“For such a time as this” comes from Esther 4:14. Mordecai says it to his cousin Esther, a young Jewish woman who has become queen of Persia, after the king’s chief minister Haman has obtained a decree to destroy every Jew in the empire. Esther hesitates, because going to the king uninvited could cost her life. Mordecai answers that if she stays silent, “relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another place,” but asks: “Who knows if you haven’t come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” The words are both a warning and an invitation. They suggest that Esther’s unlikely rise to the throne was not an accident but a placement for a purpose, and they call her to act at personal risk. Esther answers by asking her people to fast for three days, then goes to the king saying, “if I perish, I perish” (Esther 4:16). Her courage saves her people, and the rescue is still remembered every year at Purim.
“For such a time as this” may be the most quoted line from a book that never once names God. It shows up on graduation cards, in sermons on calling, on church banners and coffee mugs. Most people who quote it know it has something to do with Queen Esther. Far fewer know what was actually happening when it was said, or how much hangs on the two small words in front of it: who knows.
This guide explains where the verse comes from and what it meant for Esther, then walks through the whole Book of Esther scene by scene, quoting the text word for word from the World English Bible, with the famous line also given in the King James wording that most people know. It ends with the history behind the story, the questions readers most often ask, and what the verse can honestly mean for us today.
Where is “for such a time as this” in the Bible?
The phrase is in Esther 4:14, the last words of a message Mordecai sends to Queen Esther. Here is the verse with the one before it, because the two belong together:
Then Mordecai asked them to return this answer to Esther: “Don’t think to yourself that you will escape in the king’s house any more than all the Jews. For if you remain silent now, then relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Who knows if you haven’t come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
Esther 4:13-14 World English Bible
In the King James Version, which is where most people first heard it, the same verse reads:
For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father’s house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?
Esther 4:14 King James Version
Who said “for such a time as this”?
Not Esther. It was her older cousin Mordecai, who had raised her as his own daughter after her parents died. He said it through a messenger, because by then Esther lived inside the palace and he could not come near her. The sentence is his answer to her fear.
What was happening when Mordecai said it?
A royal decree had just been published ordering that every Jew in the Persian Empire, “both young and old, little children and women,” be killed on a single day eleven months away (Esther 3:13). Esther was the only Jew with access to the king. But nobody, not even the queen, could approach him without being summoned, and she had not been called for a month. Mordecai was asking her to risk her life.
The story of Esther, scene by scene
1. A king, a feast and a queen who said no
The book opens at the court of Ahasuerus, a king whose empire stretches across the known world:
Now in the days of Ahasuerus (this is Ahasuerus who reigned from India even to Ethiopia, over one hundred twenty-seven provinces),
Esther 1:1 World English Bible
At the end of a six-month display of wealth and a seven-day banquet, the king, “merry with wine,” orders Queen Vashti to come and show her beauty to his guests. She refuses (Esther 1:10-12). His advisers fear that every wife in the empire will follow her example, so Vashti is removed by a law that, in Persian fashion, can never be changed:
“If it pleases the king, let a royal commandment go from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes, so that it cannot be altered, that Vashti may never again come before King Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal estate to another who is better than she.
Esther 1:19 World English Bible
That detail, a law that cannot be reversed, will matter again. It is the same “law of the Medes and Persians” that traps King Darius in the story of Daniel in the lions’ den.
2. An orphan named Hadassah
Then we meet the two people at the heart of the story:
There was a certain Jew in the citadel of Susa, whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite, who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captives who had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away. He brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle’s daughter; for she had neither father nor mother. The maiden was fair and beautiful; and when her father and mother were dead, Mordecai took her for his own daughter.
Esther 2:5-7 World English Bible
Mordecai is an exile, descended from Jews deported to Babylon more than a century earlier. Esther, whose Hebrew name Hadassah is the word for the myrtle plant, is an orphan he adopted. She is taken into the royal harem with many other young women. On Mordecai’s instructions she keeps one thing to herself:
Esther had not made known her people nor her relatives, because Mordecai had instructed her that she should not make it known.
