Esther 1:10 - Exposition

When the heart of the king was merry with wine . We are told that once a year, at the feast of Mithra, the king of Persia was bound to intoxicate himself (Duris, Fr. 13). At other times he did as he pleased, but probably generally drank reason was somewhat obscured. Mehuman , etc. Persian etymologies have been given for most of these names, but they are all more or less uncertain; and as eunuchs were often foreigners, mutilated for the Persian market (Herod; 3:93; 8:105), who bore foreign names, like the Hermotimus of Herodotus (8:104-106), it is quite possible that Persian etymologies may here be out of place. Bigtha , however, if it be regarded as a shortened form of Bigthan ( Esther 2:21 ) or Bigthana ( Esther 6:1-14 .), would seem to be Persian, being equivalent to Bagadana (= Theodorus), "the gift of God." Chamberlains . Really, as in the margin, "eunuchs." The influence of eunuchs at the Persian court was great from the time of Xerxes. Ctesias makes them of importance even from the time of Cyrus ('Exc. Pera,' § 5, 9).