Mordecai or
Mordechai - the son of Jair, of the
tribe of BenjaminAccording to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Benjamin was one of the twelve Tribes of Israel.Following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes after about 1200 BCE, Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes...
, is one of the main personalities in the
Book of EstherThe Book of Esther is one of the books of the Ketuvim of the Tanakh and of the Historical Books of the Old Testament. The Book of Esther or the Megillah is the basis for the Jewish celebration of Purim...
in the
Hebrew BibleThe Hebrew Bible is a term referring to the books of the Jewish Bible as originally written mostly in Biblical Hebrew with some Biblical Aramaic...
.
His life and deeds
Mordecai resided in
SusaSusa ; Syriac: ; was an ancient city of the Elamite, Persian and Parthian empires of Iran, located about 250 km east of the Tigris River....
, the metropolis of
PersiaIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
. He adopted his cousin Hadassah (
EstherEsther , born Hadassah, was a Jewish prophet and queen of the Persian Empire in the Hebrew Bible, the queen of Ahasuerus , and heroine of the Biblical Book of Esther which is named after her...
), an orphan child, whom he tenderly brought up as his own daughter. When "young virgins" were sought, she was brought into the presence of king
Xerxes-People:*Xerxes I of Persia, reigned 485–465 BC, aka Xerxes the Great*Xerxes II of Persia, reigned 424 BC*Xerxes of Armenia, Armenian king, assassinated around 212 BC...
,and was made queen in the place of the exiled queen
VashtiVashti is mentioned in the Book of Esther, a book included in the Hebrew Bible .-In the Book of Esther:In Esther, Vashti is the wife of king Ahasuerus who is replaced by Esther...
. Mordecai was then promoted to a position of royal court advisor as a result of ingratiating himself to King Xerxes [known in Hebrew as Ahasuerus] and was therefore referred to subsequently as one of those who "sat in the king's gate" to indicate his position of closeness to the King. While holding this office, he discovered a plot of Bigthan and Teresh, the King's Chamberlains
eunuchA eunuch is a political rank often found in ancient courts. Over the millennia since, they have performed a wide variety of functions in many different cultures such as: courtiers or equivalent domestics, treble singers, religious specialists, government officials, military commanders, and...
s to put the king to death, which, by his vigilance, was defeated. His services to the king in this matter were duly recorded in the royal chronicles.
Haman the
AgagiteThe term Agagite is used in the Book of Esther as a description of Haman. The term is understood to be an ethnonym although nothing is known with certainty about the people designated by the name...
had been raised to the highest position at court. Mordecai refused to
bowBowing is the act of lowering the torso and head as a social gesture in direction to another person or symbol. It is most prominent in Asian cultures but it is also typical of nobility and aristocracy in many countries and distinctively in Europe. Sometimes the gesture may be limited to lowering...
down before him because it is a clear violation of Jewish Law; and Haman, being stung to the quick by the conduct of Mordecai, resolved to accomplish his death in a wholesale murder of the
JewThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
ish exiles throughout the Persian empire. Tidings of this cruel scheme soon reached the ears of Mordecai, who communicated with Queen Esther regarding it, and by her wise and bold intervention the scheme was frustrated by distributing arms to the Jews of Shushan and other Persian cities where they lived and clashed with Haman's militia, until the King rescinded the edict to murder the Empire's Jews. The Jews were delivered from destruction, Mordecai was raised to a high rank, donned in the royal bluish cloak, and Haman was executed on the gallows he had by anticipation erected for Mordecai. In memory of the deliverance thus wrought for them, the Jews to this day celebrate the feast of
PurimPurim is a festival that commemorates the deliverance of the Jewish people of the ancient Persian Empire from Haman's plot to annihilate them, as recorded in the Biblical Book of Esther...
of "Lots" because of the lots that were drawn by Haman to decide whom he would first murder among the Jewish elders in Persia.
