Esther had known loss and heartache from a young age. Yet in Mordecai she had a loving guardian.
Like Daniel and his three friends, she had two names. Hadassah
was her Hebrew name. It means myrtle tree.
Esther
was her Persian name. It means star
and was possibly derived from Ishtar,
the name of a Mesopotamian goddess.
Esther’s beauty is briefly described. Only later in the story will it become clear how beautiful she must have been, to have been chosen out of all the girls living from India to Kush!
7 He was bringing up Hadassah, that is Esther, the daughter of his uncle, for she had neither father nor mother. The young woman had a beautiful figure and was lovely to look at, and when her father and her mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter.