Sivan

Sivan is the third month of the Hebrew calendar, falling in late spring. The name appears in scripture in connection with the dating of Mordecai's counter-decree under Ahasuerus.

The Third Month

The single dated occurrence of the month name fixes the issuing of the royal counter-edict on Esther's behalf: "Then the king's scribes were called at that time, in the third month Sivan, on the three and twentieth [day] of it; and it was written according to all that Mordecai commanded to the Jews, and to the satraps, and the governors and princes of the provinces which are from India to Ethiopia, a hundred twenty and seven provinces, to every province according to its writing, and to every people after their language, and to the Jews according to their writing, and according to their language" (Est 8:9). The precision of the dating — third month, twenty-third day — locates the edict roughly two months after Haman's first decree, with the empire-wide letters dispatched well in advance of the appointed thirteenth of Adar.