introduction to Xerxes and his court (see especially COMMENT on § 1). The author is free enough to make even Zeresh, the wife of Mordecai’s sworn enemy, the spokesman for his own Jewish ethnic pride (6:13). The plot is skillfully constructed, with due attention given to increasing suspense and the reader’s interest. For example, Esther, under pain of death, goes unsummoned to the king (4:11–5:2); on two separate occasions she refuses to state her petition to the king in spite of his promise to grant