See Lesson, Post-exile period, dates.
See Lesson, Est, providence in.
XERXES: Ahasuerus is the Hebrew name of the Persian
king, Khshayarsha, whom we know better in ancient history by his Greek name,
Xerxes. He reigned over the Persian Empire from 486 to 464 BC and was the son of
Darius I (521-486 BC). His vizier, Artabanus, assassinated him.
Xerxes is famous in secular history for two things: his defeat
at the hands of the Greeks, and his building of the royal Persian palace at
Persepolis. In 481 BC he took about 200,000 soldiers and hundreds of ships to
Greece to avenge his father Darius' defeat at the battle of Marathon (490 BC).
However, he suffered defeat in a three-fold manner. His soldiers lost the battle
of Thermopylae to the Spartans, his army also lost at the battle of Plataea, and
the Greeks destroyed his navy in the battle of Salamis.
Knowles suggests Xerxes/Ahasuerus was Darius Hystaspes -- who
reigned much earlier (521-486) -- although he concedes that in this he is out of
step with most commentators. In support of this, he cites the historian Charles
127 PROVINCES: The 127 "provinces" (Heb "medina") were
governmental units of the empire. These were political subdivisions of the
satrapies (cp Est 3:12).
STRETCHING FROM INDIA TO CUSH: The writer mentioned the
vast area Xerxes controlled (cp Est 8:9; 10:1). Perhaps he did this to avoid
confusion with another Ahasuerus (Dan 9:1) whose son, Darius the Mede, governed
the Babylonian provinces under Cyrus the Great from 539 to about 525 BC. "India"
refers to the territory that is now West Pakistan. "Cush" was the upper
(southern) Nile region including southern Egypt, the Sudan, and northern
CITADEL: Heb "habirah" -- "capital" (NASB) or "citadel"
(NIV) -- refers to an acropolis or fortified area that stood 72 feet above the
rest of the city. A wall 2 1/2 miles long surrounded it (Breneman).
SUSA: The Greek name for the Hebrew "Shushan" -- which
sig "lily" or "white". It was a winter capital and had formerly been the capital
of the kingdom of Elam. Susa was the name of both the capital city and the royal
fortress that occupied a separate part of the city. Other Persian capitals were
Ecbatana (200 miles north of Susa), Babylon (200 miles west), and Persepolis
(300 miles se). Persepolis was Xerxes' main residence. A generation after the
events the writer described in the Book of Esther Nehemiah served as cupbearer
to Artaxerxes, Xerxes' son (cp Neh 1:1 -- 2:1).See Lesson,
Persia, royal cities of.
IN THE THIRD YEAR OF HIS REIGN HE GAVE A BANQUET FOR ALL
HIS NOBLES AND OFFICIALS: The third year of Ahasuerus' (Xerxes') reign was
evidently 482 BC. For 180 days (six months) he entertained his guests (v 4).
This was evidently the military planning session that Ahasuerus conducted to
prepare for his campaign against the Greeks. The Greek historian Herodotus
referred to this meeting and said it took Ahasuerus four years (484-481 BC) to
prepare for his Greek campaign.
"It is indeed a derisive eye that our narrator has cast upon
the royal court he describes: A king who rules the whole known world spends his
time giving lavish banquets!...
"From the satirical depiction of the grandiose and lavishly
excessive lifestyle of the Persian court, our narrator turns to undisguised
farce: the king who rules the whole world cannot bend his own wife to his
"But its [the first chapter's] mockery has also a sinister
side. It reveals a society fraught with danger, for it is ruled by the pride and
pomposity of buffoons whose tender egos can marshal the state's legislative and
administrative machinery for the furtherance of selfish and childish causes.
Indeed, in such a setting, it will not seem incongruous to find this same
machinery of state mobilized to effect the slaughter of one of its own
minorities, or to find that this is an end that the king can both blissfully
contemplate and cavalierly condone" (FW Bush, "Ruth, Esther" 354,
Four banquets in Esther: Vashti's deposing (Est 1:3); Esther's
coronation (Est 2:18); Esther's petition (Est 5:4,8); and the Jews' celebration
WHITE LINEN AND PURPLE MATERIAL: White and violet blue
were the royal colors of Persia (Whitcomb).
COUCHES: The Persians reclined at their meals, and the
setting at the feasts was one of splendor and glory.
EACH GUEST WAS ALLOWED TO DRINK IN HIS OWN WAY, FOR THE
KING INSTRUCTED ALL THE WINE STEWARDS TO SERVE EACH MAN WHAT HE WISHED:
There was, apparently, a custom among the Greeks at the time that if you could
not drink the round you should leave the company. No one was allowed to stay but
not drink. This rule was graciously overlooked on this occasion -- hence "none
did compel" (AV).
VASHTI: Sig "beautiful woman". Evidently the Persian
name of the queen whom Herodotus referred to as Amestris (her Greek name)
EUNUCHS: The Persian kings castrated many of the men
who served the king and his family, so they could not have sexual relations with
the female members of the royal court and start dynasties of their
Was this a proper command, or an unwarranted one? It is
impossible to say. "The Rabbis added midrashic embellishments to the story of
Vashti, holding that her refusal was the king's order that she appear naked
before his guests" (Yamauchi). Knowles, however, feels that the king had every
right "to display his bride in her regal glory" -- this is in keeping with his
seeing this ch as a parable of God and His "bride" Israel.
QUEEN VASHTI REFUSED TO COME: Even if the reasons are
not given (and are therefore not that important), the point of the writer is
clear: providentially, God was seeing to it that Vashti was deposed -- to be
replaced by a queen of His own choosing!
Vv 13,14: The counsel of seven continued in existence for at
least 25 years after this event (cp Ezra 7:14). These men were cabinet-level
officials in the government.
Vv 17,18: The king's advisers feared that Vashti's rebellion
would lead to a popular women's liberation movement and to a revolution among
the aristocratic wives particularly.
WHICH CANNOT BE REPEALED: There is extra-biblical
evidence that no one could revoke Persian laws once they were official (cp Est
8:8; Dan 6:8) (Wright).
HE SENT DISPATCHES TO ALL PARTS OF THE KINGDOM, TO EACH
PROVINCE IN ITS OWN SCRIPT AND TO EACH PEOPLE IN ITS OWN LANGUAGE: Cp Est
8:10. Herodotus (c 484-426 BC) traveled in western Persia shortly after
Ahasuerus' reign. He wrote concerning the Persian postal service: "Nothing
mortal travels so fast as these Persian messengers. The entire plan is a Persian
invention; and this is the method of it. Along the whole line of road there are
men (they say) stationed with horses, in number equal to the number of days
which the journey takes, allowing a man and horse to each day; and these men
will not be hindered from accomplishing at their best speed the distance which
they have to go, either by snow or rain, or heat, or by the darkness of night.
The first rider delivers his dispatch to the second, and the second passes it to
the third; and so it is born from hand to hand along the whole line'