Esther 10:2 - Exposition

All the acts of his power and of his might . These are unknown to us. After the failure of the Grecian expedition Xerxes attempted nothing further on that side of his empire, and the Greeks consequently record nothing more concerning him. He may have made expeditions in other directions. But the chief evidences that we have of his activity point to his having sought to gratify his ambition and give vent to his .grand ideas by erecting magnificent buildings. The book of the chronicles . See Esther 2:23 ; Esther 6:1 ; Esther 9:32 . The kings of Media and Persia . It is indicative of the intimate connection of the two Iranian empires that one "book" contained the records of both. The fact of the connection is fully established by profane history. Its exact nature is not perhaps even yet fully understood. "Media" seems to be placed before "Persia" in this place on chronological grounds, because the Median history preceded the Persian history, and was therefore recorded first in the "book."