John Gill's Bible Commentary Ver. 9. Also Vashti the queen made a feast for the women etc.] For it was not customary with the Persians, nor other eastern nations, to admit of women to their festivals f60 , but they feasted by themselves. Who Vashti was is not known with any certainty. Bishop Usher, who takes Ahasuerus to be Darius Hystaspis, thinks Vashti was Atossa, the daughter of Cyrus, whom he married. The Targumist says, she was the daughter of Evilmerodach, the son of Nebuchadnezzar. Her name seems to be the same with Vesta, a deity worshipped by the Persians, as Xenophon f61 , and signifies vehement fire, which was in great veneration with them; and therefore this queen is most likely to be of Persian original: she kept her feast in the royal house which belonged to Ahasuerus ; her guests not being so many, there was room enough in the king’s palace for them, and where it was more decent for them to be than in the open air in the garden, and exposed to the sight of men.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1-9 - The pride of Ahasuerus's heart rising with the grandeur of his kingdom he made an extravagant feast. This was vain glory. Better is a dinne of herbs with quietness, than this banquet of wine, with all the nois and tumult that must have attended it. But except grace prevails in the heart, self-exaltation and self-indulgence, in one form or another will be the ruling principle. Yet none did compel; so that if any dran to excess, it was their own fault. This caution of a heathen prince even when he would show his generosity, may shame many calle Christians, who, under pretence of sending the health round, send sin round, and death with it. There is a woe to them that do so; let the read it, and tremble, Hab 2:15, 16.
Original Hebrew גם1571 ושׁתי2060 המלכה4436 עשׂתה6213 משׁתה4960 נשׁים802 בית1004 המלכות4438 אשׁר834 למלך4428 אחשׁורושׁ׃325
