1 After these things, when the wrath of king Ahasuerus was appeased, he remembered Vashti, and what she had done, and what was decreed against her.
2 Then said the king's servants that ministered unto him, Let there be fair young virgins sought for the king:
3 And let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom, that
they may gather together all the fair young virgins unto Shushan the
palacea, to the house of the women, unto the custody of
Hege the king's chamberlain, keeper of the women; and let their things for purification be given
them:
4 And let the maiden which pleaseth the king be queen instead of Vashti. And the thing pleased the king; and he did so.
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3a gather together all the fair young virgins unto Shushan the
Palace It was quite an affair. Perhaps even that which was the inspiration upon which
the Cinderella story is based upon. And the selected 'girl' would not merely be a princess, but she
would become the Queen. It seems to be every young girl's fantasy dream, to have a prince charming
and be made a princess of the castle royal. And certainly 'Shushan the Palace' was the 'Castle
Royal'. And the Kings of Persia, Cyrus, Darius and and now Xerxes, had and would be those who would
given honor to the God of Israel and treat the people of the Lord well, releasing them to build
their temple and to return unto their land. Beyond the loose fact that Susa was the ancient captial
and people of who are said to be descended of Shem, the Lord had a hand in the lives of those people
as well.
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5 ¶ Now in Shushan the palace there was a certain Jew, whose
name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a
Benjamitea;
6 Who had been acarried away from
bJerusalem with the captivity which had been carried away with Jeconiah king of
Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away.
7 And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle's daughter: for she had neither father nor mother, and the maid was fair and beautiful; whom Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for his own daughter.
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5a a certain Jew, whose name was Mordecai, the son of
Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite Now some Rabbis who like to cover
all bases and teach from the Jews' perspective, make Mordecai both of Jewish and Benjamite descent,
and the refer to Esther 2:5 for their varification. But, though Mordecai may so have been, certainly
in the realm of what Esther 2:5 states, there is no room for such a conclusion from just that verse.
If you were one living in the arena of Jerusalem and so associated with the Jewish religion of
worshipping Jehovah, then by both religion and citizenship you were considered a 'Jew'. But that
was not to say that your genealogy was Jewish. Lehi was descendant of Manasseh and Ishmael of the
Book of Mormon was from Ephraim, but the Book of Mormon also states that they were of the Jews, that
is Jews. Not because of being descended of Judah, but that they were citizens of the Jewish kingdom
were they Jews. And so it was with the prophet Jeremiah, who also was of the tribe of Benjamin,
though he is counted a Jewish prophet. The only true statement that can be relied upon in Esther
2:5 is that Mordecai was of the tribe of Benjamin. No other inferance may be made as to his tribe
of ancestry from that reference. Of interest, some Rabbinical literture further extend Mordecia's
ancentory back to Jonathan, the son of king Saul. And well that may be. Another such tradition makes
Mordecai out to be not just a prophet, but the prophet Malachi, Mordecai being but his Persian or
Babylonian name. But that seems most unlikely as the 'wisest of the wise' are reported to distinguish
Malachi as a separate person all together the the LDS Bible Dictionary has him prophesying about
430 B.C., after Nehemiah and sealing up the 'scriptural canon' as the last word and prophet. What is
most likely not true is the confusing Mordecai of King Xerxes' court with that Mordecai of Ezra and
Nenemiah who would be reported to have returned to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel.
Not only is he not of that generation to be associated with Cyrus' proclamation made in his first
year of his reign, 'that the Jews return to build their temple', but also why would he return to
captivity? So if this Modecai did return to
Jerusalem then, how is it he is not found in Jerusalem but rather in Susa, serving in the court of
king Xerxes two kings later after Cyrus? Certainly those are two separate persons by the same name
at most.
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6a
2 Kings 24:14
b
1 Ne. 10:3;
2 Ne. 6:8;
Hel. 8:20-21
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