Estherchapter 2
23 verses · KJVEsther book hub →
Key verse
Now in Shushan the palace there was a certain Jew, whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite;
It stands in scene B of the chapter, verses 5 to 11.
The chapter
Chapter summary
Virgins are gathered to Shushan under Hegai the keeper of the women. Mordecai the Benjamite, carried away in the captivity of Jeconiah, had brought up his uncle's daughter Hadassah, that is Esther, 'and the maiden was fair and beautiful.' Twelve months of purifying follow (six with oil of myrrh, six with spices) and Esther, requiring nothing beyond what Hegai appointed, 'obtained favor in the sight of all them that looked upon her.' The king loves her above all the women, sets the royal crown upon her head, and makes her queen instead of Vashti. She keeps her people secret at Mordecai's charge. At the king's gate Mordecai uncovers the plot of Bigthan and Teresh: written in the chronicles, and left unrewarded.
Context
History · Mordecai · Esther overview
Where the chapter sits
Esther 2 falls in The queen and the plot (chapters 1–4). Vashti deposed; Esther chosen; Mordecai uncovers the assassination plot; Haman's rise and his genocidal edict; ‘for such a time as this.’
Esther chosen. The orphan cousin of Mordecai becomes queen; Mordecai uncovers the plot against the king.
After it: The reversal, chapters 5–7.
The whole shape of Esther→The world behind this chapter
Esther 2The history
The four-year gap between chapter 1 and chapter 2 is filled by history the book does not narrate. Xerxes marched on Greece, lost his fleet at Salamis and his army at Plataea, and came home beaten. Herodotus says that after the defeat the king turned his attention to the women of his household. The book's timing matches the outside record exactly, and its silence about the war is the silence of a Jewish writer who did not care about Greek battles.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
The harem was a department of state, not a romance. It was staffed and guarded by eunuchs, castrated men, often taken as boys from conquered peoples, trusted precisely because they could father no rival line. Hegai's twelve months of oil of myrrh and spices was standard treatment for palace women: half a year of one preparation, half a year of another, in a dry, hot climate where skin and hair took a beating.
Mordecai's family line is given as Benjamite, back to a man named Kish, and the text says that ancestor was carried off with King Jehoiachin in 597 BC. Readers sometimes take the verse to mean Mordecai himself was deported, which would make him well over a century old; the sentence more naturally attaches to the great-grandfather named at the head of the list. The name itself is at home in that world, a Persian administrative tablet from Susa names an official called Marduka serving in these very years.
Sitting 'in the king's gate' was a job, not a habit. The gate complex of a Persian citadel was where officials worked, records were kept, and business was transacted; a gate building of exactly this kind has been excavated at Susa. That is how a minor official overhears a plot, and why the plot, once verified, gets written into the daily court record. Persian kings kept careful lists of men who had done them a service, and rewarded them later.
What it meant to them
The chapter is uncomfortable on purpose. A Jewish girl is taken into a pagan king's bed, hides who she is on her cousin's instruction, and wins a beauty contest. Nobody in the story prays, and the book does not pause to approve or condemn.
For scattered Jews the discomfort was the recognition. This was their life, compromise they did not choose, in a system they did not control. And the chapter quietly plants two things that will save a nation years later: a queen nobody knows is Jewish, and an unpaid favour written down in a book.
Sources cited
- Herodotus, The Histories
- Edwin M. Yamauchi, Persia and the Bible
- Flavius Josephus, The Antiquities of the Jews (Whiston translation)
A. Let fair young virgins be sought for the king
1. (vv. 1-4)
a.he remembered Vashti, and what she had done: The king’s anger cools and memory returns: he remembers Vashti, what she had done, and what was decreed against her, the first hint that a law meant to settle the matter has not settled the king’s own heart. His servants answer with a policy rather than a wife, gathering fair young virgins into the house of the women under Hege’s custody, empire-scale machinery built to fill one throne. Adam Clarke and Wesley both note the practical cruelty beneath the courtly language, a search that treats a queen as a vacancy to be filled by competition.
