The seventeeth book of the Old Testament.

Chapters: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

Previous book: Nehemiah | Next book: Job
Everything King James Bible

A song by the music group Phish. track number three on their album Junta. A very cool song, but kind of disturbing. About a girl named Esther who is given a satanic doll at an Amusement Park. She doesn't know it's a satanic doll so brings it to her church. Everybody freaks. They chase her out, she gets cought up in a wind storm and lands in the next town. More people see her carrying the doll and give chase. She jumps into a lake to try to swim away, then the doll pulls her down and she drowns. All this to very pleasant and happy sounding music.

And, for those who are curious, the creepiest lyrics ever set to a waltz lie below. The tune goes through several different "moods", as many songs this long do (Stairway to Heaven, Bohemian Rhapsody, etc.), so I've noted the tune changes in the music. Because of this mood change, the meter of the rhymes changes several times throughout, for anyone who's reading it aloud.


It was late one fall night, at a fairground near town,
When Esther first saw the Armenian man
who grovelled toward her and stood by her side,
with a bucket that swung in his hand.

His grin stretched the folds of his pasty white cheeks
as his lips hurled a dollop of murk on the curb,
and the lights from the rides showed a mischievous sparkle
that flashed in his hollow-eyed stare.

He said, "Little girl, you can chop off my legs
and then peel off my socks, if you want to
.
But I'd rather you take this old poppet from me
that I hold in my pail as we speak."

And he stood looking down at the innocent girl,
and she stared at the bucket bewildered--
'Til he lifted the doll for the young girl to see,
and a giant smile grew on his face.

She saw the doll's eyes, and she couldn't resist!
And she thanked the man quickly, and ran to the church,
And she burst through the doorway with poppet held high
And a hush filled the chapel, and the people looked mean.

.--==^==--.
here the song goes into 4/4 time, and the tone changes from a carousel waltz to a warm melodic ballad.
'--++_++--'

Esther tried in vain to pacify the mob
Quibble grew to spat, to wrangle, then to brawl.
The frenzied congregation struggled desperately to fetch
the pretty poppet snugly nestled deep in Esther's leather sack.

Through the window of the church a storm began to rage
and Esther knew the time had come to flee.
She scurried down the aisle toward the doorway in the distance
and out into the rainstorm, where she felt she would be free...

But the wind was blowing harder,
and her skirt began to billow
and suddenly her feet began to lift!

And she rose above the people,
and the houses, and the chimneys,
and Esther and her doll were set adrift!

Floating higher over the hills,
and the valleys, and treetops, they'd flutter and glide.
Soaring, turning, suspended on air,
with the earth far below them, they'd timble and dive

through the clouds....

.--==^==--.
after a long piano solo to establish their "flight", the key changes to a dark, minor stalking rhythm
'--++_++--'

And she began to tumble earthward
till she landed in the nasty part of town.


She glanced about the village
sure to find the evil men who rob and pillage
in the darkest hour of night;
Nervously she fumbled
for the pouch that held
the poppet on her rump.

Feeling quite outnumbered, Esther hid
behind a nearby pile of lumber, where she waited
for the dawn, 'cause it would have been a blunder
to succumb to a hoodlum on the prowl.

.--==^==--.
back to the soft ballad tune for a "sunrise"
'--++_++--'

When the morning came, she wandered through the streets
along the chilly lake that lay beside the town.
"At last, a peaceful moment!" But she thought she heard a sound:
it was an angry mob of joggers coming up to knock her down.

As Esther stood and shook her head,
the joggers were approaching
and she knew she had no choice left but to swim.

As the frosty water sank its bitter teeth
into her hide, she tried to slide
the heavy clothing from her skin.

Naked now, she made her way toward the shore
When suddenly she felt a tiny tugging at her toe:
the poppet she'd forgotten wrapped its tiny little
arms around her ankle--and it wouldn't let her go.

The waves seemed to open, and swallow her whole,
as the doll pulled her down through the eerie green deep.
Then the sound of the laughing old man filled her ears,
as she drifted away to a tranquil and motionless sleep.


Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
Book: Esther
Chapters: 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 · 9 · 10 ·

We find in this Book, that even those Jews who were scattered
in the province of the Heathen, were taken care of, and were
wonderfully preserved, when threatened with Destruction. Though
the name of God be not in this Book, the finger of God is shown
By minute events for the bringing about his people's
deliverance. This history comes in between Ezr 6; 7.
Queen to Artaxerxes.

Born of the nation of Israel, Esther (whose real name was Hadassah) became one of the Artaxerxes' many wives, due to her great beauty. When her people were threatened by the schemes of one of the king's advisors, Naman, Esther was called upon by her uncle Mordecai to take her people's case before the king.

Esther, endangering her life by going into the king's presence uninvited, asks him and Naman to dinner. Meanwhile, Naman plots the death of Mordecai, Esther's uncle, but is thwarted when Mordecai is honored by the king for warning him of an assassination attempt. Naman returns to have dinner with the king and his queen only to be accused of plotting the death of all of Esther's people. The king has Naman hung and Esther convices the king to allow her people to defend themselves when attacked.

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.