NOTES for Est 5:1-14

The Book of Esther is a “midrash,” a parable; one can hardly suppose that its narrative rests on a definite historical foundation. It is a distinctive picture whose separate fragments make sense only when considered together with all the rest. Their meaning emerges only within the context of the whole Bible, when compared with all of history. For the author and for those who included the book in Holy Scripture, it was important to emphasize that individual events come together into a purposeful process. The circumstances at court about which we read in today's passage are a typical example of events that, taken separately, make no claim to historical significance. Yet it is precisely from such everyday, earthly events that history directed toward God's purpose is formed.