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Esther 10 · a question people ask

Can I read "the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia"?

In the text

Not in the Bible. No book of the Bible carries that name, and Esther doesn't quote from it; it only says the acts of the king and "the full account of the greatness of Mordecai" are written there (10:2). Inside the book, a record of the same kind has already mattered: Mordecai's report of the plot "was written in the book of the chronicles in the king’s presence" (Esther 2:23), and on the night "the king couldn’t sleep" the king had "the book of records of the chronicles" read to him (Esther 6:1). These notes don't try to identify the Persian record the verse names.

The verses

“Aren’t all the acts of his power and of his might, and the full account of the greatness of Mordecai, to which the king advanced him, written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia?”
Esther 10:2 · World English Bible
“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 2:23 · World English Bible
“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.”
Esther 6:1 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Esther 10

Esther 10: Next to the king

Esther ends the way Kings closes a king's story, asking if it isn't "written in the book of the chronicles of the kings" (10:2). But beside the king's acts, that record holds "the full account of the greatness of Mordecai" (10:2): the man from the king's gate, now "next to King Ahasuerus", "seeking the good of his people and speaking peace to all his descendants" (10:3).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions