Esther 2:7

_WHO HAD BEEN CARRIED AWAY FROM JERUSALEM WITH THE CAPTIVITY WHICH HAD BEEN CARRIED AWAY WITH JECONIAH KING OF JUDAH, WHOM NEBUCHADNEZZAR THE KING OF BABYLON HAD CARRIED AWAY._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

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 2:7. _HE BROUGHT UP HADASSAH_] הדשה _hadassah_ signifies a _myrtle_ in Chaldee: this was probably her first or _Babylonish_ _name_. When she came to the _Persian_ court, she was called _Esther_, [Persian] _aster_, or [Persian] _sitara_, which signifies a _star_ in Persian: the name is undoubtedly Persian. Esther was the daughter of Abihail, the uncle of Mordecai, and therefore must have been Mordecai's cousin, though the Vulgate and Josephus make her Mordecai's _niece_: but it is safest here to follow the Hebrew....

Hadassah, הדסה _hădassâh_ from הדס _hădas_ (“myrtle”) would seem to have been the Hebrew, and Esther the Persian, name of the damsel. Esther is thought to be connected through the Zend with ἀστήρ _astēr_, “star.” But there is not at present any positive evidence of the existence in Old Persian of a kindred word....

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

AND HE BROUGHT UP HADASSAH (THAT IS ESTHER) HIS UNCLE'S DAUGHTER,.... Her Hebrew name was Hadassah, which signifies a myrtle, to which the Israelites, and good men among them, are sometimes compared, Zechariah 1:8. Her Persian name was Esther, which some derive from "satar", to hide, because hidden in the house of Mordecai, so the former Targum, and by his advice concealed her kindred: or rather she was so called by Ahasuerus, when married to him, this word signifying in the Persian language a "star" h and so the latter Targum says she was called by the name of the star of Venus, which in Greek is αστηρ; though it is said i, that the myrtle, which is called "hadassah" in Hebrew, is in the Syriac language "esta"; so "asa" in the Talmud k signifies a myrtle; and, according to Hillerus l, "esther" signifies the black myrtle, which is reckoned the most excellent; and so "amestris", according...

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...

HADASSAH. myrtle. Not living with Mordecai (who was in the palace, Esther 2:5), but brought up by him. ESTHER. star. But Rabbi Yehudah derives it from _sathar,_ to hide, because she was hidden in her guardian's house; and her nationality also was concealed (Esther 2:10)....

_brought up_ Heb. _was foster-father to_Hadassah. The word is rendered -nursing-father" in Numbers 11:12; Isaiah 49:23. _Hadassah, that is, Esther_ Hadassah, from the Heb. _hădas_, -myrtle. [66] " For this was substituted, either on her becoming queen or earlier, the name Esther, from the Persian _Sitareh, a star_, or from Istar, the Assyrio-Babylonian equivalent of Ashtoreth. For the attempt to identify her with Amestris, the wife of Xerxes, see Introduction, p. xiv. The fact that Mordecai took Esther to be as his own daughter is given as accounting for the familiarity between them. [66] Cp. the Greek names Μυρτία, Μυῤῥίνη, Μύρτις. The _Targum Shçnî_expounds, from the Jewish point of view, the significance of the name Hadassah. She was so called "because as the m

HE BROUGHT UP HADASSAH, THAT IS, ESTHER— As she was born in Babylon, in analogy to the language of that place they gave her the name of הדסה _Hadassah,_ which in the Chaldee signifies a _myrtle;_ but her Persian name was _Esther,_ which some, a little incongruously, derive from αστηρ, _a star,_ and others from _satar,_ which signifies _hidden,_ because she was concealed in Mordecai's house; or rather, because her nation was concealed, and she not known, till Mordecai's merit and services to the crown came to be rewarded. It seems most probable, however, that _Esther_ is only the interpretation of, and consequently bears the same meaning with, _Hadassah._...