1 Later when King Xerxes’ fury had subsided, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what he had decreed about her. 2 Then the king’s personal attendants proposed, “Let a search be made for beautiful young virgins for the king. 3 Let the king appoint commissioners in every province of his realm to bring all these beautiful young women into the harem at the citadel of Susa. Let them be placed under the care of Hegai, the king’s eunuch, who is in charge of the women; and let beauty treatments be given to them. 4 Then let the young woman who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti.” This advice appealed to the king, and he followed it.
This passage is in regard to the events of chapter 1, in which Xerxes, in an incredible show of pride, begins a six month party to showcase his kingdom and power. It is capped off by a seven day party for the people of the city of Susa, in which they can drink all they desire. At the tail end of this party is a party, thrown by Queen Vashti, for the women of the royal palace. King Xerxes commands the queen to be displayed before the officials. The king’s drunken request is refused by the queen which throws Xerxes into a tirade. He consults his officials as to what to do about the queen, and they instruct him to construct a law that banishes Queen Vashti from ever being in his sight again. This edict is meant to squelch any other women from following the queen’s example.
The next plan is to find a replacement for Vashti. The commissioners are to scour the land, all 127 provinces, and take the best women from them, add them to Xerxes’ harem. From there, the women are to receive a beauty regiment until she is fit to go before the king. It’s the ancient form of the Bachelor.
5 Now there was in the citadel of Susa a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin, named Mordecai son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, 6 who had been carried into exile from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, among those taken captive with Jehoiachin king of Judah. 7 Mordecai had a cousin named Hadassah, whom he had brought up because she had neither father nor mother. This young woman, who was also known as Esther, had a lovely figure and was beautiful. Mordecai had taken her as his own daughter when her father and mother died.
Mordecai, who becomes a central figure in this story, was one of the Jews who was deported to Babylon during Nebuchadnezzar’s campaign. Babylon, being one of the many provinces under Persian control, is entered and the women of the land are surveyed by the commissioners. Mordecai apparently wasn’t one of the Jews who went with Ezra back to Jerusalem. He is in care of a woman named Hadassah, also known as Esther.
8 When the king’s order and edict had been proclaimed, many young women were brought to the citadel of Susa and put under the care of Hegai. Esther also was taken to the king’s palace and entrusted to Hegai, who had charge of the harem. 9 She pleased him and won his favor. Immediately he provided her with her beauty treatments and special food. He assigned to her seven female attendants selected from the king’s palace and moved her and her attendants into the best place in the harem.
Esther is one of the women scooped up and sent to the Susa harem. There, she is put under the care of Hegai, the eunuch officer who takes care of the women. But there is something about Esther that captures Hegai’s attention. Esther is given special treatment. She is assigned seven attendants and moved to the best place int he harem.
This may sound like a horrible situation and a random one at best, but this is the beginning of God’s providence at work. In this story we see God working behind the scenes to bring the separate players to their exalted and banished conclusions. What the book of Esther offers us is a close look at how God operates in this world. By these seemingly random and harsh events, God will bring glory to a horrible situation that hasn’t even arisen yet. God’s providence begins here, in a beautiful woman taken from her home and sent to a harem on the whim of a king.
10 Esther had not revealed her nationality and family background, because Mordecai had forbidden her to do so. 11 Every day he walked back and forth near the courtyard of the harem to find out how Esther was and what was happening to her.
Mordecai has given Esther instructions before she is taken. Do not reveal your heritage. Why? We don’t rightly know, but this plays out as masterstroke later. We’ll also learn that Mordecai is a man of God, so it is apt to assume that Mordecai is in deep contact with God, knows what God values, and if those lines of communication are open, Mordecai senses to keep that information close. Also in this passage we see that Mordecai is a loving man to Esther. He’s brought her up as a daughter and cares for her welfare. He’s followed her to Susa to remain close to her.
12 Before a young woman’s turn came to go in to King Xerxes, she had to complete twelve months of beauty treatments prescribed for the women, six months with oil of myrrh and six with perfumes and cosmetics. 13 And this is how she would go to the king: Anything she wanted was given her to take with her from the harem to the king’s palace. 14 In the evening she would go there and in the morning return to another part of the harem to the care of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch who was in charge of the concubines. She would not return to the king unless he was pleased with her and summoned her by name.
This process isn’t a quick one. A year of beauty treatments has passed, along with another year of oil, myrrh and cosmetics. She was set up for success. And although this may sound like a nice way to spend time in the ancient world, we have to remember the real toll:
Only one woman would become queen The rest would be added to the king’s harem These women would seldom, if ever, see the king Many would become the king’s concubine The harem would disqualify them from marrying another
This is not a good end for the vast majority of the women plucked from their villages and ordered to the harem on the king’s whim.
15 When the turn came for Esther (the young woman Mordecai had adopted, the daughter of his uncle Abihail) to go to the king, she asked for nothing other than what Hegai, the king’s eunuch who was in charge of the harem, suggested. And Esther won the favor of everyone who saw her. 16 She was taken to King Xerxes in the royal residence in the tenth month, the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign. 17 Now the king was attracted to Esther more than to any of the other women, and she won his favor and approval more than any of the other virgins. So he set a royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. 18 And the king gave a great banquet, Esther’s banquet, for all his nobles and officials. He proclaimed a holiday throughout the provinces and distributed gifts with royal liberality.
From Queen Vashti’s refusal to Esther going before the king was four years. She is the one who Xerxes wants as queen. But what happened to Vashti? There is no conclusive evidence, but she was probably killed or exiled from the kingdom.
19 When the virgins were assembled a second time, Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate. 20 But Esther had kept secret her family background and nationality just as Mordecai had told her to do, for she continued to follow Mordecai’s instructions as she had done when he was bringing her up. 21 During the time Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate, Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s officers who guarded the doorway, became angry and conspired to assassinate King Xerxes. 22 But Mordecai found out about the plot and told Queen Esther, who in turn reported it to the king, giving credit to Mordecai. 23 And when the report was investigated and found to be true, the two officials were impaled on poles. All this was recorded in the book of the annals in the presence of the king.
Mordecai, ever present and in communication with Esther, hears of a plot to murder Xerxes. This predates Xerxes actual assassination in 465 BC. Artabanus, Xerxes royal bodyguard commander, and a eunuch named Aspamitres, killed Xerxes because Artabanus wanted the throne But he too was killed and the throne went to Artaxerxes I.
It shows that Xerxes wasn’t well-liked, most likely for his cruelty and hair-trigger temper. When Mordecai gets wind of this though, he is perhaps hit with a moral quandary: if the king dies, then maybe that frees Esther. Even if that entered his mind, Mordecai doesn’t act upon it. Instead, he takes a page from a Godly man on the future, Peter. 1 Peter 2:17 says this: Fear God, honor the king. Even though Xerxes is in power, Mordecai’s duty is to submit to it. It shows Mordecai’s godliness. By telling Esther and Esther relaying it to the king, it puts Mordecai on Xerxes’ radar. He is an ally.