Ahasuerus

The Persian king who is better known to Western readers as Xerxes I. He ruled from 486 to 465 BC. He was the son and successor of Darius I (Hystaspis). In Ezra 4:6 Ahasuerus received letters accusing the Jews of rebuilding their temple.

Ahasuerus is important in the book of Esther. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, in the third year of his reign, Ahasuerus planned an invasion of Greece. The book of Esther begins with a feast that probably was part of this plan. His attack on Greece in 480 BC failed. Afterward, Ahasuerus turned to personal concerns, as recorded in Esther. Esther was the second wife of Ahasuerus. She and her cousin Mordecai convinced the king to stop a plan to kill all Jewish people. Ahasuerus ordered the death of Haman, his top helper, who had asked for the law to be made against the Jewish people. Ahasuerus had Haman killed by hanging.

Ahasuerus controlled a large area “from India to Cush” (Esther 1:1). He built many things in Susa and Persepolis. His rule ended in 465 BC when he was killed in his bedroom. The book of Tobit wrongly calls him the conquerer of Nineveh (Tobit 14:15). But Nineveh was destroyed in 612 BC, over a century before Ahasuerus was born. See Persia, Persians; Esther, Book of; Israel, History of.

The father of Darius the Mede (Daniel 9:1). The identity of this father and son is unknown.