The royal banquet
This is what happened during the time of Xerxes, the Xerxes who ruled over 127 provinces stretching from India to Cush: 2 At that time King Xerxes reigned from his royal throne in the citadel of Susa, 3 and in the third year of his reign he gave a banquet for all his nobles and officials. The military leaders of Persia and Media, the princes, and the nobles of the provinces were present.
4 For a full 180 days he displayed the vast wealth of his kingdom and the splendor and glory of his majesty.
This section skillfully sets the scene for the story of Esther. The writer gives us a colorful picture of the fabulous wealth and power of Esther’s future husband, Xerxes, as well as a glimpse of his erratic, tempestuous character. 158
These characteristics are prominent throughout the book of Esther and agree with the portrait of Xerxes that we have from other historical sources.
The Hebrew name of the king is Achashvayrosh (also spelled Ahasuerus in English), but the NIV uses the Greek form of his name, Xerxes, since this is the form of his name that is well known through secular history.
Although a few commentators identify him with a later king of Persia who came after the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, it is very likely that he was Xerxes I (485–465 B.C.). Xerxes I ruled Persia between Darius I, who was king when Zerubbabel rebuilt the temple, and Artaxerxes I, the king during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. This Xerxes is mentioned in Ezra 4:6. His great power and wealth are clearly pictured in our text.
His empire was the largest the world had known up to his time. It stretched from northwest India on the east to northern Greece on the west. It extended through Egypt to Ethiopia (Cush) in the south. Some critics have made a great deal of the fact that Greek historians say the Persian empire was divided into about 30 districts, called satrapies, while the biblical accounts report about 120 provinces. Such critics, however, have created a problem where none exists, since it is likely that “provinces” here refers to smaller subdivisions of the larger satrapies. For example, Judah seems to have been a “province” of the large Trans-Euphrates satrapy.