Artaxerxes' decree, sent to every corner of his vast empire, seems a little naive today. Yet for an age that recognized no rights for women, it sounded quite severe. The king's advisers, anxious about their authority and power within their own families, persuaded him to forbid women by law from having opinions of their own. It is important to note that the queen who so enraged Artaxerxes refused to do something that would have been considered highly improper at the time. It was women's own judgment in such matters, their awareness of their own dignity, that so frightened the courtiers. Later in the Book of Esther, and throughout the Bible, we will see how far this attitude differs from God's view of the people He created.