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Many think it was barbaric of Xerxes to objectify females by demanding his Queen Vashti present herself in all her beauty before his noblemen and valued guests. Whereas, in hopes of being made queen, Esther gladly assented to putting her naked body on display before the king and then further prostituting herself with him, in hopes of becoming his favorite of all the young pretty virgins:
Est 2:4, 17 NLT - 4 After that, the young woman who most pleases the king will be made queen instead of Vashti." This advice was very appealing to the king, so he put the plan into effect. ... 17 And the king loved Esther more than any of the other young women….
Notice now, that one seems to complain about her doing this, nor about Mordecai pandering Esther’s body as a tool to gain political power. Therefore, it doesn’t seem that objectifying Vashti’s body is what really upsets feminists, but rather that there doesn’t appear to be any further personal advantage to Vashti to prance about before the king, since she was already in the highest position available to her. On the other hand, Esther's displaying of her body is undoubtedly acceptable in their eyes, since it was simply a means to a higher end.
Vashti refused the summons of King Xerxes to appear before him and his guests because she did not want to be put on display as an object to be looked at and judged solely based on her physical beauty. She valued her dignity and autonomy as a queen and did not want to be degraded in front of the king's drunken guests.
According to the Book of Esther, Xerxes was celebrating the third year of his reign with a long party. On the seventh day of the party, Xerxes was drunk and called for Queen Vashti to be brought for the people to see, because she was fair to look at. Esther 1:12 says that Vashti refused to come, and Xerxes was angry.
The Book of Esther says no more, so we can only guess that the reason for her refusal could have been his drunken state. We can not look outside the Book of Esther for an answer, because historians say that there seems never to have been a Queen Vashti, and that Amestris was queen until well after Xerxes' third year as king.
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Who did Vashti marry?
Vashti married King Ahasuerus (Xerxes I), as stated in the Book of Esther in the Bible. She was the first queen mentioned in the book.
Xerxes was king of?
Xerxes was king of Persia and battled against Sparta and Athens. etc
Were Xerxes and Nebuchadnezzar related?
No, Xerxes and Nebuchadnezzar were not related. Xerxes was a Persian king who ruled after Nebuchadnezzar's time as the ruler of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Nebuchadnezzar was a Babylonian king known for his conquests and building projects.
What does the name vashti mean?
The name Vashti is of Persian origin and means "beautiful" or "best". It is a name that conveys qualities of elegance, grace, and excellence.
Who replaced Queen Vashti when she displeased her husband Xerxes?
Esther. Esther was the heroine and central figure in the Biblical book of Esther. She was crowned about 55 years after the destruction of the First Temple, and fifteen years before the Second Temple was built. The Jews were in the Babylonian exile. A few of them, such as Nehemiah, Mordecai and Daniel, rose to positions of prominence under the Babylonian kings.The last of the Prophets of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) were still living.King Cyrus had recently made his famous proclamation (2 Chronicles 36:22-23) allowing the Jews to resettle Judea (Israel), and some had gone up with Zerubavel, but the enemies of the Jews had then slandered them (Ezra ch.4), causing the Babylonian king to put a stop to the rebuilding and resettlement of Judea. This last event was around the same time that Esther became Queen.When she became orphaned, she was adopted by her cousin Mordecai.Later, when Queen Vashti refused to appear before Ahasuerus (in Esther ch.1), Memuchan, a Persian royal adviser, advised King Ahasuerus (Xerxes I) to remove Vashti from being Queen of Persia, and King Ahasuerus agreed to his advice.In Esther Chapter 2, royal eunuchs advised Ahasuerus to look for a new queen. Esther was the best-looking woman, and Ahasuerus picked her to replace Vashti as Queen.Esther and her cousin Mordecai (who had once saved the king's life) later persuaded the king to cancel an order for