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Seven Angels of Confusion Arrived at the Feast Before Esther Did

Mordecai fasted a week over the Temple cups sitting on a Persian banquet table. The answer came back as seven angels with names like Annihilation.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. The Cups Had Come from Jerusalem
  2. A Week of Fasting, Broken on the Sabbath
  3. Seven Names
  4. The Boasting Contest
  5. Vashti Said No
  6. The Orphan in Shushan
Seven Angels of Confusion Arrived at the Feast Before Esther Did Click for full size

The Cups Had Come from Jerusalem

They were serving the wine in the vessels of the Temple.

Gold cups made for one purpose, carried out of Jerusalem when the city fell and stored in a Persian treasury, now set on tables in Shushan for provincial governors to drink out of. Mordecai knew exactly what those cups were and where they had stood. He also knew what had happened the last time a king used them at a party. Belshazzar had called for them in Babylon, and a hand had written on the plaster of his own hall, and he was dead before morning.

Ahasuerus was doing the same thing on a longer schedule, a hundred and eighty days of it, and nothing had written anything on any wall.

Mordecai told the Jews of Shushan to stay away from the feast. A great many of them went.

A Week of Fasting, Broken on the Sabbath

So he stopped eating and started asking for a reckoning.

Seven days he kept it up, and the court of seventy elders was praying alongside him, and nothing in the palace changed. The drinking went on. The cups stayed on the tables.

On the seventh day he broke the fast, because the day was the Sabbath and a man does not fast on it, and he sat down and ate.

That was the day the prayer was answered. Not on any of the six days of hunger. On the day he obeyed the law and took food.

Seven Names

What came down on the banquet was seven angels, and their names are the assignment.

Mehuman, whose name is Confusion. Biztha, Destruction of the House. Harbonah, Annihilation. Bigtha and Abagtha, the two of them together called the Pressers of the Winepress, because the court of Ahasuerus was going to be crushed the way grapes are crushed, by weight, slowly, for the liquid. Zetha, who watches for immorality. And Carcas, the Knocker.

They did not break anything. They did not appear to anyone. They went in among the couches and the wine jars and the boasting and went to work on what was already there.

The Boasting Contest

Ahasuerus had actually taken precautions about the drinking. He had rules at that banquet meant to keep men from going too far with the wine, and the rules held for a while, and then the talk turned the way that talk turns.

The Persians said their women were the most beautiful in the world. The Medes said no, ours are. It went around the room like that, governor by governor, until the king could not sit still under it any longer.

"My wife," he said. "Vashti is a Chaldean and there is nothing in Persia or Media to touch her."

Then he made the mistake that the seven had come for. "Would you like me to prove it to you?"

The room took him up on it immediately, and the room was drunk, and what the room demanded was that the queen be brought out in front of every governor of a hundred and twenty-seven provinces wearing nothing at all.

The king agreed to it.

Vashti Said No

He sent seven chamberlains to fetch her, and she refused to come.

The counselors were on their feet before the wine had gone down. This is not about one household. If the queen can refuse the king in front of the whole empire, every wife in every province hears about it by the end of the month. Write it into the laws of Persia and Media so it cannot be reversed.

The decree went out in every script and every language. Vashti was finished, and the throne beside the king was empty, and the man who had emptied it woke up the next day with a headache and no wife and no legal way to undo any of it.

The Orphan in Shushan

When his temper cooled he was lonely, and his servants had a suggestion ready. Send officers into every province. Gather the beautiful young women. Give them a year of oils and perfumes, present them, and whoever pleases the king most wears the crown.

The provinces sent their daughters the way they sent their taxes.

In Shushan there was a Jewish man raising his uncle's daughter as his own, because both her parents were dead. Her name was Esther, and she was beautiful enough that the officers came to the door.

So Mordecai, who had fasted a week to bring judgment down on a king for drinking out of the Temple's cups, watched that judgment arrive and take his ward into the palace with it. The seven had not wrecked anything. They had made one vain man say one sentence too many at one party, and the sentence had cleared a chair, and the chair was going to be occupied by a girl from his own house who would need it in about five years.

EstherAngelsTemplePrayerExileShabbat
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From the tradition

Sources

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The texts behind this telling. Some cards carry a translation of the source; others are our own retelling of it, and each card says which. Every card links out to the original.

Legends of the Jews 12:31Legends of the Jews

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.The Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg (1909) · Public Domain

What are the odds that a Jewish girl would become queen of Persia, just in time to save her people from annihilation?