Esther 2:10 World English Bible
3. Esther becomes queen
After a year of preparation, each young woman is brought to the king. Esther asks for nothing beyond what the king’s servant advises, and she wins favor with everyone who sees her:
Now when the turn of Esther, the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her for his daughter, came to go in to the king, she required nothing but what Hegai the king’s eunuch, the keeper of the women, advised. Esther obtained favor in the sight of all those who looked at her. So Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus into his royal house in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign. The king loved Esther more than all the women, and she obtained favor and kindness in his sight more than all the virgins; so that he set the royal crown on her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti.
Esther 2:15-17 World English Bible
An orphaned exile is now queen of the largest empire on earth. Nobody at court knows she is Jewish.
4. A plot overheard at the gate
A short scene follows that seems unimportant at first. Mordecai uncovers a plot to assassinate the king and passes the warning through Esther:
In those days, while Mordecai was sitting in the king’s gate, two of the king’s eunuchs, Bigthan and Teresh, who were doorkeepers, were angry, and sought to lay hands on the King Ahasuerus. This thing became known to Mordecai, who informed Esther the queen; and Esther informed the king in Mordecai’s name. When this matter was investigated, and it was found to be so, they were both hanged on a gallows; and it was written in the book of the chronicles in the king’s presence.
Esther 2:21-23 World English Bible
The deed is written in the royal chronicles, and then forgotten. The book will come back to it at exactly the right moment.
5. Haman, and a man who would not bow
The king promotes a man named Haman above all his officials and commands everyone to bow to him. One man refuses:
After these things King Ahasuerus promoted Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all the princes who were with him. All the king’s servants who were in the king’s gate bowed down, and paid homage to Haman; for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai didn’t bow down or pay him homage.
Esther 3:1-2 World English Bible
Haman’s response is out of all proportion. Humiliated by one man, he decides to wipe out that man’s entire people:
When Haman saw that Mordecai didn’t bow down, nor pay him homage, Haman was full of wrath. But he scorned the thought of laying hands on Mordecai alone, for they had made known to him Mordecai’s people. Therefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews who were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even Mordecai’s people.
Esther 3:5-6 World English Bible
The book calls Haman “the Agagite.” For a Jewish reader, that name carries history. Agag was the king of the Amalekites, Israel’s ancient enemy, whom King Saul spared against God’s command (1 Samuel 15:8). Mordecai, meanwhile, is a Benjamite descended from Kish, the same family as Saul. The old conflict between the house of Saul and the house of Agag is being played out again in a Persian palace.
6. The lot is cast
Haman casts lots to choose the day of the massacre. The word for a lot, pur, will one day give a holiday its name:
In the first month, which is the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast Pur, that is, the lot, before Haman from day to day, and from month to month, and chose the twelfth month, which is the month Adar.
Esther 3:7 World English Bible
He then goes to the king with a half-truth and a bribe, without ever naming the people he means:
Haman said to King Ahasuerus, “There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom, and their laws are different from other people’s. They don’t keep the king’s laws. Therefore it is not for the king’s profit to allow them to remain. If it pleases the king, let it be written that they be destroyed; and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who are in charge of the king’s business, to bring it into the king’s treasuries.”
Esther 3:8-9 World English Bible
The king gives Haman his signet ring, and the decree goes out in every language of the empire, set for the thirteenth day of Adar. The chapter ends with one of the coldest lines in the Bible:
The couriers went out in haste by the king’s commandment, and the decree was given out in the citadel of Susa. The king and Haman sat down to drink; but the city of Susa was perplexed.
Esther 3:15 World English Bible
7. Sackcloth in the city
When Mordecai learns of the decree, he mourns in public:
Now when Mordecai found out all that was done, Mordecai tore his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the middle of the city, and wailed loudly and bitterly.
