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284 — " Ahasuerus Ahaziah

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Solomon Aljiiizi (onliii!: to Isjuic

(No. 20(i, Smyrna, UifiU), wlicrp, acLamproiiti's Talimulic diclionary, "Pahiul Yizlml>," under " Al.iaronim," llie word is On tlic quesusi'd with ri'ffrcncf to the Tosatists. tion of the relative value of the Al.iaronim in the Ilalakah, whieh differs somewhat from the mere deference shown to the Kishonim, see notes to Samuel

ha-Nagid's ".Mebo ha-Talmud," and Altiiouity.

D

284

dom. The king gives his consent (iii. 11), but withdraws it on the intercession of Esther, ])uts Hamau to death, and raises Mordecai to the position that Hainan held. Fresh proclamations are sent out ordering the Jews to defend themsi'lves and to take vengeance on their enemies (viii. 13). No further information about Ahasuerus is given in the Bible. Only once more is he mentioned in Ezra, iv. 0. See EslHKU, Ha.MAN, JlOKDECAI, PlUI.M.

—

2. Ealher of Darius the

AHASUERUS. — Biblical

Data:

1.

with Xerxes (41*0-41)5 n.c. ). The Hook of Esther deals only with one period of his reij;n. It tells us thill he ruled over one hundred an<I twenty-seven provinces "from liKlia, even luilo Ethiopia" (Esth.

kinjr. identical

i.

1).

In

tlio

thinl

year of his reign he iiiude a feast to show his riches and splen-

dor; "the power of Persia and Media, the 111)1 lies and ])rinces of the provinces, being before him " {ihid. i. 3i. After this feast, Avhich lasted one hundred and eighty days, he made another of seven days, to which "all the jieople great luid small were invited. At the siuiie time Yashli the queen gave a banquet to the women (i. 9). On the seventh day (i..

.

.

Ahasuerus sumthe queen to furm and Egyptian Hieroplypliics. appear before him. and the banqueters, {From the Louvre, Paris.) too, so that all might This Vashti naturally refused to do see her beauty. (i. 12); but the king, angered at her disobedience, took the advice of his counselors and set the queen aside. At the same time he sent proclamations throughout the land, declaring the husband the ruler in every household (i. 22). Between the events of the tir.st chapter and those of the second some years may be supposed to intervene, during which Ahasuerus is busy with bis attenijit at enslaving Greece. lie fails, and 10)

AhiliaMci Vii.-f with Niiiiii' of ,i-rxi>s ill IVrsiun, susiun, Assyrian Cuiiei-

moned

On his return a second consort is for liini, and in the tenth month of the seventh year of his reign (ii. K!) Esther becomes queen. The Biblical account then introduces what must have been a very common episode in the life of Persian returns to Persia.

found

monarchs.

Two eunuchs,

Mode (Dan.

Bigthan and Teresh (Per-

sian, Bagatanaand Tiris: Jules Oppert, "Conuuentaire Ilistorique ct Philologiiiuedu Livre d'Esther,"

form a conspiracy against Ahasuerus, which might have succeeded, had not Mordecai (through a Jewish slave of one of the conspirators, suggests Josephus, "Aut."xi. 6, § 4; but through Mordecai's knowledge of seventy languages, suggests the Targum) discovered it to Esther, who in turn told Ahasuerus. The conspirators are hanged, and the account of the conspiracy ami its di.scoverv entered in the chronicles. Later on the king rewards Jlordccai for p. 22),

his lidelity (Esth. vi. 2-12). Hamau now coiucs to the front as the chief adviser of Ahasuerus (iii. 1). Mordecai will not do reverence to Hanian, who thereupon, scorning to lay hands on Mordecai alone, plots to destroy all the Jews throughout the kiug-

ix. 1).

G. B. L.

Persian

In Rabbinical Literature: Ahasuerus, the Persian king iif the Book of Esther, being identitied by the rabbis with the one mentioned in Dan. i. 1 as father of Darius, king of Media, and with the one mentioned in Ezra, iv. 6. is counted as one of the three kings of Biblical history %vho ruled over the entire globe, the other two being Ahab and Nebuchadnezzar (Meg. 11<(Targ. Sliciii on Esth. i. 2 has four, coiuiting also Solomon among them; see .Meg. IIA). He was wicked from the beginning to the end of his reign. Upon the slanderous rejiort of the Samaritans he stopped the work, begun underCyrus, of the rebuilding of the Temple (Ezra. iv. G Esther Vhether he was a wise ruhr or a foolish K. intro. ). one is a matter of dispute between Pab and Samuel (Meg. 12('). According to H. Gamaliel il.. he was simply whimsical and vacillating (ih. 12/'); according to another tradition which was handed down by Abba Goiion. he was so unstable that he sjicritieed his wife to his friend, and his friend to his wife (Mid. Abba Gorion i. 1), probably meaning the emperor Doiuitian, of whom this statement was true (compare In his ambition Bacher, " Ag. Tan." i. 9(5 it mr/.).

King Solomon's wonderMidnish and thcTarguni to Esther, but he could not. His " showing the riches of his glorious kingilom " to his princes (Esth. i. 4) was esiieeially sinful, as he had all the sacred vessels from he Siinct uary taken out of his royal treasurehouse to the banquet in order to boast of these possessions, thus coiiunitting an offense against God and the Jews. He heaiied up great treasures and Cyrus, his succes,sor, in his miserliness hid them. found them, and offered them to the Jews in order that they might rebuild the Temple therewith. These are "the treasures of darkness" promised to Cyrus iuLsa. xlv. 3(EstherB. i. 4|. The restlessness of Ahasuerus on that night which decided the fate of the Jews was caused by the archangel Michael (Gabriel), who knocked him to the ground 3G(i times, and then brought before him a comjiany of butchers, bakers, and liutlers. to wlifmi the king in bis anger said "You have poisoned me!" They replied: ".See whether Estherand Ilaman, who ate and drank with you, are poisoned." When Ahasuerus found that they were well he sent for the book of the chronicles, and there learned of Mordecai's unrewarded act(.Midr. to sit on fid throne, descrilicil in the

Ahasuerus wanted

t



Abba

Gorion).

Pirke Uabbi Eliezer, xi.. in accordance with Targ. Sheni on Esther, at the beginning, counts ten kings as rulers over the entire globe: God, Nimrod, Jo.seph, Solomon, Ahab, Ahasuerus, Nebuchadnezzar, and Alexander the Great; then, as the ninth, the Messiah

It is also said there last, God Himself again. that Ahasuerus was the wealthiest of all the kings of Persia and Media; that he is luentioned in Daniel (xi. 2), where it is said: "The fourth shall be far richer than they all " and also that he set up couches of gold and silver in the thoroughfare of his capital to show all the world his riches; all the dishes and vessels he used were of gold, while the iiavement of his palace was entirely of precious stones and pearls.

and



K.