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About Esther
Esther 2:7 “And it came to be that he was raising Haḏassah, that is Estĕr, his uncle’s daughter, for she had neither father nor mother. The young woman was lovely and of good appearance. And when her father and mother died, Mordeḵai took her as his own daughter.”
Esther’s Hebrew name was Hadasah H1919 – hăḏasâ, from the Hebrew name Hadas H1918 – hăḏas meaning myrtle tree. This tree is really very beautiful! It has fragrant evergreen leaves, produces berries are edible and can be used to make jams, beverages and even used as peppers for seasoning. It helps with acne and chest infections, and the flowers are often used in weddings bridal bouquets. The myrtle tree is mentioned by Isaiah, Nehemiah and Zechariah as being part of the promise of renewal, celebrating new beginnings.
In the next chapter that we will do, with Nehemiah, we see Nehemiah 8:15 say, “Go out to the mountain, and bring olive branches, branches of oil trees, myrtle branches, palm branches, and branches of leafy trees, to make booths, as it is written.” He is talking about the last festival of YHWH, Sukkot or Festival of Tents/Booths (click here to see the post explaining all YHWH’s festivals).
However the Persian Name Ester H635 – ‘estēr, derived from the Old Persian word “stāra” or “setareh”, meaning “star”. It is also linked to the Babylonian goddess Ishtar, a deity of love and fertility. The Hebrew word Astarot is H6252 – ʿaštārōṯ is closely related, also meaning star, but has to do with false god worshipping of stars. Click here for a post on the warnings of the Ashtoret poles that are worshipped in Joshua 2. Also in Jeremiah 7’s post we see she is called the “queen of heaven” and worshipped as well.
Esther’s book is placed in between the prophet books, as that is where her story was happening, however there are no prophets or prophecies in her book. The beginning and ending of the Esther book clearly shows how the Jews became so much a part of the Persians, the Persians didn’t recognize them as Jews. The Jews became part of the rulership with the King, married to the King of Persia, and Mordecai becoming the right-hand man of the King. But nowhere in this book do they talk about YHWH or mention His Name. This book, even though it is so much a part of Jewish culture today, and celebrating Purim yearly, was not found among the dead sea scrolls. The earliest scrolls were only found around the 16th century and is said to date back to the 4th century. The only reason why the book of Esther is classified as true, is because it tells the story of palace and king of Sussa, and the palace of Sussa did indeed really exist according to archaeology.
Bible books order and History Timelines
Following the topic above, another thing that really did exist was the King that Esther married, King Xerxes. The bible books have been placed in such an order, that it can be really confusing to follow the history and story of Israel. We have shuffled the order of the books in our Daily Reading Bible program for 1 year, to try and follow the timeline of Israel’s history as best as possible. That is why yesterday we ended with Zechariah, which is close to the end of the old testament, but the book of Esther is before Job in the printed bibles. After the story of Esther, the prophets Ezra and Nehemiah should follow.. but instead you will find them before the book of Esther in your bible. The book of Chronicles was written as a quick review from the beginning of time, up to the point where Israel and Judah were being exiled to Assyria and Babylon.