Esther 4:1 World English Bible
Across every province, Jews fast and weep. Esther, sheltered inside the palace, hears only that her cousin is in sackcloth. Through a servant named Hathach, Mordecai sends her a copy of the decree and asks her to plead with the king for her people.
8. Esther’s fear
Her answer is honest, and reasonable:
“All the king’s servants, and the people of the king’s provinces, know, that whoever, whether man or woman, comes to the king into the inner court without being called, there is one law for him, that he be put to death, except those to whom the king might hold out the golden scepter, that he may live. I have not been called to come in to the king these thirty days.”
Esther 4:11 World English Bible
Going to the king uninvited meant death unless he held out his golden scepter. And the king had not asked for her in thirty days. She had no reason to think she was still in favor.
9. “For such a time as this”
Mordecai’s reply is the turning point of the whole book:
Then Mordecai asked them to return this answer to Esther: “Don’t think to yourself that you will escape in the king’s house any more than all the Jews. For if you remain silent now, then relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Who knows if you haven’t come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
Esther 4:13-14 World English Bible
He says three things. First, the palace will not protect her: the decree covers every Jew, including the queen. Second, if she stays silent, deliverance will still come “from another place”, a quiet way of saying that the survival of God’s people does not finally depend on her. Third, and only then, comes the question: who knows whether this is why she was made queen?
10. “If I perish, I perish”
Esther’s answer turns her from someone things happen to into the one who acts:
Then Esther asked them to answer Mordecai, “Go, gather together all the Jews who are present in Susa, and fast for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day. I and my maidens will also fast the same way. Then I will go in to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.” So Mordecai went his way, and did according to all that Esther had commanded him.
Esther 4:15-17 World English Bible
She does not rush in. She asks her whole community to fast with her for three days and nights, and she and her maids fast too. Fasting in Scripture goes with prayer, even though the Hebrew text of Esther never says so outright. Then she accepts the risk without pretending it away.
11. The golden scepter
On the third day, Esther puts on her royal robes and stands in the inner court:
Now on the third day, Esther put on her royal clothing, and stood in the inner court of the king’s house, next to the king’s house. The king sat on his royal throne in the royal house, next to the entrance of the house. When the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, she obtained favor in his sight; and the king held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. So Esther came near, and touched the top of the scepter. Then the king asked her, “What would you like, queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given you even to the half of the kingdom.”
Esther 5:1-3 World English Bible
The king holds out the scepter. She lives. But instead of making her request at once, she invites the king and Haman to a banquet, and then to a second banquet the next day. Haman leaves the first one delighted, sees Mordecai still refusing to bow, and on his wife’s advice builds a gallows fifty cubits high to hang him on (Esther 5:14).
12. The king cannot sleep
That same night, something small happens:
On that night, the king couldn’t sleep. He commanded the book of records of the chronicles to be brought, and they were read to the king. It was found written that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs, who were doorkeepers, who had tried to lay hands on the King Ahasuerus. The king said, “What honor and dignity has been given to Mordecai for this?” Then the king’s servants who attended him said, “Nothing has been done for him.”
Esther 6:1-3 World English Bible
Of all the nights to be sleepless, and of all the pages in the royal records, the king hears the one about Mordecai saving his life. When Haman arrives the next morning to ask for Mordecai’s execution, the king asks him first how to honor a man the king delights in. Haman, sure the king means him, describes a royal parade. He is then ordered to lead it for Mordecai:
Then the king said to Haman, “Hurry and take the clothing and the horse, as you have said, and do this for Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the king’s gate. Let nothing fail of all that you have spoken.” Then Haman took the clothing and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and had him ride through the city square, and proclaimed before him, “Thus it shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honor!”
Esther 6:10-11 World English Bible
The book never says God arranged the sleepless night. It does not need to.
