Queen Vashti

Queen Vashti is one of great debate because of having limited information about her yet what was recorded and preserved is detailed and gives us much insight into her life. How it ended is unknown but how her Queen ship ended is well known; the circumstances that surround this termination is one that would have been one of great shame for her. As I think of her situation, I have to ask myself what would I have done?

Queen Vashti was the daughter of Belshazzar, the last King of Babylon; before the invasion of the Medes and Persians; this makes Vashti the great-granddaughter of King Nebuchadnezzar who destroyed Solomon’s Temple, the first Temple in Jerusalem, and drove the Jewish nation into exile. This exile is commonly known as the Babylonian captivity or Babylonian exile; before this exile, the Davidic line of King David had reigned over the Jewish nation for almost 350 years, until the kingdom fell in 586 BC to the Babylonian Empire; this event lead to the destruction of the first Temple of Jerusalem.

Vashti’s name originates from Persian words for beautiful woman; according to history her countenance equaled that of the definition of her name. During Vashti’s father’s kingship, he was murdered; that night, invading hoards of Persians and Medes attacked, and Belshazzar’s palace was looted; in the middle of all the killing and looting poor Vashti did not know her father had been killed; she ran to her father’s quarters where she was captured by Darius who took pity on her and gave young Princess Vashti to his son Ahasuerus to marry.

The Bible records that during Ahasuerus reign, he reigned from India to Ethiopia with over 127 provinces; in the third year of his reign, Ahasuerus had two feasts prepared to show the world his power and riches; the first feast was for his nobles and princes that lasted for 180 days the second feast was for the people, both great and small, that was celebrated for seven days.

During these feasts, Ahasuerus ordered Vashti to come to the feast wearing her royal crown; many believe, that the order was not only for Vashti to wear her royal crown but apparently only her crown; this is believed because appalled by this order, Vashti refused the order. I can see with in the mind of Vashti a scene where her husband, his princes, servants, nobles, and each prince from every providence was in attendance of these feasts drunken with wine that had been served in abundance. The Bible records that Ahasuerus had given permission "to all the officers of his house, that they should do according to every man’s pleasure"; I can picture men passed out around the palace; some in the arms of their courtesan, a high-class prostitute, and the king in his drunken state ordering his queen to parade before him to make a spectacle out of her.

Ahasuerus simply wanted to show the world his wife’s beauty which he could have easily done considering he ruled the entire known civilized world at the time. After this refusal, the king turns to his advisors for counsel; one of the princes of Persia, Memucan, "answered before the king and the princes, Vashti the queen hath not done wrong to the king only, but also to all the princes, and to all the people that are in all the providences of the king Ahasuerus. For this deed of the queen shall come abroad unto all women, so that they shall despise their husbands". To counter react this, they advised the king to never allow her to enter into his presence again and to "give her royal estate unto another that is better than she"; the result of this action would be that "all the wives shall give to their husbands honour, both to great and small."

Although the Bible states that Vashti’s queen ship was simply taken from her, generally, the Jews believe that she was put to death; however people outside of the Jewish realm believe that her husband basically divorced her.

What would you have done if you had been Vashti? For one to refuse their king was to bring a wrath down on one’s head that would alter their life forever, normally that alteration was one of great sacrifice.