Speaker 1: Life Audio. How do you their, faith listeners. My name
Speaker 1: is Jen and I am the host of the Bible Explained.
Speaker 1: So thankful that you all are here with me to
Speaker 1: share a delicious cup of coffee or tea this morning.
Speaker 1: And guess what I am drinking tea for like the
Speaker 1: first time in months, I have some peppermint tea here
Speaker 1: with me because I have a bit of a stomach
Speaker 1: ache today and I'm not doing super well, so coffee
Speaker 1: I didn't think would be the best choice, so I
Speaker 1: decided on tea instead. We'll see if it helps fix
Speaker 1: my stomach ache. But that's the only time I'll generally
Speaker 1: drink tea is if I'm desperate for coffee but I
Speaker 1: can't drink coffee, which is unfortunately the case this morning.
Speaker 1: All right, let's go ahead and dive into Esther chapter two,
Speaker 1: where we are introduced finally to the woman Esther, and
Speaker 1: we'll talk about everything that goes on with her selection
Speaker 1: and who she was as a person a little bit.
Speaker 1: But before we do that, please listen to this first
Speaker 1: sponsored ad. All right, faith listeners, grab your Bible out
Speaker 1: of the version that you prefer. I'll be reading, as
Speaker 1: always from the Web version, and also grab your delicious
Speaker 1: cup of coffee or cup of tea this morning to
Speaker 1: share with me. We'll be reading the entirety of Esther
Speaker 1: chapter two. After these things, when the wrath of King
Speaker 1: Aha Saras was pacified, he remembered Vashti and what she
Speaker 1: had done and what was decreed against her. Then the
Speaker 1: king's servants who served him said, let beautiful young virgins
Speaker 1: be sought for the king. Let the king appoint officers
Speaker 1: in all the provinces of his kingdom, that they may
Speaker 1: gather together all the beautiful young virgins to the citadel
Speaker 1: of Susa, to the women's house, to the custody of Hegai,
Speaker 1: the King's eunuch keeper of the women. Let cosmetics be
Speaker 1: given to them, and let the maiden who pleases the
Speaker 1: king be queen instead of Vashti. The thing pleased the king,
Speaker 1: and he did so. There was a certain Jew in
Speaker 1: the citadel of Susa, whose name was Mordecai, the son
Speaker 1: of j R. The son of Shimei, the son of
Speaker 1: Kish of Benjamite, who had been carried away from Jerusalem
Speaker 1: with the captives who had been carried away with Jaconia,
Speaker 1: King of Judah, whom nebechon Ezer, the King of Babylon,
Speaker 1: had carried away. He brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther,
Speaker 1: his uncle's daughter, for she had neither father nor mother.
Speaker 1: The maiden was fair and beautiful, and when her father
Speaker 1: and mother were dead, Mordechai took her for his own daughter. So,
Speaker 1: when the king's commandment in his decree was heard, and
Speaker 1: when many maidens were gathered together to the citadel of
Speaker 1: Susa to the custody of Hegei, Esther was taken into
Speaker 1: the king's house to the custody of Hegei, keeper of
Speaker 1: the women. The maiden pleased him, and she obtained kindness
Speaker 1: from him. He quickly gave her cosmetics and her portions
Speaker 1: of food, and the seven choice maidens who were to
Speaker 1: be given to her. Out of the king's house, he
Speaker 1: moved her and the maidens to the best place in
Speaker 1: the women's house. Estra had not made known her people
Speaker 1: nor her relatives, because Mordechai had instructed her that she
Speaker 1: should not make it known. Mordecai walked every day in
Speaker 1: front of the court of the women's house to find
Speaker 1: out how Esther was doing and what would become of her.