Esther 2:1, 3 voicesWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Esther 2:1
The worldly philosophers drive out an old passion by instilling a new one; they hammer out one nail by hammering in another. It was on this principle that the seven princes of Persia acted toward Ahasuerus, for they subdued his regret for Vashti by inducing him to love other maidens. But whereas they cured one fault by another fault and one sin by another sin, we must overcome our faults by learning to love the opposite virtues. "Depart from evil," says the psalmist, "and do good; seek peace and pursue it."
Jerome· written before 420· LETTER 125.14patristic
Esther 2:1
“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.”
Esther 2:1
“The damsels, on arrival at the palace, were placed under the custody of "Hege, the king's chamberlain, keeper of the women," that is, the chief eunuch, usually a repulsive old man, on whom the court ladies are very dependent, and whose favor they are always desirous to secure.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Esther 2:2, 2 voices
Esther 2:2
“Then said the king's servants that ministered unto him,.... Fearing that, if Vashti should be restored, vengeance would be taken on them; or however to remove the grief and melancholy of the king, they gave the following advice: let there be fair young virgins sought for the king; that he might enjoy them, and choose one of them, the most agreeable to him, and put her in the room of Vashti.”
Esther 2:2
“Let there be fair young virgins sought for the king - This was the usual way in which the harem or seraglio was furnished: the finest women in the land, whether of high or low birth, were sought out, and brought to the harem. They all became the king’s concubines: but one was raised, as chief wife or sultana, to the throne; and her issue was specially entitled to inherit.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Esther 2:3, 2 voices
Esther 2:3
“The house of the women - i. e. the “gynaeceon,” or “haram” - always an essential part of an Oriental palace (Compare 1Ki 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 (compare Est 2:14).”
Esther 2:3
“Purification - That is, to cleanse them from all impurities, to perfume, and adorn, and every way prepare them for the king: for the legal purification of the Jews he never regarded.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
B. Mordecai's cousin taken into the king's house
1. (vv. 5-7)
a.the son of Kish, a Benjamite: The narrator plants the book’s second name before its first: Mordecai the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite, the same house of Kish that gave Israel its first king. He raises Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle’s daughter, an orphan with neither father nor mother, taken for his own. Keil and the commentators who trace the Benjamite line read Kish’s grandson standing where Saul’s line last faced Amalek, a household reintroduced five centuries before its business with Agag’s house is finished.
Esther 2:5, 3 voices
Esther 2:5
“Now in Shushan the palace was a certain Jew,.... Not one of the tribe of Judah, for he was afterwards called a Benjaminite; but was so called, because he was of the kingdom of Judah, which consisted of both tribes.”
Esther 2:5
“Mordecai, the eunuch Est 2:7, Est 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.”
Esther 2:5
“Her sweet and amiable appearance made her a favorite with all who looked upon her (Es 2:15, last clause). Her Hebrew name (Es 2:7) was Hadassah, that is, "myrtle," which, on her introduction into the royal harem, was changed to Esther, that is, the star Venus, indicating beauty and good fortune [GESENIUS].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Esther 2:7, 4 voices
Esther 2:7
“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, Zec 1:”
Esther 2:7
“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.”
Esther 2:7
“When those whose unhappiness it is to be thus deprived of their parents in their childhood yet afterwards come to be eminently pious and prosperous, we ought to take notice of it to the glory of that God, and his grace and providence, who has taken it among the titles of his honour to be a Father of the fatherless.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Esther 2:7
“Her wisdom and virtue were her greatest beauty, but it is an advantage to be a diamond to be well set. (4.) Mordecai, her cousin-german, was her guardian, brought her up, and took her for his own daughter. The LXX. says that he designed to make her his wife; if that were so, he was to be praised that he opposed not her better preferment.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2. (vv. 8-9)
a.that Esther was brought also unto the king’s house: Esther enters the house of the women along with many maidens, one name folded into a crowd the decree of chapter two has produced, and Hegai’s custody rather than the king’s is her first Persian address. She pleases him and obtains kindness speedily, seven chosen maidens and the best place in the house, favor that arrives before the king has ever seen her. Gill reads Hegai’s preference as the hinge the whole plot turns on, a court official’s ordinary goodwill doing providence’s first quiet work.