13. Esther speaks
At the second banquet, the king asks Esther again what she wants. This time she tells him, and for the first time she names her people as her own:
Then Esther the queen answered, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request. For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had been sold for male and female slaves, I would have held my peace, although the adversary could not have compensated for the king’s loss.” Then King Ahasuerus said to Esther the queen, “Who is he, and where is he who dared presume in his heart to do so?” Esther said, “An adversary and an enemy, even this wicked Haman!” Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen.
Esther 7:3-6 World English Bible
14. The gallows
The king storms out into the garden. When he returns, a servant mentions the gallows Haman built for Mordecai, the man who saved the king’s life:
Then Harbonah, one of the eunuchs who were with the king said, “Behold, the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman has made for Mordecai, who spoke good for the king, is standing at Haman’s house.” The king said, “Hang him on it!” So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king’s wrath was pacified.
Esther 7:9-10 World English Bible
15. A decree that could not be undone
Haman is dead, but his decree is still law, and a Persian law cannot be cancelled:
Write also to the Jews, as it pleases you, in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s ring; for the writing which is written in the king’s name, and sealed with the king’s ring, may not be reversed by any man.”
Esther 8:8 World English Bible
So the king allows a second decree, written by Mordecai, that gives the Jews the right to assemble and defend themselves on the day of the attack. When the day comes, the reversal is complete:
Now in the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, on the thirteenth day of the month, when the king’s commandment and his decree came near to be put in execution, on the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to conquer them, (but it was turned out the opposite happened, that the Jews conquered those who hated them),
Esther 9:1 World English Bible
16. Purim
Mordecai writes to Jews in every province to keep the fourteenth and fifteenth days of Adar every year:
Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, both near and far, to enjoin them that they should keep the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month Adar yearly, as the days in which the Jews had rest from their enemies, and the month which was turned to them from sorrow to gladness, and from mourning into a good day; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, and of sending presents of food to one another, and gifts to the needy.
Esther 9:20-22 World English Bible
The feast is named after Haman’s lots:
Therefore they called these days “Purim”, from the word “Pur.” Therefore because of all the words of this letter, and of that which they had seen concerning this matter, and that which had come to them, the Jews established and imposed on themselves, and on their descendants, and on all those who joined themselves to them, so that it should not fail that they would keep these two days according to what was written, and according to its appointed time, every year; and that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city; and that these days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor their memory perish from their offspring,
Esther 9:26-28 World English Bible
The book ends with Mordecai second only to the king, “seeking the good of his people” (Esther 10:3).
What does “for such a time as this” mean?
It is a question, not a promise
Mordecai does not say “you were made queen for this.” He says “who knows?” It is humble language. Mordecai cannot see God’s plan any better than Esther can. What he can see is that an orphaned exile is sitting on the throne at the exact moment her people need someone there, and that such a coincidence deserves to be taken seriously.
It comes after a warning
The verse is often quoted on its own as pure encouragement. In context, it is the second half of a hard message: you will not escape, and if you stay silent, help will come from somewhere else while your own family perishes. Calling and responsibility arrive together. Esther is not being told she is special. She is being told she is accountable.
Deliverance does not depend on one person
“Relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another place.” Mordecai’s confidence that God’s people will survive is not built on Esther. It is built on something larger that the book never names. Esther’s choice matters for Esther: whether she will take part in what God is doing, or step aside and let it happen without her.
Position is for other people
Esther did not ask to be queen. She was taken into the palace, and her position came with comfort and safety. Mordecai’s question turns that privilege around: perhaps the point of it all is not what it does for her, but what she can do for others. That is why the verse speaks to anyone who finds themselves in a place of influence, in a family, a workplace, a school or a church.
Courage is not the absence of fear
Esther was afraid, and she said so. She asked others to fast and pray with her. She waited three days. Then she went. “If I perish, I perish” is not bravado. It is the decision of someone who has counted the cost and chosen to act anyway.
Where is God in the Book of Esther?
