Ester 1:8

8 Todos los invitados podían beber cuanto quisieran, pues los camareros habían recibido instrucciones del rey de servir a cada uno lo que deseara.

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.

---

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 cual lucía cortinas blancas y azules, sostenidas por cordones de lino blanco y tela púrpura, los cuales pasaban por anillos de plata sujetos a columnas de mármol. También había sofás de oro y plata sobre un piso de mosaicos de pórfido, mármol, madreperla y otras piedras preciosas.

7 En copas de oro de las más variadas formas se servía el vino real, el cual corría a raudales, como era de esperarse del rey.

8 Todos los invitados podían beber cuanto quisieran, pues los camareros habían recibido instrucciones del rey de servir a cada uno lo que deseara.

9 La reina Vasti, por su parte, ofreció también un banquete para las mujeres en el palacio del rey Asuero.

10 Al séptimo día, como a causa del vino el rey Asuero estaba muy alegre, les ordenó a los siete eunucos que le servían —Meumán, Biztá, Jarboná, Bigtá, Abagtá, Zetar y Carcás—