2 of 8

Review (Historical Context)

1446 BC - Exodus from Egypt
1043 BC - King Saul
930 BC - Kingdom of Israel divides
722 BC - Assyria conquers Samaria
586 BC - Babylon conquers Judah
539 BC - Persia conquers Babylon
538-515 BC - Jews return from exile to rebuild temple; Haggai, Zechariah
486-465 BC - Xerxes I as king of Persia
483-473 BC - Esther
458-424 BC - Ezra/Nehemiah (further return/rebuilding)
430 BC - Malachi

3 of 8

Review (Esther 1-7)

Queen Vashti refuses King Xerxes I request to appear at a feast and is banished.
King summons young virgins throughout empire to seek replacement for Vashti.

Esther is chosen. (+4 years)
Mordecai warns about assassination plot against king.

Mordecai refuses to pay homage to Haman, so Haman issues edict to destroy the Jews. (+5 years)
Mordecai asks Esther to go before king to plead for the Jews.
Esther goes before the king and invites the king and Haman to banquets. Meanwhile, Haman builds a gallows because he hates Mordecai.
King Xerxes honors Mordecai for his previous actions in thwarting an assassination plot.
At 2nd feast, Esther reveals Haman as behind plot against the Jews, and Haman is hanged on his own gallows.

4 of 8

Reading

Esther 8:1-8

5 of 8

Discussion Questions (Esther 8:1-8)

What has happened to Mordecai compared to what Haman wanted?

Why did Esther still have to go before the king after last chapter?

What conditions does Esther place on her request?

Haman wanted Mordecai to bow down before him, to the point of ultimately wanting to kill Mordecai (Esther 3). Haman later sought to hang Mordecai on his gallows, which backfires as Haman has to honor Mordecai (Esther 5-6). But now in chapter 8, Mordecai has effectively been elevated to replace Haman - Mordecai comes before the king, the king gives Mordecai his signet ring, Mordecai is set over the house of Haman, and Mordecai is given authority to issue a decree in the name of the king. We see Mordecai honored even further closer toward the end of the chapter.
It’s important to recognize that even after last chapter’s events, the problem Esther approached the king to solve has not been solved yet. She came to request salvation of her people from Haman’s previous decree. But that has not happened yet - the actions last chapter only removed Haman from the picture, not reverse/alter the previous decree. Interestingly, we don’t see evidence that the king would have fulfilled her original request without this additional prompting, and when confronted, the king starts off my reiterating what he did to Haman before effectively delegating resolution of the remaining problem to Esther/Mordecai.
The conditions Esther places on her request (verse 5) are (1) it pleasing the king, (2) her finding favor before the king, (3) it seeming right before the king, and (4) her being pleasing to the king. If you compare these to the conditions Esther places on her requests going back to chapter 5, you’ll see a gradual addition to the conditions.

6 of 8

Reading

Esther 8:9-17

7 of 8

The Hebrew Calendar

Nisan	March/April (30 days)	Passover	Haman issues original decree
Iyar	April/May (29 days)
Sivan	May/June (30 days)	Pentecost	Mordecai issues new decree (+70 days)
Tamuz	June/July (29 days)
Av	July/August (30 days)
Elul	August/Sept. (29 days)
Tishrei	Sept./Oct. (30 days)	Rosh Hashanah/Yom Kippur
Marhesvan	Oct./Nov. (29 or 30 days)
Kislev	Nov./Dec. (29 or 30 days)	Hanukkah
Tevet	Dec./January (29 days)
Shvat	January/February (30 days)
Adar	February/March (30 days)	Purim	Month of decrees taking effect

8 of 8

Discussion Questions (Esther 8:9-17)

Who ends up deciding the content of this new decree?

Compare this decree with that of Haman’s (chapter 3). What similarities do you see? What differences?

What is the scope of this decree?

What is the state of things with this decree in effect?

We see from verse 9 that Mordecai ends up deciding on the content of the new decree.
We see explicit mention here in chapter 8 that the new decree is also written in the language of the Jews (verse 9). That doesn’t necessarily mean the original decree was not written in the language of the Jews, but it is interesting to note. Otherwise, the decrees themselves are largely the same, with the exception of the role of the Jews being reversed. That suggests that this was carefully worded to counteract the previous decree specifically.
We see the scope is pretty narrowly focused - only scoped to the 13th day of Adar (the day when Haman’s original decree would take effect).
It’s important to note that this new decree doesn’t actually revoke the previous decree (for that would not be possible - verse 8). But with what it does do, things are at least at a stalemate where the Jews are likely to survive. People could still technically attack the Jews…but at the cost of likely themselves being destroyed. So we still don’t technically have a full resolution - only time will tell (next chapter) to see what happens on the 13th of Adar. That said, things are looking good for the Jews given what happens at the end of this chapter (verses 15-17) - joy for the Jews and apparent conversion of others. See https://biblehub.com/hebrew/6343.htm for other uses of the word translated as “fear” here.

1 of 8

2 of 8

3 of 8

4 of 8

5 of 8

6 of 8

7 of 8

8 of 8