Esther 2:6

The captivity of Judah followed in four stages. In 606 BC, Nebuchadnezzar carried away the sacred vessels and captives, including Daniel and his companions. This began the "times of the Gentiles." The second captivity came in 599 BC, after Jehoiachin had reigned three months. This one is called the great captivity.

Scripture calls him JECONIAH in 1 Chronicles 3:16, 17; Esther 2:6; Jeremiah 24:1... It also calls him CONIAH in Jeremiah 22:24, 28, and JECHONIAS in Matthew 1:11-12.

They claim that Mordecai belonged to the captives carried away by Nebuchadnezzar. Then they say, that being the case, Mordecai must have been over 130 years old and Esther at least 70. But does it say that Nebuchadnezzar carried Mordecai away in the time of King Jeconiah? He carried away not Mordecai but his great-grandfather Kish... By listing the four generations from Kish to Mordecai, he shows how much time had passed since the banishment of Jeconiah. That banishment happened before the destruction of the temple. The four generations are an exact measure of the 120 or more years from then to the sixth year of Xerxes.

The Babylonians had carried Mordecai's grandfather away captive. That was over 70 years earlier, so Mordecai was no doubt born in Persia. So were the great majority of Jews who lived during that captivity.

This Kish was no doubt of Saul's line, as his name shows... The name of Kish was famous for its link with the royal house God once set up in Israel. He then rejected that house for its unfaithfulness. We may well think that Mordecai's great-grandfather belonged to this dethroned royal family. When Cyrus gave his decree, Zerubbabel, the last representative of David's family, returned to Jerusalem with the faithful part of the tribe of Judah. Meanwhile a representative of Saul's family stayed with the ruined, rejected people.

Saul, the son of Kish, spared Agag, king of the Amalekites, and God rejected him for his disobedience (1 Samuel 15). Mordecai, who was also a son of Kish (Esther 2:5), arranged the execution of Haman the Agagite (Esther 3:1). By this he carried out the judgment of God and gained great honour.

Mordecai himself was in servitude. He had not used the decree of Cyrus to return to Jerusalem. This was not out of indifference. Like Daniel and Nehemiah, he had a responsibility to fulfil at the king's court. He could not leave without special permission, and his position probably forbade him to ask for it.

Readers have often noticed that the name of God never appears in the book of Esther. This is characteristic. God does not show Himself. The government of the world had fallen to that throne, with all its power and all its mistakes. But behind it God holds the reins by His providence. He watches over the fulfilment of His purposes and over everything needed for them. And He cares for His people, whatever their condition or the power of their enemies.