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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Now it came to pass in the days of. See important note of Rabbinical commentators on Gen_14:1.
Ahasuerus = the venerable king. An appellative, like Pharaoh, Czar, Shah, &c. See notes on p. 618 and App-57 and App-68.
this. Implying that others were so called, from whom lie is to be distinguished. This Ahasuerus was Astyages (Greek), Arsames (Persian). See App-67 and App-58. "This Ahasuerus" emphasizes the one who was specially renowned. Figure of speech Parenthesis.
from India even unto Ethiopia: i.e. the two extreme boundaries of the known world.
an hundred and seven and twenty provinces. Dan_6:1 says 120 princes. The number continually altered to suit the requirements of government. Only in Dan_6:1 do we find 120. Plato says that "when Darius (i.e. 'the Maintainer' = Astyages) came to the throne, being one of the seven, he divided the country into seven portions" (De Legibus iii). These are the seven named in verses: Est_1:13-14. When Babylon afterward fell into his hands, he divided his newly acquired kingdom into 120 part3 (Dan_9:1. Compare Est_6:1). Why should he not have added these to the seven he already possessed, and thus have made the 127 of Est_1:1; Est_9:30? In the later days of Darius (Hystaspis) these had reduced to twenty-three, as stated and named on the Behistun inscription.