In | A Book of 10 Banquets

Esther is a book full of parties—ten banquets, to be exact. The chart above outlines all ten.  

The first banquet is mirrored by the last one. The second one is mirrored by the next to the last one.

Notice that banquet #5, the banquet of Haman and Ahasuerus, is similar to #8 where there’s a counter-decree. So, this is a bit more of a complicated outline—not a straightforward pattern like the chiasm of the book.

If you read Esther, you can’t help but notice there’s a lot of partying. Every time somebody’s going to do something important, they invite people over, have a drink and settle something. For example, when Haman decides what he’s going to do with the Jews, he sits down with the king to drink. The plot is literally proceeding in the context of successive banquets.