Though Ahasuerus had taken every precaution to prevent intemperate
indulgence in wine, his banquet revealed the essential difference
between Jewish and pagan festivities. When Jews are gathered about a
festal board, they discuss a Halakah, or a Haggadah, or, at the least,
a simple verse from the Scriptures. Ahasuerus and his boon companions
rounded out the banquet with prurient talk. The Persians lauded the
charms of the women of their people, while the Medians admitted none
superior to the Median women. Then "the fool" Ahasuerus up and spake:
"My wife is neither a Persian nor a Median, but a Chaldean, yet she
excels all in beauty. Would you convince yourselves of the truth of my
words?" "Yes," shouted the company, who were deep in their cups, "but
that we may properly judge of her natural charms, let her appear before
us unadorned, yes, without any apparel whatsoever," and Ahasuerus
agreed to the shameless condition. (31)
The thing was from God, that so insensate a demand should be made of
Vashti by the king. A whole week Mordecai had spent in fasting and
praying, supplicating God to mete out punishment to Ahasuerus for his
desecration of the Temple utensils. On the seventh day of the week, on
the Sabbath, when Mordecai after his long fast took food, because
fasting is forbidden on the Sabbath day, God heard his prayer and the
prayer of the Sanhedrin. (32) He sent down seven Angels of Confusion to
put an end to Ahasuerus's pleasure. They were named: Mehuman,
Confusion; Biztha, Destruction of the House; Harbonah, Annihilation;
Bigtha and Abagtha, the Pressers of the Winepress, for God had resolved
to crush the court of Ahasuerus as one presses the juice from grapes in
a press; Zetha, Observer of Immorality; and Carcas, Knocker. (33)
There was a particular reason why this interruption of the feast took
place on the Sabbath. Vashti was in the habit of forcing Jewish maidens
to spin and weave on the Sabbath day, and to add to her cruelty, she
would deprive them of all their clothes. It was on the Sabbath,
therefore, that her punishment overtook her, and for the same reason it
was put into the king's heart to have her appear in public stripped of
all clothing. (34)
Vashti recoiled from the king's revolting order. But it must not be
supposed that she shrank from carrying it out because it offended her
moral sense. She was not a whit better than her husband. She fairly
revelled in the opportunity his command gave her to indulge in carnal
pleasures once again, for it was exactly a week since she had been
delivered of a child. But God sent the angel Gabriel to her to
disfigure her countenance. Suddenly signs of leprosy appeared on her
forehead, and the marks of other diseases on her person. (35) In this
state it was impossible for her to show herself to the king. She made a
virtue of necessity, and worded her refusal to appear before him
arrogantly: "Say to Ahasuerus: 'O thou fool and madman! Hast thou lost
thy reason by too much drinking? I am Vashti, the daughter of
Belshazzar, who was a son of Nebuchadnezzar, the Nebuchadnezzar who
scoffed at kings and unto whom princes were a derision, and even thou
wouldst not have been deemed worthy to run before my father's chariot
as a courier. Had he lived, I should never have been given unto thee
for wife. Not even those who suffered the death penalty during the
reign of my forefather Nebuchadnezzar were stripped bare of their
clothing, and thou demandest that I appear naked in public! Why, it is
for thine own sake that I refuse to heed they order. Either the people
will decide that I do not come up to thy description of me, and will
proclaim thee a liar, or, bewitched by my beauty, they will kill thee
in order to gain possession of me, saying, Shall this fool be the
master of so much beauty?'" (36)
The first lady of the Persian aristocracy encouraged Vashti to adhere
to her resolution. "Better," her adviser said, when Ahasuerus's second
summons was delivered to Vashti, together with his threat to kill her
unless she obeyed, "better the king should kill thee and annihilate thy
beauty, than that thy person should be admired by other eyes than thy
husband's, and thus thy name be disgraced, and the name of thy
ancestors." (37)
When Vashti refused to obey the repeated command to appear before the
king and the hundred and twenty-seven crowned princes of the realm,
Ahasuerus turned to the Jewish sages, and requested them to pass
sentence upon his queen. Their thoughts ran in this wise: If we condemn
the queen to death, we shall suffer for it as soon as Ahasuerus becomes
sober, and hears it was at our advice that she was executed. But if we
admonish him unto clemency now, while he is intoxicated, he will accuse
us of not paying due deference to the majesty of the king. They
therefore resolved upon neutrality. "Since the destruction of the
Temple," they said to the king, "since we have not dwelt in our land,
we have lost the power to give sage advice, particularly in matters of
life and death. Better seek counsel with the wise men of Ammon and
Moab, who have ever dwelt at ease in their land, like wine that hath
settled on its lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel.
