If it please the king, let a royal order go out from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes so that it may not be repealed, that Vashti is never again to come before King Ahasuerus. And let the king give her royal position to another who is better than she.
One night's anger at a banquet turns into permanent law: Memucan advises a decree no one can reverse, and Vashti's place goes to another woman. Two questions follow — what can an "unchangeable" human law achieve, and who was arranging the vacancy Esther would later fill?
What the decree proposed
The advisers do not just want Vashti punished. They want her removal written into national law, where no change of mood can undo it.
Leslie M. GrantSo Memucan suggested this. If the king agreed, a royal decree would be announced and recorded in the laws of the Persians and Medes, which made it unchangeable. The decree would banish Vashti and give her royal position to another woman better than she.
Why turn one woman's refusal into public law?
H. L. RossierThe wise men around Ahasuerus held that Vashti's revolt, if tolerated, would give approval to individual independence throughout the kingdom. So order must be restored: the Gentile wife is rejected completely.
"Her royal estate"
The phrase translated "her royal estate" is one Hebrew word, and it names a rank rather than describing a garment or a title.
C. E. Stuart"Royal" is not the word actually in the original. The original meant simply "her royal estate," or "royal dignity," by malcuth. Any Hebrew dictionary shows that malcuth is a noun, not an adjective. The French version by J. N. Darby agrees, giving the one Hebrew word as "la dignité royale de Vashti," with the note: "literally, her royal dignity."
Why the law could not be altered
The unchangeable law of Persia flattered the king and protected the court at the same time. It also had a track record.
H. L. RossierHis pride rests on a custom that great men and governors had always upheld: no one could reverse the law of the Medes and Persians. The custom let the king imagine he was a sacred person who never changed. At the same time it gave the great men of the empire a way to escape the power of the ruler on the throne. Men of high rank used exactly this under Darius the Mede, to get rid of the prophet Daniel.
What law cannot command
The decree could strip a queen of her position. It could not create the respect it demanded.
Arno C. GaebeleinThey advise the king to take away Vashti's royal estate and send her away. He approves, and at the same time issues a decree across his great kingdom: all wives should honour their husbands. The Persian kings were great autocrats who ruled with an iron hand, and no one could revoke their laws. "The story told of Xerxes is certainly no fable. When flooding destroyed all the bridges over the Hellespont, he ordered the sea to be beaten with rods for disobedience (Herodotus 7:35). But it was easier for him to beat the sea than to get what his edict demanded."
Providence working behind the decree
God is never named in this book, yet the timing of the vacancy is the point. The sentence falls here, and the empty place waits for the king's return.
H. L. RossierA weak woman resists Ahasuerus and holds his limitless power in check. A grain of sand humiliates all the pride of this huge, tightly organised empire. The king may divorce Vashti, but her act remains, and he stands humiliated, unable to force her to appear in public. … Here, from the very beginning, we find the hidden providence of God at work. … Her rejection is decreed and cannot be reversed, yet it only takes effect when Ahasuerus returns. Then the Jewish wife, prepared by Providence, can come on the scene and take the Gentile wife's place at the right moment.
A pattern of things to come
Commentators read the deposed queen as a picture of something larger.
William KellyIn the reality this pictures, the Gentile has been faithless and rebellious — chasing self-will and completely failing to show the world the beauty of one so favoured! The result will be the same as it was here. Zion will be called to be a crown of beauty in the hand of Jehovah, a royal diadem in the hand of her God. She will no longer be called Forsaken, and her land will no longer be called Desolate.
Another writer follows the same picture into Romans 11.
Arno C. GaebeleinVashti, the Gentile wife, may be looked on as Christendom, set aside for her disobedience. Esther the Jewess takes her place. This reminds us of the parable of the two olive trees in Romans 11: the grafted-in branches, Gentile Christendom, are to be cut off, and the broken-off branches, Israel, put back on their own olive tree.
Summary
- Dignity. What Vashti loses is malcuth — her royal rank itself, not a robe or a courtesy title.
- Decree. The laws of Persia and Media lock her fall in place. Courtiers had used the same device against Daniel.
- Limit. A law can empty a throne. It cannot command honour: Xerxes found it easier to beat the sea than to get what his edict demanded.
- Delay. The place stays empty until the king returns, so the right woman arrives at the right moment. That is providence at work, with God never named.
- Design. One woman's place is "given to another." Commentators read the deposed queen as the favoured Gentile set aside, and Esther's call as Zion brought in.