Esther 1:7

7 gold and silver cups, and a small cup of carbuncle set out of the value of thirty thousand talents, abundant and sweet wine, which the king himself drank.

Esther 1:7 Meaning and Commentary

Esther 1:7

They gave them drink in vessels of gold, the vessels being
divers one from another
In the pattern and workmanship of them, though of the same metal, which diversity made the festival the more grand; earthen cups, with the Persians, were reckoned very mean; when a king would disgrace a man, he obliged him to use earthen cups ^F4. The Targum represents these vessels to be the golden vessels of the temple at Jerusalem Nebuchadnezzar carried away; which could not be, since they had been delivered by Cyrus to Zerubbabel, ( Ezra 1:7-10 ) ,

and royal wine in abundance, according to the state of the king;
such as the king was able to give, the best he had, and that in great plenty; the wine the kings of Persia used to drink, as Strabo ^F5 relates, was Chalybonian wine, or wine of Helbon, as it is called, ( Ezekiel 27:18 ) , (See Gill on Ezekiel 27:18), but by the wine of the kingdom, as it may be rendered, is meant wine of the country; the wine of Schiras is reckoned the best in Persia ^F6.

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FOOTNOTES:

F4 Ctesias in Athenaei Deipnosoph. l. 11.
F5 Geograph. l. 15. p. 505.
F6 Universal History, vol. 5. p. 85.

Esther 1:7 In-Context

5 when, , the days of the marriage feast were completed, the king made a banquet to the nations who were present in the city six days, in the court of the king's house,

6 adorned with of fine linen and flax on cords of fine linen and purple, fastened to golden and silver studs, on pillars of Parian marble and stone: golden and silver couches on a pavement of emerald stone, and of pearl, and of Parian stone, and open-worked coverings variously flowered, roses worked round about;

7 gold and silver cups, and a small cup of carbuncle set out of the value of thirty thousand talents, abundant and sweet wine, which the king himself drank.

8 And this banquet was not according to the appointed law; but so the king would have it: and he charged the stewards to perform his will and that of the company.

9 Also Astin the queen made a banquet for the women in the palace where king Artaxerxes .