ESTHER - The Noble Queen

 

The scene is laid in Shushan (Susa), some 250 miles east of the city of Babylon and 75 miles east of the Tigris River, and 130 miles north of the Persian Gulf. King Ahasuerus (Xerxes, B.C. 485-465), was king of Persia and reigned at this time over one hundred and twenty seven provinces, extending from India to Ethiopia. It will be recalled that Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, and carried away from Jerusalem, Jeconiah (Jehoiakin), the King of Judah, together with a number of Jewish captives, which at this time would seem to have been widely scattered throughout the domain of the Persian empire. The time was about four centuries B.C. The heroine of the story is Esther, one of the Jewish exiles, who rises from the most humble walks of life to become a queen, and thereby ultimately rescuing her people from wholesale destruction, planned by Haman, the favorite courtier of the king. One must take into account the circumstances of her life and the conditions of her time.