Esther 5:1

ESTHER’S RECEPTION AND THE BANQUET, Esther 5:1-8.

1. On the third day “The third day must be counted from the day of the transaction between the queen and Mordecai, (iv, 14,) the first day being that on which it took place. The fasting, then, would not begin till midday; and on the third day Esther went to the king to invite him on that day to a banquet, which would surely take place in the forenoon. Thus the three days’ fast would last from the afternoon of the first to the forenoon of the third day from forty to forty-five hours.” Keil.

Put on her royal apparel Literally, put on royalty. She would appear in proper attire on this important occasion.

The inner court of the king’s house This must have been situated directly in front of the royal audience chamber, or “throne room,” where the monarch was wont to sit when receiving ministers of state, and attending to the business of the empire. The annexed cut presents a restored plan (by Fergusson) of the Great Hall of Xerxes at Persepolis, which corresponds in all its main features with the palace of Shushan. The great central hall has thirty-six columns, and is surrounded on three sides by great porches, each two hundred feet wide by sixty-five feet deep, and each supported by twelve columns. These porches, says Fergusson, “were beyond doubt the great audience halls of the palace, and served the same purpose as the ‘house of the forest of Lebanon’ in Solomon’s palace, though its dimensions were somewhat different one hundred and fifty feet by seventy-five. These porches were also identical, so far as use and arrangement go, with the throne rooms in the palaces of Delhi and Agra, or those which are used at this day in the palace of Ispahan. The western porch would be appropriate to morning ceremonials, the eastern to those of the afternoon. There was no porch, as we might expect in that climate, to the south, but the principal one, both at Susa and Persepolis, was that which faced the north, with a slight inclination to the east. It was the throne room, par excellence, of the palace, and an inspection of the plan will show how easily, by the arrangement of the stairs, a whole army of courtiers or of tribute bearers could file before the king without confusion or inconvenience.” The inner court, in front of this audience room, was probably so called in contradistinction to an outer court beyond it. These courts communicated with each other by means of the gate of the house, so called from being the main entrance from the north to the vast pile of buildings that constituted the king’s house. Thus as the king sat in this throne room of the northern porch, he could look right down from his elevated position across the inner court, and could see any one who stood there, or approached him by way of the gate, which was over against, or directly opposite, his royal throne.