... A proper name, derived from the Persian and meaning "a star," especially the planet Venus.  It was applied to the beautiful maiden whose Hebrew name was Hadhassah, i.e. "a myrtle."  Early left an orphan, she was brought up at Shushan or Susa, the old Elamite capital, afterwards a Persian metropolis, by Mordecai, she being his uncle's daughter.  When the despotic monarch Ahasuerus, king or emperor of Persia, acting by the advice of his sycophantic courtiers, unjustly divorced his good queen Vashti, his evil advisers were afraid that the monarch would repent of the step he had taken, and call them to account for the part they had taken in the catastrophe.  They advised him to make choice of a fair maiden to succeed the divorced queen, and after many had been introduced to him, Esther was preferred to them all, and duly installed in the palace as the queen-consort.  It was not known at the time that she was a Jewess.  She came to the throne at a critical time.  The royal favourite was a certain Agagite, probably meaning an Amalekite, to whom Mordecai declined to do obeisance.  The dignitary, annoyed by this disrespect, wished to revenge himself by the massacre, not simply of Mordecai, but of all the large Jewish population scattered throughout the empire.  The emperor, promised a heavy bribe if he consented to the crime, agreed to take the money and allow Haman's murderous project to be carried out (Esther ii. 5-iii. 15).  Mordecai urged Esther to interfere for the protection of her race.  She was afraid; but, on very faithful language on the subject being addressed to her by her guardian, she after fasting and prayer, risked her life by revealing to the monarch who doted upon her that she was one of the hated race.  Mordecai, who had made known a plot against the monarch's life, for which as yet he had not been rewarded, was soon afterwards exalted to high honours, Haman hanged, and the Jews permitted to defend themselves, and even to take the offensive against their foes.  The time and manner of Esther's death are unknown.  The Book of Esther is the last of the historical books of the Old Testament.  In the present Hebrew Bible it stands among the Hagiogrrapha, just after Ecclesiastes, and immediately before Daniel. (The Sunday School Teacher's Bible Manual, Hunter, 1894)