What would we have done?

trixx

Tue, Mar 03 2020, 12:12 pm

Goldie613 wrote:

So...does that mean that no one in Shushan (or no one in all of his lands) got to keep their wife? How did Achashverosh expect his country to continue??? He was essentially stopping the people of his lands from reproducing, thereby stopping any population growth (other than within his own family line). So within about 20 years he'd have a greatly reduced population, as a whole generation would have not been able to have kids. Some of them might have had kids already when their wives were taken, but if we say something like all girls/women from 13 or 14 until before old age (which might have been only in the 40's or 50's then) were taken, there would have been a serious gap in creating families and children. The 13 to 18 years old group might not have been married yet, the early 20's might have only had a couple of kids...so there would have been a lot less kids from that age group, if any at all. Which means twenty years later, when those kids would normally be marrying and having kids of their own, that wouldn't be happening either (because those potential kids were never born). The population probably couldn't have really rebuilt until at least a generation or two later. Even if you count the ones who were too little to catch the King's eye - their growing up and starting families of their own wouldn't completely make up for all those never born families.

(Sorry for going all sociological/population growth on everyone, but I hadn't realized that the married women were pulled into this too.) Also, I thought I had heard somewhere that Esther had divorced Mordechai to prevent sinning once she got pulled into this, but maybe I'm remembering wrong?

I looked it up for you. From Let My Nation Live but it doesnt have all the scandalous info that I learned straight out of the megillah. It says "achashverosh did not act in a gentlemanly manner" lol

Three stages of the search
1. Voluntary candidates among the high born - they soon went into hiding
2. Pageant with the commoners - virgins only. Forcible search in each area and then a regional contest ie picking the cream of the crop and bringing those to the cpaital. These were under haggai for 12 months.
Again, word spread and girls hid. Captured girls paid heavy bribes to be released. Soon there were no candidates left (compare to dovid, when he searched for a wife everyone fought for the honor)
Achashverosh simply shuffled the constables hoping that new officials would require new bribes and families would run out of money.

Pandemonium in shushan capital - midah kneged midah for the haughty Persians who had shown revulsion to thw jews, now their daughters are being dragged away like cattle.

Search took 4 yrs. Statistical demographic srudies showed candidates represented only a fraction of actual citizens

3. Finally achashverosh said, whoever is hiding a girl will be put to death.
At this point mordechai still had esther hidden until the day officers came personally for her and she went unwillingly.

Btw mordechai was working in palace and used to catch sight of her.
Also haggai told her explicitly she will be killed if she refuses to sleep with the king=onsah.

Yes the discarded girls were sent to harem abd never allowed to return to civilian life.

Everyone knew esther would be chosen.

Goldie613

Tue, Mar 03 2020, 12:26 pm

trixx wrote:

Lot of information here - thanks for taking the time to find all of this!

So they weren't taking married woman, according to Let My Nation Live? I wonder if that made people rush to get married faster? And why wouldn't Esther have married then too, if that gave her a greater likelihood of remaining safe?

It seems like the wealthiest hid, the next level down paid bribes and the poorest got caught in the King's web - with the King doing what he could to help people run out of money and options faster :-(

If the whole process took years, and they were going for the unmarried ones, did they do anything to try to prevent marriages?

(I'm blanking on when, but I know that there was a point in Jewish history when families were marrying in secret, because if the people in charge found out about the upcoming wedding, they would get to "be with" the bride first. I wonder if similar secrecy was needed here, to keep girls from being grabbed before they could be married off)