the Third Sunday after Easter
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JPS Old Testament
Esther 1:1
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These events took place during the days of Ahasuerus, who ruled 127 provinces from India to Cush.
Now it happened in the days of Achashverosh (this is Achashverosh who reigned from Hoddu even to Kush, over one hundred twenty-seven provinces),
Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus, (this is Ahasuerus which reigned, from India even unto Ethiopia, over an hundred and seven and twenty provinces:)
Now in the days of Ahasuerus, the Ahasuerus who reigned from India to Ethiopia over 127 provinces,
This is what happened during the time of King Xerxes, the king who ruled the one hundred twenty-seven states from India to Cush.
The following events happened in the days of Ahasuerus. (I am referring to that Ahasuerus who used to rule over a hundred and twenty-seven provinces extending all the way from India to Ethiopia.)
It was in the days of Ahasuerus (Xerxes) who reigned from India to Ethiopia (Cush) over 127 provinces,
Now it happened in the days of Ahasuerus, the Ahasuerus who reigned from India to Cush over 127 provinces,
Now it happened in the days of Ahasuerus (this is Ahasuerus who reigned from India even to Ethiopia, over one hundred twenty-seven provinces),
In the dayes of Ahashuerosh (this is Ahashuerosh that reigned, from India euen vnto Ethiopia, ouer an hundreth, and seuen and twentie prouinces)
Now it happened in the days of Ahasuerus, the Ahasuerus who reigned from India to Ethiopia over 127 provinces,
This is what happened in the days of Xerxes, who reigned over 127 provinces from India to Cush.
King Xerxes of Persia lived in his capital city of Susa and ruled one hundred twenty-seven provinces from India to Ethiopia.
These events took place in the time of Achashverosh, the Achashverosh who ruled over 127 provinces from India to Ethiopia.
And it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus (that is, the Ahasuerus that reigned from India even to Ethiopia, over a hundred and twenty-seven provinces),
This is what happened during the time when Xerxes was king. Xerxes ruled over the 127 provinces from India to Ethiopia.
NOW it came to pass in the days of Akhshirash, who reigned from India even to Ethiopia, over one hundred and twenty-seven provinces,
From his royal throne in Persia's capital city of Susa, King Xerxes ruled 127 provinces, all the way from India to Ethiopia.
And it happened in the days of Ahasuerus, the Ahasuerus who reigned from India to Cush—over one hundred and twenty-seven provinces.
And it happened, in the days of Ahasuerus (he is Ahasuerus who reigned from India even to Ethiopia, over a hundred and twenty seven provinces)
In the tyme of Ahasuerus, which reigned from India vnto Ethiopia, ouer an hundreth and seuen and twentye londes,
Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus (this is Ahasuerus who reigned from India even unto Ethiopia, over a hundred and seven and twenty provinces),
Now it came about in the days of Ahasuerus, (that Ahasuerus who was ruler of a hundred and twenty-seven divisions of the kingdom, from India as far as Ethiopia:)
It came to passe that in the dayes of Ahasuerus, (this is Ahasuerus whiche raigned from India vnto Ethiopia, ouer an hundred and twentie and seuen prouinces)
Now it came to passe in the dayes of Ahasuerus, (this is Ahasuerus which reigned from India, euen vnto Ethiopia, ouer an hundred, and seuen and twentie prouinces.)
And it came to pass after these things in the days of Artaxerxes, —(this Artaxerxes ruled over a hundred and twenty-seven provinces from India)—
Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus, (this is Ahasuerus which reigned, from India even unto Ethiopia, over an hundred and seven and twenty provinces:)
In the daies of kyng Assuerus, that regnede fro Ynde `til to Ethiopie, on an hundrid and seuene and twenti prouynces, whanne he sat in the seete of his rewme,
Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus (this is Ahasuerus who reigned from India even to Ethiopia, over a hundred and seven and twenty provinces),
Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus, (this [is] Ahasuerus who reigned from India even to Cush, [over] a hundred and seven and twenty provinces:)
Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus [fn] (this was the Ahasuerus who reigned over one hundred and twenty-seven provinces, from India to Ethiopia),
These events happened in the days of King Xerxes, who reigned over 127 provinces stretching from India to Ethiopia.
This is what happened in the days of Ahasuerus, the Ahasuerus who ruled over 127 parts of the nation from India to Ethiopia.
This happened in the days of Ahasuerus, the same Ahasuerus who ruled over one hundred twenty-seven provinces from India to Ethiopia.
