The book of Esther tells the story of a young Jewish woman who was an orphan raised by her cousin Mordecai. Because of her beauty, she was taken into the royal palace and became the wife of the Persian king.
Her Hebrew name, Hadassah (which means myrtle tree
), is mentioned only once in Esther 2:7. The story mostly uses her Persian name, Esther, which she also used to hide her Jewish identity.
The book shows Esther’s character, but it does not describe her spiritual life or whether she resisted the pagan customs around her, as Daniel and his friends did (see Daniel 1:8). Yet when the Jewish people were in danger because of the evil Haman, Esther showed great courage and wisdom, risking her own life to save her people.
The book of Esther tells the story of a Jewish orphan girl who obtains a position of power and influence at the Persian court. Raised by Mordecai, her (great) cousin, she ended up in the royal harem because of her feminine beauty. Ahasuerus, the Persian king, had the most beautiful girls of his kingdom gathered there to choose the new queen from among them. Esther thus became queen instead of the—in Ahasuerus' opinion—unwilling Vashti.
The Hebrew name Hadassah
(myrtle tree) is mentioned once (Esther 2:7), but throughout the story her Persian name Esther
is used. Because of this name she was initially able, on the advice of Mordecai, to keep her Jewish origins hidden.
In the course of the account various aspects of Esther's actions emerge, which reveal more about her personality. It is striking that we learn nothing about her spiritual life, or of any form of resistance to the pagan customs of her environment, as in the case of Daniel and his friends (see Daniel 1:8). She knows how to please the king above all other beauties of the harem, so that she is immediately crowned queen. However, when her people, the Jews, are in danger of being exterminated by the hateful Haman, she emerges as a courageous and shrewd woman, who ultimately risks everything to save the Jewish people and herself from the announced genocide.1
1 Now in the days of Ahasuerus, the Ahasuerus who reigned from India to Ethiopia over 127 provinces,