This very day the noble women of Persia and Media who have heard of the queen's behavior will say the same to all the king's officials, and there will be contempt and wrath in plenty.
Memucan is not describing a family quarrel. He warns the king that word of Vashti's refusal will spread that same day, and that noble households across Persia and Media will copy it. His whole case rests on one word — contempt — and on the wrath he says will follow it through every level of the empire.
The counsellor's argument
Memucan speaks first about damage, before he speaks about punishment. He claims the harm reaches far past the throne room, and the wives of the empire are the ones who will carry it.
Leslie M. GrantOne of the princes, Memucan, took the lead in suggesting what should be done. He said that Vashti had wronged not only the king, but also all the princes and all the people in every province of King Ahasuerus (v. 16). No doubt Vashti's behavior would become well known to all women. Unless the king acted quickly and firmly, they would feel free to despise the authority of their husbands (vv. 17-18).
One refusal, a whole empire
The king's advisers gave their verdict. They treat one refusal as a pattern the whole empire will copy, and their cure is a law read out in every province.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThey decide that Vashti has wronged the king, and that her refusal set a dangerous example to all the king's subjects. Much contempt and wrath would follow throughout the empire. So they advise that Vashti lose her royal position and be sent away. The king agrees, and at the same time issues a decree for his whole great kingdom: all wives should honor their husbands.
What a decree cannot reach
The panic in this verse has a cause. One refusal has just exposed the limits of absolute power.
H. L. RossierA weak woman resists Ahasuerus, and her resistance checks his limitless power. A grain of sand humbles all the pride of this huge, so well organized empire. Vashti may be divorced, but her act remains, and the humiliated king has no power to force her to appear in public. Here, from the very beginning, we find the hidden providence of God at work. Her removal is not carried out until Ahasuerus returns. Then the Jewish wife, prepared by Providence, can come on the scene and take the place of the Gentile wife at the right moment.
The adviser's own interest
Why did Memucan push so hard? Jewish tradition, not the Bible, offers two answers.
Leslie M. GrantThe Annotated Bible by A.C. Gabelein records that "Jewish tradition gives several reasons why Memucan was so hostile to Vashti. One is that his own wife had not been invited to Vashti's feast, and another, because he wanted his own daughter promoted and become the Queen."
Order in the home
The contempt Memucan feared is a real danger. One writer traces where it leads inside a home, and the cost falls on the children.
Raymond K. CampbellA woman who takes over the headship of the house and treats her husband with contempt will surely be unhappy and miserable. She will reap the bitter fruit of her own rebellion: her children, brought up in disorder, become lawless.
A picture in the story
One writer sees a picture in the refusal itself. Vashti was asked for something that would have cost her nothing, and the Gentile nations have treated God's favour the same way.
William KellyIf the king's demand was unusual, the queen's refusal was an insult that could not be overlooked. The seven court officials were properly sent to bring her. But she rebelled, when obeying would have done her no real harm, and she shifted whatever blame there might be onto her lord. In what this pictures, how true it is that the Gentile has been faithless and unruly, seeking his own will and completely failing to show the world the beauty of one so favoured!
Nobody in the room could see where this was heading. The advisers were fixing a problem of household discipline. The result was an empty throne, waiting for the Jewish wife that Providence had prepared.
Summary
- Refusal. Vashti would not come. Memucan turned that one act into a case about the whole empire.
- Contempt. The advisers feared that noblewomen would hear the story and answer their husbands the same way. The fruit would be contempt and wrath.
- Decree. Their cure was law. Remove the queen, and tell every province that wives must honour their husbands.
- Limits. A decree can remove a queen, but it cannot create a willing heart. One woman stopped the world's greatest power by not coming.
- Providence. The council's damage control emptied the throne. God's hidden providence was at work from the very beginning.