Ahasuerus: The King on the Throne in Susa

A King from India to Ethiopia

Ahasuerus (אֲחַשְׁוֵרוֹשׁ) is a Persian emperor, identified in this dossier as Xerxes I, a ruler of the era of Exile and Return, placed at around 606 BC to 536 BC (era placed on Ussher's chronology, 1650). His name stands over thirty verses in three books: twenty-eight times in Esther, once in Ezra, once in Daniel. The record names Darius as his father, Vashti as his wife, and Artaxerxes and Darius among his sons. The book of Esther opens by measuring him: "Now in the days of Ahasuerus (this is Ahasuerus who reigned from India even to Ethiopia, over one hundred twenty-seven provinces), in those days, when the King Ahasuerus sat on the throne of his kingdom, which was in Susa the palace," (Esther 1:1-2). That is the man: an enormous reach, a fixed throne, a capital city.

The Feast and the Queen

The first scene we are given is domestic and public at once. "Also Vashti the queen made a feast for the women in the royal house which belonged to King Ahasuerus. On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, and Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcass, the seven eunuchs who served in the presence of Ahasuerus the king," (Esther 1:9-10). Seven named servants, a seventh day, and a king whose heart is merry with wine. The command he gives is not obeyed.

What follows is a legal consultation. "What shall we do to the queen Vashti according to law, because she has not done the bidding of the King Ahasuerus by the eunuchs?" Memucan answered before the king and the princes, "Vashti the queen has not done wrong to just the king, but also to all the princes, and to all the people who are in all the provinces of the King Ahasuerus. For this deed of the queen will become known to all women, causing them to show contempt for their husbands, when it is reported, 'King Ahasuerus commanded Vashti the queen to be brought in before him, but she didn't come.'" (Esther 1:15-17). A private refusal is enlarged into an imperial crisis by the men who advise the throne.

A Law That Cannot Be Altered

The counsel becomes policy: "If it pleases the king, let a royal commandment go from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes, so that it cannot be altered, that Vashti may never again come before King Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal estate to another who is better than she." (Esther 1:19). Notice what the empire's greatness costs its ruler. He rules one hundred twenty-seven provinces, yet the law he signs cannot be undone by him. Esther 2:1 returns to the king after this, and the narrative moves on through Esther 2:12, 2:16 and 2:21, where his name appears again in scenes the dossier gives by reference only.

Haman's Word to the King

The darkest use of the king's name comes in the third chapter. Haman, promoted in Esther 3:1, sets his aim wider than one man: "But he scorned the thought of laying hands on Mordecai alone, for they had made known to him Mordecai's people. Therefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews who were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even Mordecai's people. In the first month, which is the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast Pur, that is, the lot, before Haman from day to day, and from month to month, and chose the twelfth month, which is the month Adar. Haman said to King Ahasuerus, 'There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom, and their laws are different from other people's. They don't keep the king's laws. Therefore it is not for the king's profit to allow them to remain.'" (Esther 3:6-8). The argument is aimed exactly where this king is vulnerable: the king's profit, the king's laws, the king's provinces. Esther 3:12 continues the account.

Named but Not Narrated

Most of what remains is his name attached to events rather than his own speech and action: Esther 6:2, 7:5, 8:1, 8:7, 8:10, 8:12, 9:2, 9:20, 9:30, 10:1 and 10:3. Outside Esther he is named twice. Ezra 4:6 places him in the record of the return. Daniel 9:1 places him in a family line: "In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the offspring of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans,". Here he is not the actor at all, only the father of a king.

Where the King Fails

Scripture does not flatter him. The command that begins the whole story is issued when "the heart of the king was merry with wine" (Esther 1:10). He hands the question of his own household to advisers who answer him with fear about what all women will do (Esther 1:15-17), and he binds himself with a law "so that it cannot be altered" (Esther 1:19). Then a man with a grudge stands before him and asks him to judge a whole people by a slander (Esther 3:8). A king with one hundred twenty-seven provinces is repeatedly moved by whoever spoke to him last.

What We Are Not Told

The dossier records no unknowns as such, but the quoted passages are just as clear about their silences. We are told nothing of his birth, nothing of his death, and nothing of any faith of his own. His name in Daniel 9:1 serves only to identify his son. No New Testament reference to him is listed in this record, so no line is drawn from him beyond the Old Testament here.

What stands is the picture itself: the Jews scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of his kingdom (Esther 3:8), and their lives resting, humanly speaking, on the ear of a man whose heart was merry with wine (Esther 1:10). The reader of Esther watches that throne in Susa and learns how thin a thread human power is, and how a decree that cannot be altered still does not settle the end of the story.