The Secret of "127" in Esther 1:1

In this essay we’re looking at the first verse in the book of Esther: the reason King Ahasuerus reigns over 127 provinces. We’re looking at that 127 number.

This is the first verse in the book of Esther:

Now in the days of Ahasuerus, the Ahasuerus who reigned from India to Ethiopia over 127 provinces…

Obviously the narrator is using this information to characterize King Ahasuerus: he’s got a big kingdom. But there’s reason to believe he’s doing more, and what tips us off is the 127.

A Suspicious Number

127 is suspicious, and it’s suspicious for two reasons: first, its particularity; and second, its uncommonness.

Biblical narrators often round or gloss numbers. In the first chapter of the book of Numbers, where Moses has taken a census of the people, he rounds to the closest fifty, probably. Or in Exodus 2, the narrator will say, “During those many days the king of Egypt died”—that is, many, not 100 or 538, but many.

Not only is it neither rounded nor glossed, this number occurs in only one other time in the whole Bible, and that’s Genesis. The author of Esther is alluding to Genesis 23.

Genesis 23 is the end of the Abraham story and describes the death of Sarah, Abraham’s wife. Here is where 127 is:

Sarah lived 127 years; these were the years of the life of Sarah. And Sarah died.

You might be thinking, that doesn’t seem to have anything to do with King Ahasuerus or his large kingdom. Well, let’s look a bit deeper and I’ll show you a few things.

The Genesis of Mourning

First, as Waltke notes, Sarah is the only woman in the Bible whose lifespan is given. So there’s some importance going on here.

Second, Abraham mourning for Sarah is the first time that anyone has mourned in the Bible. It’s the genesis of mourning, you could say. And this mourning is about the loss of a wife. Interestingly, Esther chapter 1 is also about the loss of a wife: Queen Vashti, when the king puts her out. Furthermore, the main problem in the book of Esther is the decree of the death of the Jews. That is a mournful thing.

You see, what the narrator of Esther is doing is subtle and sophisticated. Throughout the whole book of Esther, he will characterize King Ahasuerus’s kingdom in large and positive terms, but these will be alluding to other places in Scripture that indicate that it’s actually a criticism.

And this is all bound up with the theme of God’s hiddenness in Esther, or the difference between what appears to be on the surface and what actually is in the depth. King Ahasuerus may appear to be powerful, but by alluding to the first occurrence of mourning, the author is saying that this appearance is not the reality. This power will be used for a mournful purpose, namely death.

Appearances and Beginnings

But wait, there’s more. While the 127 is a negative allusion, it is also a positive allusion. Because while we might assume that the death of Sarah is the actual end of the story or scene in Genesis 23, it’s actually the beginning.

Let me tell you about the rest of the scene in Genesis 23. The rest of the scene is about Abraham buying a burial plot for Sarah. That is, this chapter will be the first time Abraham will possess the land God promised him.

Not only that, but the way that Abraham gets the land is by outsmarting the Gentiles. And this is also what happens in Esther. While you have something that appears to be the worst thing—death, the decree of the death—it will be the occasion for a good thing. The Jews, Esther and Mordecai, will be elevated to high political office.

Mordecai takes the office of Haman. In Esther 3:1 the narrator tells us that King Ahasuerus promoted Haman the Agagite, the son of Hammedatha, and advanced him and set his throne above all the officials who were with him. And then after Haman is killed, the narrator tells us that King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew:

Behold, I have given Esther the house of Haman…

This same structure occurs in miniature in the first chapter of Esther: the bad thing, the putting away of Queen Vashti, brings about the exaltation of Esther to high office.

Outsmarting the Gentile Rulers

So in Genesis 23 and Esther, both stories appear to be the end—the death of Sarah and the death of the Jews—but they are actually beginnings.

Also, both stories have to do with relations with the Gentile rulers and negotiation with them. Most of Genesis 23 is about Abraham’s crafty, wise negotiation with the Gentiles for Sarah’s burial plot. So also Esther is about her negotiations with a Gentile king. And in both stories, the Jew outsmarts the Gentile.

So the use of 127 provides the reader the key to understand what is going on. King Ahasuerus is not the powerful one; there’s a more powerful one beneath the surface.

And that, my friends, is why the Bible is art.

Watch the original episode.