Esther 1:6

6. White, green, and blue White and blue, or violet, seem to have been royal colours in Persia. Comp. Esther 8:15. The great hall of marble pillars was adorned with hangings of various colours and materials, which were fastened in festoon-like form to the pillars, and served probably both for ornament and awning. It is difficult to identify precisely the various colours and substances mentioned in this verse. Keil renders the whole verse thus: White stuff, variegated and purple hangings, fastened with cords of byssus and purple to silver rings and marble pillars; couches of gold and silver upon a pavement of malachite and marble, mother-of-pearl and tortoise-shell. “The description,” he remarks, “consists of mere allusions to, or exclamations at, the splendour of the preparations. In the first half of the verse the hangings of the room, in the second the couches for the guests, are noticed.” These couches (which were placed upon the tessellated pavement of the court, and on which the guests reclined at the banquet) were probably not of solid gold and silver, but either “covered with cloth woven of gold and silver thread,” ( Keil,) or else mounted and beautifully set with plates of these precious metals. Herodotus (ix, 80-82) makes mention of the vast quantities of gold and silver vessels of various kinds, together with gold and silver couches and tables, and various coloured awnings, ( παραπετασματα ,) which Xerxes carried with him on his expedition to Greece. Strabo (xv, 3, 19) says of the Persians, “their couches, drinking cups, and other articles are so brilliantly ornamented that they gleam with gold and silver.” Other ancient writers also mention the immense wealth of Persia.