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 to determine the day and the month, and the lot falls on the twelfth month, which is the month Adar. The casting of lots demonstrates Haman's reliance on chance or fate to determine the timing of his genocidal plot, yet from a theological perspective, the lot falls into the hands of God, and the selection of a date eleven months in the future creates the temporal space within which God's providential purposes can unfold. The verse introduces the theme of Purim (derived from the word Pur), the Festival of Lots, which will commemorate how God overturned the lot cast against His people and turned threat into deliverance.

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