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Mordecai, a Jew who belonged to the tribe of Benjamin, was taken into exile, along with King Jehoiachin of Judah, when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia captured Jerusalem. Mordecai was the son of Jair, a descendant of Kish and Shimei. He now lived in the Persian city of Susa, where he was an important official in the royal court of Xerxes the great king.
1 During the second year of Xerxes' reign, on the first day of the month of Nisan, Mordecai had a dream.
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He dreamed that there was great noise and confusion, loud thunder, and an earthquake, with terrible turmoil on the earth.
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Then two huge dragons appeared, ready to fight each other.
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They made a dreadful noise, and all the nations got ready to make war against God's nation of righteous people.
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For the world it was a day of darkness and gloom, trouble and distress, destruction and ruin.
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All of God's righteous people were troubled, in great fear of what was about to happen to them. They prepared for death,
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but they cried out to God for help. In the dream their prayer was answered by a great river which came flowing out of a small spring.
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The day dawned, the sun rose, and the humble people were made strong and destroyed their arrogant enemies.
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Mordecai woke up from this dream in which he saw what God planned to do. He thought about it all day and tried to understand what it meant.
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While Mordecai was resting in the courtyard of the palace, where two of the king's eunuchs, Gabatha and Tharra, were on guard,
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he overheard them plotting together. He listened carefully to what they were saying and learned that they were making plans to kill the king. So Mordecai went to King Xerxes and told him about the plot of the two eunuchs.
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The king had them questioned, and when they confessed, they were led away and executed.
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The king had an account of this written in the official records, and Mordecai also wrote an account of it.
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Then the king appointed Mordecai to a position at court and gave him many gifts as a reward for what he had done.
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But Haman son of Hammedatha, a Bougaean who was respected by the king, tried to cause trouble for Mordecai and his people the Jews, because Mordecai had been responsible for the death of the two eunuchs.
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These things happened in the time of King Xerxes, who ruled 127 provinces, all the way from India to Ethiopia, from his royal throne in Susa, Persia's capital city.
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In the third year of his reign, the king gave a banquet for all his advisers, the representatives of the other countries, the noblemen from Persia and Media, and the governors of the provinces.