Indeed, in such a context “the storyteller is no theological sophisticate promoting a ‘religionless Judaism,’ but an Old Believer whose ultimate act of faith is to take the protective providence of God for granted” (Clines, Esther Scroll, 155–56). Finally, I agree with Clines (269), contra Berg (Book of Esther, 178) and Loader (ZAW 90 [1978] 418), that “there is nothing hidden or veiled about the causality of the events of the Esther story: it is indeed unexpressed but it is unmistakable, given the