Estherchapter 10
3 verses · KJVEsther book hub →
Key verse
And the king Ahasuerus laid a tribute upon the land, and upon the isles of the sea.
It stands in scene A of the chapter, verses 1 to 3.
The chapter
Chapter summary
Ten verses close the book. Ahasuerus lays a tribute upon the land and upon the isles of the sea; his acts of power and might, 'and the full account of the greatness of Mordecai, whereunto the king advanced him,' are written in the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia. Mordecai the Jew was next unto king Ahasuerus, great among the Jews, accepted of the multitude of his brethren, 'seeking the good of his people, and speaking peace to all his seed.' The book ends as it ran: the name of God never once spoken in it, and his hand on every page: the sleepless night, the fallen lot, the decree that could not be revoked and was outwritten instead.
Context
History · Mordecai · Esther overview
Where the chapter sits
Esther 10 falls in The deliverance and Purim (chapters 8–10). The counter-edict; the Jews defend themselves; Purim instituted to remember; Mordecai honoured in the king's chronicles.
Before it: The reversal, chapters 5–7.
The whole shape of Esther→The world behind this chapter
Esther 10The history
The chapter closes the way a Persian royal record closes: a note on taxation and a citation of the archive. Laying tribute 'on the land, and upon the isles of the sea' describes the regular imperial assessment reaching both the inland provinces and the coastal and island territories along the Aegean, the parts of the empire nearest Greece, and the hardest to hold.
Referring the reader to the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia is a real gesture, not a literary flourish. Those court records existed; Greek historians used them, and the standard practice of the ancient Near East was to end an official account by naming where the fuller version was kept.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
Mordecai's position, second to the king, and great among the Jews, describes the highest office under the crown, the man who managed the empire on the king's behalf. Joseph held the equivalent under Pharaoh and Daniel under Darius, and hearers would have felt the pattern.
The last line is about his reputation among his own people rather than at court: he sought their welfare and spoke peace to all his descendants. A Jew at the top of a pagan government is measured here by what he did for the powerless, not by his rank.
What it meant to them
The book ends without ever using the word God. No miracle, no prophet, no temple, no prayer quoted. Just a beauty contest, a sleepless night, a filing system, and a lot thrown eleven months early.
That is the message for people living far from Jerusalem with no visible sign of heaven's attention. The hand is not absent because it is not seen. Hearers were meant to close the scroll and reread their own ordinary lives.
Sources cited
- Edwin M. Yamauchi, Persia and the Bible
- Herodotus, The Histories
- Kenneth A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament
A. Mordecai next to the king, seeking the good of his people
1. (vv. 1-3)
a.laid a tribute upon the land, and upon the isles of the sea: The king who taxed an empire from India to Ethiopia at the book's opening in 1:1 closes it still ruling exactly that way, laying tribute upon the land and upon the isles of the sea, and Mordecai's greatness is referred outward to a public record, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia, the same idiom of archival witness that closed the Purim ordinance itself at 9:32. The book's last sentence is its confession of purpose stated plainly: Mordecai the Jew, next unto king Ahasuerus, seeking the wealth of his people, and speaking peace to all his seed. The word seed closes over the very thing Haman's lot was cast to consume at 3:6 and 3:13, so a deliverance the narrator never once explained ends filed as verifiable history, a house of Kish spoken for and the Agag war of 1 Samuel 15 closed here in an archive, the same quiet ending the Purim charter received three verses earlier.
Esther 10:1, 2 voicesWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Esther 10:1
“And the King Ahasuerus laid a tribute on the land, and upon the isles of the sea. Which include all his dominions, both on the continent, and on the sea, the Aegean sea; though Aben Ezra thinks it regards such as were not under his government, but stood in fear of him, of whom he demanded tribute. If Ahasuerus was Xerxes, perhaps his exchequer might be drained by his wars with the Grecians, which put him upon this; though some understand this of his renewing the taxes and tribute, which he remitted upon his marriage with Esther, Est 2:18.”
Esther 10:1
“A tribute - Perhaps an allusion to some fresh arrangement of the tribute likely to have followed on the return of Xerxes from Greece. Upon the isles of the sea - Cyprus, Aradus, the island of Tyre, Platea, etc., remained in the hands of the Persians after the victories of the Greeks, and may be the “isles” here intended.”
Esther 10:2, 1 voice
Esther 10:2
“The book of the chronicles of Media and Persia? - The Persians have ever been remarkable for keeping exact chronicles of all public events. Their Tareekhs, which are compositions of this kind, are still very numerous, and indeed very important.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Esther 10:3, 2 voices
Esther 10:3
“Mordecai ... was next unto king Ahasuerus - See Est 2:5 note. Artabanus (Est 1:14 note) was favorite toward the end of Xerxes’ reign, i. e. in his 20th and 21st years.”
Esther 10:3
“Viewed in this light, the providence of God is plainly traceable in all the steps that led to his unexpected advancement. This providential interposition is all the more remarkable, that, as in the analogous case of Joseph, it was displayed in making the ordinary and natural course of things lead to the most marvellous results.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Esther 10. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826); Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Keil, The Books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
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