The book that never names God
Esther is famous for being the only book of the Hebrew Bible that never mentions God by name. There are no miracles, no prophets and no prayers in the Hebrew text. Yet the story is full of timing that is hard to call chance: an orphan becomes queen just before the crisis; a forgotten good deed is read aloud on a sleepless night; the gallows built for Mordecai becomes Haman’s own.
Christians and Jews have long read the book as a portrait of providence: God at work behind the scenes, through ordinary people and ordinary events, even when he seems absent. It is the same pattern Joseph sees at the end of his story, after his brothers sold him into slavery:
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to save many people alive, as is happening today.
Genesis 50:20 World English Bible
Joseph’s story and Esther’s have much in common: a young Hebrew in a foreign court, a rise to power, a hidden identity, a people saved from death. The New Testament puts the same conviction in one sentence:
We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28 World English Bible
The Greek additions: Esther’s prayer
The Greek version of Esther, used by the early Church, contains six additional passages that are not in the Hebrew. They include a prayer of Mordecai and a prayer of Esther before she goes to the king. Catholic and Orthodox Bibles include them; most Protestant Bibles place them among the Apocrypha or leave them out. In the Douay-Rheims they are printed at the end of the book, and Esther’s prayer is in chapter 14:
And she prayed to the Lord the God of Israel, saying: O my Lord, who alone art our king, help me a desolate woman, and who have no other helper but thee. My danger is in my hands.
Esther 14:3-4 Douay-Rheims
Remember, O Lord, and shew thyself to us in the time of our tribulation, and give me boldness, O Lord, king of gods, and of all power:
Esther 14:12 Douay-Rheims
Whichever canon your church follows, the additions show how early readers understood the three days of fasting: as three days of prayer.
Who was King Ahasuerus?
Most historians identify Ahasuerus with Xerxes I, king of Persia from 486 to 465 BC, the son of Darius the Great and the king who invaded Greece in 480 BC. The Hebrew name Ahashverosh and the Greek Xerxes both come from the Persian name Khshayarsha. The book’s setting, the citadel of Susa, was one of the royal capitals of the Persian Empire. Its picture of the court fits what is known of Persian rule: couriers carrying royal decrees to every province in its own language, a king surrounded by advisers, and royal records kept in writing.
If Ahasuerus is Xerxes, Esther became queen in his seventh year (Esther 2:16), around 479 BC, and Haman’s decree came in his twelfth year (Esther 3:7). The Greek Old Testament calls the king Artaxerxes instead. Scholars still debate how the book relates to Persian history, but its setting is a real place and a real empire.
Why is Esther missing from the Dead Sea Scrolls?
Fragments of every book of the Hebrew Bible except Esther have been found among the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran. Scholars have suggested several reasons: that the community there did not celebrate Purim, or that a book which never names God was treated differently. Nobody knows for certain. The book’s place in the Jewish and Christian canons was never in doubt for long, and it has been read publicly in synagogues every year for many centuries.
How Purim is celebrated today
Jewish communities still keep Purim on the fourteenth of Adar (the fifteenth in Jerusalem and other walled cities), usually in late winter or early spring. The whole Book of Esther, called the Megillah ("scroll"), is read aloud in the evening and again in the morning. Listeners drown out Haman’s name with noisemakers every time it is read. Following Esther 9:22, families send gifts of food to friends, give to the poor and share a festive meal. The day before Purim is traditionally a fast day, the Fast of Esther, in memory of her three days of fasting.
For Christians, learning how the story is still kept alive is a good reminder that Esther is not a legend from a distant past. It is the memory of a people who were meant to disappear and did not.
For such a time as this: how to read it today
Use the verse in context
It is fine to write “for such a time as this” on a card for a graduate or a new pastor. It is better to read the whole of chapter 4 first. The verse is strongest when it keeps its question mark and its warning.
Ask the questions Esther faced
What position do I hold, even a small one, that someone else does not? Who might I be able to speak for? What would it cost me? What am I avoiding because I am comfortable where I am?
Pray before you act
Esther did not act on impulse. She asked her community to fast and pray with her for three days. Big decisions are rarely made well alone.
