What did esther from the bible do to make her remembered respected and admired?

Answer 1

In the Book of Esther, Queen Esther opposed the wicked Haman and ensured the defeat of his plot to annihilate all the Jews in Persia. Jews in the Persian court are portrayed as having the highest moral virtues, courage, honour and loyalty to the king. The Book of Esther was a second-century-BCE novel, but also an excellent work of Propaganda written at a time when the Jews of Judah needed a morale boost. This was the real achievement of Queen Esther.

Answer 2

The story of Esther is one of the most remarkable in the Old Testament. She was a Hebrew girl living in captivity during the days of Ahasuerus, king of the Persian empire. Ahasuerus may possibly have been Xerxes, but the connection has never been positively made.

Esther was adopted by Mordecai, who was a servant in the King's house. When Ahaseurus' queen Vashti refused to respond to a summons from the king to show off her beauty to the court, she was divorced by the king and Esther was chosen as her replacement. Her beauty was such that she rivaled Vashti herself.

The real story of Esther, however, is that of tremendous faith. A close lieutenant of Ahaseurus was a man named Haman, who held a hatred of all Jews, and Mordecai in particular. Esther became aware of his plot to have all Jews in the kingdom exterminated, and approached the king to find a solution. This bold approach was unprecedented, but the king consented because of her beauty. Esther arranged a feast for the king and Haman, and begged that she might do the same a few days later. In the interim, she asked Mordecai to have all Jews fast and pray for the means to be delivered of Haman's plot. Finally Esther was able to reveal Haman's intentions by declaring that the extermination order would by definition mean the execution of his own queen. Haman was thus trapped by his own plot, and was in fact hanged on the very gallows he had constructed to hang Mordecai.

The Book of Esther is unique because nowhere is God mentioned by name. However, His presence is always inferred, particularly when Esther asks the Jews to fast. Traditionally this incident would lead to the institution of the Feast of Purim. Esther is also a role model for women of faith who do not see themselves as helpless or mindless followers of their husbands, but rightly consider themselves to be equal in the sight of God.

Answer 3

Nothing. Esther acted not out of pride or ego, but out of obedience, self-sacrifice, love of her people, and service of God; and she was so outstanding in these that she achieved prophecy (Talmud, Megillah 14a). See also: Reliability of the Hebrew Bible

More:
Esther was the heroine and central figure in the Biblical book of Esther. She was crowned about 55 years after the destruction of the First Temple, and fifteen years before the Second Temple was built. The Jews were in the Babylonian exile. A few of them, such as Nehemiah, Mordecai and Daniel, rose to positions of prominence under the Babylonian kings.
The last of the Prophets of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) were still living.
King Cyrus had recently made his famous proclamation (2 Chronicles 36:22-23) allowing the Jews to resettle Judea (Israel), and some had gone up with Zerubavel, but the enemies of the Jews had then slandered them (Ezra ch.4), causing the Babylonian king to put a stop to the rebuilding and resettlement of Judea. This last event was around the same time that Esther became Queen.

When she became orphaned, she was adopted by her cousin Mordecai.

Later, when Queen Vashti refused to appear before Ahasuerus (in Esther ch.1), Memuchan, a Persian royal adviser, advised King Ahasuerus (Xerxes I) to remove Vashti from being Queen of Persia, and King Ahasuerus agreed to his advice.

In Esther Chapter 2, royal eunuchs advised Ahasuerus to look for a new queen. Esther was the best-looking woman, and Ahasuerus picked her to replace Vashti as Queen.

Esther and her cousin Mordecai (who had once saved the king's life) later persuaded the king to cancel an order for the extermination of the Jews in his vast realm, which had been plotted by the king's chief minister, Haman. Instead, Haman was hanged on the gallows he had built for Mordecai, and the Jews were given permission to destroy their enemies. The Jewish festival of Purim celebrates this event.

According to tradition, the book of Esther was written in the mid-4th century BCE, and was made part of the canon which was sealed a couple of decades after.

Esther was queen for about 11 years.
The name of Mordecai is the Judaised pronunciation of Marduka, which is attested in the Persepolis Texts as the name of officials in the Persian court during the period of Xerxes I. One of these officials was the biblical Mordecai.

The grave of Mordecai and Esther still stands in Hamadan; and the Jews of Iran, to this day, are referred to as "the children of Esther."

For the name of Esther, a number of etymologies are possible.
1) Esther comes from the Persian "setareh," meaning "star".
2) Esther comes from the Aramaic "istahar," meaning "moon." Beautiful as the moon (Talmud, Megillah 13a).
3) Esther comes from the Semitic root ath-tar, "morning star." There is support for this too in the Talmud (Yoma 29a).
4) Esther comes from the Median "astra," meaning "myrtle." The book of Esther (2:7) states that she had both names, Esther and Myrtle (Hadassah in Hebrew).

See also:

Why was Esther chosen as Queen?

More about the Hebrew Bible

Answer 4

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