Esther 1:8

And the drinking was according to the law; none did compel: for so the king had appointed to all the officers of his house, that they should do according to every man's pleasure.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(8) Law.—Rather ordinance or decree, that is, specially put forth for this occasion. What this means is shown by what follows, namely, that the king had issued special orders to allow all to do as they pleased in the matter of drinking, instead of as usual compelling them to drink. This degrading habit is the more noticeable because the Persians were at first a nation of exceptionally temperate habits.

Benson Commentary

Esther 1:8. The drinking was according to the law — The Persians were at first, before they came to have such a great dominion, sober and temperate; but afterward they fell into the manner and luxury of the Medes and Lydians, and excited one another at their feasts to drinking. But upon this occasion the king ordered that there should be nothing of this sort, but every one should drink what he chose, without being challenged to go further, which was agreeable to some ancient law of the Persians, that none should compel another to drink more than he pleased. How does this heathen prince shame many that are called Christians, who think they do not make their friends welcome, unless they make them drunk; and, under pretence of sending the health round, send the sin round, and death with it!

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

1:1-9 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 dinner of herbs with quietness, than this banquet of wine, with all the noise 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 drank to excess, it was their own fault. This caution of a heathen prince, even when he would show his generosity, may shame many called 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 them read it, and tremble, Hab 2:15,16.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

According to the law - An exception to the ordinary practice of compulsory drinking had been made on this occasion by the king's order.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

7. they gave them drink in vessels of gold—There is reason to believe from this account, as well as from Es 5:6; 7:2, 7, 8, where the drinking of wine occupies by far the most prominent place in the description, that this was a banquet rather than a feast.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

According to the law, none did compel, i.e. according to this law which the king had now made, that none should compel another to drink more than he pleased; which the Persians and other loose and heathenish nations used to do, though that practice was condemned by the wise and sober heathens, and among others by this great prince. Or, no man did compel another to drink, according to the law, i.e. as by the laws or orders of the Persians prescribed and used in their feasts they might have done, if not restrained by this law.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And the drinking was according to the law, none did compel,.... According to the law Ahasuerus gave to his officers next mentioned, which was not to oblige any man to drink more than he chose; the Targum is,`according to the custom of his body;'that is, as a man is able to bear it, so they drank: some (f) read it, "the drinking according to the law, let none exact"; or require it to be, according to the custom then in use in Persia; for they were degenerated from their former manners, and indulged to intemperance, as Xenophon (g) suggests: the law formerly was, not to carry large vessels into feasts; but now, says he, they drink so much, that they themselves must be carried out, because they cannot go upright: and so it became a law with the Greeks, at their festivals, that either a man must drink or go out (h); so the master of a feast, at which Empedocles was, ordered either that he should drink, or the wine be poured on his head (i); but such force or compulsion Ahasuerus forbad: and thus with the Chinese now, they force none to drink, but modestly invite them (k):

for so the king had appointed to all the officers of his house, that they should do according to every man's pleasure; to let them have what wine they would, but not force them to drink more than was agreeable to them.

(f) Vid. Drusium in loc. (g) Cyropaedia, l. 8. c. 51. (h) Cicero. Tusculan. Quaest. l. 5. (i) Laert. in Vit. ejus, l. 8. p. 608. (k) Semedo's History of China, par. 1. c. 13.

Geneva Study Bible

And the drinking was according to the law; none did {f} compel: for so the king had appointed to all the officers of his house, that they should do according to every man's pleasure.

(f) No one was forced to drink more than it pleased him.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

8. according to the law] rather, according to the direction given by the king for the occasion. The words which follow suggest that ordinarily hard drinking was enforced. Drunkenness was common among the Persians.[59]

[59] See the description of a drunken company put by Xenophon (Cyropaedia, i. 3. 12) into the mouth of Cyrus, who describes the spectacle presented by Astyages himself and his friends on the occasion of the king’s birthday feast. See also Additional Note III, in the first extract from the Jewish commentary called Targum Shçnî.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 8. - The drinking was according to the law. Rather, "according to edict" - the edict being the express order given by the king to all the officers of his household. It is implied that the usual custom was different - that the foolish practice prevailed of compelling men to drink. That the Persians were hard drinkers, and frequently drank to excess, is stated by Herodotus (1:133) and Xenophon ('Cyrop.,' 8:8, § 11). Esther 1:8

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The entertainment: "And drinks poured into vessels of gold! and vessels differing from vessels, and royal wine in abundance, according to the hand of a king. (Esther 1:8) And the drinking was according to law; nine did compel: for so the king had appointed to all the officers of his house to do according to every one's pleasure." השׁקות, inf. Hiph., to give to drink, to hand drinks, is used substantively. The golden drinking vessels were of various kinds, and each differing in form from another. Great variety in drinking vessels pertained to the luxury of Persians; comp. Xenoph. Cyrop. viii. 8, 18. מלכוּת יין is wine from the royal cellar, therefore costly wine. Many interpreters understand it of the Chalybonian wine, which the Persian kings used to drink. See rem. on Ezekiel 27:18. המּלך כּיד, according to the hand of the king, i.e., according to royal bounty; comp. 1 Kings 10:13. The words: "the drinking was according to law, none did compel," are generally understood to say, that the king abolished for this banquet, the prevailing custom of pledging his guests. According to Grecian information (see Baumgarten, p. 12f.), an exceedingly large quantity of wine was drunk at Persian banquets. This sense of the words is not, however, quite certain. The argument of Baumgarten, Si hic mos vulgaris fuisset in epulis regiis, sine dubio haec omnia non commemorata essent, no more holds good than his further remark: formulam illam אנס אין כּדּת non puto adhibitam fuisse, nisi jam altera contraria אנס כּדּת solemnis esset facta. The historian can have noticed this only because it was different from the Jewish custom. Bertheau also justly remarks: "We are not told in the present passage, that the king, on this occasion, exceptionally permitted moderation, especially to such of his guests as were, according to their ancestral customs, addicted to moderation, and who would else have been compelled to drink immoderately. For the words with which this verse concludes, which they imply also a permission to each to drink as little as he chose, are specially intended to allow every one to take much. על יסּד, to appoint concerning, i.e., to enjoin, comp. 1 Chronicles 9:22. בּית רב, those over the house, i.e., the court officials.