Esther 1:2

That in those days, when the King Ahasuerus sat on the throne of his kingdom,.... Not only was placed upon it, but settled in it; after Xerxes had subdued Egypt, in the second year of his reign (e),

That in those days, when the king Ahasuerus sat on the throne of his kingdom, which was in Shushan the palace, When the king Ahasuerus sat on the throne of his kingdom - i:e., in the third year of his reign.

Sat on the throne of his kingdom, i.e. either was lately advanced to it, or rather was settled in the peaceable possession of it. The palace; or, the castle; or, the chief or royal city, as both, Jewish and Christian interpreters render it. Shushan might be the proper name of the palace, which thence was given to the whole city. Here the kings of Persia used to keep their courts chiefly in winter, as ordinarily they were in Ecbatana in summer.

Esther 1:2 [That] in those days, when the king Ahasuerus sat on the throne of his kingdom, which [was] in Shushan the palace,Ver. 2. When the king Ahasuerus sat on the throne] Having peace with all men, being quiet and secure; though this lasted not long; for he was shamefully foiled by the Grecians (against whom he led an army of two millions of men), and forced to flee back again over Hellespont, in a poor fisher’ s boat; which being overloaded, had sunk all, if the Persians by the casting away of themselves had not saved the life of their king. Omnia sunt hominum tenui pendentia filo, &c. Which was in Shushan the palace] See Nehemiah 1:1. Ptolemy, Strabo, and Pliny tell us, that in this city (situated upon the river Choaspes) was that famous palace of Cyrus, which was adorned with marble walls, golden pillars, and a great store of precious stones; shining as so many stars from the roof and sides of it, to the dazzling of the eyes of the beholders (Ptol. 1. 6, c. 3; Strab. lib. 15; Plin. 1. 6, c. 27; Herod. 1. 5; Athen. 1. 12, c. 3). Here it was, likely, that the kings of Persia sat to hear causes under a vine of gold, set with smaragds, as with so many clusters of grapes.

(2) Shushan.—Susa. Mentioned also in Nehemiah 1:1. It was the general abode of the Persian kings. (See Herod. vii. 6.)

Verse 2. Sat on the throne of his kingdom] Having subdued all his enemies, and brought universal peace to his empire. See the commencement of the introduction. Shushan the palace] The ancient city of Susa, now called [Persian] Shuster by the Persians. This, with Ecbatana and Babylon, was a residence of the Persian kings. The word הבירה habbirah, which we render the palace, should be rendered the city, ενσουσοιςτηπολει, as in the Septuagint.

2. Shushan the palace] i.e. Susa. Ecbatana, Babylon, Persepolis, and Susa were all places of sojourn for the Persian court for longer or shorter periods. ‘Shushan the palace,’ which is to be distinguished from ‘Shushan the city’ (Esther 9:13-15) was built by Darius, father of Xerxes, on the same plan as the palace at Persepolis. The city of Susa was cut in two by a wide river, anciently called the Choaspes, and now known under the name of Ab-Kharkha. The populous quarters on the right bank are now marked by hardly perceptible undulations of the plain; on the left, the royal city, the citadel, and the palace. “Three huge mounds, forming a rhomboidal mass, 4500 feet long from N. to S., and 3000 feet broad from E. to W., are a standing witness to the size and magnificence of the buildings which formed the ancient citadel or acropolis,” Driver in Camb. Bible on Daniel 8:27. M. Dieulafoy, a French architect and engineer, in 1884–6 carried out important excavations at Susa, and brought to light many interesting features, recovering the plan of the citadel, and extensive remains of the buildings of which it consisted. “Artaxerxes, in an inscription found on one of the columns, says: ‘My ancestor Darius built this Apadβna in ancient times. In the reign of Artaxerxes, my grandfather, it was consumed by fire. By the grace of Ahuramazda, Anaοtis, and Mithras, I have restored this Apadβna.’ An Apadβna was a large hall or throne-room. The Apadβna of Susa stood on the N. of the Acropolis: it formed a square of about 250 feet each way. The roof (which consisted of rafters and beams of cedar, brought from Lebanon) was supported by 36 columns in rows of six; the sides and back were composed of walls of brick, each pierced by four doors; the front of the hall was open. The columns were slender shafts of limestone, delicately fluted, and topped by magnificently carved capitals. In front of the hall, on each side, was a pylon or colonnade, with a frieze at the top 12 feet high, formed of beautifully enamelled bricks, the one decorated by a procession of lions, the other by a procession of ‘Immortals,’ the armed life-guards of the Persian kings. A garden surrounded the Apadβna, and in front of it on the south, was a large square for military man�uvres, etc. Adjoining it, on the east, was a large block of buildings forming the royal harem (the ‘house of the women’ of Esther 2:3, etc.): south of this was the royal palace, with a court in the centre (Esther 4:11; Esther 5:1). The entire acropolis covered an area of 300 acres.[55]” [55] Driver, ibid. who also points out that in one of the galleries of the Louvre, Paris, several rooms are devoted to sculptures, etc., brought from Susa, and to a restoration of parts of the Apadβna. He refers, among other works, to Dieulafoy, L’Acropole de Suse, Mme Dieulafoy, A Suse, Journal des Fouilles, and La Perse, la Chaldιe, et la Susiane, Chap.

2. Sat on the throne of his kingdom — That is, was quietly and firmly settled in his dominions; an oriental mode of representing an absolute monarch in possession of royal authority and power.