50 Fun Facts About Book of Esther

On Mordecai's instructions, what secret did Esther keep from the Persian king after she was taken into the palace?

Her Jewish identity stayed secret through twelve months of beauty treatments and her coronation, and Esther 2 notes twice that she told no one.

Which Jewish festival, kept with costumes and a festive meal, celebrates the rescue told in the Book of Esther?

Purim centres on the book itself: the whole story is read aloud from a handwritten scroll twice, once in the evening and again the next morning.

What did Haman have built fifty cubits high, on the advice of his wife and friends, in the Book of Esther?

A gallows about 75 feet tall was meant for Mordecai, but the very next day the king had Haman himself hanged on it.

Which queen lost her throne at the start of the Book of Esther, opening the way for Esther to be crowned?

Vashti was hosting her own banquet for the women of the palace while the king feasted his officials and the men of the capital.

Which famous phrase ends Mordecai's challenge that Esther may have become queen for a purpose?

'Such a time as this' closes Esther 4:14, where Mordecai also warns that help for the Jews would come from elsewhere if she stayed silent.

What did Mordecai refuse to do before Haman at the palace gate, filling the newly promoted official with rage?

Bow down to him is what the king had ordered every servant at the gate to do, and Mordecai's refusal turned Haman against all the Jews, not just one man.

By which Hebrew name, meaning myrtle, is Esther first introduced in the Book of Esther?

Hadassah is the name used when she first appears in Esther 2:7; 'Esther' is often linked to the Persian word for star or to the goddess Ishtar.

In the Book of Esther, what did the king hold out to spare anyone who entered his inner court uninvited?

His gold scepter was the only escape from a death sentence, and Esther touched its tip when he extended it to her.

What did the sleepless Persian king order to be read to him on the night before Esther's second banquet?

The royal chronicles reminded him of a favour Mordecai had never been rewarded for, just as Haman arrived to ask for Mordecai's execution.

With which famous words did Esther accept the risk of approaching the king uninvited?

'If I perish, I perish' was no exaggeration: Esther tells Mordecai she had not been called to the king for thirty days.

Esther is one of only two books in the Hebrew Bible that never mention God explicitly; which is the other?

Song of Songs is a love poem, while Esther is a court drama in which Jewish tradition sees a hidden hand behind a string of well-timed coincidences.

What relation was Mordecai to Esther, the young woman he brought up as his own daughter in the Persian capital?

Her cousin is the answer, because Esther was the daughter of Mordecai's uncle, yet he was old enough to adopt her and check on her daily outside the harem.

Why was Esther raised by Mordecai rather than in her own family home, according to the Book of Esther?

Her parents had died, so Mordecai took the girl in and treated her as his own daughter, and she went on obeying him even after she was crowned.

Why was the queen before Esther stripped of her crown on the seventh day of the Persian king's feast?

She refused his summons to appear before the guests and show off her beauty, and the king's advisers feared every wife in the empire would copy her.

What did Mordecai put on, after tearing his clothes, when he learned of Haman's decree against the Jews?

Sackcloth and ashes kept him outside the palace, because nobody dressed in mourning was allowed through the king's gate.

Before going to the Persian king uninvited, what did Esther ask the Jews of the capital to do for three days?

Fast for her was the request, with nothing eaten or drunk by night or day, and Esther and her maids kept the same three days too.

What did the Persian king promise Esther, if she asked, when she came before his throne unsummoned?

Up to half his kingdom was the offer, and the king repeated it at both of Esther's banquets before she finally named her request.

What did the Persian king hand to Haman, letting him issue the decree against the Jews in the king's name?

His signet ring changed hands twice: after Haman's fall the king took it back and gave it to Mordecai, who sealed a rescue decree with it.

What did Mordecai uncover at the palace gate and report through Esther, before Haman rose to power?

An assassination plot by two of the king's own door guards, Bigthan and Teresh, was foiled, yet Mordecai received no reward at the time.

Believing the honour was meant for himself, what reward did Haman suggest to the Persian king?

A royal robe and horse, both used by the king himself, went to Mordecai instead, and Haman had to lead him through the city square proclaiming the honour.

In which Persian royal city, where Nehemiah later served as cupbearer, does the Book of Esther take place?

Susa was the winter capital of the Persian empire, in what is now Iran, and older Bibles call it Shushan.

In the Book of Esther, how was the date for destroying the Jews chosen in Haman's presence, nearly a year ahead?

By casting lots, which fell on the twelfth month, eleven months away, leaving room for the decree to be countered before the day arrived.

In Esther 9, Mordecai told Jews to mark the yearly celebration with feasting, sending food to friends and what else?

Gifts to the poor remain a duty of the festival today, known in Hebrew as mattanot la-evyonim, alongside parcels of food sent to friends.

Triangular pastries eaten when Esther's story is celebrated are called 'oznei Haman' in Hebrew, meaning Haman's what?

Ears is the Hebrew nickname, while the Yiddish name hamantaschen means Haman's pockets; poppy seed paste is the oldest traditional filling.

What do listeners traditionally do each time Haman's name comes up when the Book of Esther is read in synagogue?

Make loud noise is the custom, often with a rattle called a grogger, to blot out a name that comes up 54 times in the reading.

