Bible Questions and Answer

Esther lived in Susa, called Shushan in older Bibles, one of the capitals of the Persian Empire, in southwestern Iran. The book opens with King Xerxes, called Ahasuerus, giving a banquet in "the citadel of Susa." Esther was a Jewish orphan raised by her cousin Mordecai, whose family had been exiled from Jerusalem. After Queen Vashti refused to appear at the king's banquet, young women were gathered from across the empire, and Esther was chosen as the new queen. She lived in the royal palace. Mordecai sat at the king's gate. When Haman plotted to kill all the Jews, Esther risked her life by going to the king without being summoned and exposed the plot at a banquet. French archaeologists excavated Susa from the late 1800s and uncovered the palace of Darius I, which Xerxes also used, including its great columned hall and glazed brick panels of soldiers. The tomb of Esther and Mordecai, by tradition, is in Hamadan.