Here is the comparison of the order of books from the bible, versus what they should be following the historical timelines:
| Bible Order | Timeline Order |
| 0. Genesis | Genesis |
| 1. Exodus | Exodus |
| 2. Leviticus | Leviticus |
| 3. Numbers | Numbers |
| 4. Deuteronomy | Deuteronomy |
| 5. Joshua | Joshua |
| 6. Judges | Judges |
| 7. Ruth | Ruth |
| 8. 1 Samuel | 1 Samuel |
| 9. 2 Samuel | 2 Samuel |
| 10. 1 Kings | 1 Kings |
| 11. 2 Kings | 2 Kings |
| 12. 1 Chronicles | Job |
| 13. 2 Chronicles | Psalms |
| 14. Ezra | Proverbs |
| 15. Nehemiah | Ecclesiastes |
| 16. Esther | Song of Solomon |
| 17. Job | 1 Chronicles |
| 18. Psalms | 2 Chronicles |
| 19. Proverbs | Joel |
| 20. Ecclesiastes | Jonah |
| 21. Song of Solomon | Amos |
| 22. Isaiah | Hosea |
| 23. Jeremiah | Micah |
| 24. Lamentations | Isaiah |
| 25. Ezekiel | Obadiah |
| 26. Daniel | Nahum |
| 27. Hosea | Habakkuk |
| 28. Joel | Zephaniah |
| 29. Amos | Jeremiah |
| 30. Obadiah | Lamentations |
| 31. Jonah | Ezekiel |
| 32. Micah | Daniel |
| 33. Nahum | Haggai |
| 34. Habakkuk | Zechariah |
| 35. Zephaniah | Esther |
| 36. Haggai | Ezra |
| 37. Zechariah | Nehemiah |
| 38. Malachi | Malachi |
Here is the timelines according to the Persian Kings and the stories to follow in the Bibles (from Daniel to Malachi, the last few prophets):
- 605-562 BC : Nebuchadnezzar – Babylonian king, Daniel and his friends chosen to serve him. Daniel receives vision about the great statue and beast. Daniel lived and served until the period of Darius the Great in 486BC.
- 562-560 BC : Evil-Merodach and Belshazzar, Daniel receives many visions and prophecies that falls in line with Revelation.
- 559-539 BC : Cyrus the Great – 2 Chronicles 36 ends and Ezra 1:1-4 begins by explaining (just giving history overview/reminder) about King Cyrus giving permission for the Jews to return to Jerusalem.
- 530-522 BC : brief period of unstability (Kings Cambyses and Bardiya)
- 522-486 BC : Darius the Great, Haggai and Zechariah prophesied and tried to encourage the Jews to help and resume with the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem.
- 485-465 BC : Xerxes – Esther married him and prevented the killing of all Jews.
- 465-424 BC : Artaxerxes – Nehemiah was cupbearer to him, and he allowed Nehemiah and Ezra to return to Jerusalem to continue rebuilding the city walls. Malachi also prophesied during this time.
(a quiet time) - 167 BC : Seleucid king Antiochus, persecution of the Jews spark the Maccabean Revolt
- 161 BC : Maccabean Jews makes a treaty with Rome
- 67 BC : Rome takes control of Seleucid empire
- 40 BC : Rome appoints Herod the Great as “king” of Judea, to rule of Jerusalem. He lived during the birth of Yeshua and ordered the killing of the boys, in fear of being replaced as king. He died in 4BC. Herod was a “half-Jew”, as his father was descendent of Edom and his family felt forced to convert to Judaism. Being a half-Jew king, also fulfills the prophecy of Daniel of iron & clay – Rome and Judah. His father was appointed a roman official, and Herod is said to have had great political skills, which led Herod to have favor with the Romans.
Persian and Babylonian Influence
Esther 3:7 “In the first month, which is the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast Pur (that is, the lot), before Haman to determine the day and the month, until it fell on the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar.”
Not only did Esther get a false god deity name, so did Daniel and most (if not all) people that were exiled to Assyria and Babylon. In our previous post in Daniel, we even see that this is where the name “Jew” also came from. Before the exiles, they were Israelites and Judah. Here in the book of Esther, we also see the mention of month names, which is not really normal, as everytime a month was referred to by YHWH, He would talk about the month number. This is important, as the idea is that we should be aware of the movement of the sun and moon, and count the days and hours. We should be aware in which number month we are in, as YHWH’s appointed times and festivals go according to the numbers. But here in Esther we see the following month names given: Tebeth (Persian meaning “ten”), Nissan (Sumerian roman god of war), Adar (Babylonian meaning “darkened” or “eclipsed”). See our post from Numbers 33, where we list the Jewish and Gregorian month names and their meanings, as well as the meaning of our weekdays (Mon-Sun).