Speaker 1: Each young woman's turn came to go into the King
Speaker 1: Aha Sarras after her purification for twelve months. For so
Speaker 1: were the days of their purification accomplished, six months with
Speaker 1: oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet fragrances, and
Speaker 1: with preparations for beautifying women. The young women then came
Speaker 1: to the king like this. Whatever she desired was given
Speaker 1: to her to go with her out of the women's
Speaker 1: house to the king's house. In the evening she went,
Speaker 1: and on the next day she returned into the second
Speaker 1: women's house, to the custody of Shashgas, the king's eunuch,
Speaker 1: who kept the concubines. She came into the king no
Speaker 1: more unless the king delighted in her, and she was
Speaker 1: called by name. Now, when the turn of Esther, the
Speaker 1: daughter of Abbahil, the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken
Speaker 1: her for his daughter, came to go into the king,
Speaker 1: she required nothing but what Hagai, the King's eunuch, the
Speaker 1: keeper of the women, advised. Esther obtained favor in the
Speaker 1: sight of all those who looked at her. So Estra
Speaker 1: was taken to King Aha Sarras into his royal house
Speaker 1: in the tenth month, which is the month to Beth.
Speaker 1: In the seventh year of his reign, the king loved
Speaker 1: Esther more than all the women, and she obtained favor
Speaker 1: and kindness in his sight, more than all the virgins,
Speaker 1: so that he set the royal crown on her head
Speaker 1: and made her queen instead of Vashti. Then the king
Speaker 1: made a great feast for all his princes and his servants,
Speaker 1: even Esther's feast, and he proclaimed a holiday in the
Speaker 1: provinces and gave gifts according to the king's bounty. When
Speaker 1: the virgins were gathered together the second time, Mordechai was
Speaker 1: sitting in the king's gate, Esther had not yet made
Speaker 1: known her relatives nor her people, as Mordechai had commanded her.
Speaker 1: For Estor obeyed Mordechai like she did when she was
Speaker 1: brought up by him in those days. While Mordechai was
Speaker 1: sitting in the king's gate, two of the king's eunuchs,
Speaker 1: big Thin and Tesh, who were doorkeepers, were angry and
Speaker 1: sought to lay hands on King Ahaseras this thing became
Speaker 1: known to Mordechai, who informed Esther the queen, and Esther
Speaker 1: informed the king in Mordecai's name. When this matter was
Speaker 1: an investigated, it was found to be so, so they
Speaker 1: were both hanged on the gallows, and it was written
Speaker 1: in the book of the Chronicles in the king's presence.
Speaker 1: So now we get the next part of the story,
Speaker 1: and probably sometime has passed between chapters one and two,
Speaker 1: because you'll remember in chapter one, King aha Seris, or
Speaker 1: King Xerxes as history calls him, was celebrating with this
Speaker 1: giant feast in the third year of his reign, and
Speaker 1: we know that in the third year of his reign
Speaker 1: he ended up going on a conquest against the Greeks,
Speaker 1: trying to take Greece for himself, and did not succeed.
Speaker 1: He filled very miserably. But so probably Chapter one was
Speaker 1: talking about his preparation for his campaign against the Greeks, which,
Speaker 1: by the way, I just found out today that that
Speaker 1: was prophesied about in Daniel Levin. Interestingly enough, many many
Speaker 1: years before King Xerxes was born. Here's what it says
Speaker 1: in Daniel leven, verse two, I will show you the truth. Behold,
Speaker 1: three more kings will stand up in Persia. The fourth
Speaker 1: will be far richer than all of them. And when
Speaker 1: he has grown strong through his riches, he will stir
Speaker 1: up all against the realm of Greece. So now in
Speaker 1: ester chapter two, it sounds like sometime has passed, because
Speaker 1: here's what it says in verse one. After these things,
Speaker 1: in other words, the things that happened in the first chapter,
Speaker 1: when the wrath of King Azas was pacified, he remembered
Speaker 1: Vashti and what she had done and what was decreed
Speaker 1: against her. So I would guess that this probably happened
Speaker 1: about three years after the account mentioned in Esther chapter one,
Speaker 1: because it took about three years for King Xerxes to
Speaker 1: come back home after his campaign against the Greeks, because
Speaker 1: he failed very badly, and four years for him to
Speaker 1: just kind of give up. So I would guess this
Speaker 1: is after he came home. You know, the invasion of
Speaker 1: Greece took his mind off of everything that happened with Vashti.
