King James Version · The Persian return
Esther 3
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After these things did king promote the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all the princes that were with him. And all the king’s servants, that were in the king’s , bowed, and reverenced : for the king had so commanded concerning him. But bowed not, nor did him reverence. Then the king’s servants, which were in the king’s , said unto , Why transgressest thou the king’s ? Now it came to pass, when they spake daily unto him, and he hearkened not unto them, that they told , to see whether ’s matters would stand: for he had told them that he was a . And when saw that bowed not, nor did him reverence, then was full of . And he thought scorn to lay hands on alone; for they had shewed him the people of : wherefore sought to destroy all the that were throughout the whole kingdom of , even the people of . In the first month, that is, the month , in the twelfth year of king , they cast Pur, that is, the lot, before from day to day, and from month to month, to the twelfth month, that is, the month . And said unto king , There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of thy kingdom; and their laws are diverse from all people; neither keep they the king’s laws: therefore it is not for the king’s profit to suffer them. If it please the king, let it be written that they may be destroyed: and I will pay ten thousand of silver to the hands of those that have the charge of the business, to bring it into the king’s treasuries. And the king took his ring from his hand, and gave it unto the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the ’ enemy. And the king said unto , The silver is given to thee, the people also, to do with them as it seemeth good to thee. Then were the king’s called on the thirteenth day of the first month, and there was written according to all that had commanded unto the king’s lieutenants, and to the governors that were over every province, and to the of every people of every province according to the writing thereof, and to every people after their language; in the name of king was it written, and sealed with the king’s ring. And the letters were sent by posts into all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to , all , both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month , and to take the spoil of them for a prey. The copy of the writing for a to be given in every province was published unto all people, that they should be ready against that day. The posts went out, being hastened by the king’s , and the was given in the palace. And the king and sat down to drink; but the city was perplexed.
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · The Persian return, 539 BC to 332 BC ›
Persia takes Babylon and reverses its policy, sending exiled peoples home to rebuild their temples. Judah returns as a small province, rebuilding under imperial permission rather than independence.
- Persia
- The largest empire the world had yet seen, from the Indus to the Aegean, run through provinces, a royal road, and a postal system. Its policy on conquered peoples was to send them home and fund their temples, in exchange for loyalty and prayers for the king. The Cyrus Cylinder states the policy in Cyrus's own words, and Ezra opens with the same policy applied to Judah.
- Judah
- A small, poor province called Yehud, a fraction of the old kingdom, with a rebuilt temple that made the people who remembered the first one weep. No king, and no prospect of one. Leadership passes to priests and scribes, which shapes everything afterward.
- Greece
- Persia and Greece collide at Marathon and Salamis, Persia loses, and Athens spends the following decades on the Parthenon, tragedy, and Socrates. Herodotus writes the first history in order to explain that war. Then Plato and Aristotle, whose vocabulary the church will still be using at Nicaea eight centuries later.
- Further afield
- Rome throws out its kings and becomes a republic. In India and China this is the age of the Buddha's early followers and of Confucian teaching taking hold. More of what the world still thinks with was invented in this era than in almost any other.