Discovery BoxEsther 1:5 
Context1:5 When those days 1 were completed, the king then provided a seven-day 2 banquet for all the people who were present 3 in Susa the citadel, for those of highest standing to the most lowly. 4 It was held in the court located in the garden of the royal palace.
Esther 4:16
Context4:16 “Go, assemble all the Jews who are found in Susa and fast in my behalf. Don’t eat and don’t drink for three days, night or day. My female attendants and I 5 will also fast in the same way. Afterward I will go to the king, even though it violates the law. 6 If I perish, I perish!”
Esther 9:22
Context9:22 as the time when the Jews gave themselves rest from their enemies – the month when their trouble was turned to happiness and their mourning to a holiday. These were to be days of banqueting, happiness, sending gifts to one another, and providing for the poor.
Esther 9:27
Context9:27 Therefore, because of the account found in this letter and what they had faced in this regard and what had happened to them, the Jews established as binding on themselves, their descendants, and all who joined their company that they should observe these two days without fail, just as written and at the appropriate time on an annual basis.
1 tc The Hebrew text of Esther does not indicate why this elaborate show of wealth and power was undertaken. According to the LXX these were “the days of the wedding” (αἱ ἡμέραι τοῦ γάμου, Jai Jhmerai tou gamou), presumably the king’s wedding. However, a number of scholars have called attention to the fact that this celebration takes place just shortly before Xerxes’ invasion of Greece. It is possible that the banquet was a rallying for the up-coming military effort. See Herodotus, Histories 7.8. There is no reason to adopt the longer reading of the LXX here.
2 tc The LXX has ἕξ ({ex, “six”) instead of “seven.” Virtually all English versions follow the reading of the MT here, “seven.”
3 tn Heb “were found.”
4 tn Heb “from the great and unto the small.”
5 tn Heb “I and my female attendants.” The translation reverses the order for stylistic reasons.
6 tn Heb “which is not according to the law” (so KJV, NASB); NAB “contrary to the law.”
