I read this book about a couple months ago, giv-r-take, and I can call this one of my favorite books of the Bible alongside Job.
In a nutshell, this book is about a Jew, Esther, that became Xerxes' queen that saved her people from a possible genocide. Yet, this is the only book throughout the entire Bible where God was not mentioned.
Let's start off to Esther's rise. Her predecessor, Vashti, was deposed for not following the king's request, more like command, to come see him. At the suggestion of Xerxes' advisers, he set out to find a replacement that would be better than her. Esther didn't even revealed her nationality to the king since her cousin Mordecai forbade her to. I'm not gonna make a long story about the rest but that Esther pleased Xerxes with her appearance and succeeded Vashti.
Now, about the genocide I'd brought up earlier, Xerxes' right hand man, Haman, in chapter 3, plotted to off every last Jew in the kingdom since their customs were different. So, lots were cast to set the date of said execution. Later on, in the second part of chap. 5, since his boasting gives him no satisfaction whenever Mordecai is seen outside the palace walls, his wife started her own husband's endgame by telling him to build a gallows and let Mordecai hang on it. To me, this was a highlight of the book, which is coming up.
I know I'm getting a bit ahead, but onto chapter 4. When Mordecai heard about this, he put on sackcloth and wailed loudly outside the gates. When Esther heard of this, she offered him clothes to put on instead but he refused to. So, she then found out what was eating him and told that he and the Jews would fast for three days as she and her maids. After that, yet another highlight, she would go see the king, though being illegal to come to him without being summoned. Basically, at the end, she was saying, "I'll step up, knowing it's illegal to see him like this. But if I get knocked down, I get knocked down."
Back to that highlight about the gallows. We all heard of using one's weapon against him, that's what happened. In chapter 7, Esther finally got the message through by requesting her people to be spared. As for Haman, he got owned by his own weapon at his own home.
Meanwhile, Xerxes called off the genocide, but instead allow any Jew to kill in self-defense when that day came. Earlier, before Haman was hanged, Xerxes heard about Mordecai speaking up about a prior conspired attempt on his life and wasn't rewarded for the hot tip. This is chapter 6.
In the end, Mordecai was given Haman's job and a genocide had its tables turned in favor of the Jews' self-defense.