Well, let’s rewind a bit to the very beginning of the Book of Esther. King Ahasuerus throws this massive, over-the-top party. Then, out of nowhere, he demands that his queen, Vashti, appear before all the guests to show off her beauty. She refuses, and that sets the whole story in motion. But… why would a king make such a ridiculous request?

The Megillah, the scroll of Esther, doesn't explicitly tell us, but Jewish tradition offers a fascinating explanation: it was all part of God's plan.

In Legends of the Jews, Mordecai, Esther’s cousin and guardian, had been spending a whole week fasting and praying. He was begging God to punish Ahasuerus for desecrating the sacred Temple utensils that he had brazenly used at his feast. Remember, these were objects stolen from the Beit HaMikdash, the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, a profound act of sacrilege.

Now, here's a detail that’s easy to miss but crucial: Mordecai ended his fast on the Sabbath. Why? Because Jewish law forbids fasting on Shabbat, the day of rest. As Ginzberg tells us in Legends of the Jews, it was on that seventh day, after Mordecai had taken food, that God heard his prayer, and the prayer of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish high court.

And how did God answer? Not with a booming voice from the heavens, but with…angels of confusion!

The tradition says God sent seven angels, each with a very specific, and rather colorful, job description. Their names themselves tell the story.

There was Mehuman, whose name literally means "Confusion." Then there was Biztha, "Destruction of the House." Ouch. Harbonah means "Annihilation," and Bigtha and Abagtha, "the Pressers of the Winepress." According to tradition, God had resolved to crush the court of Ahasuerus like grapes being pressed for their juice. As if that weren’t enough, we have Zetha, "Observer of Immorality," and finally, Carcas, "Knocker."

It’s a wild image. These angels, each a force of chaos in their own right, descending upon Ahasuerus's party, influencing him to make an absurd demand of Vashti.

But it emphasizes a powerful idea. The rabbis are teaching us that nothing happens in a vacuum. Even the seemingly senseless actions of a foolish king can be part of a larger, divine plan to protect His people. It is this very refusal that opens the door for Esther to rise to power, setting in motion the events of Purim, a story of salvation against all odds.

So, the next time you read the Book of Esther, remember those seven angels of confusion. They serve as a reminder that even in the midst of chaos, there might just be a hidden hand guiding the story toward redemption.

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Legends of the Jews 12:30Legends of the Jews

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.The Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg (1909) · Public Domain

The Book of Esther, or the Megillah as it's known, tells a tale of hidden identities and near-destruction. But nestled within this dramatic story are glimpses into the values of different cultures. Take the infamous banquet of King Ahasuerus. It's a feast that sets the stage for everything that follows, but it's also a fascinating contrast between Jewish and pagan traditions.

Ahasuerus, thought he had everything under control. He'd taken every precaution to prevent, as the text says, "intemperate indulgence in wine." But even with all his planning, the banquet revealed a deep-seated difference in values. when Jews gather for a festive meal – a seder, a Shabbat (the Sabbath) dinner, any celebration, really – what do we do? We tell stories. We explore Halakah, Jewish law, or Haggadah (non-legal rabbinic narrative), narrative tradition. At the very least, we share a simple verse from the Scriptures. Our celebrations are infused with meaning, with connection to something larger than ourselves.

Ahasuerus’s banquet? According to Ginzberg's retelling in Legends of the Jews, it was filled with "prurient talk." The Persians bragged about their women, the Medians about theirs. It was a competition of vanity, fueled by alcohol and a desperate need for validation.

Then, the real trouble started. "The fool," as the text calls Ahasuerus, couldn't help himself. He boasted that his wife, Vashti, a Chaldean, was the most beautiful of them all. "Would you convince yourselves of the truth of my words?" he asked.

Drunk and emboldened, the company demanded that Vashti appear before them, "unadorned, yes, without any apparel whatsoever." Ahasuerus, puffed up with pride and clouded by wine, agreed to this outrageous, shameless condition.

What does this tell us? It’s more than just a juicy detail in a historical drama. It's a reflection on what we value, what we celebrate, and how easily ego can lead to the degradation of others. As we find in Midrash Rabbah, these moments, these seemingly small choices, have enormous consequences.

So, the next time you're at a gathering, ask yourself: What kind of story are we telling here? What values are we upholding? Because, as the story of Esther reminds us, even the smallest of actions can have ripple effects that change the course of history.

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