Esther’s Counterplot: Chapter 8 begins with the king’s personal fury abating, but Esther and her people still have a problem. The architect of the edict against them is dead but the edict itself—the unalterable edict—is still alive.

This chapter continues the reversals begun with the parade in chapter 6. Many elements from chapters 2–3 are now taken up in the movement toward resolution. Haman’s edict from 3:12–15 will be reversed by the edict that allows the Jews to protect themselves in 8:9–16. Mordecai is honored in the capital in 8:15 as Haman had been in 3:1. Gentiles will “become Jews” in 8:17, signaling new safety and value in that identity, in contrast to the choice to keep it secret in 2:10, 20.

8:1–2 The reversals under way are both symbolic and substantial. Haman’s execution is the…