And he wrote in the King Ahasuerus' name, and sealed it with
the king's ring
Which gave the letters authority, and made them irreversible, and for this Mordecai had the king's order, ( Esther 8:8 )
and sent letters by post;
by runners or couriers:
on horseback;
that rode on horses that were racers, that ran swiftly:
and riders on mules, camels, and young dromedaries;
which were all different creatures, and swift ones, according to our version, especially the latter; see ( Jeremiah 2:23 ) which were a kind of camels, but swifter, and would go more than one hundred miles a day F1; and, as Diodorus Siculus says F2, not less than 1500 furlongs or about two hundred miles: though it may be only one sort are meant, namely, "mules", for the next word, "ahashteranim", in the Persian language signifies mules F3, and so Aben Ezra interprets it, and likewise Kimchi and Ben Melech; and the last words may be rendered "sons of mares", so David de Pomis; that is, such mules as are gendered by he asses and mares: and so the same writer observes, that the word in the Arabic language signifies "mares"; and such mules that come from them he says are stronger than those that come from she asses; so that the whole may be rendered to this sense, "riders on mules", (which in the Persian language are called "ahashteranim",) namely, such as are "sons of mares"; and which according to Aelianus F4 and Pliny F5 are the swiftest; though the Persians had camels swifter than are common elsewhere, called "revatrie", the "goer", which trot as fast as an horse can gallop F6.