The Rest of Esther 11

How to read these pages: the text itself comes first, verse by verse, in the volume's own translation. Beneath each verse stands its Meaning — a rendering of what the passage's terms name in the inner life, drawn from the correspondences the text itself uses. The text is never altered; the meaning is offered, not imposed.

King James Version

1In the fourth year of the reign of Ptolemeus and Cleopatra, Dositheus, who said he was a priest and Levite, and Ptolemeus his son, brought this epistle of Phurim, which they said was the same, and that Lysimachus the son of Ptolemeus, that was in Jerusalem, had interpreted it.

In the fourth year of the reign of Ptolemeus and Cleopatra, Dositheus, who said he was a priest — a mediating faculty — and Levite — of the serving order that attends the inner sanctuary — and Ptolemeus his son, brought this epistle of Phurim, which they said was the same, and that Lysimachus the son of Ptolemeus, that was in Jerusalem — the established center of spiritual consciousness — had interpreted it.

2In the second year of the reign of Artexerxes the great, in the first day of the month Nisan, Mardocheus the son of Jairus, the son of Semei, the son of Cisai, of the tribe of Benjamin, had a dream;

In the second year of the reign of Artexerxes the great, on the first day of the month Nisan, Mardocheus the son of Jairus, the son of Semei, the son of Cisai, of the tribe of Benjamin — the youngest faculty, faith active at the point of power — had a dream, a message of the deeper mind;

3Who was a Jew, and dwelt in the city of Susa, a great man, being a servitor in the king’s court.

who was a Jew, and dwelt in the city of Susa, a great man, being a servitor in the king's court — a serving faculty in the ruling state's own household.

4He was also one of the captives, which Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon carried from Jerusalem with Jechonias king of Judea; and this was his dream:

He was also one of the captives — of the consciousness carried away from its own land into a foreign ruling state — which Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon — confusion enthroned as an empire — carried from Jerusalem with Jechonias king of Judea; and this was his dream:

5Behold a noise of a tumult, with thunder, and earthquakes, and uproar in the land:

Behold, a noise of a tumult, with thunder, and earthquakes, and uproar in the land: the outer life shaken and in disorder on every side.

6And, behold, two great dragons came forth ready to fight, and their cry was great.

And, behold, two great dragons — the sense-mind's devouring states — came forth ready to fight, and their cry was great.

7And at their cry all nations were prepared to battle, that they might fight against the righteous people.

And at their cry all nations — all the gathered peoples of consciousness — were prepared to battle, that they might fight against the righteous people, the people in right relation to the divine order.

8And lo a day of darkness and obscurity, tribulation and anguish, affliction and great uproar, upon earth.

And lo, a day of darkness and obscurity — a crisis-state of unilluminated consciousness — tribulation and anguish, affliction and great uproar, upon the earth, the outer life.

9And the whole righteous nation was troubled, fearing their own evils, and were ready to perish.

And the whole righteous nation was troubled, fearing their own evils, and were ready to perish.

10Then they cried unto God, and upon their cry, as it were from a little fountain, was made a great flood, even much water.

Then they cried unto the Source, and upon their cry, as it were from a little fountain, was made a great flood, even much water: a small source of truth swelling into an inundation of living thought.

11The light and the sun rose up, and the lowly were exalted, and devoured the glorious.

The light and the sun rose up — understanding dawned, and Divine Love-Wisdom itself rose — and the lowly were exalted, and devoured the glorious: the humbled states were lifted, and the states glorious to sense were consumed.

12Now when Mardocheus, who had seen this dream, and what God had determined to do, was awake, he bare this dream in mind, and until night by all means was desirous to know it.

Now when Mardocheus, who had seen this dream and what the Source had determined to do, was awake, he bore the dream in mind, and until night — the hidden state — by all means was desirous to know it.

Companion volume to The Why Bible — the King James Apocrypha, rendered in its spiritual meanings. First final edition, October 2026.