King James Version · The Persian return
Esther 8
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On that day did the king give the house of the ’ enemy unto the queen. And came before the king; for had told what he was unto her. And the king took off his ring, which he had taken from , and gave it unto . And set over the house of . And spake yet again before the king, and fell down at his feet, and besought him with tears to the mischief of the Agagite, and his device that he had devised against the . Then the king held out the golden sceptre toward . So arose, and stood before the king, And said, If it please the king, and if I have found in his sight, and the thing seem right before the king, and I be pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to reverse the letters devised by the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the which are in all the king’s provinces: For how can I to see the evil that shall come unto my people? or how can I to see the of my kindred? Then the king said unto the queen and to the , Behold, I have given the house of , and him they have hanged upon the gallows, because he laid his hand upon the . Write ye also for the , as it liketh you, in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s ring: for the writing which is written in the king’s name, and sealed with the king’s ring, may no man reverse. Then were the king’s called at that time in the third month, that is, the month , on the three and twentieth day thereof; and it was written according to all that commanded unto the , and to the lieutenants, and the deputies and of the provinces which are from India unto , an hundred twenty and seven provinces, unto every province according to the writing thereof, and unto every people after their language, and to the according to their writing, and according to their language. And he wrote in the king ’ name, and sealed it with the king’s ring, and sent letters by posts on horseback, and riders on mules, camels, and young dromedaries: Wherein the king granted the which were in every city to gather themselves together, and to stand for their life, to destroy, to , and to cause to , all the of the people and province that would assault them, both little ones and women, and to take the spoil of them for a prey, Upon one day in all the provinces of king , namely, upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month . The copy of the writing for a to be given in every province was published unto all people, and that the should be ready against that day to themselves on their . So the posts that rode upon mules and camels went out, being hastened and pressed on by the king’s . And the was given at the palace. And went out from the of the king in royal apparel of blue and white, and with a great of gold, and with a garment of fine linen and purple: and the city of rejoiced and was glad. The had , and gladness, and joy, and . And in every province, and in every city, whithersoever the king’s and his came, the had joy and gladness, a feast and a good day. And many of the people of the land became ; for the fear of the fell upon them.
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.