Daily Text and Bible Reading: Friday, June 6 [Press play below]

1.1 Now in the days of Ahasuerus, that is, the Ahasuerus who ruled over 127 provinces from India to Ethiopia,
1.2 in those days when King Ahasuerus was sitting on his royal throne in Shushan the citadel,
1.3 in the third year of his reign, he held a banquet for all his princes and his servants. The army of Persia and Media, the nobles, and the princes of the provinces were before him,
1.4 and he showed them the wealth of his glorious kingdom and the grandeur and the splendor of his magnificence for many days, 180 days.
1.5 And when these days were completed, the king held a banquet for seven days for all the people present in Shushan the citadel, from the greatest to the least, in the courtyard of the garden of the king’s palace.
1.6 There were linen, fine cotton, and blue material held fast in ropes of fine fabric, purple wool in silver rings, pillars of marble, and couches of gold and silver on a pavement of porphyry, marble, pearl, and black marble.
1.7 Wine was served in gold cups; each cup was different from the other, and the royal wine was plentiful, according to the means of the king.
1.8 The drinking was according to the rule that no one was under compulsion, for the king had arranged with the officials of his palace that each should do as he pleased.
1.9 Queen Vashti also held a banquet for the women at the royal house of King Ahasuerus.
1.10 On the seventh day, when the king’s heart was in a cheerful mood because of the wine, he told Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, Abagtha, Zethar, and Carkas, the seven court officials who were personal attendants to King Ahasuerus,
1.11 to bring before the king Queen Vashti, wearing the royal headdress, to show the peoples and the princes her beauty, for she was very beautiful.
1.12 But Queen Vashti kept refusing to come at the king’s order that was conveyed through the court officials. At this the king became very angry, and his rage flared up within him.
1.13 The king then spoke to the wise men who had insight with regard to precedents (for in this way the king’s matter came before all those versed in law and legal cases,
1.14 and those closest to him were Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucan, seven princes of Persia and Media, who had access to the king and who occupied the highest positions in the kingdom).
1.15 The king asked: “According to law, what is to be done with Queen Vashti because she has not obeyed the order of King Ahasuerus conveyed through the court officials?”
1.16 To this Memucan said in the presence of the king and the princes: “It is not against the king alone that Queen Vashti has done wrong, but against all the princes and against all the peoples in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus.
1.17 For what the queen did will become known by all the wives, and they will despise their husbands and say, ‘King Ahasuerus said to bring in Queen Vashti before him, but she refused to come.’
1.18 This very day the princesses of Persia and Media who know about what the queen did will talk to all the princes of the king, resulting in much contempt and indignation.
1.19 If it seems good to the king, let a royal decree be issued from him, and let it be written among the laws of Persia and Media, which cannot be repealed, that Vashti may never again come in before King Ahasuerus; and let the king confer her royal position on a woman who is better than she is.
1.20 And when the decree of the king is heard in all his vast realm, all the wives will give honor to their husbands, from the greatest to the least.”
1.21 This proposal pleased the king and the princes, and the king did what Memucan said.
1.22 So he sent letters to all the royal provinces, to each province in its own script and to each people in its own language, for every husband to be master in his own house and to speak in the language of his own people.

2.1 After these things, when the rage of King Ahasuerus had subsided, he remembered what Vashti had done and what had been decided against her.
2.2 Then the king’s personal attendants said: “A search should be made for young, beautiful virgins for the king.
2.3 And let the king appoint commissioners in all the provinces of his realm to bring together all the beautiful young virgins to Shushan the citadel, to the house of the women. Let them be put in the care of Hegai the king’s eunuch and guardian of the women, and let them be given beauty treatments.
2.4 And the young woman who is most pleasing to the king will be queen instead of Vashti.” The suggestion was pleasing to the king, and that is what he did.
2.5 There was a certain Jewish man in Shushan the citadel whose name was Mordecai son of Jair son of Shimei son of Kish, a Benjaminite,
2.6 who had been taken into exile from Jerusalem with the people who were deported with King Jeconiah of Judah, whom King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon took into exile.
2.7 He was the guardian of Hadassah, that is, Esther, the daughter of his father’s brother, for she had neither father nor mother. The young woman was beautifully formed and attractive in appearance, and at the death of her father and her mother, Mordecai took her as his daughter.
2.8 When the king’s word and his law were proclaimed and when many young women were brought together at Shushan the citadel under the care of Hegai, Esther was also taken to the king’s house under the care of Hegai the guardian of the women.
2.9 Now the young woman was pleasing to him and won his favor, so he promptly arranged for her beauty treatments and her diet, and he assigned to her seven selected young women from the king’s house. He also transferred her and her young attendants to the best place in the house of the women.
2.10 Esther did not say anything about her people or her relatives, for Mordecai had instructed her not to tell anyone.
2.11 Day after day Mordecai would walk in front of the courtyard of the house of the women to learn about Esther’s welfare and about what was happening to her.
2.12 Each young woman had her turn to go in to King Ahasuerus after completing the 12-month treatment that was prescribed for the women, for this was the way they had to fulfill their beauty treatment—six months with oil of myrrh and six months with balsam oil and various ointments for beauty treatment.
2.13 Then the young woman was ready to go in to the king, and whatever she asked for would be given her when she went from the house of the women to the king’s house.
2.14 In the evening she would go in, and in the morning she would return to the second house of the women, under the care of Shaashgaz the king’s eunuch, the guardian of the concubines. She would not go to the king again unless the king had been especially pleased with her and she was requested by name.
2.15 And when the turn came for Esther the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her as his daughter, to go in to the king, she did not request anything except what Hegai the king’s eunuch, the guardian of the women, recommended. (All the while Esther was winning the favor of everyone who saw her.)
2.16 Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus at his royal house in the tenth month, that is, the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.
2.17 And the king came to love Esther more than all the other women, and she won his favor and approval more than any of the other virgins. So he put the royal headdress on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti.
2.18 And the king held a great banquet for all his princes and his servants, the banquet of Esther. He then proclaimed an amnesty for the provinces, and he kept giving gifts according to the means of the king.
2.19 Now when virgins were brought together a second time, Mordecai was sitting in the king’s gate.
2.20 Esther did not say anything about her relatives and her people, just as Mordecai had instructed her; Esther continued to do what Mordecai said, just as when she was under his care.
2.21 In those days while Mordecai was sitting in the king’s gate, Bigthan and Teresh, two court officials of the king, doorkeepers, got angry and plotted to do away with King Ahasuerus.
2.22 But Mordecai learned about it, and he immediately told Queen Esther. Esther then spoke to the king in Mordecai’s name.
2.23 So the matter was investigated and eventually confirmed, and both men were hanged on a stake; and this was all recorded in the book of the history of the times in the presence of the king.

