A word-search puzzle from the bible pages. theme: the book of esther.

A word-search puzzle from the Bible Pages. Theme: The book of Esther.
For a version for larger letters on A4-printers, see 63 words are hidden in this puzzle. They are printed across, or up or down, or diagonally, backwards or forwards, but always in a straight line, with no letters skipped. Each letter may form a part of more than one word. All letters do not belong to words, and there is no “hidden message”.
M I Z I D E K C I W G C H A D A S S A H S W E J N C H A I T H S A V C S Q C H O R S E B A C K G C G B Y Z T Y O R T S E D G U G Z S A M L C G P L E A S E D A N A O N H U G N I N R U O M I C M N K A H C S A E P Q W R G E B A P P A R E L G N I L I A W T E W U R U D T O W R D D J D H V I U P F N V K V R N D V T E B E Q E R E U R L E T T E R S S O I M E D E S D I B L C I V R C E O A W G L S A D A R A S F D E V R F M I R W D T E W P V G I Z G A B P H F E E S T R I U E S E N E M Y S R I A B M O R D E C A I A P R E E L M H E Z N A F E H I N F G A L L O W S N S P U H T N E E T R I H T M U U T G F N O A P E T I T I O N R Q R D N P A L A C E A S T G I S I R F I F T Y M N A T E U Q N A B H E H T R E G N A N E E U Q W U H Q S B L H O N O U R A N D C D V G N G Z S G Z N N L A Y O R Y G V V F F C N K S List of words (regarding why these words were selected, see pages 2 and 3): ADAR, AHASUERUS, ANGER, APPAREL, BANQUET, BEAUTIFUL, BIGTHAN, CHRONICLES, COMMANDMENT, CROWN, CUBITS, DECREE, DELIVERANCE, DESTROY, ENEMY, ESTHER, FASTING, FAVOUR, FEASTING, FIFTEENTH, FIFTY, FOURTEENTH, GALLOWS, GARDEN, GLADNESS, HADASSAH, HAMAN, HONOUR, HORSEBACK, JEWS, KING, LETTERS, MEDES, MORDECAI, MOURNING, NISAN, OBTAINED, PALACE, PEOPLE, PERSIANS, PETITION, PLEASED, PUBLISHED, PURIM, QUEEN, REFUSED, REMEMBERED, REVERSE, RING, ROYAL, SCEPTRE, SEALED, SHUSHAN, SILVER, TERESH, THIRTEENTH, TREASURIES, VASHTI, WAILING, WEEPING, WICKED, WRATH, WRITTEN Many more puzzles as biblical brain-teasers Some notes on the selection of words in this puzzle. (In the following, the first occurrence of the
words that appear in the maze on page 1, is highlighted in bold style.)
The words in the puzzle on page 1 are taken from the book of Esther in the Old Testament. There,
chapter 1 records that king Ahasuerus of Persia had a long feast, in his palace in the town Shushan.
During that feast, he sent for the queen, Vashti, to come to the feast. But, she refused, and so, the king
was “very wroth, and his anger burned in him”. His advisers told him, Esther 1:19, “If it please the
king, let there go a royal commandment from him, and let it be written among the laws of the
Persians and the Medes, that it be not altered, that Vashti come no more before king Ahasuerus; and
let the king give her royal estate unto another that is better than she.”
In the palace, there was a Jew by the name Mordecai. He brought forth his cousin (his uncle's
daughter) Hadassah (also called Esther), who was beautiful. Esther 2:17, “And the king loved Esther
above all the women, and she obtained grace and favour in his sight more than all the virgins; so that
he set the royal crown upon her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti.”
Mordecai warned the king trough queen Esther that two of the chamberlains, Bigthan and Teresh,
planned to kill the king. Those men were hanged, and the matter was recorded “in the book of the
chronicles before the king”.
Esther 3:1-2, “After these things did king Ahasuerus promote Haman the son of Hammedatha the
Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all the princes that were with him. And all the king’s
servants, that were in the king’s gate, bowed, and reverenced Haman: for the king had so commanded
concerning him. But Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence.”
Esther 3:5, “And when Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence, then was Haman
full of wrath.” He schemed to have all of Mordecai's people (the Jews) in Ahasuerus' kingdom to be
killed. The king (who apparently did not know that queen Esther was a Jewess), gave Haman a
permission to go ahead with his murderous plans. (Esther 3:9 records that Haman said to the king, “If it
please the king, let it be written that they may be destroyed: and I will pay ten thousand talents of
silver to the hands of those that have the charge of the business, to bring it into the king’s treasuries.”)
