Esther and Herodotus part seven

We are at Esther 2:11. Esther has undergone a year of intensive beauty treatments. It was her turn to get deflowered go to the king. She had permission to take whatever she wanted, but limited herself to what the head eunuch suggested. This made her very likable. "She was taken to King Xerxes in the royal residence in the tenth month, in the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign." That was in the winter, somewhere around 479 BCE, at least four years after the banquet in chapter one.

The text tells us the king was highly attracted to Esther and liked her better than all the other virgins he sampled. "So he set a royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti." If this story is about the historical king of Persia, Xerxes, and his actual queen, Amestris, the last statement is a blatant falsehood. It is historically unbelievable that this king should have take a woman of unknown origin and make her his queen in place of the mother of his heirs, just because she made a good impression in the bedroom. Not only that, Amestris was obviously a wickedly jealous woman, if Herodotus is to be believed.

Next, the king gave a great banquet, "Esther's banquet." He invited all the nobles and officials and gave out presents. Did he ask the new queen to show up at the banquet when everyone was drunk? It doesn't say.

Verse 19 is rather odd. It says, "when the virgins were assembled a second time, Mordecai was sitting at the king's gate." So, the king chose his new queen but kept rounding up virgins any way. Why was Mordecai sitting at the king's gate? The text has only said that he has been concerned about Esther's fate. By now, she's been in the royal compound for over a year. I'm pretty sure the implication is that he has found some occupation there. Perhaps as a scribe or other servant. The text goes on to say that from his position at the gate, Mordecai continues to give Esther instructions, and she continues to follow them. Plus, at Mordecai's command, she still has not told anyone she is a Hebrew,

While Mordecai was still sitting at the king's gate. He happened to discover a plot to kill the king. Mordecai relayed the news to Esther who reported it to the king, The report was "investigated and found to be true." The conspirators were hanged and the event was written in the king's records.

We are now at chapter three. Some time has passed between chapters two and three, possibly up to five years, as we will see. Enter the villain, Haman the Agagite. We are told that the king elevated him and gave "him a seat of honor higher than that of all the other nobles." It may not be obvious, but  the author is having a little fun with words here. Way back in Chronicles, all the Agagites were supposedly destroyed during the reign of Saul. How  could Haman be an Agagite at least 500 years later? Back in the day, Agag was a king whose downfall by the Israelites was allegedly predicted in Numbers 24:7, "Their king will be greater than Agag; their kingdom will be exalted." The name Agag meant "high." It has the connotation of great or exalted. Numbers was playing off that meaning to say that Agag may be high, but Israel would be higher. This prediction is supposed to have come true with the destruction of Agag and his kingdom in Chronicles.

So, when the author of Esther called Haman an Agagite, he is basically saying that Haman may look high and mighty now, but he's cruising for a fall. And at the hands of a possible descendant of Saul no less.

Till next time.