By which Hebrew word for a scroll, also slang for a long-winded story, is the Book of Esther commonly known?

Megillah reached American English through Yiddish in the phrase 'the whole megillah', meaning an overly long explanation or story.

Esther 2 says Mordecai's family was carried into exile from Jerusalem by which king of Babylon?

Nebuchadnezzar deported them alongside King Jeconiah of Judah, more than a century before the story's events if its Persian king is Xerxes I.

By the final verse of the Book of Esther, what rank has Mordecai reached in the Persian empire?

Second to the king is how the book leaves him, popular with his fellow Jews and remembered for speaking up for their welfare.

At her second banquet, what did Esther finally ask the king to grant as her petition and request?

Her life and her people's were all she asked for, adding that she would have kept quiet if they had only been sold as slaves.

In Esther, what was special about a decree written into the laws of Persia and Media?

It could not be repealed, which is why the king could not simply cancel Haman's order and had to let a second decree counter it.

Which name does the King James Bible, following the Hebrew, give the king of Esther whom newer versions call Xerxes?

Ahasuerus and Xerxes are two renderings of one Persian name, Khshayarsha: the first reached English through Hebrew, the second through Greek.

Mordecai is introduced in the Book of Esther as a member of which tribe, also the tribe of the apostle Paul?

Benjamin is the tribe named in Esther 2:5, which traces Mordecai's line back through Jair and Shimei to a man called Kish.

Haman promised the Persian king's treasury ten thousand talents of which metal to fund the destruction of the Jews?

Silver on that scale weighed roughly 340 tonnes, and Mordecai quoted the exact sum when he sent word of the scheme to Esther.

Which fragrant oil was used for the first six months of beauty treatments given to Esther and the other candidates?

Oil of myrrh came first, followed by six more months of perfumes and cosmetics, so each woman prepared for a full year before meeting the king.

What did the second royal decree of Esther 8, written by Mordecai, give the Jews in every city the right to do?

Defend themselves, by assembling in arms on the very day set for their destruction, was the right granted, and many officials sided with them out of fear of Mordecai.

After deposing his queen, the king of the Book of Esther sent letters declaring that every man should be what?

Master of his household was the message, sent to every province in its own script and to each nation in its own language.

Where did the furious Persian king go after Esther named Haman as her enemy at the second banquet?

Into the garden he went, leaving Haman to beg Esther for mercy, and he returned to find Haman fallen on the couch where she reclined.

What did the Jews pointedly leave untouched after defeating their enemies, a detail Esther 9 repeats three times?

The plunder was theirs to take under the royal decree, yet Esther 9 notes three times that nobody laid a hand on it.

Esther is the only book of the Hebrew Bible with no copy identified among which famous ancient manuscripts?

The Dead Sea Scrolls include parts of every other book, and one theory is that the Qumran community left Esther out because its festival was not on their calendar.

What was the name of Haman's wife, who heard his boasting and later predicted his downfall before Mordecai?

Zeresh changed her tune within a day, warning Haman that he could not win against Mordecai because Mordecai was Jewish.

Haman is repeatedly given which label in the Book of Esther, recalling a king of Israel's old enemy Amalek?

The Agagite is traditionally read as marking Haman a descendant of Agag, the Amalekite king whom the prophet Samuel put to the sword in 1 Samuel 15.

In which month of the Hebrew calendar, the twelfth, did Haman's decree set the day for destroying the Jews?

Adar usually falls in February or March, and its thirteenth day, once marked for a massacre, became the eve of two days of feasting.

What did the Persian king's attendants do to Haman the moment the king accused him of attacking Esther?

Covered his face is the chilling detail of Esther 7:8, done as soon as the words left the king's mouth, and Haman was executed soon afterwards.

Kish, named among Mordecai's ancestors in Esther 2, shares his name with the father of which king of Israel?

Saul was the son of a man named Kish from the same tribe, and some commentators treat the two as one man, which would make Mordecai his distant kinsman.

The Book of Esther belongs to which third section of the Hebrew Bible, whose name means 'Writings'?

Ketuvim follows the Torah and the Prophets and also holds Psalms, Proverbs and Job, books very unlike Esther's court tale.

Which royal eunuch, keeper of the women, favoured Esther and advised her what to take to the Persian king?

Hegai gave Esther seven maids and the best rooms in the harem, and when her turn came she took only what he suggested.

Which of the seven princes of Persia and Media advised the king to replace the queen who came before Esther?

Memucan argued that the queen had wronged not only the king but every prince and nation in the empire, and his advice became law.

Which attendant of Esther carried messages between the queen and Mordecai as he mourned outside the palace?

Hathach was one of the king's eunuchs assigned to Esther, and through him she first learned the details of the decree against the Jews.

A shrine in which Iranian city is traditionally venerated as the tomb of Esther and Mordecai?

Hamadan's shrine is the most important pilgrimage site for Jews in Iran, though a rival medieval tradition places the graves at Bar'am in Galilee.

Which man does the Book of Esther name as Queen Esther's father when she writes with full authority to the Jews?

Abihail is named only twice, in Esther 2:15 and again in 9:29, where his daughter confirms the festival letter alongside Mordecai.