Esther 3:7, as VW-2006 has it: “In the first month, which is the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of
King Ahasuerus, they cast Pur (that is, the lot), before Haman from day to day and month to month,
until it fell on the twelfth month, the month of Adar.” (Thence, the word purim, “lots”.)
And so, as Esther 3:12-12 records, the order of destruction which Haman had devised, was sent in
letters which were sealed with the king’s ring, to his lieutenants, governors, rulers and all people, in
the name of king Ahasuerus. It was ordered that on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month (Adar),
they were to destroy, kill and cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old.
When that coming slaughter came to be known among the Jews, “there was great mourning among the
Jews, and fasting and weeping and wailing, and many lay in sackcloth and ashes” (Esther 4:3).
Mordecai sent a message to Esther, requesting that she would plead for her people, before the king.
But, it was forbidden, at the threat of death, for people to approach the king, without having been
called. It was only if the king held out his sceptre, that the intruder could be saved alive. This applied
even to the queen. Esther took the risk, and so, she put on her royal apparel and went to the inner court
of the king's house. When the king saw her, “she obtained favour in his sight, and the king held out to
Esther the golden sceptre that was in his hand, so Esther drew near, and touched the top of the sceptre”.
Esther did not directly request the king to save her people. She had devised a plan. When the king
asked what her request was, she said to him, “If it seem good to the king, let the king and Haman come
this day to the banquet that I have prepared for him.” (Esther 5:4).
Esther 5:5-8, “So the king and Haman came to the banquet that Esther had prepared. And the king said
to Esther at the banquet of wine, What is your petition? and it shall be granted you: and what is your
request? even to the half of the kingdom it shall be performed. Then answered Esther, and said, My
petition and my request is; If I have found favour in the sight of the king, and if it please the king to
grant my petition, and to perform my request, let the king and Haman come to the banquet that I shall
prepare for them, and I will do to morrow as the king has said.”
Haman left that first banquet with a glad heart, but when he went out through the gate, Mordecai who
was sitting there, did not stand up and bow to him. Haman was enraged. He told about those things to
his wife and his friends. One of them, by the name Zeresh, told Haman to let a gallows be made, fifty
cubits high, and the next day ask the king to have Mordecai hanged on it. “And the thing pleased
Haman; and he caused the gallows to be made”, Esther 5:14.
As it happened, that night the king could not sleep, “and he commanded to bring the book of records of
the chronicles; and they were read before the king. And it was found written, that Mordecai had told of
Bigthan and Teresh, two of the king’s chamberlains, the keepers of the door, who sought to lay hand on
the king Ahasuerus. And the king said, What honour and dignity has been done to Mordecai for this?
Then said the king’s servants that ministered to him, There is nothing done for him.” (Esther 6:1-3).
Right at that time, Haman came to see the king, in order to request that Mordecai should be hanged on
the gallows. But, before Haman could do that, the king asked how he could honour a man. Haman,
thinking that he was the one to be honoured, said, “Let the royal apparel be brought which the king
uses to wear, and the horse that the king rides on, and the royal crown which is set on his head, and let
this apparel and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king’s most noble princes, that they may
array the man with whom the king delights to honour, and bring him on horseback through the street
of the city” (Esther 6:7-9). So, the king ordered Haman to do this to Mordecai.
Then came the second banquet which Esther had prepared for the king and Haman. There, the king
again asked Esther what her petition was. She said to him, “Let my life be given me at my petition, and my
people at my request, for we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had
been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my tongue, although the enemy could not countervail the
king’s damage.” The king asked her who had planned to do so. Esther said, ”The adversary and enemy is this
wicked Haman.” The king was enraged and went into the palace garden. One of the chamberlains told him
about the gallows which Haman had built for Mordecai. The king told him to hang Haman on it.
The king had taken his ring (seal) from Haman and gave it to Mordecai. However, the laws of that country
could not be reversed, and so, the earlier decree regarding the destruction of the Jews, which had been sealed
with the king's ring and then sent out, was still valid. But, the king told Mordecai to write a new decree, in the
king's name. In it, it was stated that the king granted the Jews in every town to protect themselves and to
destroy and cause to perish all those who would assault them. That order was immediately dispatched to the
different parts of the kingdom and published there. Thus, there was deliverance for the Jews, see Esther 9.
Esther 9:17-18 records that on the thirteenth day of the month Adar, and on the fourteenth, the Jews assembled
together. On the fifteenth day of that month, they rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness.
The Jews decided that the 14th and 15th days of the month Adar the should be remembered (kept) annually.
Those days were called purim, apparently in reference to the event recorded in Esther 3:7 which was quoted
earlier.
Many more puzzles as biblical brain-teasers

Source: http://www.biblepages.net/bp12.pdf