Illustration created for this project.

Vashti

The queen of Persia deposed by Ahasuerus at the start of the book of Esther. On the seventh day of a long royal banquet, when the king was merry with wine and sent his eunuchs to display her beauty before the assembled men, she refused to come. His advisers warned that the example would spread to every household in the empire, so she was removed and the search began that brought Esther to the throne. Scripture records her refusal without comment; it is her defiance that clears the stage for the deliverance that follows.

Role: Queen of Persia

Lived: c. 5th century BC

Born: Susa

What we know — and how we know it

Bible — stated in scripture (with verse) · 1 Scholarly — supported scholarly belief · 1

Life, role & deeds

BibleQueen of Persia, deposed by Xerxes for refusing to appear at his banquet — which opened the way for Esther.

Esther 1:10–19

↳ Esther · Xerxes

ScholarlyThe queen Ahasuerus (Xerxes) deposes. No Persian source names Vashti or Esther — the Greek historian Herodotus calls Xerxes's queen Amestris — which is a chief reason scholars debate whether Esther is history, historical novella, or festival legend.

Herodotus, Histories 7.61, 9.109; the historicity debate

↳ Esther

Where in scripture

Esther

Also Vashti the queen made a feast for the women in the royal house which belonged to King Ahasuerus.
Esther 1:9

to bring Vashti the queen before the king with the royal crown, to show the people and the princes her beauty; for she was beautiful.
Esther 1:11

But the queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s commandment by the eunuchs. Therefore the king was very angry, and his anger burned in him.
Esther 1:12 — Refuses the king's command

“What shall we do to the queen Vashti according to law, because she has not done the bidding of the King Ahasuerus by the eunuchs?”
Esther 1:15

Memucan answered before the king and the princes, “Vashti the queen has not done wrong to just the king, but also to all the princes, and to all the people who are in all the provinces of the King Ahasuerus.
Esther 1:16

For this deed of the queen will become known to all women, causing them to show contempt for their husbands, when it is reported, ‘King Ahasuerus commanded Vashti the queen to be brought in before him, but she didn’t come.’
Esther 1:17

“If it pleases the king, let a royal commandment go from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes, so that it cannot be altered, that Vashti may never again come before King Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal estate to another who is better than she.
Esther 1:19

After these things, when the wrath of King Ahasuerus was pacified, he remembered Vashti, and what she had done, and what was decreed against her.
Esther 2:1

Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, a public-domain translation.

Esther 1:9 Esther 1:11 Esther 1:12 Esther 1:15 Esther 1:16 Esther 1:17 Esther 1:19 Esther 2:1 Esther 2:4 Esther 2:17