ESTHER (es'tEr), (Heb. es-tare', from Persian sitareh, star, the planet l'enus).
1. Name and Family. She was a maiden of the tribe of Benjamin, born during the Exile, and whose family did not avail itself of the permis sion to return to Palestine under the edict of Cyrus. Her parents being dead, Esther was brought up by her cousin Moi decai. It should be observed that Esther is the name which the dam sel received upon her introduction into the royal harem, her Hebrew name having been Hadassah, myrtle (Esth. :7). Esther is a Persian word. Gesenius cites from that diffuse Targum on this book, which is known as the second Targum on Esther, the following words: 'She was called Es ther from the name of the star Venus, which in Greek is Aster.' Gesenius then points to the Per sian word Satdrah, star, as that of which Esther is the Syro-Arabian modification, and brings it, as to signification, into connection with the planet Venus, as a star of good fortune, and with the name of the Syrian goddess, Ashtoreth, according to the etymology of the word, already referred to in that article.
2. Personal History. (1) Chosen Queen. The reigning king of Persia, Ahasuerus. having divorced his queen, Vashti, on account of the be coming spirit with which she refused to submit to the indignity which a compliance with his drunken commands involved, search was made throughout the empire for the most beautiful maiden to be her successor. Those whom the offi cers of the harem deemed the most beautiful were removed thither, the eventual choice among them remaining with the king himself. That choice fell on Esther, who found favor in the eyes of Ahasuerus, and was advanced to a station en viable only by comparison with that of the less favored inmates of the royal harem. Her Jewish origin was at the time unknown: and hence, when she avowed it to the king she seemed to be in cluded in the doom of extirpation which a royal edict had pronounced against all the Jews in the empire.
(2) Saves Her People. This circumstance enabled her to turn the royal indignation upon Haman, the chief minister of the king, whose re sentment against Mordecai had led him to obtain from the king this monstrous edict. The laws of the empire would not allow the king to recall a decree once uttered ; but the Jews were author ized to stand on their defense; and this, with the known change in the intentions of the court, averted the worst consequences of the decree. The Jews established a yearly feast in memory of this deliverance, which is observed among them to this day (see Puarm). Such is the substance of
the history of Esther, as related in the book which bears her name.
3. Character. Esther appears in the Bible as a woman of deep piety, faith, courage, patriot ism and caution, combined with resolution; a du tiful daughter to her adoptive father, docile and obedient to his counsels, and anxious to share the king's favor with him for the good of the Jewish people. That she was a virtuous woman, and, as far as her situation made it possible, a good wife to the king, her continued influence over him for so long a time warrants us to infer. And there must have been a singular grace and charm in her aspect and manners, since she "obtained favor in the sight of all that looked upon her" (ii :15). That she was raised up as an instrument in the hands of God to avert the destruction of the Jew ish people, and to afford them protection, and for ward their wealth and peace in their captivity, is also manifest from the Scripture account. (Arch deacon Hervey, Smith's Bib. Diet.) Dr. Hervey adds: "But to impute to her the sentiments put into her mouth by the apocryphal author of chapter xiv, or to accuse her of cruelty because of the death of Haman and his sons and the second day's slaughter of the Jews' enemies at Shushan, is utterly to ignore the manners and feelings of her age and nation, and to judge her by the standard of Christian morality in our own age and country instead. In fact the simplicity and truth to nature of the Scriptural narrative afford a striking contrast, both with the forced and florid amplifications of the apocryphal addi tions and with the sentiments of some later com mentators." J. A. I'IcClymont, Hastings' Bib. Diet., says : "While there are some things recorded of Esther that offend our Christian feeling—in particular her vindictive treatment of the bodies of Haman's sons (chap. ix :7), and her request for an exten sion of time to the Jews at Susa for the slaughter of their enemies (chap. ix :r3)—regard must be had to the spirit of the age in which she lived and to the passions that had been excited by Haman's inhuman malignity." Dr. William Wright in Kitto's Bib. Cyc., says : "With reference to the somewhat sanguinary char acter of Esther and Mordecai, John remarks that no difficulty arises from thence, seeing that they are not represented as saints, but as deliverers of their nation."