The question was asked of whether people living after the time of New Testament should use accounts in the Old Testament as models or justification for their personal relationship choices. Specifically of whether Esther’s being as they put it “a second wife” is an example that God condoned remarriage after divorce. It must first be noted that the interpretation that King Xerxes divorced Vashti before eventually marrying Esther is unsupported. Xerxes was polygamous and kept a harem. Vashti was Queen in that she was the Chief Woman if that harem and her children alone would have royal legal right to the throne. When the book of Esther recounts her dismissal as Queen, the inference is that she was sent back to harem to “live as a widow” as we hear both Tamar, Judah’s daughter in law, and several of David’s secondary wives ie. concubines had to do. Vashti was not divorced and set free to remarry, she was banished to the harem to live without hope of sexual contact or children again. “ ...
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