3.1 After this King Ahasuerus promoted Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite and exalted him by putting his throne above all the other princes who were with him.
3.2 And all the king’s servants who were in the king’s gate would bow low and prostrate themselves to Haman, for this is what the king had commanded respecting him. But Mordecai refused to bow low or prostrate himself.
3.3 So the king’s servants who were in the king’s gate said to Mordecai: “Why are you ignoring the king’s commandment?”
3.4 Day after day they would ask him, but he would not listen to them. Then they told Haman to see whether Mordecai’s conduct would be tolerated; for he had told them that he was a Jew.
3.5 Now when Haman saw that Mordecai refused to bow low and prostrate himself to him, Haman became filled with rage.
3.6 But he despised the thought of doing away with Mordecai alone, for they had told him about Mordecai’s people. So Haman began seeking to annihilate all the Jews who were in the entire realm of Ahasuerus, all of Mordecai’s people.
3.7 In the first month, that is, the month of Nisan, in the 12th year of King Ahasuerus, they cast Pur (that is, the Lot) before Haman to determine the day and the month, and it fell on the 12th month, that is, Adar.
3.8 Haman then said to King Ahasuerus: “There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your realm, whose laws are different from those of all other peoples; and they do not obey the king’s laws, and it is not in the king’s interests to let them be.
3.9 If it pleases the king, let a decree be written that they be destroyed. I will pay 10,000 silver talents to the officials to put into the royal treasury.”
3.10 At that the king removed his signet ring from his own hand and gave it to Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, who was the enemy of the Jews.
3.11 The king said to Haman: “The silver and the people are given to you, to do with them as you see fit.”
3.12 The king’s secretaries were then called on the 13th day of the first month. They put in writing all of Haman’s orders to the king’s satraps, the governors who were over the provinces, and the princes of the different peoples, to each province in its own script and to each people in its own language. It was written in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed with the king’s signet ring.
3.13 The letters were sent by means of couriers to all the king’s provinces, giving the order to annihilate, to kill, and to destroy all the Jews, young and old alike, children and women, on a single day, on the 13th day of the 12th month, that is, the month of Adar, and to seize their possessions.
3.14 A copy of the document was to be issued as a law in every province and proclaimed to all the peoples, so that they would be prepared for that day.
3.15 The couriers went out quickly by order of the king; the law was issued in Shushan the citadel. The king and Haman then sat down to drink, but the city of Shushan was in confusion.

4.1 When Mordecai learned of everything that had been done, he ripped his garments apart and put on sackcloth and ashes. Then he went out into the middle of the city, crying out loudly and bitterly.
4.2 He went only as far as the king’s gate, for no one was to enter the king’s gate wearing sackcloth.
4.3 And in every province where the king’s word and his decree reached, there was great mourning among the Jews, along with fasting and weeping and wailing. Many were lying down in sackcloth and ashes.
4.4 When Esther’s female attendants and her eunuchs came in and told her, the queen was deeply distressed. Then she sent garments for Mordecai to wear instead of his sackcloth, but he refused them.
4.5 At this Esther summoned Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs, whom he had appointed to serve her, and she ordered him to find out from Mordecai what this meant and what was happening.
4.6 So Hathach went out to Mordecai in the public square of the city in front of the king’s gate.
4.7 Mordecai told him about everything that had happened to him and the exact amount of money that Haman had promised to pay to the king’s treasury for the Jews to be destroyed.
4.8 He also gave him a copy of the written decree that had been issued in Shushan for their annihilation. He was to show it to Esther and explain it to her and instruct her to go in to the king to beg for his favor and to plead directly with him in behalf of her people.
4.9 Hathach came back and told Esther what Mordecai had said.
4.10 Esther replied to Hathach with instructions to tell Mordecai:
4.11 “All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces are aware that if any man or woman goes into the king’s inner courtyard without being summoned, there is only one law that applies: He is to be put to death; he may live only if the king holds out to him the golden scepter. And I have not been summoned to the king now for 30 days.”
4.12 When Mordecai was told what Esther had said,
4.13 he replied to Esther: “Do not imagine that because you are in the king’s household you are any more likely to escape than all the other Jews.
4.14 For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another source, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether it is for a time like this that you have attained to your royal status?”
4.15 Then Esther replied to Mordecai:
4.16 “Go, gather all the Jews who are found in Shushan and fast in my behalf. Do not eat or drink for three days, night and day. I along with my female attendants will also fast. I will go in to the king, which is against the law, and if I am to perish, I will perish.”
4.17 So Mordecai went his way and did all that Esther had instructed him to do.