situation of Mordecai and Esther and that of Ahasuerus and Vashti could not be bolder. While the Persians are aristocrats living amid legendary opulence, exercising power worldwide, and partying with abandon, the Jews are kingless and in exile, where they have been driven by a foreign conqueror. In fact, v. 6 employs the root of the word for exile (glh) in four distinct constructions, lest the full measure of the Jewish plight be overlooked. The particular mirrors the general: Hadassah’s plight resembles