Esther Becomes Queen

2 After these things, when the anger of King Ahasuerus had abated, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what had been decreed against her.^(A)

¹⁴ When the king heard the charge, he was very much distressed. He was determined to save Daniel, and until the sun went down he made every effort to rescue him.^{(A) 15} Then the conspirators came to the king and said to him, “Know, O king, that it is a law of the Medes and Persians that no interdict or ordinance that the king establishes can be changed.”^(B)

¹⁶ Then the king gave the command, and Daniel was brought and thrown into the den of lions. The king said to Daniel, “May your God, whom you faithfully serve, deliver you!”^{(C) 17} A stone was brought and laid on the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet ring and with the signet ring of his lords, so that nothing might be changed concerning Daniel. ¹⁸ Then the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting; no entertainment was brought to him, and sleep fled from him.^(D)

¹⁰ So they hung Haman on the pole that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the anger of the king abated.

¹² But Queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s command conveyed by the eunuchs. At this the king was enraged, and his anger burned within him.

¹³ Then the king consulted the sages who knew the laws^[a] (for this was the king’s procedure toward all who were versed in law and custom,^{(A) 14} and those next to him were Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucan, the seven officials of Persia and Media who had access to the king and sat first in the kingdom):^{(B) 15} “According to the law, what is to be done with Queen Vashti because she has not performed the command of King Ahasuerus conveyed by the eunuchs?” ¹⁶ Then Memucan said in the presence of the king and the officials, “Queen Vashti has done wrong not only to the king but also to all the officials and all the peoples who are in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus. ¹⁷ For this deed of the queen will be made known to all women, causing them to look with contempt on their husbands, since they will say, ‘King Ahasuerus commanded Queen Vashti to be brought before him, and she did not come.’^{(C) 18} This very day the noble ladies of Persia and Media who have heard of the queen’s behavior will rebel against^[b] the king’s officials, and there will be no end of contempt and wrath! ¹⁹ If it pleases the king, let a royal order go out from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes so that it may not be altered, that Vashti is never again to come before King Ahasuerus, and let the king give her royal position to another who is better than she.^{(D) 20} So when the decree made by the king is proclaimed throughout all his kingdom, vast as it is, all women will give honor to their husbands, high and low alike.”^(E)

²¹ This advice pleased the king and the officials, and the king did as Memucan proposed;