<P> Classical sources such as Josephus, the Jewish commentary Esther Rabbah and the Christian theologian Bar - Hebraeus, as well as the Greek Septuagint translation of Esther, instead identify Ahasuerus as either Artaxerxes I (reigned 465 to 424 BC) or Artaxerxes II (reigned 404 to 358 BC). </P> <P> On his accession however Artaxerxes II lost Egypt to pharaoh Amyrtaeus, after which it was no longer part of the Persian empire . In his Historia Scholastica Petrus Comestor identified Ahasuerus (Esther 1: 1) as Artaxerxes III (358--338 BC) who reconquered Egypt . </P> <P> The Book of Esther consists of an introduction (or exposition) in chapters 1 and 2; the main action (complication and resolution) in chapters 3 to 9: 19; and a conclusion in 9: 20--10: 3 . </P> <P> The plot is structured around banquets (mishteh), a word that occurs twenty times in Esther and only 24 times in the rest of the Hebrew bible . This is appropriate given that Esther describes the origin of a Jewish feast, the feast of Purim, but Purim itself is not the subject and no individual feast in the book is commemorated by Purim . The book's theme, rather, is the reversal of destiny through a sudden and unexpected turn of events: the Jews seem destined to be destroyed, but instead are saved . In literary criticism such a reversal is termed "peripety", and while on one level its use in Esther is simply a literary or aesthetic device, on another it is structural to the author's theme, suggesting that the power of God is at work behind human events . </P>

How many chapters are there in the book of esther