World English Bible · The Persian return
Esther 6
Touch any underlined name to see who or where it is. Tap a verse number to see where it is taken up elsewhere.
On that night, the king couldn't sleep. He commanded the book of records of the chronicles to be brought, and they were read to the king. It was found written that had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king's , who were doorkeepers, who had tried to lay hands on the King . The king said, "What and dignity has been given to for this?" Then the king's servants who attended him said, "Nothing has been done for him." The king said, "Who is in the court?" Now had come into the outer court of the king's house, to speak to the king about hanging on the gallows that he had prepared for him. 5The king's servants said to him, "Behold, stands in the court." The king said, "Let him come in." So came in. The king said to him, "What shall be done to the man whom the king delights to ?" Now said in , "Who would the king delight to more than myself?" said to the king, "For the man whom the king delights to , let royal clothing be brought which the king uses to wear, and the horse that the king rides on, and on the head of which a royal is set. Let the clothing and the horse be to the hand of one of the king's most noble princes, that they may array the man whom the king delights to with them, and have him ride on horseback through the city square, and proclaim before him, 'Thus it shall be done to the man whom the king delights to !'" Then the king said to , "Hurry and take the clothing and the horse, as you have said, and do this for the , who sits at the king's . Let nothing fail of all that you have spoken." Then took the clothing and the horse, and arrayed , and had him ride through the city square, and proclaimed before him, "Thus it shall be done to the man whom the king delights to !" came back to the king's , but hurried to his house, and having his head covered. recounted to Zeresh his wife and all his friends everything that had happened to him. Then his men and Zeresh his wife said to him, "If , before whom you have begun to fall, is of descent, you will not prevail against him, but you will surely fall before him." While they were yet talking with him, the king's came, and hurried to bring to the banquet that had prepared.
A public domain modern English translation, free to read and share. 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.