Name means: “Mighty Man.”
Also known as: Xerxes I (Greek).
Home: Lived at Shushan (Susa), site of his winter palace, and at Persepolis.
Family: Son of and successor to Darius Hystaspis; son of Atossa, daughter of Cyrus the Great; father of Artaxerxes I.
Occupation: King of Persia (486–465 B.C.), an empire that stretched “from India to Ethiopia” (Esth. 1:1; 8:9).
Best known as: The Persian monarch who chose Esther as his queen after deposing Queen Vashti for refusing to parade before his partying guests (1:11–22).
Go to the Person Profiles Index.
• Ancient capital and center of culture for Elam, about 150 miles north of the Persian Gulf in modern-day Iran.
• Possibly a religious center, with a ziggurat to one of the chief Elamite gods.
• Designated by Cyrus (559–530 B.C.) as one of three royal cities of the Persian empire.
• Mentioned in one of Daniel’s visions (Dan. 8:2).
• Home of Ahasuerus (Xerxes I, 485–464 B.C.), who made Esther his queen.
• One of the most prized cities captured by Alexander the Great and the site of a mass marriage ceremony between Greek officers and royal women of Persia.
• Traditional burial site of the prophet Daniel.
• Site where numerous Mesopotamian artifacts have been found, including the Code of Hammurabi.
Go to the Place Profiles Index.
Queen Vashti’s refusal to parade her beauty at her husband’s men-only, week-long drinking fest (Esth. 1:5–12) was officially interpreted as nothing less than an act of rebellion against male authority (1:16, 17). King Ahasuerus responded with a decree intended to reinforce the mastery of every male in the empire over the women in his household. Some of the men of Persia must have felt threatened by Vashti’s self-will, fearing that chaos would ensue if women refused to comply with their husbands’ every wish.
The Book of Esther celebrates the worth of strong women. Vashti’s successor Esther also displayed assertiveness by entering the king’s presence unbeckoned (4:11; 5:1–3), thus risking her life to save her people from genocide.
Esther is not the Bible’s only word on authority in male-female relationships (see “A New Perspective on Marriage” at Eph. 5:21–29 and “Submission” at James 4:1–7). But it does encourage women to assert their wills in order to fight evil.
More: History offers countless examples of strong Christian women who took a stand for their beliefs. To learn about ten of them, see articles on the lives of Harriet Tubman (here), Pandita Ramabai (here), Evangeline Booth (here), Jane Edna Hunter (here), Corrie ten Boom (here), Susanna Wesley (here), Esther John (here), Harriet Beecher Stowe (here), Sojourner Truth (here), and Amy Carmichael (here).
Go to the Focus Index.
Name means: “Star.”
Also known as: Hadassah (“Myrtle”), her Jewish name.
Home: Shushan (Susa), capital of Persia.
Family: Orphan daughter of Abihail and an unnamed mother; adopted by her cousin Mordecai of the tribe of Benjamin; became part of the royal harem and eventually married Ahasuerus (Xerxes I), king of Persia (486–465 B.C.).
Occupation: Queen of Persia.
Best known for: Saving her people, the Jews, from genocide by boldly speaking up to the king and exposing a plot to massacre them.
Go to the Person Profiles Index.
Powerful rulers often had sizeable harems of concubines (1 Kin. 11:3), women who were often the captured wives of conquered rulers and their nobles. Kept as virtual slaves, they were used to bear children, especially sons. Learn more in “Concubines” at Genesis 30:3–13.
Go to the Insight Index.
Name: Probably a Hebrew form of Mardukaya, a common Babylonian name derived from Marduk, the name of a Babylonian god.
Not to be confused with: One of the leaders of the Jews who returned to Jerusalem under Zerubbabel (Ezra 2:2).
Home: Shushan (Susa), a royal city of the Persians.
Family: Probably born during the captivity; son of Jair, a Benjamite descended from Kish, the family of Saul; cousin and adoptive father of Esther.
Occupation: A position “within the king’s gate” (Esth. 6:10) that allowed him to expose a conspiracy against the king; later succeeded his enemy Haman as second-in-command to King Ahasuerus (8:2; 10:3).
