Esther

A book in the Old Testament that contains the story of Queen Esther’s great courage in saving her people from destruction.

Chapters 1–2 tell how Esther, a Jewish woman and the adopted daughter of a Jewish man named Mordecai, was chosen as queen of Persia because of her beauty. Chapter 3 explains that Haman, chief man at the king’s court, hated Mordecai and obtained a decree to put all Jewish people to death. Chapters 4–10 tell how Esther, at great personal risk, revealed her own nationality to the king and obtained a reversal of the decree.