Esther 2:8, 1 voice
Esther 2:8
“So it came to pass, when the king's commandment and decree was heard,.... In the several provinces of his kingdom: and when many maidens were gathered unto Shushan the palace, to the custody of Hegai; Josephus (o) says, there were gathered to the number of four hundred: that Esther was brought also unto the king's house, to the custody of Hegai, the keeper of the women: by force, as Aben Ezra and the former Targum, and so the word is sometimes used. (o) Ibid. (Antiqu. l. 11. c. 6. sect. 2.)”
Esther 2:9, 2 voices
Esther 2:9
“The maiden pleased him - He conceived a partiality for her above the rest, probably because of the propriety of her deportment, and her engaging though unassuming manners. Seven maidens - These were to attend her to the bath, to anoint and adorn her, and be her servants in general.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Esther 2:9
“Pleased - Because she was very beautiful, therefore he supposed she would be acceptable to the king; and by the Divine power, which moveth the hearts of men which way he pleaseth.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
3. (vv. 10-11)
a.Esther had not shewed her people nor her kindred: Esther keeps her people and her kindred hidden because Mordecai charged her so, a secret the text records twice in this chapter and will call due at 4:8 when a decree against her people makes silence impossible. Mordecai walks daily before the court of the women’s house, watching what shall become of her, a foster father’s vigil the palace walls cannot fully block. The secret is a plot device and a piece of realism together, a Jew’s wisdom about a hostile court that a later king’s own edict will force into the open.
Esther 2:10, 4 voices
Esther 2:10
“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 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.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Esther 2:10
“Shew it - Lest the knowledge hereof should either make her contemptible, or bring some inconvenience to the whole nation; but there was also an hand of God in causing this to be concealed, for the better accomplishment of that which he designed, though Mordecai was ignorant of it.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Esther 2:10
“But he only told her not to proclaim her country. All truths are not to be spoken at all times, though an untruth is not to be spoken at any time. She being born in Shushan, and her parents being dead, all took her to be of Persian extraction, and she was not bound to undeceive them.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Esther 2:11, 4 voices
Esther 2:11
“And Mordecai walked every day before the court of the women's house,.... Being one of the court, and in an high post, as Aben Ezra thinks, he might walk there without being examined, and called to an account for it: to know how Esther did; to inquire of her health and prosperity, or peace, the word here used signifies, even all sorts of it: and what should become of her; or was done to her, whether she was well used, or as yet introduced to the king, how it fared with her, and what befell her.”
Esther 2:11
“Mordecai occupied, apparently, a humble place in the royal household. He was probably one of the porters or doorkeepers at the main entrance to the palace Est 2:21.”
Esther 2:11
“Mordecai walked every day before the court of the women's house--The harem is an inviolable sanctuary, and what is transacted within its walls is as much a secret to those without as if they were thousands of miles away.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Esther 2:11
“Let those whose relations are thus cast upon them by divine Providence be thus kindly affectioned to them and solicitous for them. [2.] How respectful she was to him. Though in relation she was his equal, yet, being in age and dependence his inferior, she honoured him as her father-- did his commandment,”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
C. Twelve months of purifying, and a crown set on Esther's head
1. (vv. 12-14)
a.according to the manner of the women: The chapter slows to describe the machine Esther must pass through, twelve months of purification, six with oil of myrrh and six with sweet odours, before a single night with the king that ends, for most of the virgins, in Shaashgaz’s house of the concubines, called again only if the king delighted in her by name. Adeney reads the detail as the book’s honest picture of a harem system rather than a romance, an institution the text describes without praising. No woman leaves this process a queen except by the king’s later choice, and the text withholds any comment on whether the system itself was just.
