Esther 9

Esther 9:20-10

The Feast of Purim (9:20-10:3) The connection of the Book of Esther with the Feast of Purim is clear in the closing section of the book. Here the preceding story is emphasized as giving support to the observance of the feast for which there was no authority in the Law of the Old Testament, and its name is associated with the incidents recorded in the book. Since the feast lacked canonical authorization it is substantiated by the joint letter of Mordecai and Esther, both of whom are designated as of particular authority, the one by his connection with the “power and might” of Ahasuerus, the other as queen. Their letter or letters (it has been proposed that “this second letter” in Esther 9:29 refers to the present Book of Esther) direct the continual observance of the feast (Esther 9:28) and give directions concerning it (Esther 9:22).

The section summarizes the whole account of Esther’s intervention for her people and follows the motif of the entire book in reiterating the fact that Haman was an Agagite, thus making solid the relationship to the past and confirming the symbolic character of the man as “the enemy of all the Jews.”