because attempts to do so continue to the present day. It is, however, doubtful whether the author was as concerned with human psychology as with the divine purpose behind the events he records. Though he maintains a strictly factual and objective stance, the question of ultimate power is never far from the surface. And how powerful is the great King Artaxerxes? Already the writer has shown him let down in public by his wife and taken in by his minister. Will he indeed have control in his home and