The Hebrew Bible rarely gives us palace gossip—but when it does, it's juicy. And in this case, has a purpose that continues to intrigue the readers.
Nehemiah, the king’s Jewish cupbearer who just realized that Jerusalem is in trouble and it’s on him to help his community survive and thrive, has been waiting for the right moment to appeal to the king. Finally, it arrives, not because he planned it well but because his face is so gloomy that the king himself stops him to ask what’s wrong.
Well since you ask… Nehemiah makes a bold ask: permission to rebuild Jerusalem. His future—and that of his people—hangs on this moment of imperial favor.
But before the king answers, the narrator - possibly Nehemiah himself - slips in one curious fact to describe the situation:
וַיֹּ֩אמֶר֩ לִ֨י הַמֶּ֜לֶךְ וְהַשֵּׁגַ֣ל ׀ יוֹשֶׁ֣בֶת אֶצְל֗וֹ עַד־מָתַ֛י יִהְיֶ֥ה מַֽהֲלָכְךָ֖ וּמָתַ֣י תָּשׁ֑וּב וַיִּיטַ֤ב לִפְנֵֽי־הַמֶּ֙לֶךְ֙ וַיִּשְׁלָחֵ֔נִי וָֽאֶתְּנָ֥ה ל֖וֹ זְמָֽן׃
With the Shagal seated at his side, the king said to me, “How long will you be gone and when will you return?” So it was agreeable to the king to send me, and I gave him a date.
Nehemiah 2:6
Who or what is a Shagal?
Most English translations gloss it as “queen,” and some choose ‘consort’ or ‘concubine’.
The Hebrew word is rare and possibly provocative. Shagal stems from the root ש־ג־ל, which in other biblical texts refers explicitly to sexual intercourse—often violently. Psalms 45 describes a shagal decked in gold at the king’s right hand—not a queen, but a concubine or lover, a favored mistress, royal arm-candy without legal status.
Based on these precedents, Jewish commentaries like Rashi read shagal as pilegesh—a concubine, not a wife.
Why did the author mention this fact? Does it add or subtract from the important of this moment in which a foreign king enables a major move that will shake things up for Jewish history?
Modern feminist scholars are also curious about this mystery-women and what she’s doing in this scene.
Tikva Frymer-Kensky reminds us that shagal “suggests a woman of erotic or sensual status, often without legal marriage, indicating a power imbalance and sexual objectification.” Her presence, not unlike that of Nehemiah, reminds of the power imbalance in the Persian world and the patriarchal reality.
Carol Meyers, writing in Rediscovering Eve, sees these court women—queens or concubines—not as silent furniture, but as women with political presence and potential agency. The biblical narrative may sideline them, but their proximity to power speaks volumes.
Her presence, whether she said anything or not, is powerful. Just as the scene seems to hinge on one man’s courage, the text hints at an unnamed woman watching silently beside the throne. A reminder that public acts of justice may depend on the private influence of people - often those that history forgets to name.
But what if this woman isn't anonymous after all?
Since the king in this scene is likely Artaxerxes I - she may possibly have been Queen Damaspia, who is mentioned by the historian Ctesias as the consort of the king.
But some scholars—midrashic, historical, and speculative— have a wilder idea, and suggest that the shagal here is not the queen or concubine - but the Queen Mother.
She may in fact be Queen Esther. She would have been alive at this point, at least in some chronologies. And the king Nehemiah serves, Artaxerxes I, is thought by some to be the son of Ahasuerus otherwise known as Xerxes I—which might make Esther his mother.
If so, this moment changes completely.
Esther—heroine of Purim, savior of her people, still around—now sits silently beside her son, as the King of Persia is asked to save Jews - again. The queen mother may be playing her final royal role: bearing witness. Perhaps silently endorsing the mission.
So which is it? The king’s concubine or the Jewish queen mother?
Why would the author of Nehemiah’s memoir—a highly edited piece of Persian-period propaganda—slip in this ambiguous word, this moment of quiet courtly intimacy?
One can hear faint echoes here of Esther 4:14: “Perhaps you came to royal position for just such a time as this.” Esther risked everything for her people. Is Nehemiah reminding us that another brave Jewish person with access to power and privilege once pulled strings behind the scenes, that survival sometimes depends not on brute power but on soft presence, strategic proximity, courage and luck?
Maybe this verse invites us to wrestle with who gets named and why, who is on the line when brute power is in charge, whose bodies are in the room where decisions are made, and whose silence speaks volumes. Maybe it’s a reminder that gender, power, sex, and politics have always been entangled, and when it comes to the work of collective liberation - every voice and every body counts.
The shagal sits beside the king as history gets made. She might be lover or mother, an object of desire, the secret architect of redemption or something else entirely, but the request is granted.
Nehemiah is on his way.
The chapter does not describe the journey, likely lasting a bit less than Ezra’s entourage of thousands. He travels with an armed guard and arrives in the Province of Yehud with no recorded fanfare.
HIs first move is to get up in the middle of the night and ride through the ruined city, observing the sad state of the once stately city - gutted gates and broken walls:
וָאָק֣וּם ׀ לַ֗יְלָה אֲנִי֮ וַאֲנָשִׁ֣ים ׀ מְעַט֮ עִמִּי֒ וְלֹא־הִגַּ֣דְתִּי לְאָדָ֔ם מָ֗ה אֱלֹהַי֙ נֹתֵ֣ן אֶל־לִבִּ֔י לַעֲשׂ֖וֹת לִירוּשָׁלָ֑͏ִם וּבְהֵמָה֙ אֵ֣ין עִמִּ֔י כִּ֚י אִם־הַבְּהֵמָ֔ה אֲשֶׁ֥ר אֲנִ֖י רֹכֵ֥ב בָּֽהּ׃
I got up at night, I and a few men with me, and telling no one what my God had put into my mind to do for Jerusalem, and taking no other beast than the one on which I was riding
Nehemiah 2:11
Far away from the Persian court and its comforts, this man’s mission begins. Maybe back in the palace, an elderly Esther gets reports or an indifferent consort has other priorities to handle. Whoever the Shagal was, her presence is remembered, permission granted, and the journey continues - how will Jerusalem, the Queen of the Jewish people, be restored?
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