Esther 2:1-18 English Standard Version Esther Chosen Queen 2 After these things, when the anger of King Ahasuerus had abated, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what had been decreed against her. 2 Then the king's young men who attended him said, “Let beautiful young virgins be sought out for the king. 3 And let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom to gather all the beautiful young virgins to the harem in Susa the citadel, under custody of Hegai, the king's eunuch, who is in charge of the women. Let their cosmetics be given them. 4 And let the young woman who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti.” This pleased the king, and he did so. 5 Now there was a Jew in Susa the citadel whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, son of Shimei, son of Kish, a Benjaminite, 6 who had been carried away from Jerusalem among the captives carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away. 7 He was bringing up Hadassah, that is Esther, the daughter of his uncle, for she had neither father nor mother. The young woman had a beautiful figure and was lovely to look at, and when her father and her mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter. 8 So when the king's order and his edict were proclaimed, and when many young women were gathered in Susa the citadel in custody of Hegai, Esther also was taken into the king's palace and put in custody of Hegai, who had charge of the women. 9 And the young woman pleased him and won his favor. And he quickly provided her with her cosmetics and her portion of food, and with seven chosen young women from the king's palace, and advanced her and her young women to the best place in the harem. 10 Esther had not made known her people or kindred, for Mordecai had commanded her not to make it known. 11 And every day Mordecai walked in front of the court of the harem to learn how Esther was and what was happening to her. 12 Now when the turn came for each young woman to go in to King Ahasuerus, after being twelve months under the regulations for the women, since this was the regular period of their beautifying, six months with oil of myrrh and six months with spices and ointments for women-- 13 when the young woman went in to the king in this way, she was given whatever she desired to take with her from the harem to the king's palace. 14 In the evening she would go in, and in the morning she would return to the second harem in custody of Shaashgaz, the king's eunuch, who was in charge of the concubines. She would not go in to the king again, unless the king delighted in her and she was summoned by name. 15 When the turn came for Esther the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her as his own daughter, to go in to the king, she asked for nothing except what Hegai the king's eunuch, who had charge of the women, advised. Now Esther was winning favor in the eyes of all who saw her. 16 And when Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus, into his royal palace, in the tenth month, which is the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign, 17 the king loved Esther more than all the women, and she won grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins, so that he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. 18 Then the king gave a great feast for all his officials and servants; it was Esther's feast. He also granted a remission of taxes to the provinces and gave gifts with royal generosity. After the king's anger abated, he remembered what had been done to him by Vashti and the edict he had given concerning her. While the text doesn't say so directly, it was obvious to his attendants that he was lonely and desired both marriage, companionship, and a partner in helping to bear the heavy burden of being king--he wanted someone to be queen, not just a concubine. His attendants suggested there be a royal beauty pageant of sorts, though participation doesn't really seem voluntary. All the young women (the Hebrew word assumes that young girl is a virgin, so this one word carries both the idea of being young and being pure) should be brought to the harem at Susa (the citadel) and have a royal makeover in preparation to be presented before the king. Whichever beautiful young lady pleased him the most, that one would become his wife and queen of the Persian Empire in place of Vashti. This advice pleased the king, and he ordered his made it happen.
We're now introduced to one of the main characters in the book--an older Jewish man named Mordecai. He was of the tribe of Benjamin, part of King Saul's family (Saul's father was Kish, and Mordecai is a direct descendant of Kish himself). He had been taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar and his men when they captured Jerusalem, and he now lived in Susa with his niece. Her Jewish name Hadassah, but like most Jews in Exile, she also had another name that she was known by that didn't sound so Jewish, and that name was Esther (the name of this book). Why have two names? There have been times and places in Jewish history where just having a name that sounded Jewish was enough to get you beaten, arrested, put in a concentration camp, and maybe even executed. You may think that I'm talking about the Holocaust, and I am, but you'll also see that things weren't that different in the time of Esther. Antisemitism was maybe even worse at that time than it was among the Nazis, but I don't want to give away too much of the story. Suffice to say that Mordecai had good reason to be concerned for his niece that was in his care (he was her guardian after her parents died, and he cared for her as if she was his own daugther) and giving her the name "Esther" was probably one of the ways that he kept her safe from some of the persecution. We get the idea that Mordecai probably looked and sounded Jewish and that's probably why he didn't bother trying to hide his identity. However, Esther was raised in Persia and all indications are that no one knew she was Jewish. Before she was taken with the other young women to be evaluated by the king's eunuch and presented to the king, Mordecai told her not to reveal that she was Jewish. He knew enough to know the climate of the culture and that the fact that she was one of the Jewish Exiles would possibly hurt her chances of being evaluated fairly. For now, she would have to keep her identity a secret (this is quite the opposite of Daniel and his three friends who were in a similar situation and immediately revealed that they were Jewish. The LORD is going to bless Esther's obedience to Mordecai, but we can see by comparing the two situations that the LORD would have been able to defend her and still put her into the position He desired for her even if she had made her ethnicity and religious beliefs known). Esther is immediately made the first cut and is given a makeover, a provision of food from the king's table, and seven women from the king's palace to help train her in how to act before king (the probably had been Vashti's attendants that knew all the ins and outs about exactly what to say and do to earn the king's favor). Esther quickly advanced through each round, and Mordecai waited outside the gate each day to hear news on how his niece was progressing (we'll practically see him living there outside the gates from this point forward so that he can stay as close as he can to Esther). A full year had passed before any of the candidates were brought before the king. Each one was brought to him one by one after they had had six months of beauty treatments. Apparently, this was standard practice. When the king called for one of the women, they would take whatever they wanted to from their possessions in the first harem they were in (the one where the virgins stayed under the care of Hegai), for they were not going to return there again after that night for they would no longer be virgins. That night, they would become one of the king's concubines. In the morning, they would go to a second harem for the concubines under the care of Shaashgaz. It would be up to the king if he ever called for her again. I'd imagine there were many women that lost their virginity with the king and remained as his concubines but were never called upon again. Esther took nothing with her other than what Hegai told her to take. It was the tenth month of the seventh year of the king's reign when Esther came before him. He loved Esther more than any of the other women, and she won his grace and favor. The king decided that she was the one who would be made queen in Vashti's place, and he put the crown on her head and threw a feast with all of his officials to celebrate (all I can say about that is "Here we go again"). The part about "remission of taxes" could also mean that he "declared a holiday" among all the provinces (basically he had the whole empire celebrate Esther with him). He also gave gifts to Esther that were paid for from the royal treasuries because she had his grace and favor. While the LORD is not directly mentioned anywhere in the book of Esther (that makes this book unique) we see the fingerprints of HIs sovereignty all over this story. Esther is advancing in the same king of way that Daniel and his three friends advanced in their tests. In those passages in Daniel, we are told directly that the LORD made Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah gain favor in the eyes of those evaluating them, and in the eyes of the king. The same is true here for Esther, even if the text doesn't directly say so--the readers are to infer God's sovereign hand at work. In fact, that is theme of this book--how God is at work "behind the scenes" to work out His good will and pleasure. I won't get more specific about what exactly that good will and pleasure is right now, but God is the one directing this "play" even if we don't see Him on stage. Comments are closed.
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Daniel WestfallI will mostly use this space for recording my "journal" from my daily devotions as I hope to encourage others to read the Bible along with me and to leave a legacy for others. Archives
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