Speaker 1: And now that he's back home, now that he's comfortable
Speaker 1: in his palace again, he's probably missing his wife a
Speaker 1: little bit because remember, she was the most beautiful person
Speaker 1: in the eyes of King AHAs Eris. He thought that
Speaker 1: she was gorgeous, and the historian Josephus actually says that
Speaker 1: he was in love with Vashti. He snapped at her
Speaker 1: when she embarrassed him. But now that some time has passed,
Speaker 1: he's remembering the love he had for her, and he
Speaker 1: actually misses her. But because he made that decree, he
Speaker 1: can't do anything to bring Vashti back. There's nothing he
Speaker 1: can do about it. He made that decree, and in
Speaker 1: these days, when a king made a decree, it was binding.
Speaker 1: Even the king himself could not go back on a
Speaker 1: decree that he made. So he banished Vashti. Whatever that
Speaker 1: looks like, whether he killed her or put her in
Speaker 1: the harem or made her live somewhere else where, he
Speaker 1: couldn't see her. I don't know what happened to her,
Speaker 1: but he couldn't go back on his word. However, he's
Speaker 1: feeling a little bit sad, a little bit bummed about
Speaker 1: what he did here. So now the king's servants, probably
Speaker 1: the friends of the king, his advisers, see that the
Speaker 1: king is upset, and they're like, you know what, you
Speaker 1: need to take your mind off of Vashti. There are
Speaker 1: tons of other fish in the sea. So here's what
Speaker 1: we're going to do. Let beautiful young virgins verse two
Speaker 1: be sought for the king. Let the King appoint officers
Speaker 1: in all the provinces of his kingdom, that they may
Speaker 1: gather together all the beautiful young virgins to the citadel
Speaker 1: of Susa, to the woman's house, to the custody of Hegei,
Speaker 1: the King's eunuch keeper of the women. Let cosmetics be
Speaker 1: given to them, and let the maiden who pleases the
Speaker 1: king be queen instead of Ashti. The thing pleased the
Speaker 1: king and he did so, yeah, of course it did so. Yeah.
Speaker 1: This idea is that there's going to be a beauty
Speaker 1: contest essentially, where all of these lovely young virgins, specifically
Speaker 1: virgins would be brought to the winter palace at Susa,
Speaker 1: and all of these women, one by one would be
Speaker 1: given you know, ointment and perfume and delicious food and
Speaker 1: cosmetics to make themselves more beautiful for the king. And
Speaker 1: one by one, every single night, these young virgins would
Speaker 1: come to the king. He would do the dirty with
Speaker 1: them and then send them back to the Harem. And
Speaker 1: whatever young virgin pleased the king the most, that's the
Speaker 1: one that he would make queen instead of Vashti. So
Speaker 1: this idea, of course pleases King Xerxes, and he's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know what, I need hundreds of women to get
Speaker 1: my mind off of Vashti. So that's what we're gonna do.
Speaker 1: And now this is where we are introduced to Esther.
Speaker 1: It says in verse five that there is a certain
Speaker 1: Jew in the Citadel of Susa whose name was Mordecai.
Speaker 1: Now you might remember that the Citadel of Susa was
Speaker 1: very close to Babylon, and that was where the Jews
Speaker 1: were eggs led too, So there is a lot of
Speaker 1: Jews at this point in time still living in Babylon,
Speaker 1: many of them had not gone back home to Jerusalem yet,
Speaker 1: and Mordecai is one of the Jews that was living
Speaker 1: in Susa. And it says that he was the son
Speaker 1: of ja R, the son of Shem, the son of
Speaker 1: Kish of Benjamite. Now, interestingly enough, Kish, you may recall,
Speaker 1: was the father of King Saul, the first king of
Speaker 1: Israel's history, the one right before David. So Esther's family
Speaker 1: was actually from a royal bloodline, not the royal bloodline
Speaker 1: of the Judites, but still the royal bloodline of the Benjamites,
Speaker 1: who God initially chose before Saul completely rejected him. And
Speaker 1: you might not remember the reason why God rejected Saul.
