Esther 1:10

_ON THE SEVENTH DAY, WHEN THE HEART OF THE KING WAS MERRY WITH WINE, HE COMMANDED MEHUMAN, BIZTHA, HARBONA, BIGTHA, AND ABAGTHA, ZETHAR, AND CARCAS, THE SEVEN CHAMBERLAINS THAT SERVED IN THE PRESENCE OF AHASUERUS THE KING,_ On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine. As the feast-days advanced, the drinking was more freely indulged in, so that the close was usually marked by great excesses of revelry. HE COMMANDED ... THE SEVEN CHAMBERLAINS. These were the eunuchs who had charge of the royal harem. The refusal of Vashti to obey an order which required her to make an indecent exposure of herself before a company of drunken revellers was becoming both the modesty of her sex and her rank as queen; because, according to Persian customs, the queen, even more than the wives of other men, was secluded from the public gaze: and had not the king's blood been heated with...

10-22 Ahasuerus's feast ended in heaviness, by his own folly. Seasons of peculiar festivity often end in vexation. Superiors should be careful not to command what may reasonably be disobeyed. But when wine is in, men's reason departs from them. He that had rule over 127 provinces, had no rule over his own spirit. But whether the passion or the policy of the king was served by this decree, God's providence made way for Esther to the crown, and defeated Haman's wicked project, even before it had entered into his heart, and he arrived at his power. Let us rejoice that the Lord reigns, and will overrule the madness or folly of mankind to promote his own glory, and the safety and happiness of his people...

Verse Esther 1:10. _HE COMMANDED MEHUMAN_] All these are doubtless _Persian_ names; but so disguised by passing through a Hebrew medium, that some of them can scarcely be known. [Persian] _Mehuman_ signifies a _stranger_ or _guest_. We shall find other names and words in this book, the Persian etymology of which may be easily traced....

EXPOSITION THE DISGRACE OF VASHTI (Esther 1:10). On the seventh day of the feast "to all in Shushan" (Esther 1:5), the king having excited himself with drink, took it into his head to send a message to Vashti, requiring her to make her appearance in the banquet of the men, since he desired to exhibit her beauty to the assembled guests, as "she_ _was fair to look on" (Esther 1:11). His design must have been to present her unveiled to the coarse admiration of a multitude of semi-drunken revellers, in order that they might envy him the possession of so lovely a wife. Such a proceeding was a gross breach of Persian etiquette, and a cruel ou

ON THE SEVENTH DAY,.... Of the feast, the last day of it, which the Rabbins, as Jarchi observes, say was the sabbath day, and so the Targum: WHEN THE HEART OF THE KING WAS MERRY WITH WINE; when he was intoxicated with it, and knew not well what he said or did; and the discourse at table ran upon the beauty of women, as the latter Targum; when the king asserted there were no women so beautiful as those of Babylon, and, as a proof of it, ordered his queen to be brought in: HE COMMANDED MEHUMAN, BIZTHA, HARBONA, BIGTHA, AND ABAGTHA, ZETHAR, AND CARCAS, THE SEVEN CHAMBERLAINS, THAT SERVED IN THE PRESENCE OF AHASUERUS THE KING; or "eunuchs", as the word is sometimes rendered; and such persons were made use of in the eastern countries to, wait upon women, and so were proper to be sent on the king's errand to the queen....

CHAMBERLAINS Or, enunchs....

ANALYSIS AND ANNOTATIONS THE BANQUETS AND QUEEN VASHTI DISOWNED CHAPTER 1 _ 1. The first feast of the king (Esther 1:1)_ 2. The king's feast unto all the people (Esther 1:5) 3. The queen's feast for the women (Esther 1:9) 4. The queen's refusal to appear at the king's feast (Esther 1:10) 5. The queen put away (Esther 1:13) Esther 1:1. King Ahasuerus, one of the leading characters of this book, is known in history as Xerxes I. The n

ESTHER 1. THE ROYAL FEAST. VASHTI'S DISOBEDIENCE AND DEGRADATION. The opening words in MT (and it came to pass) are in good Heb style, which shows that an able scribe wrote here. But they prove that something once stood before them. Even Paton translates, And afterward! After what? He says strangely, This expression is used in continuation of a historical narrative, and adds, lamely and incorrectly, It is an imitation of the beginnings of the older histories. The tale has clearly been truncated here, doubtless because the original spoke of Yahweh. A version of the original still exists in LXX: it is a sort of preface, saying that a Jew lived in Shushan (Daniel 8:2 *), who had a Perso-Babylonian name Mordecai, i.e. related to Marduk, Lord of Fate which the scribes would dislike and he was descended from the house of king Saul, also disliked by scribes. He was a court servant of king Artax...

COMMANDED. Hebrew. _'amar._ So rendered in verses: Esther 1:1; Esther 1:15; Esther 1:17; Esther 2:20; Esther 4:13; Esther 6:1; Esther 9:14; Esther 9:25. Note the different words rendered "command" and "decree" in this book. SEVEN CHAMBERLAINS. seven eunuchs. This shows the minuteness of the writer's knowledge....

Vashti's disgrace 10. _he commanded Mehuman etc._ The names of the seven chamberlains, or rather, eunuchs, who were sent to fetch Vashti, vary much in their form in the LXX. and other versions. Their derivation is, like their nationality, quite uncertain, inasmuch as the Persian market was largely supplied with men of other races for this purpose....