Verse one, after these things, when the wrath of King Ahazurus subsided, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what had been decreed against her.

So the chapter begins with this familiar introduction of after these things. And whenever

you see after these things, it's usually an indication that some period of time has passed. And it is

believed that it's been about four years between chapter one and chapter two.

And a lot's actually happened during that time.

We're told that by historians that King Ahazurus during these four years had waged war against Greece, but suffered a massive defeat.

It's also during this time that some suggest that the king may have had second thoughts

after deposing Queen Vashti for her refusal to come at his command, which we learned about in chapter one last week.

Verse two, then the king's servants who attended him said,

let beautiful young virgins be sought for the king.

And verse three, let the king appoint officers

in all the provinces of his kingdom that they may gather all the beautiful young virgins to

Shushan, the citadel, into the women's quarters under the custody of Hagi, the king's eunuch,

custodian of the women, and let beauty preparations be given them.

Then let the young woman who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti.

So this thing pleased the king and he did so. Now as we get into this I want to

point out something that maybe isn't so visible at first read and it has to do with what some say is

you know this was like a beauty contest.

So the king needs a queen, so what's he going to do is going to have this beauty pageant.

He's going to find the replacement queen to replace Queen Vasi.

That is not what is happening here.

This is more like a plan to abduct women, taking them against their will, young women,

...