Esther 1:17
“For this deed of the queen shall come abroad unto all women, so that they shall despise their husbands in their eyes, when it shall be reported, The king Ahasuerus commanded Vashti the queen to be brought in before him, but she came not.”
KJV
Read in Esther 1Meaning
The counsel is driven by fear of imitation and loss of male authority. The verse reports the court's reasoning; it should not be treated as a timeless biblical endorsement of contempt for women or coercive control within marriage.