Strange Story: Esther 1 Beauty Contests Were Not the Way They Chose Queens

In the book of Esther, why was a new queen not sought from one of the king’s other wives, or from the daughters of nobility?

It can be assumed that any king of ancient times, even kings of small city-states, would have had more than one wife. King Xerxes was no ordinary king. So it is safe to assume he had many wives. Why was one of these wives not elevated to the position of queen? All the most important nobles were already within the king’s inner circle, and many of his wives were likely daughters of these noblemen. But if a new queen needed to be sought from outside his own harem, why not seek one from among members of the nobility in his kingdom? That would have been the acceptable way to do things in ancient times.

This beauty contest idea was very strange, and not typical of ancient practices. Back then it was all about who you know and who you are connected with. You didn’t just bring in a total stranger and make her the queen simply because she had physical beauty. Many women could be found who had a lovely appearance, but not all of them would make a good queen.

Three reasons come to mind (although the last two are related):

1. Their culture had become obsessed with physical beauty.

2. The king could not trust the daughters of nobility because of the growing popularity of feminism.

3. This was a test of character, not just a beauty contest.

Allow me to go over these three points in more detail.

1. Their culture had become obsessed with physical beauty.

There are a few indications that this may have been the case. Vashti is described as very beautiful and the king wanted to bring her from her own banquet to his banquet to show off her beauty. Then the fact that the king’s attendants suggested a beauty contest implies that the culture as a whole was fixated on physical beauty to the extent that people thought a queen was nothing more than a trophy. However, in reality the queen, even in ancient times, had influence; she was a role model for the women and she often helped raise the next king. However, if this interpretation is true, they seemed to be willing sacrifice everything else on the altar of physical beauty.

Many cultures of modern time are likewise fixated on physical beauty. This has probably always been the case, but the advent of photography, television, movies, internet pornography, social media and the internet in general, and cell phones with the capability to take good pictures and videos have contributed to making our culture seemingly more obsessed with physical beauty than those before us. If nothing else, we have much more access to images of beautiful women than any culture before us.

2. The king could not trust the daughters of nobility because of the growing popularity of feminism.

If this was true, then almost all the females, especially among the nobility, were already heading the direction that Vashti was headed; she simply gave it a voice more clearly than the others had. Therefore the king did not know if he could trust any of the daughters of nobility. The king’s attending servants knew what was going on among the women and therefore made the suggestion that is recorded in Esther 2:2-4,

If the situation was bad enough that a major change was made in how decisions of this nature were processed, we should know that what we call feminism was becoming widespread. We can also assume that it was growing most quickly among the upper class. The fact that Vashti chose to refuse the order of the king was shocking for her time. I imagine that at her own banquet she had been raving against the abuses of men, so when the call came for her to present herself to the drunken horde of men, she felt she had to refuse or be a hypocrite.

Maybe none of his other wives had the right attitude, but rather all of them were in agreement with Vashti. If this were the situation in Persia at that time, it would explain why the winner of this contest would become the queen rather than any of the wives he already had.

3. This was a test of character, not a beauty contest.

Of course the new queen would be beautiful; that was assumed. But what the king was after was someone that “looked good” on the inside as well as the outside.

If he was most interested in inner beauty, why all the emphasis on beauty treatments? 

The Hebrew word rendered “beauty treatments” means “to scour, to scrub, to cleanse, to purify.” If the scouring was intended to cleanse from physical impurities it was often accompanied with the use of oils, perfumes or soaps. But if the purifying was intended to cleanse the mind, then re-education was needed.

One possibility for why a year-long process was needed was because they were doing more than just opening the pores of the skin and making a beautiful appearance even more beautiful; they were trying to redirect the thinking process of those who might become the future queen. The other possibility is that they were trying to look inside the mind of each woman to see what was already there, knowing that they could not truly replace it with new teaching. This latter idea is focused on testing to see what was in the mind and determining how strong it was, rather than trying to change what was in the mind.

If this was true, then it was more than a beauty contest, it was a test of character and perception of reality. However, they could not make it known what the king’s true intentions were, or the women would tell him what they thought he wanted to hear. So outwardly they kept the emphasis on physical beauty.

After spending one night with the king they went to stay at a different place, for two reasons. First, they were no longer virgins and were considered concubines (Esther 2:14), but secondly, they would not be able to tell the others about what to expect when with the king.

It is possible that he did not even have sex with each one that came. If one of them turned him off due to her attitudes, he probably sent her to the hall of the concubines right away.

The girl who “pleased the king” the most would become his queen. This probably had to do with much more than the sexual experience, although that was part of the picture to be sure.

How Would Their Character Be Tested?

If you put that many women together in close quarters, you are sure to have all kinds of “interesting” interpersonal issues develop. Unbeknown to them, the women were being watched carefully to see how they handled all those situations. It was a year of testing on a daily basis without even knowing it. The women thought it was all about physical beauty, but it was not. The eunuchs acted like evaluators who graded daily attitudes and actions, while the king gave the final exam. I imagine that the king and his advisors had come up with a final test that he could give each virgin as she came to him which would give him a good picture of what was in her mind and heart (not a written test, but questions he asked her or situations he placed her in).

The virgins were allowed to take something with them when they went to be with the king; they could choose almost anything they wanted and I’m sure the options were plentiful and impressive. What they chose was observed carefully.

Esther chose very differently from the rest, in part because she thought differently, and in part because she followed the advice of the head Eunuch, whose favor she had won. It appears that Esther won the favor of the head eunuch very early on and as he observed her for an entire year, his first impression was reaffirmed many times. This reinforces the idea that the head eunuch, his assistants, and the king, were looking at character more than physical beauty. I envision him giving her a hint of what to take when her turn came, suggesting something, or a small collection of things, and she had the wisdom to not go beyond what he had suggested (Esther 2:15). As I envision it, he did not tell her to stick with only what he said; but she was wise enough to limit herself to his advice.

I also imagine she knew when to be quiet and when to speak. When she did speak, her conversation connected with the king. She could speak intelligently about history, religions, cultures, languages, etc. Yet she was not pushy or overpowering. She was comfortable in his presence, not afraid, but also not arrogant or assuming. For these reasons, and many more, along with the multiple good reports of the eunuchs, Esther was considered the best choice to become, not only the king’s latest wife, but the queen of a massive empire.

Esther probably went to the king more than once. We are told in Esther 2:14 that each girl spent only one night with the king unless he summoned her again by name. We can assume he noticed something different about her on that first night. He may have chosen to have her come to him at least one more time in order to confirm his thoughts and solidify the decision.

We can rightly assume that Esther was more than beautiful, she was special. She had probably allowed the hardships she had faced in life, which included losing both parents, to make her better, not bitter. Thus she probably had a genuinely sweet disposition. She was probably wise, and definitely respectful. She was not only beautiful to look at, but also the kind of example the king wanted the other women in his kingdom to follow.