Albert Barnes Commentary Esther 2
Albert Barnes Commentary
Esther 2
Albert Barnes Commentary
Esther 2
"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." — Esther 2:1 (ASV)
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.
"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;" — Esther 2:3 (ASV)
The house of the women — that is, the “gynaeceon,” or “haram” — was always an essential part of an Eastern palace (Compare 1 Kings 7:8). In the Persian palaces it was very extensive, since the monarchs maintained, besides their legitimate wives, as many as 300 or 400 concubines .
"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," — Esther 2:5 (ASV)
Mordecai, the eunuch (Esther 2:7, Esther 2:11), has been conjectured to be the same as Matacas, who, according to Ctesias, was the most powerful of the eunuchs during the latter portion of the reign of Xerxes. Mordecai’s line of descent is traced from a certain Kish, carried off by Nebuchadnezzar in 598 B.C.—the year of Jeconiah’s captivity—who was his great-grandfather.
The age of Mordecai at the accession of Xerxes may probably have been about 30 or 40; that of Esther, his first cousin, about 20.
"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." — Esther 2:7 (ASV)
Hadassah, הדסה hădassâh from הדס hădas (“myrtle”) would seem to have been the Hebrew, and Esther the Persian, name of the young woman. 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.
"Esther had not made known her people nor her kindred; for Mordecai had charged her that she should not make it known." — Esther 2:10 (ASV)
The Persians had no special contempt for the Jews; but, of course, they despised more or less all the subject races. Esther, with her name that was characteristic of the Persian people, may have passed for a native Persian.
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