angry. He got up, left his wine, and went out into the garden. But Haman stayed inside to beg Queen Esther to save his life. He begged for his life because he knew that the king had already decided to kill him.

I am begging the king because I could not bear to see these terrible things happen to my people. I could not bear to see my family killed."

King Xerxes answered Queen Esther and Mordecai the Jew, "Because Haman was against the Jews, I have given his property to Esther. And my soldiers have hanged him on the hanging post.

Wherever the king's command went in every province and every city, there was joy and gladness among the Jews. They were having parties and celebrating. Many of the common people from other groups became Jews. They did this because they were very afraid of the Jews.