Esther 2:12, 2 voices
Esther 2:12
“Six months with oil of myrrh - See on Est 2:3 (note). The reason of this purification seems not to be apprehended by any writer I have seen. The most beautiful of all the young virgins of all the provinces of Babylon were to be selected; and these were taken out of all classes of the people, indiscriminately; consequently there must have been many who were brought up in low life.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Esther 2:12
“Now when every maid's turn was come to go in to king Ahasuerus--A whole year was spent in preparation for the intended honor. Considering that this took place in a palace, the long period prescribed, together with the profusion of costly and fragrant cosmetics employed, was probably required by state etiquette.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Esther 2:13, 3 voices
Esther 2:13
“For any soul that strives to hurry to the bed of the heavenly Groom receives from its teachers the adornment that is appropriate to it, and with which it shows itself more devoted to the understanding of the faith and the knowledge of virtue, so …”
Rabanus Maurus· written before 856· Commentary on Estherpatristic
Esther 2:13
“Whatsoever she desired - When any of the young women were called to go to the king, it appears that it was an ordinance that whatever kind of dress stuff, color, jewels, etc., they thought best to set off their persons, and render them more engaging, should be given them.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Esther 2:13
“Desired - For ornament, or by way of attendance. And it should be observed, that every one whom the king took to his bed, was his wife of a lower rank, as Hagar was Abraham's, so that it would have been no sin or dishonour to Esther, though she had not been made queen.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Esther 2:14, 2 voices
Esther 2:14
“She returned into the second house - This was the place where the king’s concubines were kept. They went out no more, and were never given in marriage to any man, and saw the king’s face no more unless specially called. Custody of Shaashgaz - This is probably another Persian name; sheshkhunj, beardless, a proper epithet of a eunuch; or sestgunj, weak loins, for the same reason. Names of this kind at once show the reason of their imposition, by describing the state of the person.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Esther 2:14
“Having broken through that law of creation which resulted from God's making man, they broke through another law, which was founded upon his making one man and one woman. See what need there was of the gospel of Christ to purify men from the lusts of the flesh and to reduce them to the original institution.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2. (vv. 15-18)
a.she required nothing but what Hegai the king’s chamberlain: Esther’s turn comes and she asks for nothing beyond what Hegai appoints, a restraint JFB reads as the same wisdom that will later govern her approach to the king in chapter five, favor built rather than demanded. She obtains favour in the sight of all who see her, is taken to the king in the tenth month of the seventh year, and the king loved Esther above all the women, setting the royal crown on her head. A feast follows in her name, a release to the provinces, and gifts according to the state of the king, an empire’s holiday declared over a Jewish orphan’s coronation with no one in the court aware of it.
Esther 2:15, 1 voice
Esther 2:15
“She required nothing - The other virgins perhaps loaded themselves with precious ornaments of various kinds, necklaces, bracelets, earrings, anklets, and the like. Esther let Hegai dress her as he would.”
Esther 2:16, 1 voice
Esther 2:16
“Tebeth (compare the corresponding Egyptian month, “Tobi” or “Tubi”), corresponded nearly to our January. In the seventh year of his reign - In December, 479 B.C., or January, 478 B.C. Xerxes quitted Sardis for Susa in, or soon after, September, 479 B.C. It has been regarded as a “difficulty” that Vashti’s place, declared vacant in 483 B.C., was not supplied until the end of 479 B.C., four years afterward. But since two years out of the four had been occupied by the Grecian expedition, the objection cannot be considered very weighty.”
Esther 2:17, 1 voice
Esther 2:17
“Set the royal crown upon her head - Made her what is now called in the East the Sultana, the queen. She was the mistress of all the rest of the wives, all of whom were obliged to pay her the most profound respect.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Esther 2:18, 3 voices
Esther 2:18
“Now, what can "prepare a greatly magnificent feast for all his officials and slaves in honor of his marriage with Esther" mean, if not that everyone throughout the world, from the greatest to the least, celebrates with the greatest joy the spiritual union of Christ …”
Rabanus Maurus· written before 856· Commentary on Estherpatristic
Esther 2:18
“The nuptials were celebrated by a magnificent entertainment, and, in honor of the auspicious occasion, "he made a release to the provinces, and gave gifts, according to the state of the king." The dotation of Persian queens consisted in consigning to them the revenue of certain cities, in various parts of the kingdom, for defraying their personal and domestic expenditure.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Esther 2:18
“He also granted a release to the provinces, either a remittance of the taxes in arrear or an act of grace for criminals; as Pilate, at the feast, released a prisoner. This was to add t the joy. [2.] Of the deference Esther continued to pay to her former guardian. She still did the commandment of Mordecai, as when she was brought up with him,”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
D. Two doorkeepers' plot written down in the book of the chronicles
1. (vv. 19-20)
a.the virgins were gathered together the second time: The virgins are gathered a second time, an obscure notice the commentators read variously, and Mordecai now sits in the king’s gate, an official post rather than a chance location. Esther still keeps her kindred and her people hidden, doing the commandment of Mordecai as she did when she was brought up with him, the narrator repeating the obedience so the reader does not mistake it for having lapsed with her crown. The secret holds even from the throne itself, queen though she now is.