Esther 2:5-6 states:
- Now in Shushan
Susa ; Syriac: ; was an ancient city of the Elamite, Persian and Parthian empires of Iran, located about 250 km east of the Tigris River....
the palace there was a certain JewThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
, whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite; Who had been carried away from JerusalemJerusalem is the capital of Israel and its largest city in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if disputed East Jerusalem is included...
with the captivity which had been carried away with JeconiahJeconiah , also known as Jehoiachin , was a king of Judah. He was the son of Jehoiakim with Nehushta, the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem and was a contemporary of the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel....
king of JudahThe Kingdom of Judah existed at two periods in Jewish history. According to the Hebrew Bible, a kingdom emerged in Judah after the death of Saul, when the tribe of Judah elevated David, who came from the Tribe of Judah, to rule over it. After seven years David became king of a reunited Kingdom of...
, whom NebuchadnezzarNebuchadnezzar was the name of several kings of Babylonia.* Nebuchadnezzar I, who ruled the Babylonian Empire in the 1100s BC* Nebuchadnezzar II , the Babylonian ruler mentioned in the biblical Book of Daniel...
the king of BabylonBabylon was a city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...
had carried away. (KJV)
Some interpret this verse to mean that Mordecai himself was exiled by Nebuchadnezzar, others interpret it to mean that his great-grandfather Kish was exiled making Mordecai three generations removed from the time of Jeconiah's exile.
The name
The name
Mordecai is of uncertain origin but is considered identical to the name
Marduka or
Marduku attested in the Persepolis Texts.
The name is commonly interpreted as a theophoric name referring to the god
MardukMarduk was the Babylonian name of a late-generation god from ancient Mesopotamia and patron deity of the city of Babylon, who, when Babylon became the political center of the Euphrates valley in the time of Hammurabi , started to slowly...
with the understanding that it means "[servant/follower/devotee] of
MardukMarduk was the Babylonian name of a late-generation god from ancient Mesopotamia and patron deity of the city of Babylon, who, when Babylon became the political center of the Euphrates valley in the time of Hammurabi , started to slowly...
" in Aramaic. (The
Book of DanielThe Book of Daniel is a book in both the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Originally written in Hebrew and Aramaic, it is set during the Babylonian Captivity, a period when Jews were deported and exiled to Babylon following the Siege of Jerusalem of 597 BC...
contains similar accounts of Jews living in exile in Babylonia being assigned names relating to Babylonian gods.) Some suggest that as Marduk was a war god, the expression "[servant] of Marduk" may simply denote a warrior - the popular translation of "warrior" is commonly found in naming dictionaries. Others note that Marduk was the creator in
Babylonian mythologyBabylonian mythology is a set of stories depicting the activities of Babylonian deities, heroes, and mythological creatures. While these stories are in modern times usually considered a component of Babylonian religion, their purpose was not necessarily religious in nature...
whence the term might have been understood by Jews to mean simply "[servant] of God".
The
TalmudThe Talmud is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, customs, and history. It is a central text of mainstream Judaism....
(
Menachot 64b and 65a) relates that his full name was "Mordecai Bilshan" (which occurs in Ezra 2:2 and Nehemiah 7:7). Hoschander interpreted this as the Babylonian
marduk-bel-shunu meaning "Marduk is their lord", "Mordecai" being thus a hypocoristicon.
Another interpretation of the name is that that it is of
PersianPersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is widely spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and to some extent in Iraq and Bahrain, and has a status of official language in the first three countries under different names...
origin meaning "little boy". Other suggested meanings of "contrition" (Hebrew root m-r-d), "bitter" (Hebrew root m-r) or "bruising" (Hebrew root r-d-d) are listed in Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary of the late 19th century. There is also speculation that the name is derived from Aramaic
mar dochi;
mar being a title address for a gentleman and
dochi, meaning "one who incurs merit" (cf. Hebrew
zoche).
