Women in the Bible

Esther/Hadassah

Book of Esther

• Esther 2:2-10 Then the king’s servants who attended him said, “Let beautiful young virgins be sought out for the king. And let the king appoint commissioners in all the provinces of his kingdom to gather all the beautiful young virgins to the harem in the citadel of Susa under custody of Hegai, the king’s eunuch, who is in charge of the women; let their cosmetic treatments be given them. And let the young woman who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti.” This pleased the king, and he did so. Now there was a Jew in the citadel of Susa whose name was Mordecai son of Jair son of Shimei son of Kish, a Benjaminite, who had been carried away from Jerusalem among the captives carried away with King Jeconiah of Judah, whom King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had carried away. He had brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his cousin, for she had neither father nor mother; the young woman was fair and beautiful, and when her father and her mother died, Mordecai adopted her as his own daughter. When the king’s order and his edict were proclaimed and when many young women were gathered in the citadel of Susa in custody of Hegai, Esther was taken into the king’s palace and put in custody of Hegai, who had charge of the women. The young woman pleased him and won his favor, and he quickly provided her with her cosmetic treatments and her portion of food and with seven chosen maids from the king’s palace, and he advanced her and her maids to the best place in the harem. Esther did not reveal her people or kindred, for Mordecai had charged her not to tell.

• Esther 7:1-6 So the king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther. On the second day, as they were drinking wine, the king again said to Esther, “What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled.” Then Queen Esther answered, “If I have won your favor, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me—that is my petition—and the lives of my people—that is my request. For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have held my peace, but no enemy can compensate for this damage to the king.” Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, who has presumed to do this?” Esther said, “A foe and an enemy, this wicked Haman!” Then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen.

List of Reading & Resources:

Articles

• “On Esther and the Subversive Scriptures” by Kat Armas

• "Esther: Bible" by Sidnie White Crawford, updated by Joshua Aaron Alfaro

• “Esther” by Martien A. Halvorson-Taylor

• “Vashti and Esther: A Feminist Perspective” by Wendy Amsellem

• “Esther: Actually” series by Rachel Held Evans

• “On Esther and the Subversive Scriptures” by Kat Armas

• “The Power Paradigms of Queen Esther” by Rishe Groner

• "Was I, Esther, a Feminist?" by Athalya Brenner

Books

• “Esther: Who am I? A Mestiza for God’s Mission” (Chapter 1, pp.15-24) by Kristy Garza Robinson in Hermanas: Deepening Our Identity and Growing Our Influence (2019)

• "Esther: A Feminine Model for Jewish Diaspora" by Sidnie A. White in Gender and Difference in Ancient Israel, edited by Peggy L. Day (1989)

• "Esther" by Sidnie A. White in Women’s Bible Commentary, edited by Carol A. Newsom, Sharon H. Ringe, and Jacqueline E. Lapsley (2012)

• “Ester: About Resistance against Anti-Semitism and Sexism” by Klara Butting (pp. 207-220) in Feminist Biblical Interpretation edited by Luise Schottroff and Marie-Theres Wacker (2012)

• Becoming Brave: Finding the Courage to Pursue Racial Justice Now by Brenda Salter McNeil (2020)

• “Eschewing Esther/Embracing Esther: The Changing Representation of Biblical Heroines” (pp. 207-219) by Gail Twersky Reimer in Talking Back: Images of Jewish Women in American Popular Culture edited by Joyce Antler (1997)

*Also mentioned in the Apocrypha (see Apocryphal Women)