Best known for: Offering counsel to his cousin Esther, which saved their people from genocide; he used his position to allow the Jews to strike back at their enemies who “would assault them” (8:3—9:17; quotation is from Esth. 8:11).
Go to the Person Profiles Index.
Would-be assassins Bigthan and Teresh were “hanged on a gallows.” The punishment was likely death by impalement rather than asphyxiation. Rope hangings were not practiced in Persia during the biblical period, and the word translated “gallows” refers not to a scaffold but to a pole or stake. Execution by impalement was common among the Assyrians, who killed war captives by forcing their living bodies down onto pointed stakes. The Persians continued this means of execution. References to “hanging” elsewhere in Esther (5:14; 6:4; 9:14) also probably refer to impalement or possibly crucifixion.
More: Execution by impalement was an early form of crucifixion, a punishment widely used by the Romans. Find out more in “Crucifixion” at Luke 23:33.
Go to the Insight Index.
Not to be confused with: Heman the singer, a temple musician in the days of David.
Home: Shushan (Susa), a royal city of the Persians.
Family: Son of Hammedatha, called “the Agagite”; probably descended from Agag, king of Amalek.
Occupation: Second-in-command to King Ahasuerus until replaced by his enemy Mordecai (Esth. 8:2; 10:3).
Best known for: Plotting the destruction of Mordecai and the Jews; when Esther exposed his evil intentions (7:3–6), he was executed on the gallows he had built for Mordecai (7:9, 10).
Go to the Person Profiles Index.
New Acquaintances, Old Enemies
The enmity between Haman and Mordecai illustrates how sin can extend into family histories and become part of cultural systems and government policies. At first the hostility between the two men appears to be rooted in nothing more than a show of disrespect by Mordecai, possibly for religious reasons, and Haman’s racially prejudiced response. But the encounter outside the palace of Ahasuerus was not the first time the men’s families had met.
The Book of Esther stresses that Haman was the son of Hammedatha the Agagite (Esth. 3:1, 10; 8:3, 5; 9:24). Tradition holds that the Agagites descended from Agag, the Amalekite king whom the Israelite king Saul had failed to kill, ignoring God’s specific command (1 Sam. 15). The Lord had condemned the Amalekites for attacking the Israelites during their journey from Egypt to Canaan (Ex. 17:8–13; Deut. 25:17–19).
With Haman’s rise to power, the Amalekites were once again threatening to destroy God’s people. This time the Lord used Mordecai and Esther to thwart their schemes. Ironically, Mordecai was descended from Kish, the same Benjamite family that gave birth to Saul (1 Sam. 9:1). In the end, Mordecai carried out what Saul had failed to accomplish (Esth. 7:10; 9:4, 5, 13–15).
Mordecai and Haman may not have been aware of the long-standing enmity between their two peoples. But their conflict illustrates that personal sin can be passed down for generations, growing into corporate sin. Over time it becomes embedded in a culture, and even after lying dormant for generations, sin may suddenly flare up on an institutional or societal scale (3:9).
As important as it is to lead a good life as an individual, that goal alone is inadequate. The Bible shows that rooting out evil requires renewing sinful systems by passing laws that honor godly values and repealing laws that counter God’s desires. The seeds of sin that we fail to root out may spring up generations later and yield a harvest of evil.
More: The Amalekites descended from Esau, Isaac’s older son. The enmity between the Israelites and the Amalekites dated to the beginning of both peoples. See “The Amalekites” at 1 Sam. 15:2, 3.
Go to the Focus Index.
An isolated reading of the Book of Esther does not inform us that the Jews were the Lord’s chosen people, or that God had given them His law, or that He had addressed them through His prophets, or that He was using the Exile to chasten them for their disobedience. The book does not ever actually mention God, a fact that has raised questions about the book’s place in Scripture.
It might seem that Mordecai and the Jews were on their own as they faced probable annihilation (Esth. 3:13). When Mordecai’s mourning (4:1) caught the attention of his cousin Esther (4:2–9), he challenged her to speak to the king on her people’s behalf (4:10–12).