Speaker 1: But there was two reasons. The first one was that
Speaker 1: Saul did not obey the command to kill all of
Speaker 1: the Amalekites, all right, And I talked at length actually
Speaker 1: about that when we covered that in I think it
Speaker 1: was first Samuel, So I will link that episode actually
Speaker 1: in the description of this episode, so you guys can
Speaker 1: listen to that one. But that is a very important
Speaker 1: to note moving forward. Okay, we'll talk about that more
Speaker 1: in a different chapter. But all that being said, Esther's
Speaker 1: family was from the royal line of the Benjamites, and
Speaker 1: it mentions this man Mordecai right here, who happened to
Speaker 1: be Esther's cousin. It says there was a certain Jew
Speaker 1: in the citadel of Susa whose name was Mordecai, who
Speaker 1: had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captives who
Speaker 1: had been carried away with a Jaconia king of Judah.
Speaker 1: So either Mordechai was extremely old, because this was about
Speaker 1: what seventy years prior eighty ninety. I don't know yours prior,
Speaker 1: so I don't think it was Mordecai who got carried
Speaker 1: away with the first Babylonian takeover of Judah. But probably
Speaker 1: his family was, and so during this time his young
Speaker 1: cousin es Her was without parents. They got killed somehow,
Speaker 1: and so Esther was without a father and a mother,
Speaker 1: and Mordecai adopted her. So it says in verse eight
Speaker 1: that when the king's commandment and decree was heard, and
Speaker 1: when many maidens were gathered together to the citadel of Susa,
Speaker 1: to the custody of Heguy, Esther was taken into the
Speaker 1: King's house. Notice it says that Esther was taken I
Speaker 1: don't think this was a beauty pageant that women were
Speaker 1: like competing for. It. Kind of sounds like men were
Speaker 1: going from house to house trying to find beautiful young virgins,
Speaker 1: and any of the ones that fit the bill. They
Speaker 1: were probably forced to go into the king's house. It
Speaker 1: did not matter if they wanted to or not. I'm
Speaker 1: going to guess anyway. And Esther was one of these
Speaker 1: beautiful young women, and she immediately goes into the custody
Speaker 1: of Heguy. It says the maiden pleased him or Hegui,
Speaker 1: and she obtained kindness from him, so he ended up
Speaker 1: liking her for whatever reason. Even though I'm sure many
Speaker 1: of the virgins that came to his care. Very beautiful.
Speaker 1: There was something beautiful about Esther's countenance. There is something
Speaker 1: beautiful about her personality, something that attracted people to her.
Speaker 1: Is kind of what it sounds like. And if you
Speaker 1: read through who Esther is in the entire book, she's
Speaker 1: very kind, she's very humble. She's probably a believing Jewish woman,
Speaker 1: and she had just a different kind of personality I
Speaker 1: suppose than some of these other young women did who
Speaker 1: worshiped other idols. And that shows the difference, I suppose
Speaker 1: between Yahism and idolatry. So he guy ends up immediately
Speaker 1: liking Esther, and she obtained kindness from him, and he
Speaker 1: quickly gave her cosmetics and portions of food and the
Speaker 1: seven choice maidens who are to be given to her
Speaker 1: out of the king's house, and he moved her and
Speaker 1: her maidens to the best place in the woman's house. Now,
Speaker 1: during all this time, it says in verse ten that
Speaker 1: Esther had not made known her people nor her relatives,
Speaker 1: because Mordecai had instructed her that she should not make
Speaker 1: it known. So Mordecai was very clear to Esther, you
Speaker 1: cannot tell people who you're related to or who your
Speaker 1: relatives are, and the fact that Mordecai had adopted her
Speaker 1: was probably helpful for all of this because she could
Speaker 1: get away with saying, I'm an orphan, I don't have
Speaker 1: any parents, I was just adopted by Mordecai, and she
Speaker 1: didn't necessarily have to tell anybody that he was her cousin.