And it came to pass, in the days of Ahasuerus, - the same, Ahasuerus that reigned from India even unto Ethiopia, a hundred and twenty-seven provinces:
In the days of Assuerus, who reigned from India to Ethiopia over a hundred and twenty seven provinces:
In the days of Ahasu-e'rus, the Ahasu-e'rus who reigned from India to Ethiopia over one hundred and twenty-seven provinces,
And it cometh to pass, in the days of Ahasuerus -- he [is] Ahasuerus who is reigning from Hodu even unto Cush, seven and twenty and a hundred provinces --
This is the story of something that happened in the time of Xerxes, the Xerxes who ruled from India to Ethiopia—127 provinces in all. King Xerxes ruled from his royal throne in the palace complex of Susa. In the third year of his reign he gave a banquet for all his officials and ministers. The military brass of Persia and Media were also there, along with the princes and governors of the provinces.
Now it took place in the days of Ahasuerus, the Ahasuerus who reigned from India to Ethiopia over 127 provinces,
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
Ahasuerus: Prideaux has shewn satisfactorily that Ahasuerus was the Artaxerxes Longimanus of the Greeks, agreeably to the Septuagint and Josephus. See note on Ezra 6:14. Ezra 4:6, Daniel 9:1
from India: Esther 8:9, Isaiah 18:1, Isaiah 37:9
an hundred: Daniel 6:1
Reciprocal: Ezra 2:1 - the children Ezra 5:8 - the province Nehemiah 1:3 - the province Esther 2:3 - in all the provinces Esther 4:3 - in every province Esther 9:20 - in all the provinces Esther 9:30 - the hundred Esther 10:1 - laid a tribute Daniel 3:1 - in the province Acts 23:34 - he asked
Cross-References
And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.
And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.
And God said: 'Let the earth put forth grass, herb yielding seed, and fruit-tree bearing fruit after its kind, wherein is the seed thereof, upon the earth.' And it was so.
And the earth brought forth grass, herb yielding seed after its kind, and tree bearing fruit, wherein is the seed thereof, after its kind; and God saw that it was good.
And God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; and the stars.
And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.
And God said: 'Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let fowl fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.'
And God blessed them, saying: 'Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.'
and to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is a living soul, [I have given] every green herb for food.' And it was so.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus,.... Who he was is not easy to say; almost all the kings of Persia are so named by one or another writer. He cannot be the Ahasuerus in Daniel 9:1, he was Astyages, the father of Cyaxares or Darius the Mede; but this must be one who had his royal palace in Shushan, which was never the royal city of the Medes, but of the Persians only; nor does he seem to be the Ahasuerus in Ezra 4:6, who is thought to be Cambyses, the son and successor of Cyrus; since, according to the canon of Ptolemy, he reigned but eight years, whereas this Ahasuerus at least reigned twelve, Esther 3:7, though indeed some account for it by his reigning in his father's lifetime; besides, Cambyses was always an enemy to the Jews, as this was not; and yet this way go many of the Jewish writers n and so a very learned man, Nicolaus Abram o; according to Bishop Usher p, this was Darius Hystaspis, who certainly was a friend to the Jewish nation; but he is rather the Artaxerxes of Ezra and Nehemiah; and so says the Midrash q. Dr. Prideaux r thinks Ahasuerus was Artaxerxes Longimanus, which is the sense of Josephus s, and who is thought by many to be the Artaxerxes in the foresaid books. Capellus t is of opinion, that Darius Ochus is meant, to which Bishop Patrick inclines; but I rather think, with Vitringa u and others w, that Xerxes is the Ahasuerus that was the husband of Esther here spoken of; so the Arabic writers x; and as he was the son and successor of Darius Hystaspis, if he is meant by Artaxerxes in the preceding books, the history of which is carried to the thirty second year of his reign, Nehemiah 13:6 and who reigned but four years more; this book of Esther stands in right order of time to carry on the history of the Jewish affairs in the Persian monarchy; and Mr. Broughton y owns, that the name of Xerxes, in Greek, agrees with Achasuerus in Hebrew; and in Esther 10:1 his name is Achashresh, which, with the Greeks, is Axeres or Xerxes z:
this is Ahasuerus, which reigned from India even unto Ethiopia; properly so called; the Ethiopians had been subdued by Cambyses the son and successor of Cyrus a, and the Indians by Darius Hystaspis the father of Xerxes b; and both, with other great nations, were retained in subjection to him c; and many of both, as well as of other nations, were with him in his expedition into Greece d:
over an hundred and twenty and seven provinces; there were now seven provinces more under his jurisdiction than were in the times of Darius the Mede, Daniel 6:1.
