Ester 1:8

8 Y la bebida fue según esta ley: Que nadie se constriñere; porque así lo había mandado el rey a todos los mayordomos de su casa; que se hiciere según la voluntad de cada uno

Ester 1:8 Meaning and Commentary

Esther 1:8

And the drinking was according to the law, none did compel,
&c.] According to the law Ahasuerus gave to his officers next mentioned, which was not to oblige any man to drink more than he chose; the Targum is,

`according to the custom of his body;'

that is, as a man is able to bear it, so they drank: some ^F6 read it, "the drinking according to the law, let none exact"; or require it to be, according to the custom then in use in Persia; for they were degenerated from their former manners, and indulged to intemperance, as Xenophon ^F7 suggests: the law formerly was, not to carry large vessels into feasts; but now, says he, they drink so much, that they themselves must be carried out, because they cannot go upright: and so it became a law with the Greeks, at their festivals, that either a man must drink or go out ^F8; so the master of a feast, at which Empedocles was, ordered either that he should drink, or the wine be poured on his head ^F9; but such force or compulsion Ahasuerus forbad: and thus with the Chinese now, they force none to drink, but modestly invite them ^F11:

for so the king had appointed to all the officers of his house, that
they should do according to every man's pleasure;
to let them have what wine they would, but not force them to drink more than was agreeable to them.

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FOOTNOTES:

F6 Vid. Drusium in loc.
F7 Cyropaedia, l. 8. c. 51.
F8 Cicero. Tusculan. Quaest. l. 5.
F9 Laert. in Vit. ejus, l. 8. p. 608.
F11 Semedo's History of China, par. 1. c. 13.

Ester 1:8 In-Context

6 El pabellón era de blanco, verde, y cárdeno, tendido sobre cuerdas de lino y púrpura en anillos de plata y columnas de mármol; los reclinatorios de oro y de plata, sobre losado de pórfido y de mármol, de alabastro y de cárdeno

7 Y daban a beber en vasos de oro (los vasos eran diferentes unos de otros), y mucho vino real, conforme a la facultad del rey

8 Y la bebida fue según esta ley: Que nadie se constriñere; porque así lo había mandado el rey a todos los mayordomos de su casa; que se hiciere según la voluntad de cada uno

9 Asimismo la reina Vasti hizo banquete de mujeres, en la casa real del rey Asuero

10 El séptimo día, estando el corazón del rey alegre del vino, mandó a Mehumán, Bizta, Harbona, Bigta, Abagta, Zetar, y a Carcas, siete eunucos que servían delante del rey Asuero