Speaker 1: And it turns out that this was a very wise
Speaker 1: thing to do, as we will find out later on,
Speaker 1: because the Jews at this point in time were hated
Speaker 1: and I'm sure that Mordecai could see persecution on the
Speaker 1: horizon with how the Jewish people in Persia were being treated.
Speaker 1: So Esther would have absolutely been better off not telling
Speaker 1: people that she was a Jewish woman. But Mordecai kept
Speaker 1: tabs on Esther. It says he walked every day in
Speaker 1: front of the court of the women's house to find
Speaker 1: out how Esther was doing and what would become of her.
Speaker 1: So he visited every single day, maybe not necessarily seeing Esther,
Speaker 1: but asking somebody, Hey, what's happening to the women today? Hey, like,
Speaker 1: what's going on? Have you heard anything about Esther? How
Speaker 1: is she doing? That kind of stuff, And he was
Speaker 1: discreetly learning about her without revealing that he was her cousin,
Speaker 1: and because he lived close by, you know, he was
Speaker 1: in Sousa already, and that's where Esther was taken. It
Speaker 1: worked out that he could walk every single day to
Speaker 1: go see how she was. So now in verse twelve,
Speaker 1: it mentions this big silly beauty pageant that takes place.
Speaker 1: Each young women's turn came to go into King Aha
Speaker 1: Seras after her purification for twelve months. So this entire
Speaker 1: thing took a year. Okay, that was the days of
Speaker 1: the pyrefifcation accomplished six months with oil of merch and
Speaker 1: six months with sweet fragrances and with preparations for beautifying women.
Speaker 1: So these women were apparently not clean enough to go
Speaker 1: in to the king because they were probably many of
Speaker 1: them commoners. You know. The king, I don't think, really
Speaker 1: cared who these young women were as long as they
Speaker 1: were beautiful and pleased him. And so they were dirty
Speaker 1: and had to you know, do a purification ritual for
Speaker 1: a year I almost said a month a year before
Speaker 1: they went to see King Xerxes. Right, So now every
Speaker 1: single night after this purification was done, the young women
Speaker 1: then came to the king like this, whatever she desired
Speaker 1: was given to her to go with her out of
Speaker 1: the women's house to the king's house. So basically she
Speaker 1: could choose her own outfits, she could choose her own jewelry,
Speaker 1: she could choose her own cosmetics, and she would probably
Speaker 1: try to choose something that the king liked. And in
Speaker 1: the evening she went and on the next day she
Speaker 1: returned into the second women's house to the custody of Shashgaz,
Speaker 1: the king's eunuch who kept the concubines, and she came
Speaker 1: to the king no more unless the king delighted in
Speaker 1: her and she was called by name, So that means
Speaker 1: that after dressing up, she went to the king, he
Speaker 1: slept with her, she came back and moved into a
Speaker 1: different house, specifically the house of the concubines, and that
Speaker 1: is where she remained for the rest of her life
Speaker 1: unless the king specifically liked her and called her back
Speaker 1: by name. Otherwise, that poor young girl was stuck as
Speaker 1: a concubine, without any chance of family, without any chance
Speaker 1: of real love, just living as essentially the king's reject
Speaker 1: for the rest of her life. Pretty sad and miserable life,
Speaker 1: I would say, but I don't know what's worse being
Speaker 1: a concubine where you never have to see the king
Speaker 1: again and you're out of danger, or being in Esther's position,
Speaker 1: where you become the queen and you're in danger every
Speaker 1: single day of your life. It was not an easy life.
Speaker 1: I can tell you that because that's what happens to Esther.
