that night: Est 5:8; Gen 22:14; 1Sa 23:26-27; Isa 41:17; Rom 11:33
could not the king sleep: Heb. the king's sleep fled away, Dan 2:1, Dan 6:18
the book of records: As chronicles were composed among the Persians, a more instructive and interesting work could not be brought before the king; because they were all written in verse, and were generally the work of the most eminent poets of the empire. Est 2:23; Mal 3:16