(38)
Thereupon Ahasuerus put his charge against Vashti before the seven
princes of Persia, Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres,
Marsena, and Memucan, who came from Africa, India, Edom, Tarsus, Mursa,
Resen, and Jerusalem, respectively. (39) The names of these seven
officials, each representing his country, were indicative of their
office. Carshena had the care of the animals, Shethar of the wine,
Admatha of the land, Tarshish of the palace, Meres of the poultry,
Marsena of the bakery, and Memucan provided for the needs of all in the
palace, his wife acting as housekeeper. (40)
This Memucan, a native of Jerusalem, was none other than Daniel, called
Memucan, "the appointed one," because he was designated by God to
perform miracles and bring about the death of Vashti. (41)
When the king applied for advice to these seven nobles, Memucan was the
first to speak up, though in rank he was inferior to the other six, as
appears from the place his name occupies in the list. However, it is
customary, as well among Persians as among Jews, in passing death
sentence, to begin taking the vote with the youngest of the judges on
the bench, to prevent the juniors and the less prominent from being
overawed by the opinion of the more influential. (42)
It was Memucan's advice to the king to make an example of Vashti, so
that in future no woman should dare refuse obedience to her husband.
Daniel-Memucan had had unpleasant experiences in his conjugal life. He
had married a wealthy Persian lady, who insisted upon speaking to him
in her own language exclusively. (43) Besides, personal antipathy
existed between Daniel and Vashti. He had in a measure been the cause
of her refusal to appear before the king and his princes. Vashti hated
Daniel, because it was he who had prophesied his death to her father,
and the extinction of his dynasty. She could not endure his sight,
wherefore she would not show herself to the court in his presence. (44)
Also, it was Daniel who, by pronouncing the Name of God, had caused the
beauty of Vashti to vanish, and her face to be marred. (45) In
consequence of all this, Daniel advised, not only that Vashti should be
cast off, but that she should be made harmless forever by the hangman's
hand. His advice was endorsed by his colleagues, and approved by the
king. That the king might not delay execution of the death sentence,
and Daniel himself thus incur danger to his own life, he made Ahasuerus
swear the most solemn oath known to the Persians, that it would be
carried out forthwith. At the same time a royal edict was promulgated,
making it the duty of wives to obey their husbands. With special
reference to Daniel's domestic difficulties, it was specified that the
wife must speak the language of her lord and master. (46)
The execution of Vashti brought most disastrous consequences in its
train. His whole empire, which is tantamount to saying the whole world,
rose against Ahasuerus. The widespread rebellion was put down only
after his marriage with Esther, but not before it had inflicted upon
him the loss of one hundred and twenty-seven provinces, the half of his
kingdom. Such was his punishment for refusing permission to rebuild the
Temple. It was only after the fall of Haman, when Mordecai had been
made the chancellor of the empire, that Ahasuerus succeeded in reducing
the revolted provinces to submission. (47)
The death of Vashti was not undeserved punishment, for it had been she
who had prevented the king from giving his consent to the rebuilding of
the Temple. "Wilt thou rebuild the Temple," said she, reproachfully,
"which my ancestors destroyed?" (48)