Memucan

Memucan is one of the seven princes of Persia and Media who advise King Ahasuerus during the crisis over Queen Vashti's refusal to appear at the king's banquet. He is the prince whose counsel the king follows, setting in motion Vashti's removal and the events that bring Esther to the throne.

Among the seven princes

The seven counselors are introduced as the inner circle of the realm: "Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucan, the seven princes of Persia and Media, who saw the king's face, and sat first in the kingdom" (Esth 1:14). When Ahasuerus puts the question before them — "What shall we do to the queen Vashti according to law, because she has not done the bidding of the king Ahasuerus by the chamberlains?" (Esth 1:15) — Memucan is the one who answers.

The counsel against Vashti

Memucan's reply broadens the offense from a private slight into a public one: "Vashti the queen has not done wrong to the king only, but also to all the princes, and to all the peoples in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus" (Esth 1:16). His argument turns on contagion among households: "For this deed of the queen will come abroad to all women, to make their husbands contemptible in their eyes" (Esth 1:17), and "this day the princesses of Persia and Media who have heard of the deed of the queen will say [the like] to all the king's princes. So [there will arise] much contempt and wrath" (Esth 1:18).

He proposes a binding remedy in the form of an irrevocable Persian law: "If it pleases the king, let there go forth a royal commandment from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes, that it not be altered, that Vashti come no more before King Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal estate to her fellow woman who is better than she" (Esth 1:19). The reasoning is again domestic policy on imperial scale: "all the wives will give to their husbands honor, both to great and small" (Esth 1:20).

The decree adopted

The narrative closes the scene with the king's assent: "And the saying pleased the king and the princes; and the king did according to the word of Memucan" (Esth 1:21). Memucan's name is the last word of the chapter, marking him as the architect of the policy that vacates the throne and prepares the way for the rest of the book.