The Talmud provides a
MidrashMidrash is a homiletic method of biblical exegesis. The term also refers to the whole compilation of homiletic teachings on the Bible....
ic interpretation of the name Mordecai Bilshan as
mara dachia ("pure myrrh") alluding to Exodus 30:23 and
ba'al lashon ("master of languages") reminding us that as a member of the
Great AssemblyAccording to Jewish tradition, the Great Assembly or Anshei Knesset HaGedolah , also known as the Great Synagogue, was an assembly of 120 scribes, sages, and prophets, in the period from the end of the prophets up to the time of the development of Rabbinic Judaism, marking a transition from an era...
he could speak foreign languages.
Prophet status
The
TalmudThe Talmud is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, customs, and history. It is a central text of mainstream Judaism....
lists him and his cousin
EstherEsther , born Hadassah, was a Jewish prophet and queen of the Persian Empire in the Hebrew Bible, the queen of Ahasuerus , and heroine of the Biblical Book of Esther which is named after her...
as prophets (See Megilla 15). The
TalmudThe Talmud is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, customs, and history. It is a central text of mainstream Judaism....
says Mordecai prophesied in the second year of
DariusThe boy's name Darius \d-rius\ is pronounced da-RYE-us, DARE-ee-us. Etymologically it is an Iranian word with Greek s, and its meaning is "he possesses; rich, kingly"....
.
Mordecai's genealogy in the second chapter of the Book of Esther is given as a descendant of Kish of the
Tribe of BenjaminAccording to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Benjamin was one of the twelve Tribes of Israel.Following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes after about 1200 BCE, Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes...
. Kish was also the name of the father of King Saul and the Talmud accords Mordecai the status of a descendant of the first
King of IsraelThe united Kingdom of Israel was a kingdom in the Land of Israel according to the Bible, a period referred to by scholars as the United Monarchy.-Background:...
.
The
Targum SheniA targum , referred to in critical works by the abbreviation ...
gives his genealogy in more detail, as follows: "Mordechai, son of Ya'ir, son of Shim'i, son of Shmida, son of Baana, son of Eila, son of Micah, son of
MephiboshethMeri-baal - "beloved of Baal"/"beloved of the Lord". In view of later religious sensibilities, textually later parts of the Bible rename Meribaal to Mephibosheth - "exterminator of the shameful one", while textually earlier parts preserve the name Meribaal...
, son of
JonathanJonathan is a heroic figure in the Book of Samuel in the Hebrew Bible. He was the son of King Saul and close friend of King David...
, son of
Saul-People:Saul is a given/first name in English, the Anglicized form of the Hebrew name Shaul from the Hebrew Bible:* Saul , including people with this given namein the Bible:* Saul , a king of Edom...
, son of
KishKish is the name of the father of the Israelite King Saul , the first king of the Israelites.Kish was a Benjamite of the family of the Matrites , and there is some question over whether he is the brother or son of Ner...
, son of Aviel, son of Tzror, son of Bechorath, son of Aphiah, son of Sh'charim, son of Uziah, son of Sheshak, son of Michael, son of Elyael, son of Amihud, son of Shephatya, son of Psuel, son of Pison, son of Malikh, son of Jerubaal, son of Yerucham, son of Chananya, son of Zavdi, son of Elpo'al, son of Shimri, son of Zecharya, son of Merimoth, son of Hushim, son of Sh'chora, son of 'Azza, son of Gera, son of
BenjaminBenjamin in the Book of Genesis, is a son of Jacob, the second son of Rachel, and the founder of the Israelite Tribe of Benjamin; in the Biblical account, unlike Rachel's first son – Joseph, the father of Ephraim and Manasseh – Benjamin was born after Jacob and Rachel arrived in Canaan...
, son of
JacobJacob , also known as Israel , was the third Biblical patriarch and ancestor of the twelve tribes of Israel, named after ten of his twelve sons, as well as the two sons of his son Joseph.The Bible says...
the firstborn, whose name is called
IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
."
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