Esther 1:1-22

For Reading and Meditation:     Esther 1:13-22

Vashti';s refusal to obey the king's command threw the whole palace into an uproar. The Persian regime was established and built on the concept of law and order. So deeply ingrained was this idea that even the king himself was subject to the laws that he signed. Greatly...

For Reading and Meditation:     Esther 1:10-12

The next person we meet in the kingdom of Xerxes is his wife, Vashti, the queen. We know very little about Vashti except that she was, to all appearances, a sensible, respectable and very beautiful woman. On the seventh day of the great banquet, King Xerxes, heavily under the influence of alcohol, directs his...

For Reading and Meditation:     Esther 1:1-8

Esther is one of the two books of the Old Testament on which an orthodox Jew is required to make any solemn oath or vow - the other being the Pentateuch, the books of Moses. The reason for this is that Moses recounts the deliverance of the Jews from Egypt, and the book of Esther recounts the deliverance of the Jews from...