More on Trump and King of Persia-Ahasueros, How Differ From King Cyrus

 Nadene Goldfoot                                               

      Reconstruction of Jerusalem by Cyrus, Darius and Xerxes, Picture from the        Bible, Book of Ezra, 1921.  

Donald Trump is being compared with King Cyrus.  They both have done something good for Israel.  Trump moved the USA Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Israel's capital.  Cyrus allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem and continue to rebuild their Temple.  Trump was disrespectful of women in so many ways, and Cyrus dis-respectful of his Queen Vashti's wish to stay away from his banquet one evening.  That's where the similarity ends.   Cyrus has been depicted as either being the grandson or grandfather of Queen Esther.  This is what I have found, for many Americans have never even heard of Queen Esther.    

The thing is, Trump was not related at all to Queen Esther, a savior of the Jews back in those ancient days.  Cyrus was as well as being related to Darius.  They were doing good, and never had the reputation of not having good relations with the Jewish people.  Trump has already said that he'll blame American Jews if he loses for not voting for him.  He has spoken to a Jewish group saying this!  Is this a threat!                 

                     Queen Esther upon hearing or Haman's plot to kill all Jews

Remember Queen Esther of Persia-today's Iran?  She was the Jewish beauty queen who married King Ahasuerus.  This king, as we see, had done away with his first wife, Vashti,  because  she had not danced for him when asked.  She had refused him!  In the Book of Esther, Ahasuerus summons Vashti to appear at a banquet to show off her beauty, but she refuses. As punishment, Vashti is either executed or banished. 

            Poor Vashti.  She found out she didn't have any power over her husband.

So he banished her     and had held a beauty contest to find another wife.  He may have even had a harem of wives already.  So be it.  Back then, and  the events of the Book of Esther in the Bible are thought to have taken place between 483 BCE and 473 BCE, during the reign of King Xerxes I of Persia. We have to understand that the Hebrew name of the king was Ahasuerus.  This was at least 2,507 years ago.  This history comes to Jews through the holiday of Purim.                                           

Achaemenid Empire Map (Illustration) - World History ... See Egypt on cream  on left side below?  Mediterranean Sea in blue?  Jerusalem?  

In the Jewish Purim story starting on Adar 13, , Haman, the king's chief minister (Est. 3-9)  wanted to exterminate all the Jews in their world, but they escaped Haman's proclamation  because Esther heard of it through her Uncle Mordecai of the tribe of Benjamin and palace official at Shushan ,  and she took a chance by finally telling her husband king that she was a Jew, too.  Her husband loved her so hung Haman and his sons.  Haman was thought to be descended from the tribe of Amalek, people who were enemies since the Exodus.  It turned out the Haman had it in for Mordecai, because Mordecai refused to bow down to Haman.  Jews bow down to nobody, only G-d.  The king then gave Mordecai Haman's political position as chief  minister.  Mordecai is Babylonian name, where Jews had been taken in  597 597 BCE-and 586 BCE by Nebuchadnezzar who was king of Babylon from 605-562 BCE and had overpowered the Assyrians in 605 BCE. The Book of Esther explains how Jews wound up in Persia (today's Iran-and that is another story).     

Book of Esther is usually identified in modern sources to refer to Xerxes I, who ruled between 486 and 465 BCE, as it is to this monarch that the events described in Esther are thought to fit the most closely according to Wikipedea.  King Xerxes I of Persia was the grandson of Cyrus the Great, who founded the Achaemenid Empire. Xerxes I is believed to be the person referred to in the Bible as "Ahasuerus", also according to Wikipedea.  Here, Ahasuerus/Xerxes I was the son of Darius I.  

There were 3 kings of ancient Persia:  Darius I reigned from 522-486 BCE and inherited the throne of Cyrus.  At the beginning of his reign, he permitted Zerubbubel and the Jews who had returned to Jerusalem to resume reconstruction of the Temple.  Some historians forgot about Darius and call him Cyrus.  It's confusing.

The Jews acknowledge that there was Cyrus II, of about 529 BCE, also King of Persia who had overrun the Babylonian Empire, including Eretz Yisrael (Israel).  It was not called Palestine until 135 CE-renamed by the Roman invaders.  Cyrus II had an enlightened policy towards his subject people, so in 538 BCE, granted permission to the exiles of Judah in Babylon to return to their homeland and rebuild the Temple. (Ezra 4:6) (Ezra I:1-44);  (II Chronicles 36-22-23). The  Jewish exiles regarded Cyrus II as a Divine agent  (Esther 44-28; 45:1). Both Ahasuerus and  Xerxes  both are derived from the Persian Khshayārsha. 

 The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire, also known as the Persian Empire  'The Empire' , was an Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC. Based in modern-day Iran, it was the largest empire by that point in history, spanning a total of 5.5 million square kilometres (2.1 million square miles). The empire spanned from the Balkans and Egypt in the west, West Asia as the base, the majority of Central Asia to the northeast, and the Indus Valley to the southeast.  The king was a most powerful king, to say the least.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esther#:~:text=Ahasuerus%20as%20described%20in%20the,to%20fit%20the%20most%20closely.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrus_the_Great_in_the_Bible#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20Bible%2C%20Cyrus,their%20homeland%20for%20this%20purpose.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-says-jewish-voters-will-bear-lot-blameses-fighting-antisemiti-rcna1

71938

Sept. 7th:  https://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2024/09/how-does-trump-compare-

to-king-cyrus.html