Esther 2:19, 3 voices
Esther 2:19
“Virgins are being sought for the king a second time and gathered together, because it was not enough for our Lord Jesus Christ to associate himself exclusively with the Jewish members of the early Church; rather he also acquired through his preachers copious numbers of …”
Rabanus Maurus· written before 856· Commentary on Estherpatristic
Esther 2:19
“When the virgins ... - Rather, “when virgins” etc. The words begin a new paragraph. There was a second collection of virgins (after that of Est 2:8), and it was at the time of this second collection that Mordecai had the good fortune to save the king’s life.”
Esther 2:19
“Mordecai say in the king's gate; that was the height of his preferment: he was one of the porters or door-keepers of the court. Whether he had this place before, or whether Esther obtained it for him, we are not told; but there he sat contentedly, and aimed no higher; and yet Esther who was advanced to the throne was observant of him.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Esther 2:20, 1 voice
Esther 2:20
“This is an example to orphans; if they fall into the hands of those who love them and take care of them, let them make suitable returns of duty and affection. The less obliged their guardians were in duty to provide for them the more obliged they are in gratitude to honour and obey their guardians.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2. (vv. 21-23)
a.sought to lay hand on the king Ahasuerus: Two chamberlains who kept the door, Bigthan and Teresh, grow wroth and plot to lay hand on the king, and Mordecai uncovers the matter and tells Esther, who certifies the king in Mordecai’s name. The plot is proven, the two are hanged, and the deed is written in the book of the chronicles before the king, filed and closed. The chapter ends on the detail every reader is meant to carry forward without comment from the text: nothing was done for Mordecai, no reward, no mention, a debt the book leaves standing until an insomniac king calls for the chronicles at 6:1.
Esther 2:21, 2 voices
Esther 2:21
“Conspiracies inside the palace were ordinary occurrences in Persia. Xerxes was ultimately murdered by Artabanus, the captain of the guard, and Aspamitras, a chamberlain and eunuch.”
Esther 2:21
“Mordecai got notice of their treason, and, by Esther's means, discovered it to the king, hereby confirming her in and recommending himself to the king's favour. How he came to the knowledge of it does not appear. Whether he overheard their discourse, or whether they offered to draw him in with them, so it was that the thing was known to him.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Esther 2:22, 1 voice
Esther 2:22
“Was known to Mordecai - Josephus says that a Jew, named Barnabasus, overheard the plot, told it to Mordecai, Mordecai to Esther, and Esther to the king, in Mordecai’s name; and he was registered as the discoverer.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Esther 2:23, 2 voices
Esther 2:23
“Both hanged on a tree - i. e. “crucified” or “impaled” the ordinary punishment of rebels and traitors in Persia. The book of the chronicles - Ctesias drew his Persian history from them, and they are often glanced at by Herodotus.”
Esther 2:23
“He was not rewarded presently, but a book of remembrance was written. Thus with respect to those who serve Christ, though their recompence is adjourned till the resurrection of the just, yet an account is kept of their work of faith and labour of love, which God is not unrighteous to forget, Heb. vi.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Esther 2. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on 11 works. Open for the list.
This page draws on Adam Clarke; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871); Jerome, LETTER 125.14; John Gill; John Wesley; Keil, The Books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther; Matthew Henry; Rabanus Maurus, Commentary on Esther and W. F. Adeney, Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther (Expositor's Bible).
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