THREE YEARS OF LIFE have happened while writing this book. I have had major surgery, finished my doctorate degree, watched my father die of cancer, published my dissertation, moved from coast to coast, and assumed my first full-time faculty position. Many other joys and sorrows too personal or too trivial to mention have attended these life-changing events. Often during the three years of writing this book I have wondered at God’s sense of timing (and sense of humor!) in giving me the opportunity to reflect on how his providence fulfills his promise just when I felt my life was in such turmoil. I am most grateful to him both for the opportunity to write and for the completion of this work. There have been moments when I doubted it would ever happen. My prayer is that this commentary will, in his providence, reach the hands of those who might find encouragement in it for their own lives and relationship to Jesus Christ.
I am also grateful to the people at Zondervan, especially Stan Gundry and Jack Kuhatschek, for allowing me to become one of the authors in the NIV Application Commentary series. I consider it a great privilege.
My editors, Jack Kuhatschek, Terry Muck, and Tremper Longman III, have read the manuscript at various stages and have provided generous encouragement and constructive criticism along the way. Andy Dearman and John Walton read early drafts of certain chapters and offered helpful comments. I have learned much from them, and this book is certainly better than it would have been without their insightful critique. My grateful appreciation goes to each of them. Many thanks are also due to Verlyn Verbrugge at Zondervan, whose skillful editing of the manuscript has made me sound in many places a better writer than I am. His thoughtful critique has provided me the opportunity to sharpen and clarify various points throughout the book.
No book is written without the reading of many others, and this one is no exception. I gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Grace Mullen, librarian at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, and the library staff at Westmont College. This book could not have happened without their help.
As the years pass, I continue to remember gratefully the faculty of Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia (1987–1995), who trained me in biblical scholarship. My appreciation for what they taught me and the spirit in which they taught has deepened as I myself now teach students and engage contemporary issues of biblical scholarship. I am especially grateful to the late Raymond Dillard, who first aroused my interest in the book of Esther; to Tremper Longman III, who taught me the literary approach to biblical interpretation reflected in this commentary; and to Moisés Silva (now at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary), who supervised my doctoral dissertation on the Greek alpha-text of Esther and whose friendship and advice have been a continual source of encouragement.
Needless to say, much appreciation and love go to my husband, Forrest (Buzz), who has spent too many evenings and Saturdays alone in these last three years, always without complaint. He has taught me the true meaning of Ephesians 5:25, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church.” I am grateful also for his assistance preparing the indices for this commentary. To him and to my family, this book is lovingly dedicated.
Karen H. Jobes
Santa Barbara, California
February 14, 1998