Esther 1:5–9

The royal banquet

When these days were over, the king gave a banquet, lasting seven days, in the enclosed garden of the king’s palace, for all the people from the least to the greatest, who were in the citadel of Susa. 6 The garden had hangings of white and blue linen, fastened with cords of white linen and purple material to silver rings on marble pillars. There were couches of gold and silver on a mosaic pavement of porphyry, marble, motherof-pearl and other costly stones. 7 Wine was served in goblets of gold, each one different from the other, and the royal wine was abundant, in keeping with the king’s liberality. 8 By the king’s command each guest was allowed to drink in his own way, for the king instructed all the wine stewards to serve each man what he wished.

9 Queen Vashti also gave a banquet for the women in the royal palace of King Xerxes.

Xerxes is well known to students of ancient history because of his prominent role in Greek history. His father, Darius, had failed in his attempt to conquer Greece when his invading Persian forces were defeated by the Greeks at the famous battle of Marathon in 490 B.C. Xerxes was determined to avenge this defeat and put an end to Greek meddling in the affairs of his empire in Asia Minor (Turkey). In 480 B.C., Xerxes made another invasion against Greece with the largest army and navy ever assembled. Nevertheless, this invasion failed when Xerxes’ navy was defeated at Salamis and his land forces were defeated the next year at Platea. This is considered to be one of the most crucial campaigns in the history of the world, since the Greek victory preserved the independence of Greece, the nation whose culture made such great contributions to Western civilization.

A detailed report of this campaign and of the character of Xerxes is preserved in the accounts of the Persian Wars by the Greek historian Herodotus. His description of King Xerxes agrees well with the description in Esther. Herodotus portrays Xerxes as a vain, temperamental ruler and gives many examples of his hot-headed, irrational actions. When the great pontoon bridge that Xerxes had built for his army to cross over into Europe was destroyed by a storm, Xerxes not only executed the bridge builders but also ordered that the sea be whipped and chained for the offense of destroying his bridge! When one of his subjects asked to keep one of his five sons at home while the other four went along with Xerxes to Greece, Xerxes flew into a rage, cut the son into two pieces, laid half his body on each side of the road, and told the father, “There, now you can keep your son at home.” We shall see similar impetuous acts of Xerxes in the book of Esther.

Herodotus reports that it took Xerxes four years to prepare for his invasion of Greece, and that he called an assembly of all his nobles to discuss plans for the invasion. It may well be that the great assembly described in Esther chapter 1 was the same as the planning meetings for the invasion of Greece mentioned by Herodotus. Herodotus’ stories about Xerxes are very interesting; they are the strongest concurrence between biblical history and secular history that has yet been discovered. Herodotus’ portrait of Xerxes offers an interesting parallel with Xerxes’ behavior in the following sections of Esther.