The Exile of Kish: Syntax and History in Esther 2.5–6

Abstract

Recent studies have relied on Esther 2.5–6 to establish the story as fiction or as farce, a way of reading the text that was also the case in ancient and medieval interpretations. This article proposes that that reading strategy ignores the syntactic ambiguity in these verses, an ambiguity that allows for an alternate reading in line with both Hebrew grammar and historical plausibility. As a result, it is argued that a reading which was acceptable to the pre-modern interpreters, without access to historical data regarding the Persian Empire, ought to be rejected today in light of current knowledge.