Esther 1:4

_WHEN HE SHEWED THE RICHES OF HIS GLORIOUS KINGDOM AND THE HONOUR OF HIS EXCELLENT MAJESTY MANY DAYS, EVEN AN HUNDRED AND FOURSCORE DAYS._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

1-9 The pride of Ahasuerus's heart rising with the grandeur of his kingdom, he made an extravagant feast. This was vain glory. Better is a dinner of herbs with quietness, than this banquet of wine, with all the noise and tumult that must have attended it. But except grace prevails in the heart, self-exaltation and self-indulgence, in one form or another, will be the ruling principle. Yet none did compel; so that if any drank to excess, it was their own fault. This caution of a heathen prince, even when he would show his generosity, may shame many called Christians, who, under pretence of sending the health round, send sin round, and death with it. There is a woe to them that do so; let them read it, and tremble, Habakkuk 2:15; Habakkuk 2:16....

Verse Esther 1:4. _THE RICHES OF HIS GLORIOUS KINGDOM_] Luxury was the characteristic of the Eastern monarchs, and particularly of the _Persians_. In their feasts, which were superb and of long continuance, they made a general exhibition of their wealth, grandeur, c., and received the highest encomiums from their poets and flatterers. Their ostentation on such occasions passed into a proverb: hence _Horace_: - Persicos _odi, puer_, apparatus: _Displicent nexae philyra coronae_ _Mitte sectari, rosa quo locorum_ _Sera moretur._ I tell thee, boy, that I detest The grandeur of a Persian fea

THE GREAT FEAST OF KING AHASUERUS AT SUSA, AND THE DISGRACE OF VASHTI EXPOSITION THE GREAT FEAST (Esther 1:1). King Ahasuerus (Xerxes) in the third year of his reign, which was B.C. 484-483, entertained at a great feast in the royal palace of Susa all his princes and his servants, "the power of Persia and Media," together with all the nobles and princes of the provinces (Esther 1:2, Esther 1:3). The hospitality was extended over a s

WHEN HE SHOWED THE RICHES OF HIS GLORIOUS KINGDOM,.... Xerxes was the fourth king of the Persian monarchy, and was "far richer than all" that went before him, all their riches coming into his hands, Daniel 11:2, and now that prophecy began to be fulfilled, "that by his strength, through his riches, he should stir up all against the realm of Grecia"; which he began to do in the third year of his reign, and for which these his nobles might be called together, as to have their advice, so to animate them to come in the more readily into the expedition, by showing them the riches he was possessed of; for to none of the kings of Persia does this largeness of riches better belong than to Xerxes: AND THE HONOUR OF HIS EXCELLENT MAJESTY; the grandeur he lived in, the pomp and splendour of his court; he was the most grand and magnificent of all the kings of the Medes and

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...

AN HUNDRED AND FOURSCORE DAYS. This was to allow all peoples to be feasted in turn. Not all at the same time; or one feast of that duration....

_the riches etc._ Herod. (vii. 27) tells of the golden plane tree and the golden vine given by Pythius, a rich man of Celaenae, to Darius. Aeschylus (_Persae_, 161) mentions the walls hung with gold. [57] The text may refer among other things to the ingots of gold which Darius had stored in the treasury (Herod. iii. 96). [57] χρυσεοστόλμους δόμους. _an hundred and fourscore days_ This may mean a series of entertainments to successive relays of guests. The -princes" could scarcely be all spared from their satrapies at once....

I. Pageant of Xerxes, Esther 1:1-22 A. Display TEXT: Esther 1:1-8 1 Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus, (this is Ahasuerus who reigned from India even unto Ethiopia, over a hundred and seven and twenty provinces,) 2 that in those days, when the king Ahasuerus sat on the throne of his kingdom, which was in Shushan the palace, 3 in the third year of his reign, he made a feast unto all his princes and his servants; the power of Persia and Media, the nobles and princes of the provinces, being before him; 4 when he showed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the honor of his excellent majesty many days, even a hundred and fourscore days. 5 And when these days were fulfilled, the king made a feast unto all the people that were present