Trust God with the outcome
Mordecai believed deliverance would come, one way or another. Esther went in without knowing whether she would live. Faithfulness is doing your part without controlling the ending.
How to read Esther with a group or your family
- Read Esther 4 aloud. What exactly is Esther afraid of? Is her fear reasonable?
- Mordecai says “who knows.” Why do you think he does not speak with more certainty?
- Esther hid her identity for years, then revealed it at the most dangerous moment. When is silence wise, and when does it become hiding?
- Find three “coincidences” in chapters 2–6. How do they change the story?
- Where has God placed you right now, and who might need you to speak up?
For children, the story fits in a few sentences: Esther was an orphan girl who became queen. When a wicked man named Haman wanted to hurt her people, Esther was scared, but she prayed, bravely went to the king, and God used her to save them.
Watch the story: Queen Esther video series
Esther’s story has been told in films such as One Night with the King (2006) and in many animated versions for children. Our own series, Esther: For Such a Time as This, is being made now: short cinematic episodes that follow the Book of Esther and quote Scripture word for word, like our series on Daniel that you can already watch. (Bible Saga is our app, so we are recommending our own work.)
Frequently asked questions
What does “for such a time as this” mean?
It means that Esther’s position as queen may have been given to her for this exact moment, to save her people. Mordecai frames it as a question (“who knows?”) rather than a promise, and he says it right after warning her that silence will not save her. The verse joins calling and responsibility: a place of influence is an opportunity to serve others, and it comes with a cost.
Who said “for such a time as this” in the Bible?
Mordecai, Esther’s older cousin, who had raised her after her parents died. He sent the message to her through a palace servant named Hathach, because he could not enter the palace himself (Esther 4:5-14).
What chapter and verse is “for such a time as this”?
Esther 4:14. In the King James Version it reads: “and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” The World English Bible has: “Who knows if you haven’t come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
What does “if I perish, I perish” mean?
It is Esther’s answer to Mordecai in Esther 4:16. Going to the king uninvited was punishable by death, so she accepts that she may die and decides to go anyway, after three days of fasting with her people. It is not fatalism but a considered choice to act whatever it costs her.
Why was Esther afraid to go to the king?
Persian law said that anyone who entered the king’s inner court without being summoned would be put to death, unless the king held out his golden scepter. Esther had not been called for thirty days (Esther 4:11), so she had no reason to be sure of his favor.
Why isn’t God mentioned in the Book of Esther?
The Hebrew text of Esther never names God, and scholars have offered many explanations. Many readers see this as the book’s point: God is at work through timing, courage and ordinary events even when he is unseen. The Greek version adds prayers by Mordecai and Esther that do name God; these are found in Catholic and Orthodox Bibles.
Who was Haman in the Bible?
Haman, “the son of Hammedatha the Agagite,” was the chief official of King Ahasuerus. When Mordecai refused to bow to him, he plotted to kill every Jew in the empire and built a gallows for Mordecai, on which he was himself hanged (Esther 3; 7:10). His name is drowned out with noisemakers when the book is read at Purim.
Is the story of Esther true?
The book is set in Susa during the reign of a Persian king most historians identify as Xerxes I (486–465 BC), and its picture of the Persian court fits what is known from other sources. Jews and Christians have received it as Scripture for well over two thousand years, and it is the origin of the feast of Purim. Scholars debate how some of its details relate to Persian records.
Sources
- The Bible: Esther 1–10, Genesis 50, Romans 8 and 1 Samuel 15, quoted from the World English Bible (public domain); Esther 4:14 also from the King James Version (public domain); the additions to Esther quoted from the Douay-Rheims (public domain).
- “Xerxes I”, Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com
- Todd Bolen, “Why No Esther in the Dead Sea Scrolls?”, BiblePlaces Blog. bibleplaces.com
- “The Four Mitzvot of Purim”, My Jewish Learning. myjewishlearning.com
