Esther 1

1-21 King Ahasuerus Deposes Queen Vashti

1-4 Ahasuerus, who rules over 127 provinces from India to Ethiopia from his throne in Susa, gives a 180-day banquet in the 3rd year of his reign, inviting all his officials and ministers – army officials, nobles and governors of the provinces – and displaying all his wealth and grandeur.

5-8 After 180 days, he gives a 7-day banquet for all the people in the citadel of Susa, in the garden, which is lavishly decorated. Royal wine flows without restraint. At the same time, Vashti gives a banquet for the women in the palace.

10-12 On the 7th day, when he is “merry with wine,” the king tells 7 eunuchs to bring in Vashti, the queen, wearing her crown, so he can display her beauty. She refuses, and he becomes very angry. As Thomas Constable points out, there’s no way to know why she didn’t appear – whether it was rebelliousness, modesty or something else. We can conjecture all we want and never know the reason.

13-15 As is his custom, the King consults with his personal attorneys to see what can be done, according to the law, to punish Queen Vashti for her disobedience [and, in my opinion, because she caused him to feel humiliated in his drunkenness].

16-18 The attorneys’ spokesman, Memucan, tells him that she has done wrong not only to him, but to all the officials and people [read “men”], because it would cause all the women to treat their husbands with the same kind of contempt.

19-20 They advise the king to decree that Vashti should never again come before him and that another should take her place, ensuring that all women in the kingdom would honor their husbands.

21 He decrees throughout all the provinces that “every man should be master in his own house.”