He also visited the king’s harem daily to see how Esther was doing (verse 11). When Esther was chosen as a candidate for queen, Mordecai instructed her not to reveal her Jewish background (verse 10). Mordecai held some type of official position within the Persian government (Esther 2:19). She was the cousin of a Benjamite named Mordecai, who was also her guardian, having adopted her as his own daughter when her parents died. Until the time that the virgins were brought to the king, they were kept in the harem under the care of Hegai (Esther 2:8) after their meeting, because they were no longer virgins, they were moved to the area set aside to house the concubines-or mistresses-where they were put under the watchful eye of another eunuch, named Shaashgaz (verse 14).Įsther had been living in the citadel of Susa, where the king also lived. Esther, a Jewess whose Hebrew name was Hadassah, was chosen as one of the virgins (verse 8). The women were to undergo a year’s worth of beauty treatments before meeting the king (verse 12). Josephus, the Jewish historian, records that King Ahasuerus chose a total of 400 women to fill the harem and act as candidates for the new queen (Esther 2:1–4). Xerxes’ attendants suggested he make a search for beautiful virgins throughout the land to find a new queen. With Vashti vanquished, the king was without a queen. The king did so, proclaiming the edict in all the provincial languages. They suggested the king issue a decree throughout the land that Vashti could never again enter his presence. They feared that the women of Persia would hear of Vashti’s refusal to obey her husband and begin to despise their own husbands. King Xerxes consulted his advisers in the law who declared that Vashti had wronged all the people of the land. Queen Vashti refused the king’s request, and he became enraged. The speculation is that King Xerxes wanted Vashti to appear wearing only the crown. Evidently, during the feast that is mentioned in Esther 1:10–11, the king requested that his wife, Queen Vashti, come before the entire gathering of officials to show them her great beauty wearing her crown. Persia covered the area now known as Turkey, as well as Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Jordan, Lebanon, and Israel it also encompassed sections of modern-day Egypt, Sudan, Libya, and Saudi Arabia.Īs with most of the pagan Gentile kings of that day, King Xerxes enjoyed putting on public displays of his wealth and power, which included feasts that sometimes lasted for as long as 180 days. The empire of King Ahasuerus was enormous in fact, it was the largest the world had ever seen. The year of the incident between Esther and King Xerxes was about 483 BC. King Ahasuerus (also called Xerxes) was the son of the famed Persian king Darius I, who is mentioned in Ezra 4:24 5:5–7 6:1–15 Daniel 6:1, 25 Haggai 1:15 and 2:10. The story of Esther begins with a king’s banquet. The Jewish Feast of Purim celebrates this particular deliverance of the Jews. Her story is recorded in the Old Testament book bearing her name. Esther is the Jewish maiden who became queen of Persia and rescued her people from a murderous plot to annihilate them.
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