Then Mordecai made a suggestion that implies he was indeed aware that God was present in their circumstances and working out His purposes: “Who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” he asked his cousin (4:14). Mordecai posed the possibility that the remarkable turn of events that had made Esther the queen of Persia had not come about by accident. She had been placed in a strategic position at a timely moment in order to carry out a specific purpose. As to whose purpose, Mordecai is silent, but the fact that he and Esther were Jews makes it plain that the Lord’s hand was behind it all.
Like Mordecai and Esther, we often face circumstances we do not understand. But Mordecai demonstrates that we should engage in reflection that compares our observations of life with our understanding of God so that we might discern His purposes. The same God who worked through Esther is at work in our lives, and we may find, in big ways and small, that He leads us “for such a time as this.”
More: For more on the valuable habit of theological reflection see “Discovering God’s Purpose for You” at Gen. 45:5–8. Wisdom results from understanding not only Scripture but also our world. See “Understanding the Times” at 1 Chr. 12:32. Two other queens who accepted the responsibility of their positions in order to lead their nations toward Christian values include Queen Victoria and Queen Ranavalona II. See here for an article on the life of Queen Victoria and see here for an article on the life of Queen Ranavalona II.
Go to the Focus Index.
Esther’s bold gesture of seeking an unscheduled audience with the king showed remarkable courage. Access to the Persian ruler was limited to those he summoned, and anyone who violated this policy could be punished by death. Esther’s faith, encouraged by her cousin Mordecai, gave her the resolve to speak up on her people’s behalf. Esther and Mordecai are two of many biblical models of faith in hostile societies. To learn more, see “Models of Faith in Hostile Societies” at Daniel 2:48, 49.
Go to the Insight Index.
God’s People and God’s Ways
Corrie ten Boom (1892–1983) was a Dutch Christian who courageously sheltered Jews from the Nazis during World War II. She survived her own imprisonment in a German concentration camp to tell her story in her book The Hiding Place and at speaking engagements around the globe, teaching millions of people to see God’s grace in the darkest of circumstances.
Corrie grew up at Barteljorisstraat 19 in Haarlem, Holland. The family lived above the watch shop they had owned since ten Boom’s grandfather had opened it in 1837. Her mother and three aunts had died of various illnesses during the 1920s and ’30s, and her sister Nollie and brother Willem had married and moved out of the house, but Corrie and her sister Betsie still lived with their father in 1940 when the Nazis invaded.
Moved by Psalm 122:6, ten Boom’s grandfather had begun a weekly service in 1844 to pray for the Jewish people and the peace of Jerusalem. Nearly one hundred years later, the ten Boom family still regularly prayed for the Jews. In May 1942 the family began to illegally shelter Jews and members of the Dutch resistance from the Nazis. Family and friends smuggled bricks and other building supplies into the house by hiding them in briefcases and rolled-up newspapers, and a secret room was built in ten Boom’s bedroom behind a sliding panel.
The house that became known as “the hiding place” was raided by the Gestapo on February 28, 1944. This secret police force of the Nazis lay in wait and arrested anyone who arrived at the house that day. By evening they had captured some twenty people, including the entire ten Boom family. But despite their meticulous search, the Gestapo was unable to find the six people hidden behind the false wall in ten Boom’s bedroom. Within two days the group was rescued and led to other safehouses. Four of the six survived the war.
Ten days after his arrest, ten Boom’s father died, having refused an offer of freedom in exchange for obedience to the Nazi regime. For the next ten months, ten Boom and her sister Betsie were moved between camps, where the sisters shared God’s love in the midst of the horrors of the Holocaust. Betsie died at the Ravensbrück death camp in Germany, but a clerical error allowed Corrie to walk free one week before all female prisoners her age were executed.
After the war, ten Boom began a ministry that took her to more than sixty countries, teaching the truth her sister had shared with her while at Ravensbrück: “There is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still.” When ten Boom encountered a former Ravensbrück prison guard at a church in Munich where she had just delivered a speech about forgiveness, her mind immediately flashed back to a painful memory of her time at the camp:
It came back with a rush: the huge room with its harsh overhead lights, the pathetic pile of dresses and shoes in the center of the floor, the shame of walking naked past this man. I could see my sister’s frail form ahead of me, ribs sharp beneath the parchment skin.… Betsie had died in that place.
