Esth. i. 9, &c.VASHTI, or Vashti, the Wife of King Ahasuerus. This Prince made a great Feast for all the Nobles of his Kingdom, and even for his whole People; and Queen Vashti also made a Feast to entertain the Women in her Palace. On the seventh Day of the Feast, when the King was more merry than usual, being warm’d with Wine, he ordered his principal Officers to fetch Queen Vashti, with the Crown Royal upon her Head, that he might shew her extraordinary Beauty to his Nobles, and to all his Subjects: But she, in a haughty Fit, refused to come. This publick Repulse and Affront put the King in a great Passion; and he consulted with his chief Counsellors and Statesmen, asking their Opinion, what Punishment Vashti had deserved, for thus disobeying the King’s Commands. Memucan, the first of the Counsellors, answered, that the King’s Anger was very just; that the example of Vashti might have mischievous Effects through the whole Kingdom, by encouraging all other Wives to be disobedient to their Husbands. He concluded with this Advice to the King, that she should be divorced, her Crown taken from her, and given to another, who might be more worthy of it. This Advice prevailed, Vashti was repudiated, and Esther taken into her Place. See the Article ESTHER. This happened in the Year of the World 3486, before Christ 514, before the Vulgar Æra 518.
‘Tis enquired, who this Queen Vashti was? Some have thought her to be the same as Athessa the Daughter of Cyrus, who was first married to Cambyses, her own Brother, afterwards to the Magian, who endeavoured to be taken for Smerdis; and, lastly, to Darius the Son of Hystaspis, whom we take to be the same as Abasuerus. She was of very exquisite Beauty; Herodot. l. 7. c. 3.and Herodotus assures us, that Darius had four Sons by her, and that she had for a long time a Share in the Ma nagement of his Affairs. Therefore she could not be Vashti, who was divorced in the third Year of this Prince. Others think her to have been Abasuerus’s own Daughter. The Persians made no scruple of this kind of Marriages, and Polygamy was customary among them. But History gives us no Warrant for this Conjecture. Herodotus speaks likewise Herodot. l. 7. c. 59.of Aristone, the Wife of Darius Son of Hystaspes; we think it probable that she may be Esther.
The Hebrews tells us, that what made Vashti refuse to obey the King, was, because he required her to shew herself naked before all the People; which she peremptorily refused to do.