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,

When he shewed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the honour of his excellent majesty many days, even an hundred and fourscore days. No JFB commentary on these verses.

Making every day a magnificent feast, either for all his princes, or for some of them, who might come to the feast successively, as the king ordered them to do. The Persian feasts are much celebrated in authors for their length and luxury.

Esther 1:4 When he shewed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the honour of his excellent majesty many days, [even] an hundred and fourscore days.Ver. 4. When he shewed the riches of his glorious kingdom] Or, that he might show, &c. There were other ends of this feast, as was before noted; but this is instanced by the Holy Ghost, to set forth the pride and vanity of this great monarch, abusing God’ s gifts to his own ambition, and priding himself in that wealth which had been gotten by the hard labour of his poor subjects; from whom haply his exactors had received no less sums of curses than of coin. O curas hominum! O quantum est in rebus inane! O the concerns of men, O how great it is in vain things. And the honour of his excellent majesty] Atqui virtute, non vanitate acquirenda est gloria, saith the orator, glory is to be gotten by virtue, and not by these like vanities, Hezekiah smarted for his folly in this kind; Nebuchadnezzar much more. This great potentate was shortly after brought low enough. Desinat elatis quisquam confidere rebus; Magna repente ruunt, summa cadunt subito (Claudian). Let him cease from burying whoever is to divided by things, They suddenly destroy great things, the greatest things perish suddenly. Many days, even an hundred and fourscore days] A hundred, fourscore, and five days, saith Joseph Ben Gorion. So long lasted the first feast; though Lyra will have it, that so long they were in preparing, but the feasting was not till after these days expired; and that then both prince and people were feasted together seven days. Of the Sybarites indeed we read, that when they made great feasts, they invited their women twelve months before, that they might come the more richly and luxuriously attired, and might be the more sumptuously entertained. But the text plainly shows that Lyra here did delirare, is crazy, miss the meaning; for after that, the princes, from sundry parts, had been half a year in feasting.

(4) An hundred and fourscore days.—As a period of mere feasting, this long time (half a year) is simply incredible, but we must understand it as a time during which troops were collected, and the plan of invasion settled.

Verse 4. The riches of his glorious kingdom] Luxury was the characteristic of the Eastern monarchs, and particularly of the Persians. In their feasts, which were superb and of long continuance, they made a general exhibition of their wealth, grandeur, c., and received the highest encomiums from their poets and flatterers. Their ostentation on such occasions passed into a proverb: hence Horace: - Persicos odi, puer, apparatus: Displicent nexae philyra coronae Mitte sectari, rosa quo locorum Sera moretur. I tell thee, boy, that I detest The grandeur of a Persian feast; Nor for me the linden's rind Shall the flowery chaplet bind. Then search not where the curious rose Beyond his season loitering grows. FRANCIS.

4. the riches etc.] Herod. (vii. 27) tells of the golden plane tree and the golden vine given by Pythius, a rich man of Celaenae, to Darius. Aeschylus (Persae, 161) mentions the walls hung with gold.[57] The text may refer among other things to the ingots of gold which Darius had stored in the treasury (Herod. iii. 96). [57] χρυσεοστόλμουςδόμους.an hundred and fourscore days] This may mean a series of entertainments to successive relays of guests. The ‘princes’ could scarcely be all spared from their satrapies at once.

4. When he showed — Literally, in his showing; that is, while he showed or descanted on his wealth and power.