Esther 2:10

_ESTHER HAD NOT SHEWED HER PEOPLE NOR HER KINDRED: FOR MORDECAI HAD CHARGED HER THAT SHE SHOULD NOT SHEW IT._ No JFB commentary on this verse....

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...

Verse Esther 2:10. _ESTHER HAD NOT SHOWED HER PEOPLE_] This might have prejudiced her with the king; for it was certainly no credit at the Persian court to be a _Jew_; and we shall find from the sequel that those who were in the Persian dominions were far from being _reputable_, or in a _safe state_. Besides, had her lineage been known, _envy_ might have prevented her from ever having access to the king....

The Persians had no special contempt for the Jews; but, of course, they despised more or less all the subject races. Esther, with her Aryan name, may have passed for a native Persian....

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

ESTHER HAD NOT SHOWED HER PEOPLE NOR HER KINDRED,.... What nation or family she was of; it not being asked, she was under no obligation to declare it; and being born in Shushan, as very probable, she was taken to be a Persian: FOR MORDECAI HAD CHARGED HER THAT SHE SHOULD NOT SHOW IT; lest she should be despised and ill treated on that account; fearing, if the king knew it, he would not marry her, as Aben Ezra; or rather, as the same writer thinks, that she might keep the law of God privately, observe the sabbath, c....

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...

NOT SHEWED. Not till Esther 7:3. This was Mordecai's wisdom. Compare Esther 2:20....

_Esther had not shewed her people nor her kindred_ We must suppose that it would easily be discovered that she, like many of her companions (see Esther 2:3), was not Persian by nation. Thus what she desired to conceal was not simply that she was a foreigner, but that she was a Jewess. Nevertheless we have no knowledge from any other source that there was a special antipathy to her people on the part of the Persians. The concealment of her nationality must, one would think, have involved her in various acts both connected with food (cp. Daniel 1:8 etc.) and otherwise, which were inconsistent with Judaism. According to the _Targum Shçnî_the king on one occasion said to her, "Pray, tell me, who are thy people, and what is thy family?" She replied, "I am ignorant both concerning my people and concerning my family, becau

B. Solicitude of Mordecai TEXT: Esther 2:5-11 5 There was a certain Jew in Shushan the palace, whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite, 6 who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captives that had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away. 7 And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle's daughter: for she had neither father nor mother, and the maiden was fair and beautiful; and when her father and mother were dead, Mordecai took her for his own daughter. 8 So it came to pass, when the king's commandment and his decree was heard, and when many maidens were gathered together unto Shushan the palace to the custody of Hegai, that Esther was taken into the king's house, to the custody of Hegai, keeper of the women....