King James Version · The Persian return
Esther 5
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Now it came to pass on the third day, that put on her royal apparel, and stood in the inner court of the king’s house, over against the king’s house: and the king sat upon his royal in the royal house, over against the of the house. And it was so, when the king saw the queen standing in the court, that she obtained in his sight: and the king held out to the golden sceptre that was in his hand. So drew near, and touched the top of the sceptre. Then said the king unto her, What wilt thou, queen ? and what is thy request? it shall be even given thee to the half of . And answered, If it seem good unto the king, let the king and come this day unto the banquet that I have prepared for him. Then the king said, Cause to make haste, that he may do as hath said. So the king and came to the banquet that had prepared. And the king said unto at the banquet of , What is thy petition? and it shall be granted thee: and what is thy request? even to the half of it shall be performed. 7Then answered , and said, My petition and my request is; If I have found in the sight of the king, and if it please the king to grant my petition, and to perform my request, let the king and come to the banquet that I shall prepare for them, and I will do to morrow as the king hath said. Then went forth that day joyful and with a glad : but when saw in the king’s , that he stood not up, nor moved for him, he was full of against . Nevertheless refrained himself: and when he came home, he sent and called for his friends, and Zeresh his wife. And told them of the of his riches, and of his children, and all the things wherein the king had promoted him, and how he had advanced him above the princes and servants of the king. said moreover, Yea, the queen did let no man come in with the king unto the banquet that she had prepared but myself; and to morrow am I invited unto her also with the king. Yet all this availeth me nothing, so long as I see the sitting at the king’s . Then said Zeresh his wife and all his friends unto him, Let a gallows be made of fifty high, and to morrow speak thou unto the king that may be hanged thereon: then go thou in merrily with the king unto the banquet. And the thing pleased ; and he caused the gallows to be made.
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.