1 This story comes from the time when Zerk-sees (Xerxes) was the king of a big country called Persia. Persia was made up of 127 different nations. On the east side of Persia there was a country called India and on the west side there was another country called Ethiopia. Ethiopia is to the south of Egypt.
2 King Zerk-sees lived in Susa, the main town of Persia. It was a very big town and part of that town had really strong walls around it to keep everyone safe. Susa was where King Zerk-sees made all the laws for his people.
3 Zerk-sees was the king for 2 years, and then in the third year he gave a party. He invited all the leaders from the Persian and the Median armies, and he invited the important people from all the other nations that were in Persia.
4 That party went on for half a year, and all that time Zerk-sees showed off to the people that were at the party. He wanted them to see that he was a great and powerful king and that his country was rich and powerful too.
5 When that party was finished and everyone had gone home, Zerk-sees had another party in the gardens of the palace, his big house in Susa. Zerk-sees gave that party for all the important people and everyone else that lived inside that part of Susa that had strong walls. And this second party went on for 7 days.
6 Around the gardens of his palace there were a lot of big strong poles made from smooth stone, and on the top of every pole there were metal rings made of silver. Shade cloths made of light purple and white material were tied to those silver rings using purple and white ropes.
7 The people drank from gold cups and every cup looked different. The king wanted to be kind to the people and so he let them drink a lot of his private wine.
8 The king told his workers to let the people drink as much as they wanted.
9 King Zerk-sees had a wife who was called Queen Vashti. At the same time as Zerk-sees was having his party, Vashti was having a party for the women in Zerk-sees' palace.
12 The workers did what Zerk-sees asked them to do. They went to Queen Vashti and said, “The king wants you to go to his party, and he wants you to wear your crown.”
13 At that time the king had a group of helpers who knew about the Persian laws and how to do the right thing. And so Zerk-sees asked
14 Car-shena, Shethar, Ad-matha, Tar-shish, Mer-es, Mar-sena and Mem-u-can to help him. They were 7 of the important men in the country of Persia and Media. These men sat next to the king and were allowed to talk to him any time they wanted to.
15 And so King Zerk-sees said to them, “What do you think we should do to Queen Vashti? I sent my workers to tell her to come to my party but she said, ‘No!’ What does our law say should happen to her?”
16 One of the helpers named Mem-u-can got up and said to the king and all the important men there, “Queen Vashti has done the wrong thing to you King Zerk-sees. She has done the wrong thing to all the important men in your country too. And she has done the wrong thing to all the people in all your country that goes from India to Ethiopia.
17 All the wives in Persia and Media will hear what the queen said. They will not respect their husbands and might be, they will not do what their husbands tell them to do.
18 By the time the sun goes down tonight, all the wives of the important men in Persia and Media will know what Vashti did and all those women will copy her. They will not respect their husbands and there will be a lot of trouble everywhere.
19 And so King Zerk-sees, we think that you should make a new law, and you know that the laws written down in Persia and Media cannot be changed. You should have this new law written down on paper and sent out everywhere. That law will tell everyone that Vashti is not the queen anymore and that she can never go near the king again. King Zerk-sees, you should pick a better woman to be your queen.
20 You must have this law paper sent out everywhere in your big country. Then every important woman and all the other women in the country of Persia will respect their husbands.”
21 The king and all the important men were happy with this idea and so Zerk-sees did what Mem-u-can said. He made that new law.
22 In all the nations that were in the country of Persia there were a lot of different languages. And so King Zerk-sees got his men to put that law into every one of those languages. That way everyone in Persia would understand the new law. Then the papers were sent out so that all the people knew that every man in Persia was the boss in his own home. Zerk-sees made a law about Queen Vashti|src="co01266b.TIF" size="col" copy="David C Cook Publishing Co.1996" ref="1:22"