As the former guard expressed his gratefulness to hear ten Boom’s message, and his desire to receive her forgiveness as well as God’s, he raised his hand to shake hers. She recoiled. But as she prayed for Jesus to somehow enable her to forgive him, she reached out her hand and was suddenly flooded with love for the man who was once her captor.
Go to the Life Studies Index.
People of faith have struggled throughout history to determine if war is ever justified. While everyone agrees that war is a terrible evil, many feel that certain circumstances make going to battle unavoidable. The courage of Queen Esther and the decree of King Ahasuerus (Esth. 8:3–6, 11) allowed the Jews to fight a limited war of revenge until they destroyed almost all of their enemies.
Measured against a set of criteria developed by church leaders Augustine in the fifth century (see here for an article on the life of Augustine) and Aquinas in the thirteenth century, this bloodshed was justified. According to that tradition, a war is just if it meets certain criteria:
• A just war pursues a just cause or “right intention,” such as self-defense, in the face of an obvious, one-sided evil; this assumes those engaged in a just war have mostly righteous purposes as their motives.
• A just war is declared and directed by a competent government authority.
• A just war is undertaken as a last resort only after exhausting all peaceful options, including diplomacy and economic sanctions.
• A just war must conform to the law of proportionality weighing the greater good (or the lesser of two evils). Anticipated good results must outweigh actual bad effects.
• A just war must be redemptive, leaving room for warring parties to reconcile after hostilities cease.
• A just war is a discriminate, limited engagement that precludes looting, massacres, or tactics that would harm noncombatants.
• A just war must be waged with a probability of winning.
• A just war must allow exemption for conscientious objectors.
Wars fought throughout history can be tested against these principles. And assessing potential conflicts with these guidelines in mind could help nations limit their military involvement to situations truly worth fighting for.
More: The concept of just war is based on the belief that God has instituted government. See “Inseparable Institutions: Family, State, and Church” at Gen. 2:23; “No Authority Except from God” at Ps. 2:4–6; and “Governmental Authority” at Rom. 13:1–7. Alvin C. York was deeply conflicted over fighting in WWII until he read Ezek. 33:6 and accepted it as a biblical basis for just war. See here for an article on the life of Alvin C. York.
Go to the Focus Index.
After Haman was exposed and executed, the tables turned and the Jews were allowed to destroy their enemies. At first they killed more than five hundred men (Esth. 9:1–10). Then Esther asked for a second day of vengeance, and they killed 75,300 (9:15–17). The Bible mentions but does not comment on this massacre, leaving us with significant questions. Did God disapprove? These Jews had also remained in exile rather than returning to Judah. Was that what God desired? Was Mordecai’s feast of Purim—established to celebrate this slaughter—divinely sanctioned? Scripture leaves us to debate the answers.
Go to the Insight Index.
The Bible takes up issues of cultural identity particularly through the Old Testament books of Ruth and Esther. Ruth the Moabite woman assimilated into Hebrew culture by forsaking her ethnic roots and marrying Boaz. But Esther held on to her Jewish ways and identified with her people despite her marriage to King Ahasuerus of Persia.
The lack of assimilation into Persian society by Jews of Esther’s time may have been related to racial discrimination. Esther hid her ethnic heritage from everyone, including the king (Esth. 2:10). And Haman’s plot was driven by racial intolerance (3:6).
After Haman’s scheme failed, the feast of Purim became a permanent expression of Jewish identity. Purim comes from the word pur, meaning “lots,” for lots had been cast to determine the day on which the extermination of the Jews should take place (3:7). This feast celebrated God’s deliverance of His people within the dominant culture of Persia. The feast of Passover celebrated God’s deliverance out of another dominant culture—that of Egypt (see “Passover” at Luke 22:7). Feasts and fasts became a means for Jews to maintain their cultural identity under non-Jewish rule and over the centuries, invaluable traditions when the people no longer had a land to call home or a temple in which to worship.
More: To learn more about Israel’s feasts, see “Jewish Feasts” at Luke 2:42. Christians need to work at remembering God’s work among us. See “Remembering God’s Grace” at Ex. 12:26, 27.
Go to the Focus Index.