Esther 1:5 - Exposition

A feast unto all the people that were found in Susa . The males only are intended, as appears from verse 9. So Cyrus on one occasion feasted "the entire Persian army," slaughtering for them all his father's flocks, sheep, goats, and oxen (Herod; 1.126). In the court of the garden . The "court of the garden" is probably the entire space surrounding the central hall of thirty-six pillars at Susa, including the three detached porticoes of twelve pillars each, described by Mr. Loftus in his 'Chaldaea and Susiana'. This is a space nearly 350 feet long by 250 wide, with a square of 145 feet taken out of it for the central building. The area exceeds 60,000 square feet.