‘stranded’, knowing their identity and yet finding little positive satisfaction in it. The book of Esther belongs at the end of Old Testament revelation, and shows how Jews, far away geographically from Jerusalem and its Temple, nevertheless saw themselves as essentially one with their Israelite kith and kin, for whom they were prepared to die. Esther and Mordecai were providentially placed at the heart of the Persian empire with power to act politically on behalf of their people. It would appear