Esther 1:7

7 Drinks were served in gold chalices, each chalice one-of-a-kind. The royal wine flowed freely - a generous king!

Esther 1:7 Meaning and Commentary

Esther 1:7

They gave them drink in vessels of gold, the vessels being
divers one from another
In the pattern and workmanship of them, though of the same metal, which diversity made the festival the more grand; earthen cups, with the Persians, were reckoned very mean; when a king would disgrace a man, he obliged him to use earthen cups ^F4. The Targum represents these vessels to be the golden vessels of the temple at Jerusalem Nebuchadnezzar carried away; which could not be, since they had been delivered by Cyrus to Zerubbabel, ( Ezra 1:7-10 ) ,

and royal wine in abundance, according to the state of the king;
such as the king was able to give, the best he had, and that in great plenty; the wine the kings of Persia used to drink, as Strabo ^F5 relates, was Chalybonian wine, or wine of Helbon, as it is called, ( Ezekiel 27:18 ) , (See Gill on Ezekiel 27:18), but by the wine of the kingdom, as it may be rendered, is meant wine of the country; the wine of Schiras is reckoned the best in Persia ^F6.

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FOOTNOTES:

F4 Ctesias in Athenaei Deipnosoph. l. 11.
F5 Geograph. l. 15. p. 505.
F6 Universal History, vol. 5. p. 85.

Esther 1:7 In-Context

5 At the conclusion of the exhibit, the king threw a weeklong party for everyone living in Susa, the capital - important and unimportant alike. The party was in the garden courtyard of the king's summer house.

6 The courtyard was elaborately decorated with white and blue cotton curtains tied with linen and purple cords to silver rings on marble columns. Silver and gold couches were arranged on a mosaic pavement of porphyry, marble, mother-of-pearl, and colored stones.

7 Drinks were served in gold chalices, each chalice one-of-a-kind. The royal wine flowed freely - a generous king!

8 The guests could drink as much as they liked - king's orders! - with waiters at their elbows to refill the drinks.

9 Meanwhile, Queen Vashti was throwing a separate party for women inside King Xerxes' royal palace.