To bring Vashti the queen before the king with the crown royal, to shew the people and the princes her beauty: for she was fair to look on.
Parallel translations
- WEB 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.
- BSB to bring Queen Vashti before him, wearing her royal crown, to display her beauty to the people and officials. For she was beautiful to behold.
- NKJV to bring Queen Vashti before the king, wearing her royal crown, in order to show her beauty to the people and the officials, for she was beautiful to behold.
- NASB to bring Queen Vashti before the king with her royal turban in order to display her beauty to the people and the officials, for she was beautiful.
- NLT to bring Queen Vashti to him with the royal crown on her head. He wanted the nobles and all the other men to gaze on her beauty, for she was a very beautiful woman.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
He orders Vashti brought wearing her royal crown so the men can gaze on her beauty. The command treats the queen as an object of display.
Overview
Summoning the queen before a drunken assembly to show off her beauty was demeaning, and many readers see Vashti's coming refusal as a defense of her dignity. The king who paraded his riches now wishes to parade his wife. The episode reveals the degrading way pagan power can treat persons, in contrast to the honor God's law affords to human dignity made in His image.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Prov 31:30Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised.
- Mark 6:21–22And when a convenient day was come, that Herod on his birthday made a supper to his lords, high captains, and chief estates of Galilee;
- Prov 16:9A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.
- 1 Sam 25:3Now the name of the man was Nabal; and the name of his wife Abigail: and she was a woman of good understanding, and of a beautiful countenance: but the man was churlish and evil in his doings; and he was of the house of Caleb.
- Esth 6:8Let the royal apparel be brought which the king useth to wear, and the horse that the king rideth upon, and the crown royal which is set upon his head:
- 2 Sam 14:25But in all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty: from the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him.
- Esth 2:17And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained grace and favour in his sight more than all the virgins; so that he set the royal crown upon her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti.
- Prov 23:29–33Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?
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Christ at the center
Though God is never named, his hidden hand preserves the people from whom the Messiah will come — a deliverance 'for such a time as this' that anticipates the open deliverance of Christ.
How Esther 1:11 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.