n Targum & Jarchi in loc. Seder Olam Rabba, c. 29. Zuta, p. 108. o Pharus Vet. Test. l. 11. c. 12. p. 305. p Annal. Vet. Test. p. 160. so Broughton, Works, p. 38, 259, 581. q Midrash Esther, fol. 86. 2. r Connection, &c. par. 1. B. 4. p. 252, &c. s Antiqu. l. 11. c. 6. sect. 1. and so Suidas in voce εσθηρ. t Chronolog. Sacr. p. 294. u Hypotypos. Hist. Sacr. p. 110. w Schichart. de Festo Purim. Rainold. Praelect. 144. p. 231. Alsted. Chronolog. p. 126, 181. x In Abulpharag. Hist. Dynast. p. 87. y Ut supra. (Broughton, Works, p. 38, 259, 581.) z Vid. Hiller. Arcan. Keri & Ketib, p. 87. & Onomastic. Sacr. p. 639. a Herodot. Thalia, sive, l. 3. c. 97. b lb. Melpomene, sive, l. 4. c. 44. c lb. Polymnia, sive, l. 7. c. 9. d lb. c. 65, 69, 70.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
Ahasuerus - . Xerxes, the son of Darius Hystaspis. His empire is rightly described as from India even unto Ethiopia. The satrapies of Darius Hystaspis reached 29 in number, and the nations under Xerxes were about 60. The 127 “provinces” include probably sub-satrapies and other smaller divisions of the great governments.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
THE BOOK OF ESTHER
Chronological Notes relative to this Book
-Year from the Creation, according to Archbishop Usher, 3540.
-Year before the birth of Christ, 460.
-Year before the vulgar era of Christ's nativity, 464.
-Year of the Julian Period, 4250.
-Year since the flood of Noah, 1904.
-Year of the Cali Yuga, or Indian era of the Deluge, 2638.
-Year from the vocation of Abram, 1458.
-Year from the destruction of Troy, 721.
-Year from the foundation of Solomon's temple. 547.
-Year since the division of Solomon's monarchy into the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, 511.
-Year of the era of Iphitus, 421.
-Year since Coroebus won the prize at the Olympic games, 313.
-First year of the seventy-ninth Olympiad.
-Year of the Varronian era of the building of Rome, 290.
-Year from the building of Rome, according to Cato and the Fasti Consulares, 289.
-Year from the building of Rome according to Polybius the historian, 288.
-Year from the building of Rome, according to Fabius Pictor, 284.
-Year of the era of Nabonassar, 284.
-Year since the commencement of the first Messenian war, 280.
-Year since the destruction of the kingdom of Israel by Shalmaneser, the king of Assyria, 258.
-Year since the commencement of the second Messenian war, 222.
-Year from the destruction of Solomon's temple by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, 125.
-Year since the publication of the famous edict of Cyrus, king of Persia, empowering the Jews to rebuild their temple, 72.
-Year since the conquest of Egypt by Cambyses, 62.
-Year since the abolition of the tyranny of the Pisistratidae at Athens, 43.
-Year since the expulsion of the Tarquins from Rome, which put an end to the regal government of the Romans, 44.
-Year since the famous battle of Marathon, 26.
-Year after the commencement of the third Messenian war, 2.
-Year before the commencement of the first sacred war concerning the temple at Delphi, 17.
-Year before the commencement of the celebrated Peloponnesian war, 34.
-Year before the celebrated retreat of the ten thousand Greeks, and the expulsion of the thirty tyrants from Athens by Thrasybulus, 65.
-Year before the commencement of the era of the Seleucidae, 152.
-Year before the formation of the famous Achaean league, 183.
-Year before the commencement of the first Punic war, 200.
-Year before the fall of the Macedonian empire, 296.
-Year before the destruction of Carthage by Scipio, and of Corinth by Mummius, 317.
-Year before the commencement of the Jugurthine war, which continued five years, 354.
-Year before the commencement of the Social war, which continued for five years, and was finished by Sylla, 374.
-Year before the commencement of the Mithridatic war, which continued for twenty-six years, 376.
-Year before the commencement of the Servile war, under Spartacus, 392.
-Year before the extinction of the reign of the Seleucidae in Syria, on the conquest of that country by Pompey, 399.
