Esther 6:1

could not the king sleep better literally, as marg., the king's sleep fledfrom him. The LXX. paraphrases, -The Lord withheld sleep from the king"; and so the Targums. But in the present Heb. text the name of God never occurs; see Introd. p. xv.

Suetonius (cap. 50) says that the Roman emperor Caligula so suffered from sleeplessness that he used to rise and stand or roam about the palace. Procopius (Hist. Arcana, ed. Bonn, pp. 81 f.) relates the same of the emperor Justinian. The Turkish sultan, Selim I (died 1520), is said to have passed most nights in reading books; while sometimes he would have others read to him, or talk to him about State matters (Diez, Denkwürdigkeiten von Asien, i. 266).

the book of records of the chronicles lit. the book of memorials, even the chronicles. Cp. Malachi 3:16, -book of remembrance." In Esther 2:23 (where see note) we have the shorter expression -the book of the chronicles."

and they were read before the king The original resembles in its sense a Greek imperfect, implying that the reading lasted for a considerable time. The object doubtless was that the continuous sound of another's voice might induce slumber. There is no suggestion in the passage that the king could not himself read, although such may very well have been the case. See Rawlinson, Ancient Monarchies(2nd ed.), iv. 228 f.