2:1 – when the anger…had subsided – because Xerxes was sober? Or because of his son?
What he had decreed about her – see 1:19 – “which could not be repealed”.
2:3 And let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom, that they may gather together all the fair young virgins unto Shushan the palace, to the house of the women, unto the custody of Hege the king's chamberlain, keeper of the women; and let their things for purification be given them:
Hege
Or, Hegai, Esther 2:8. (Scofield Reference Notes (1917 Edition))
Keeper - Of all the women, both virgins and concubines: only the virgins he himself took care of, as requiring more care and caution, and the concubines be committed to Shaashgaz, ver. 14, his deputy.Purification - That is, to cleanse them from all impurities, to perfume, and adorn, and every way prepare them for the king: for the legal purification of the Jews he never regarded. (John Wesley's Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible)
2:4 – pleases, appealed – the Hebrew words refer to pleasing the eye.
2:5 – Mordecai was of the tribe of Benjamin and great-grandson of Kish. He was related to King Saul. Mordecai would be instrumental in carrying out God’s judgment of the Amalekites. Something his ancestor, Saul, failed to do.
2:6 Who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captivity which had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away.
Jeconiah
Or, Jehoiachin; 2 Kings 24:6. (Scofield Reference Notes (1917 Edition))
2:7 - Esther - Hadassah was her Hebrew name before her marriage; and she was called Esther by the king after it. (John Wesley's Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible)
2:9 - Pleased - Because she was very beautiful, therefore he supposed she would be acceptable to the king; and by the Divine power, which moveth the hearts of men which way he pleaseth. (John Wesley's Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible)
special food – probably outside of Jewish dietary laws.
2:10 - Shew it - Lest the knowledge hereof should either make her contemptible, or bring some inconvenience to the whole nation; but there was also an hand of God in causing this to be concealed, for the better accomplishment of that which he designed, though Mordecai was ignorant of it. (John Wesley's Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible)
2:13 - Desired - For ornament, or by way of attendance. And it should be observed, that every one whom the king took to his bed, was his wife of a lower rank, as Hagar was Abraham's, so that it would have been no sin or dishonour to Esther, though she had not been made queen. (John Wesley's Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible)
2:16 So Esther was taken unto king Ahasuerus into his house royal in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.
tenth month
i.e. January. (Scofield Reference Notes (1917 Edition))
January 478 BC.
2:17 – the other women became his “lesser” wives.
2:19 - Sat - By office, as one of the king's guards or ministers; being advanced to this place by Esther's favour. (John Wesley's Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible)
2:21 – these plots were common.
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