the extermination of the Jews in his vast realm, which had been plotted by the king's chief minister, Haman. Instead, Haman was hanged on the gallows he had built for Mordecai, and the Jews were given permission to destroy their enemies. The Jewish festival of Purim celebrates this event.According to tradition, the book of Esther was written in the mid-4th century BCE, and was made part of the canon which was sealed a couple of decades after.Esther was queen for about 11 years.The name of Mordecai is the Judaised pronunciation of Marduka, which is attested in the Persepolis Texts as the name of officials in the Persian court during the period of Xerxes I. One of these officials was the biblical Mordecai.The grave of Mordecai and Esther still stands in Hamadan; and the Jews of Iran, to this day, are referred to as "the children of Esther."For the name of Esther, a number of etymologies are possible.1) Esther comes from the Persian "setareh," meaning "star".2) Esther comes from the Aramaic "istahar," meaning "moon." Beautiful as the moon (Talmud, Megillah 13a).3) Esther comes from the Semitic root ath-tar, "morning star." There is support for this too in the Talmud (Yoma 29a).4) Esther comes from the Median "astra," meaning "myrtle." The book of Esther (2:7) states that she had both names, Esther and Myrtle (Hadassah in Hebrew).See also:Why was Esther chosen as Queen?More about the Hebrew BibleJewish history timeline
Who did Esther replace as queen?
Esther replaced Queen Vashti as queen after Queen Vashti refused to come to the King's banquet.
Who did Vashti marry?
Vashti married King Ahasuerus (Xerxes I), as stated in the Book of Esther in the Bible. She was the first queen mentioned in the book.
What did Esther do after king Xerxes was assassinated?
No such event is recorded in the Scroll of Esther. It was Queen Vashti, not the king, who was killed by royal decree.
Where is vashti found in The Bible?
The name Vashti appears as the name of the first queen of the Persian king Achashverosh, in the apocryphal book of Esther. The name Vashti came from an Elamite goddess. The king has been identified by some as Xerxes. Some important contemporary women with that name include Vashti McKenzie, the first female Bishop of the AME church, Vashti McCollum, who won a landmark US Supreme Court case in 1948, and folk singer Vashti Bunyan.
What happened in the first chapter of the Book of Esther?
Chapter 1 of the Book of Esther begins by telling us that in the third year of the reign of King Ahasuerus of Persia, he held a feast in his palace. His wife, Queen Vashti made a feast for the women in the royal house. On the seventh day of the feast, the king commanded that Vashti be brought before him to show to the people, but she refused to come. Troubled, Ahasuerus asked his wise men what he should do. They said that unless he divorced Vashti, all the women in the empire would begin to disobey their husbands. The name Ahasuerus is universally believed to be the Hebrew name for King Xerxes, who ruled Persia from 486 to 465 BCE. However, Xerxes' wife at the time was not Vashti, but Amestris. Amestris remained queen well beyond the third year of Xerxes' reign, so there can have been no Queen Vashti nor, it seems, a Queen Esther.
Who was the king who organised a beauty contest to pick a bride?
This story is in the Book of Esther, which says that King Xerxes chose Esther from all the most beautiful virgins in the empire, after he divorced his first wife, Vashti. However, there is no historical record of either Vashti or Esther, and Queen Amestris is accepted by historians as Xerxes' only wife for the first several years of his reign. From a historical perspective, this beauty contest did not really happen.
Who in the Bible defiles and disrespects her royal husband and is replaced by a foreign woman?
In the Book of Esther, Vashti, wife of King Xerxes, showed disrespect to him and was replaced by the beautiful Jew, Esther. Historians say that the wife of Xerxes I was really Amestris and that she was not replaced, so this is not a historical account.
What was Xerxes king of?
Xerxes was the king of ancient Persia.
Was queen vashti killed?
Yes, Vashti was executed for disobeying King Achashverosh.
Who was the spartan king at the battle of thermopylae?
Xerxes the first
Who was the successor and son to Darius of Persia?
King Xerxes.
Why was King ahasuerus angry with vashti during part?
Vashti disobeyed Asahuruers during the part.
