Why is The Bible and Christians Silent ON THE “RAPE” OF QUEEN ESTHER?

Queen Esther, a young, orphaned Hebrew girl was taken captive against her will, raped and then made Queen.

Many preachers spotlight the story largely from the angle of the favour Esther enjoyed but often de-emphasised the trouble she might have gone through.

The popular narrative is that of a young girl who was favoured to become a Queen – the number 2 most powerful person in the world. Her story is often angled as that of someone who through God’s help rose  to the position of First Lady of a world empire.

Meanwhile, an in-depth look at the story showed 400 virgins, who were all quite young, were escorted to the king Xerxes and were taken one by one, for him to sleep with, BUT THE BIBLE WAS SILENT ABOUT THIS PART.

Those who have been violated didn’t return to the other virgins but instead were added to the number of the king’s other concubines (a.k.a. sex slaves without wife status). Their image is further damaged as no other man could ever be their husband. They will ‘prayerfully’ be on the waiting list to enjoy intimacy with the king.

Additionally, they may  never see the king again unless he was “pleased with them.” and needed to sleep with them again. They become unofficial prostitutes, who only have the great honour of being a king’s sex toy.

According to the book of Esther, the king ‘test-drove’ many of the models for ten months before it was Esther’s turn. “She was taken to King Xerxes in the royal residence in the tenth month, the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign” (Esther 2:16).

It was required that: “…the young woman who most pleases the king (sexually) will be made queen instead of Vashti.” This advice was very appealing to the king, so he put the plan into effect” (Esther 2:4).

If Esther was not chosen, she would have become one of the concubines and not able to marry again. The concubines may not enjoy intimacy with the king for months or years and the eunuchs who took care of them have been castrated so that they don’t get intimate with the concubines.  Even before Esther risked her life and went into the king’s court un-invited to save the Jews, she indicated she had not seen her husband for one month. The king had plenty of concubines to have fun with, so intimacy with the wife was not a priority.

It was One Night With The King but it was a night of mixed feelings. There is the privilege of being intimate with the most powerful person on the earth at that time and there was the horror of being  sexually violated. 

The Bible is silent on Esther’s feelings and the fact that she was “raped” or maybe she was not raped. Perhaps it was con-sexual sex. 

But it was highly unlikely that the young models had the right to decline intimacy with the king with the level of power wielded by the King of that time. It was highly unlikely that any woman will have the nerve to resist him.  

Even if the king’s wife comes into his court without being invited, she shall die. Vashti was deposed for refusing to dance before the king and his lieutenants even though the king’s intention was to display his wife’s beauty before his nobles, in a way that may not be decent. “He wanted the nobles and all the other men to gaze on her beauty, for she was a very beautiful woman”.  The Jews were to be exterminated at Haman’s advice to the king – those kings were gods “in their own right”.

Did Esther have a choice of whether or not to sleep with the king? Her choice was likely either submit or die.  The silence of the Bible may be hinged on the fact that, even in time of trouble, God is at work. 

We also didn’t know if the virgins voluntarily opted to be sexually test-driven by king in order to become The Queen or they had no choice.  “So his personal attendants suggested, Let us search the empire to find beautiful young virgins for the king.Let the king appoint agents in each province to bring these beautiful young women into the royal harem at the fortress of Susa”. The import of this is that the agents were on a search for beautiful virgins”.

What are the odds that these virgins volunteered for the “sex-modelling” programme? 

Our consolation on this delicate and complex issue is that the Bible is a reliable word of God written by men inspired by God. Anything the Bible leaves out won’t be to subvert fact or deceive but would mean it may be unimportant.

Some “indecent’ details may also not be necessary in some stories, except it iS critical to the narrative.

However, some feminist argued that Esther’s woes were de-emphasised because she was woman in a very patriarchal world. 

Others went further to claim the Bible is very patriarchal. It may be safe to say anyone who sees the Bible as not sacredly objective may not be a Christian, no matter how strongly they profess to be so.

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right – 2 Timothy 3:16