Esther 4 · a question people ask
"Relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another place" (4:14). Does Mordecai mean God?
Here is the verse as it stands: "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?" (4:14). Mordecai doesn't say what "another place" is, and the chapter doesn't either. The chapter never uses the words "God", "LORD" or "pray", and neither does the rest of the book (see the introduction). Christians read "another place" in two main ways, each resting on its verses, and these notes don't choose between them. Both agree on what the verses say: that Mordecai says relief and deliverance "will come", and puts Esther's own part as a question, "Who knows" (4:14); and that Esther decided to go in: "if I perish, I perish" (4:16). Christians who hold each view take Proverbs 16:33, Proverbs 21:1 and Genesis 50:20 as true words about God. They differ on whether Mordecai's "another place" points there.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
God, unnamed, behind the relief Mordecai expects
Those who read it this way hear in "another place" (4:14) a pointer to God, whom the book doesn't name. They note that Mordecai doesn't say relief might come; he says it "will come to the Jews from another place" (4:14), and he sets beside it the question of Esther's own place: "Who knows if you haven’t come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" (4:14). They read this with verses that say even what looks like chance, and even a king, is in the LORD's hand: "The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD" (Proverbs 16:33), and "The king’s heart is in the LORD’s hand like the watercourses. He turns it wherever he desires" (Proverbs 21:1). And they set it beside Joseph's words to his brothers: "you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good" (Genesis 50:20). On this reading, Mordecai's certainty rests on God's care for his people, though the book leaves him unnamed, and Esther's coming to the kingdom "for such a time as this" (4:14) is no accident.
Esther 4:14 · Proverbs 16:33 · Proverbs 21:1 · Genesis 50:20
Help from another quarter, its source left unsaid
Those who read it this way take "another place" (4:14) as help from somewhere other than Esther, and leave its source unnamed, as Mordecai does. They note that Mordecai puts his own question as a question, "Who knows" (4:14), and that Esther decides to go in with no promise of how it will end: "if I perish, I perish" (4:16). They note too that the verses set beside 4:14 name the LORD and God outright, "its every decision is from the LORD" (Proverbs 16:33), "The king’s heart is in the LORD’s hand" (Proverbs 21:1), "God meant it for good" (Genesis 50:20), while Mordecai names no one. On this reading, those verses are true of God, and 4:14 is read as saying only what Mordecai said, without supplying the source he leaves unnamed.
Esther 4:14 · Esther 4:16 · Proverbs 16:33 · Proverbs 21:1 · Genesis 50:20
The verses
“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?””
““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.””
“The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.”
“The king’s heart is in the LORD’s hand like the watercourses. He turns it wherever he desires.”