Nadene Goldfoot
The Persian Empire took control of Judea in c.539 BCE when Cyrus the Great conquered the Babylonian Empire, which had previously controlled the region; this event is often referred to as the "Persian conquest of Babylon" and marked the beginning of the Persian period in Judea, also known as the "Province of Yehud" within the Persian Empire.
The Persian period in Judea lasted from 538–332 BCE or from 586 to 516 BCE by Gentile historians. During this time, the Persian Empire ruled the region, which included the province of Judah, now known as Yehud (land of Jews).
Judea was made up of the tribe of Judah and a few of the Benjamites andSimeonites who joined them at the time of the Assyrian attack in 721 BCE when 10 of the 12 tribes were captured and taken away. Judea contained the city of Jerusalem.
One of the important Benjamites was a man named Mordecai who lived in the 400sBCE who was a palace official in Shushan, Persia, the capital, during the reign of King Xerxes who we know as King Ahasueros, husband of our famous Queen Esther.
Mordecai is one of the main personalities in the Book of Esther in the Hebrew Bible. He is described in Tanna Devei Eliyahu as being the son of Jair, of the tribe of Benjamin and member of the Sanhedrin. Jair was an Israelite hero of the Exodus Period; he captured a group of villages in Northern Gilead from the Amorites which were thence forward known as the "villages of Jair." (Num. 32:41). Another Jair was an Israelite judge known later originating from Gilead, probably a descendant.
Mordecai was also the cousin, uncle and guardian of Esther, who became queen of Persia under the reign of Ahasuerus (Xerxes I). Mordecai's loyalty and bravery are highlighted in the story as he helps Esther foil the plot of Haman, the king's vizier, to exterminate the Jewish people. His story is celebrated in the Jewish holiday of Purim, which commemorates his victory.
Mordecai discovered that the Jewish extermination was fixed by lot for the month of Adar 13, but the Jews escaped, resisting their persecutions on that date and in Shushan, also on the next day. Purim, the holiday, is celebrated then on Adar 14. Adar is the 12th month of the Jewish religious year, 6th of the civil; falling in February to March. Adar is an Assyrian origin name.
Xerxes I commonly known as Xerxes the Great, was a Persian ruler who served as the fourth King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 486 BCE until his assassination in 465 BCE. Darius I was thought to be his father. He is known to us as Ahasueros.
He was the son of Darius the Great and Atossa, a daughter of Cyrus the Great. Jewish history has Darius and Cyrus related as father and son. We might assume that Darius was the son or grandson of Esther and Ahasueros with the connection to the tribe of Benjamin through Esther.
The tribe of Benjamin was considered to be quite special, stemming from the 12th and youngest son of Jacob and 2nd son of Rachel who died in childbirth, raised by her sister and handmaidens. They had land between Ephraim and Judah which included Jerusalem. Saul, 1st king of Israel, was a Benjamite. Their territory was a bone of contention between Israel and Judah after the division of the kingdom and eventually, was partitioned between the two, mostly with Judah.
Cyrus II died in 529 BCE as king of Persia. He had overrun the Babylonian Empire which included Eretz Yisrael. In 538 he was known to grant permission to the exiles of Judah in Babylon to return to their homeland and rebuild the Temple (Ezra 1:1-44; II Chronl. 36-22-23) The Jewish exiles regarded Cyrus II as a Divine agent (Is.44:28:45:1).
Darius ((son of Xerxes I)-He was the eldest son of the Persian king Xerxes I and his wife Amestris. His younger brothers were Hystaspes and Artaxerxes, and his younger sisters were Rhodogune and Amytis.) reigned from (522-486 BCE) and had inherited the throne of Cyrus. In 465 BC, Darius may have ascended to the throne as King of Persia after his father was murdered in a conspiracy carried out by Artabanus and Aspamitres the eunuch, who were confidential advisers of Xerxes. Afterwards, they deceived Artaxerxes into believing that it was his older brother, Darius, who murdered his father. Darius was then taken to the palace of Artaxerxes and put to death.
At the beginning of his reign, Xerxes/Ahasueros permitted Zerubbabel, grandson of king Jehoiachin (598-597 BCE) and the Jews who had returned to Jerusalem to resume reconstruction of the Temple. It seems the Jews had their own views of Darius and Cyrus II from other history records.
Hadassah was a young Jewish woman, niece and cousin of Mordecai, the Benjamite, so she was no doubt also of his tribe of Benjamin. She was the daughter of Abihail. Abihail was the father of Queen
It's the Jewish name for Esther, who became Queen Esther, wife of king Ahasueros, who learned of Haman's plot to kill all Jews in the kingdom through his wife, Esther. He also learned that he himself was also to be assassinated along with the Jews. Ahasueros saw to it that Haman was hanged and his position as Chief Minister was filled by Mordecai. According to the Book of Esther, Esther entered the beauty contest not out of personal desire to be queen, but because she was "taken" into the king's harem, meaning she was essentially forced to participate as part of a royal decree, with the goal of ultimately using her position to protect her Jewish people from a potential threat; she did not reveal her Jewish identity to the king during the contest, following her uncle Mordecai's instructions to conceal her heritage. Evidently things were that bad !
Ahasueros's 1st wife and Persian Queen was Vashti.According to the Aggadah (or Haggadah), a book of Jewish tradition and folklore, Vashti was the daughter of the Babylonian king Belshazzar. The night that Belshazzar was killed (Daniel 5), Vashti was captured by the conquering Persians and given to Xerxes as a wife. According to various legends, Vashti’s refusal to appear before the king was due to modesty (she was told to appear nude), fear for her husband’s life (she figured she would be mobbed by the drunken crowd and the king would be killed), loathing for her husband (whom she considered to have non-royal blood), or the fact that she herself had leprosy. Another tradition says that Vashti was not simply banished from the king’s presence but was executed. It’s important to note that none of these details are in the biblical account, and there is no way to confirm their veracity. According to Babylonian records, the last king of Babylon was Nabonidus who reigned from 556 to 539 BCE whose eldest son, Belshazar, acted as viceroy during his fathers lengthy stays in Arabia. Belshazzar is also mentioned in Herodotus and Xenophon that Babylon fell on a feast-day.
The king divorced her after she had refused to dance at his banquet for the entertainment of his guests. This is when, after being a divorced king, he realized the need for another spouse, so held a beauty contest where Esther competed and won. Vashti was a hard act to follow, but Esther was supposed to be very beautiful.
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