-Year before the era of the Roman emperors, 433.
-Year of Archidamus, king of Lacedaemon, and of the family of the Proclidae, or Eurypontidae, 6.
-Year of Plistoanax, king of Lacedaemon, and of the family of the Eurysthenidae, or Agidae, 3.
-Year of Alexander, the tenth king of Macedon, 34.
-Year of Artaxerxes Longimanus, king of Persia, 1.
-Roman Consuls, Aulus Postumius, and Sp. Furius.
CHAPTER I
Ahasuerus makes royal feasts for his nobles and people, 1-9.
Vashti is sent for by the king, but refuses to come, 10-12.
Vashti is disgraced; and a law made for the subjection of
women, 13-22.
The whole history of this book in its connected order, with the occurrences in the Persian empire at that time, will be found in the introduction: to which the reader is referred.
Concerning the author of this book there are several opinions: some attribute the work to Ezra; some to one Joachim, a high priest; others, to the men of the Great Synagogue; and others to Mordecai. This latter is the most likely opinion: nor is that to be disregarded which gives to Mordecai for co-partner Ezra himself; though it is likely that the conclusion, from Esther 9:23 to the end of the book, was inserted by another hand, and at a later time. Though some Christians have hesitated to receive the book of Esther into the sacred canon; yet it has always been received by the Jews, not only as perfectly authentic, but also as one of the most excellent of their sacred books. They call it megillah, THE VOLUME, by way of eminence; and hold it in the highest estimation. That it records the history of a real fact, the observation of the feast of Purim, to the present day, is a sufficient evidence. Indeed, this is one of the strongest evidences that any fact can have, viz., that, to commemorate it, a certain rite, procession, feast, or the like, should have been instituted at the time, which, without intermission, has been continued annually through every generation of that people, and in whatsoever place they or parties of them may have sojourned, to the present day. This is the fact concerning the feast of Purim here mentioned; which the Jews, in all places of their dispersion, have uninterruptedly celebrated, and do still continue to celebrate, from the time of their deliverance from the massacre intended by Haman to the present time. Copies of this book, widely differing from each other, exist in Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, Greek, and Latin. All these differ much from the Hebrew text, particularly the Greek and the Chaldee: the former has many additional paragraphs; and the latter, as it exists in the London Polyglot, contains five times more than the Hebrew text. To notice all the various readings, additions, and paraphrases, in the above copies, would require a volume of no inconsiderable magnitude. The reader who is curious may consult the above Polyglot. This book does not appear to be extant in Arabic, or in any other of the Oriental languages, besides the Hebrew and Syriac.
The question may naturally arise, What was the original of this book? or, In what language was it written? Though learned men in general decide in favour of a Hebrew original, yet there are many reasons which might be urged in favour of the Persian. Several of the proper names are evidently of a Persian origin; and no doubt all the others are so; but they are so transformed by passing through the Hebrew, that they are no longer discernible. The Hebrew has even retained some of the Persian words, having done little else than alter the character, e.g., Esther, Mehuman, Mishak, Melzar, Vashti, Shushan, Pur, Darius, Paradise, c., several of which will be noted in their proper places. The Targum in the London Polyglot is widely different from that in the Complutum, Antwerp, and Paris editions. The principal additions in the Greek are carefully marked in the London Polyglot, but are too long and too numerous to be inserted here. It is a singular circumstance that the name of God does not once occur in the whole of this book as it stands in Hebrew.
NOTES ON CHAP. I
Verse Esther 1:1. Now it came to pass — The Ahasuerus of the Romans, the Artaxerxes of the Greeks and Ardsheer of the Persians, are the same. Some think that this Ahasuerus was Darius, the son of Hystaspes but Prideaux and others maintain that he was Artaxerxes Longimanus.
Reigned from India even unto Ethiopia — This is nearly the same account that is given by Xenophon. How great and glorious the kingdom of Cyrus was beyond all the kingdoms of Asia, was evident from this: Ὡρισθῃ μεν πρως ἑῳ τῃ Ερυθρᾳ θαλαττῃ· προς αρκτον δε τῳ Ευξεινῳ ποντῳ· προς ἑσπεραν δε Κυπρῳ και Αιγυπτῳ· προς μεσημβριαν δε Αιθιοπιᾳ. "It was bounded on the east by the Red Sea; on the north by the Euxine Sea; on the west by Cyprus and Egypt; and on the south by Ethiopia." - CYROP. lib. viii., p. 241, edit. Steph. 1581.
