Esther 2 · a question people ask
Was it right for Esther to be in the king's house, and to keep her people unknown?
The chapter tells both and judges neither. It says, "Esther was taken into the king’s house" (2:8), and later, "So Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus into his royal house" (2:16) (tap taken). In Hebrew both are the passive form of laqach, "take". The chapter quotes no word of Esther's, and says nothing of what she thought or wanted, and these notes don't guess. Of her keeping her people unknown, it says only this: "because Mordecai had instructed her that she should not make it known" (2:10), and "as Mordecai had commanded her; for Esther obeyed Mordecai, like she did when she was brought up by him" (2:20). It doesn't give Mordecai's reason. Nowhere does the chapter call any of it right or wrong, and these notes don't either. The book tells what came later: before the king, Esther asks for her life "and my people at my request" (7:3), and says, "For how can I endure to see the evil that would come to my people? How can I endure to see the destruction of my relatives?" (8:6).
The verses
“So, when the king’s commandment and his decree was heard, and when many maidens were gathered together to the citadel of Susa, to the custody of Hegai, Esther was taken into the king’s house, to the custody of Hegai, keeper of the women.”
“Esther had not made known her people nor her relatives, because Mordecai had instructed her that she should not make it known.”
“So Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus into his royal house in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.”
“Esther had not yet made known her relatives nor her people, as Mordecai had commanded her; for Esther obeyed Mordecai, like she did when she was brought up by him.”