My God and My Country

The Book of Esther

Chapter 1:17-18, 20, 22

Today Brethren, we start a new study.

Overview

This is taken from its principal character, a Jewish maiden became queen of a Persian King. To explain the origin of the feast of Purim work of providence for God's people. The events narrated are thought to have occurred about 56 years after the first return of Zerubbabel in 536 B. C. The King then would be Xerxes the Great, and the drunken feast may have been preparatory to the invasion of Greece in the third year of his reign.Connection with Other Books. There is no connection between Esther and the other books of the Bible. While it is a story of the time when the Jews were returning to Jerusalem, and very likely should come between the first and second return, and, therefore, between the sixth and seventh chapters of Ezra, the incident stands alone. Without it we would lose much of our knowledge of that period.

17 For the act of the Queen shall come abroad unto all women, so that they shall despise their husbands in their own eyes, and shall say, The King Ahasuerus commanded Vashti the Queen to be brought in before him, but she came not.
18 So shall the Princesses of Persia and Media this day say unto all the King’s Princes, when they hear of the act of the Queen: thus shall there be much despitefulness and wrath.

20 And when the decree of the King which shall be made, shall be published throughout all his kingdom (though it be great) all the women shall give their husbands honor, both great and small.

22 For he sent letters into all the provinces of the King, into every province according to the writing thereof, and to every people after their language, that every man should [a]bear rule in his own house, and that he should publish it in the language of that same people.

Related Scripture

Verse 17 – Ephesians 5:33
Verse 20 – 1 Peter 3:1
Verse 22 – Ephesians 5:22-24, 1 Timothy 2:12
“The decree was not unnecessary. The undue influence of women in domestic, and even in public, matters is a feature of the ancient Persian monarchy. Atossa completely ruled Darius. Xerxes himself was, in his later years, shamefully subject to Amestris. The example of the court would naturally infect the people. The decree therefore would be a protest, even if [it were], ineffectual.” Albert Barnes Commentary of the Bible