Speaker 1: It says right here that when the turn of Esther,
Speaker 1: the daughter of Abba Hail, the uncle of Mordecai, who
Speaker 1: had taken her for his daughter, came to go into
Speaker 1: the king, she required nothing but what had Guy, the
Speaker 1: king's eunuch, the keeper of the women, advised. So Esther
Speaker 1: was very smart, very wise, and she did not try
Speaker 1: to choose her own outfit. And she asked, hey, Gui,
Speaker 1: what do you think is the best thing for me
Speaker 1: to go in? And hey, Guy gave his opinion, and
Speaker 1: that is what she went in. And because it sounds
Speaker 1: like she was a sweet and humble girl, Esther obtained
Speaker 1: a favor in the sight of all those who looked
Speaker 1: at her, including King Xerxes. So Esther was taken to
Speaker 1: King Aha sarahs Verse sixteen or King Xerxes into his
Speaker 1: royal house in the tenth month, which is the month
Speaker 1: to Beth in the seventh year of his reign, and
Speaker 1: the king loved Esther more than all the women, and
Speaker 1: she obtained favoring kindness in his sight, more than all
Speaker 1: the virgins, so that he set the royal crown on
Speaker 1: her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. And
Speaker 1: all of this happened in the seventh year of King
Speaker 1: Aha Sarahs's reign. So yes, certainly sometime has passed between
Speaker 1: chapters one and two. Esther now is the queen. And
Speaker 1: in verse eighteen, the king made a great feast for
Speaker 1: all his princes and his servants, even Esther's feast, and
Speaker 1: he proclaimed a holiday in the provinces and gave gifts
Speaker 1: according to the king's bounty. So there was this huge
Speaker 1: wedding feast, these festivities that took place, and Esther finds
Speaker 1: herself the queen, and she had no choice in the matter.
Speaker 1: She was stuck doing this whether she wanted to or not.
Speaker 1: She has become the queen. So here's the first recorded
Speaker 1: thing she does as the queen in verses nineteen through
Speaker 1: twenty three, when the virgins were gathered together the second time,
Speaker 1: Mordecai was sitting in the king's gate. When the virgins
Speaker 1: were gathered together the second time, what does that tell you?
Speaker 1: That tells you that King Aha Sarras was not satisfied
Speaker 1: with just one set of virgins. He needed to go
Speaker 1: out and get some more virgins to fill up his harem.
Speaker 1: So he had even more women do this. That is
Speaker 1: how much he liked this idea. Didn't matter. By the way,
Speaker 1: if Esther was already the queen, the king could have
Speaker 1: as many women in his harem as he wanted. I mean,
Speaker 1: look at King Solomon. He had seven hundred wives and
Speaker 1: three hundred concubines, or maybe it wasn't wait, hold on,
Speaker 1: that might have been mixed. Was it three hundred wives
Speaker 1: and seven whatever? He had a thousand women in his
Speaker 1: direct vicinity. This is not uncommon for kings to do
Speaker 1: throughout the ages. Many of them have had many many queens,
Speaker 1: many many women that they just bounced between. So, yes,
Speaker 1: virgins were gathered again a second time, and Mordecai was
Speaker 1: sitting in the king's gate. And by the way, Esther
Speaker 1: is already queen at this point. That's what it says
Speaker 1: in verse where is it twenty two? Which we'll get
Speaker 1: to that in a second, it says in verse twenty
Speaker 1: that Esther had not yet made known her relatives nor
Speaker 1: her people, as Mordecai had commanded her for Esther obeyed
Speaker 1: Mordecai like she did when she was brought up by him,
Speaker 1: so she was obedient as well. That's probably another reason
Speaker 1: why people really liked her in those days. While Mordecai
Speaker 1: was sitting in the king's gate, two of the king's eunuchs,
Speaker 1: big Thin and Teresh, who were doorkeepers, were angry and
Speaker 1: sought to lay hands on the King Aha Seris. This
Speaker 1: thing became known to Mordecai, who informed Esther the queen,
Speaker 1: and Esther informed the king in Mordecai's name. When this
Speaker 1: matter was investigated, it was found to be so they
Speaker 1: were both hanged on gallows and it was written in
Speaker 1: the book of the Chronicles in the king's presence. So yeah,
Speaker 1: somehow Mordechai found out about this plot against King Aha
Speaker 1: Sarahs's life, and he ended up telling Esther about it.
