Question:
Persians could not marry Jews. What about the case of Esther?
Answer:
Our querist has turned the matter around. Persians were not forbidden to marry Jews, but Jews were forbidden to marry Persians. But in this case, it was not the choice of Esther, but the choice of the king, and the Jews were captives and enslaved people in the land of Persia. Esther seems to have been gathered among the beautiful maidens of the kingdom from whom the king was to take his choice, and she was chosen. It was an exceptional case, and God overruled it for the good of His children. There were those exceptional cases throughout Bible history. For instance, Rahab, one of the inhabitants of Canaan, of the city of Jericho, who housed the spies, became an ancestor of our Lord, and so did Ruth the Moabitess. But these were exceptional cases and did not pervert the holy seed.
