King James Version · The Persian return
Esther 4
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When perceived all that was done, rent his clothes, and put on with , and went out into the midst of the city, and cried with a loud and a bitter cry; 2And came even before the king’s : for none might enter into the king’s clothed with . And in every province, whithersoever the king’s and his came, there was great among the , and , and weeping, and ; and many lay in . So ’s maids and her chamberlains came and told it her. Then was the queen exceedingly grieved; and she sent raiment to clothe , and to take away his from him: but he received it not. Then called for Hatach, one of the king’s chamberlains, whom he had appointed to attend upon her, and gave him a to , to know what it was, and why it was. So Hatach went forth to unto the street of the city, which was before the king’s . And told him of all that had happened unto him, and of the sum of the money that had promised to pay to the king’s treasuries for the , to destroy them. Also he gave him the copy of the writing of the that was given at to destroy them, to shew it unto , and to declare it unto her, and to charge her that she should go in unto the king, to make unto him, and to make request before him for her people. 9And Hatach came and told the words of . 10Again spake unto Hatach, and gave him unto ; All the king’s servants, and the people of the king’s provinces, do know, that whosoever, whether man or woman, shall come unto the king into the inner court, who is not called, there is one law of his to put him to , except such to whom the king shall hold out the golden sceptre, that he may live: but I have not been called to come in unto the king these thirty days. 12And they told to ’s words. Then commanded to answer , Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king’s house, more than all the . For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and arise to the from another place; but thou and thy ’s house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to for such a time as this? 15Then bade them return this answer, Go, gather together all the that are present in , and ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to : and if I , I . 17So went his way, and did according to all that had commanded him.
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.