Speaker 1: He's like, hey, there's these two guys I heard about
Speaker 1: that are plotting to end the king's life. So Esther
Speaker 1: actually went to the king and told him about it,
Speaker 1: and she gave credit to Mordecai, and when the King
Speaker 1: investigated it, he found it to be so he found
Speaker 1: out that these men were truly plotting his life, and
Speaker 1: so they were hanged on gallows, and it was written
Speaker 1: in the Book of the Chronicles in the King's presence.
Speaker 1: So that now is Esther Chapter two, and the rest
Speaker 1: of the Book of Esther gets even more intense. I
Speaker 1: think that every single chapter gets a little bit more
Speaker 1: intense than the last chapter, as we find out what
Speaker 1: happens to Queen Esther, as we find out what happens
Speaker 1: to the Jews, and also this very evil man, possibly
Speaker 1: one of the most evil characters, is found in the
Speaker 1: Book of Esther. So we're gonna talk about all of
Speaker 1: that as we move forward. But before I end today's
Speaker 1: episode with a couple closing things, please listen to one
Speaker 1: last sponsored advertisement. The one thing that really kills me
Speaker 1: about how people interpret the Book of Esther is they
Speaker 1: almost make it like this dreamy romance. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you've ever watched any movie about the Book of Esther,
Speaker 1: maybe not all of them. I've obviously not seen all
Speaker 1: of them, but it kind of seems like in the
Speaker 1: ones that I've seen King Aha Seris is always like
Speaker 1: this dreamy hunk who like just falls madly and deeply
Speaker 1: in love with Esther, and he's like, you know, this
Speaker 1: guy with a few flaws that Esther fixes. It's so ridiculous.
Speaker 1: I mean, look at this guy. He was not deeply
Speaker 1: I mean, he was in lust absolutely with Esther. He
Speaker 1: probably felt feelings of love for her, but he didn't
Speaker 1: truly love her because he's going around picking up more
Speaker 1: virgins after he makes Esther the queen. And we don't
Speaker 1: even know how many queens he had. By the way,
Speaker 1: if Solomon has three hundred main wives, it could be
Speaker 1: that King Aha Saras had multiple queens. In fact, there's
Speaker 1: a queen mentioned in history that the Book of Esther
Speaker 1: doesn't talk about. This woman is I believe her name
Speaker 1: is Amestus, not Artemis. I'm sorry. Amestris was her name,
Speaker 1: and there are some historical documents that talk about her,
Speaker 1: but she's not mentioned in the Book of Esther. So
Speaker 1: we don't even know how many other women that King
Speaker 1: Aha Saras was sleeping with, that he had, as wives,
Speaker 1: that he had, as queens that he had in his harem.
Speaker 1: We have no clue whatsoever We just know that this
Speaker 1: man was corrupt, and he really liked his women, and
Speaker 1: he was also quite dangerous, as we are about to
Speaker 1: find out in the upcoming chapters. So, faithful listeners, I
Speaker 1: hope you guys enjoyed the Book of Esther so far,
Speaker 1: and if you did, tell people that the Bible Explained
Speaker 1: Podcasts exists, because word of mouth is one of the
Speaker 1: best ways to get the podcast out there to more people.
Speaker 1: Faithful listeners, have a fantastic rest of your day, happy listening,
Speaker 1: and God bless. I just want to take a second
Speaker 1: to thank the team at Life Audio for their partnership
Speaker 1: with me on the Bible Explain podcast. In fact, if
Speaker 1: you go to lifeaudio dot com you will find dozens
Speaker 1: of other faith centered podcasts in their network. They've got
Speaker 1: shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and more.