Esther 1:4

4 And after this, after he had shewn to them the wealth of his kingdom, and the abundant glory of his wealth during a hundred and eighty days,

Esther 1:4 Meaning and Commentary

Esther 1:4

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 Persians ^F9:

and this he did many days, even an hundred and fourscore days;
to which seven more being added, as in the following verse, it made one hundred and eighty seven, the space of full six months; though some think the feast did not last so long, only seven days, and that the one hundred and eighty days were spent in preparing for it; but the Persian feasts were very long, large, and sumptuous. Dr. Frye ^F11 says, this custom of keeping an annual feast one hundred and eighty days still continues in Persia. Cheus ^F12, a Chinese emperor, used frequently to make a feast which lasted one hundred and twenty days; though it cannot be well thought that the same individual persons here were feasted so long, but, when one company was sufficiently treated, they removed and made way for another; and so it continued successively such a number of days as here related, which was six months, or half a year; a year then in use consisting of three hundred and sixty days, as was common with the Jews, and other nations, and so the Persians ^F13.

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FOOTNOTES:

F9 Pausan. Laconica, sive, l. 3. p. 165.
F11 Travels, p. 348. apud Patrick in loc.
F12 In Martin. Sinic. Hist. l. 3. p. 78.
F13 Prideaux's Connect. par. 1. p. 197.

Esther 1:4 In-Context

2 in those days, when king Artaxerxes was on the throne in the city of Susa,

3 in the third year of his reign, he made a feast to his friends, and the other nations, and to the nobles of the Persians and Medes, and the chief of the satraps.

4 And after this, after he had shewn to them the wealth of his kingdom, and the abundant glory of his wealth during a hundred and eighty days,

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;