Esther. Esther is described in the Book of Esther as a Jewish queen of the Persian king Ahasuerus.
In the narrative, Ahasuerus seeks a new wife after his queen, Vashti, refuses to obey him, and Esther is chosen for her beauty. The king's chief advisor, Haman, is offended by Esther's cousin and guardian, Mordecai, and gets permission from the king to have all the Jews in the kingdom killed.
Esther foils the plan, and wins permission from the king for the Jews to kill their enemies, and they do so. Her story is the traditional basis for Purim, which is celebrated on the date given in the story for when Haman's order was to go into effect, which is the same day that the Jews killed their enemies after the plan was reversed. According to most scholars, the name Esther is derived from the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar and/or the Persian word stara, star.
The Book of Daniel provides accounts of Jews in exile being assigned names relating to Babylonian gods and Mordecai is understood to mean servant of Marduk, a Babylonian god. Esther may have been a different Hebrew interpretation from the Proto-Semitic root star/'morning/evening star', which descended with the /th/ into the Ugaritic Athtiratu and Arabian Athtar.
The derivation must then have been secondary for the initial ayin to be confused with an aleph, and the second consonant descended as a /s/, rather than a /sh/ as in Hebrew and most c
In the narrative, Ahasuerus seeks a new wife after his queen, Vashti, refuses to obey him, and Esther is chosen for her beauty. The king's chief advisor, Haman, is offended by Esther's cousin and guardian, Mordecai, and gets permission from the king to have all the Jews in the kingdom killed.
Esther foils the plan, and wins permission from the king for the Jews to kill their enemies, and they do so. Her story is the traditional basis for Purim, which is celebrated on the date given in the story for when Haman's order was to go into effect, which is the same day that the Jews killed their enemies after the plan was reversed. According to most scholars, the name Esther is derived from the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar and/or the Persian word stara, star.
The Book of Daniel provides accounts of Jews in exile being assigned names relating to Babylonian gods and Mordecai is understood to mean servant of Marduk, a Babylonian god. Esther may have been a different Hebrew interpretation from the Proto-Semitic root star/'morning/evening star', which descended with the /th/ into the Ugaritic Athtiratu and Arabian Athtar.
The derivation must then have been secondary for the initial ayin to be confused with an aleph, and the second consonant descended as a /s/, rather than a /sh/ as in Hebrew and most c
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