Esther 2:1

_AFTER THESE THINGS, WHEN THE WRATH OF KING AHASUERUS WAS APPEASED, HE REMEMBERED VASHTI, AND WHAT_ _ AFTER THESE THINGS, WHEN THE WRATH OF KING AHASUERUS WAS APPEASED, HE REMEMBERED VASHTI, AND WHAT SHE HAD DONE, AND WHAT WAS DECREED AGAINST HER._ After these things, when the wrath of king Ahasuerus was appeased. On recovering from the violent excitement of his revelry and rage, the king was pierced with poignant regret for the unmerited treatment he had given to his beautiful and dignified queen. But, according to the law, which made the word of a Persian king irrevocable, she could not be restored. His counselors, for their own sake, were solicitous to remove his disquietude, and hastened to recommend the adoption of all suitable means for gratifying their royal master with another consort of equal or superior attractions to those of his divorced queen. The Persian monarch could lega...

1-20 We see to what absurd practices those came, who were destitute of Divine revelation, and what need there was of the gospel of Christ, to purify men from the lusts of the flesh, and to bring them back to the original institution of marriage. Esther was preferred as queen. Those who suggest that Esther committed sin to come at this dignity, do not consider the custom of those times and countries. Every one that the king took was married to him, and was his wife, though of a lower rank. But how low is human nature sunk, when such as these are the leading pursuits and highest worldly happiness of men! Disappointment and vexation must follow; and he most wisely consults his enjoyment, even in this present life, who most exactly obeys the precepts of the Divine law. But let us turn to consider the wise and merciful providence of God, carrying on his deep but holy designs in the midst of...

CHAPTER II _The counsellors advise that a selection of virgins should be_ _made throughout the empire, out of whom the king should choose_ _one to be queen in place of Vashti_, 1-4. _Account of Mordecai and his cousin Esther_, 5-7. _She is chosen among the young women, and is placed under the_ _care of Hegai, the king's chamberlain, to go through a year's_ _purification_, 8-11. _The manner in which these young women were introduced to the_ _king, and how those were disposed of who were not called again_ _to the king's bed_,

These events must belong to the time between the great assembly held at Susa in Xerxes’ third year (483 B.C.), and the departure of the monarch on his expedition against Greece in his fifth year, 481 B.C....

EXPOSITION THE QUEST FOR MAIDENS, AND THE CHOICE OF ESTHER TO BE QUEEN IN VASHTI'S PLACE (Esther 2:1). Vashti having ceased to be queen, Ahasuerus appears to have been in no haste to assign her dignity to any one else. Probably there was no one among his other (secondary) wives of whom he was specially fond, or who seemed to him pre-eminent above the rest. And he may even have begun to relent in Vashti's favour (as seems to be somewhat obscurely intimated in Esther 2:1), and to wish to take her back. Under these circumstances the officers of his cour

AFTER THESE THINGS, WHEN THE WRATH OF KING AHASUERUS WAS APPEASED,.... Which went off with his wine, and so was quickly after, a few days at most, unless this can be understood as after the expedition of Xerxes into Greece, from whence he returned to Shushan, in the seventh year of his reign; and if he is the Ahasuerus here meant, he married Esther that year, Esther 2:16 and it seems certain, that after his expedition he gave himself up to his amours, and in his way to Sardis he fell in love with his brother's wife, and then with his daughter b: HE REMEMBERED VASHTI; her beauty, and was grieved, as Jarchi observes, that she was removed from him; and so Josephus says c, that he passionately loved her, and could not bear parting with her, and therefore was grieved that he had brought himself into such difficulties: the Targumists carry it further, and say that he was wroth wit

ESTHER CHOSEN QUEEN. Ere long Ahasuerus longs for his lost queen's comradeship. He is moved to issue a summons throughout all his territories, commanding all fair maidens to appear as candidates for the queenship. This command removes the fancy that a Jewess had no right to come. She had to come. Among the assembled fair ones was the cousin and ward of Mordecai, called Hadassah, _i.e._ Myrtle. Let us notice that this name is the same as that of the place Adasah in Judah where, on Adar 13th, 161 B.C., the Maccabees defeated Nicanor, the general of the armies of Syria (p. 607). That final victory set Judah free from foreign rule, so that the throne of David was established again after its destruction about 600 B.C. (see 1Ma_7:39 ff.). The maiden seems intended by our writer as a symbol of that victory. She surpasses all her rivals, and is chosen by Ahasuerus as his queen; and now she recei...

AFTER THESE THINGS: i.e. in 467. Astyages was now twenty-one. In the seventh year (Esther 2:16); one of these spent in preparations (Esther 2:12). AHASUERUS. See note on Esther 1:1. VASHTI. See note on Esther 1:9....

Esther 2:1-18. Esther's elevation to be queen 1. _After these things_ Two years elapsed between the council of leading men held at Susa (see on Esther 1:1) and Xerxes" actual departure on his expedition against Greece (b.c. 481). If we were to accept the historical character of the story, we should have to suppose that the search for an eligible consort would go on during his absence. But the writer in all probability does not contemplate any such interval, or recognise in his own mind the war of that date. _he remembered Vashti_ This and the words which follow suggest that the king was inclined to relent if the decree had not been irrevocable. The LXX., _he no longer remembered Vashti_, has no claim to be regarded as the right reading. III SPECIMEN OF THE FIRST TARGUM

II. Promotion of Esther, Esther 2:1-23 A. Search for a Queen TEXT: Esther 2:1-4 1 After these things, when the wrath of king Ahasuerus was pacified, he remembered Vashti, and what she had done, and what was decreed against her. 2 Then said the king's servants that ministered unto him, Let there be fair young virgins sought for the king: 3 and let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom, that they may gather together all the fair young virgins unto Shushan the palace, to the house of the women; unto the custody of Hegai the king's chamberlain, keeper of the women; and let their things for purification be given them; 4 and let the maiden that pleaseth the king be queen instead of Vashti. And the thing pleased the king; and he did so