Esther 1:8

There was a lot of wine, because the king wanted the guests to drink as much as they wanted. But the king told the servants that they should not force anyone to drink more than he wanted.

Translation for Translators

In The King James Version

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.

In Context

7The guests drank wine from gold cups. Each cup had a different design on it.

9At the same time, the king’s wife, Queen Vashti, invited the wives of the men who worked in the palace to a banquet in another room in the palace.

Read all of Esther 1

Cross References

Jeremiah 35:8So we have obeyed him in all those matters. We have never drunk wine. Our wives and our sons and our daughters have also never drunk wine.

Habakkuk 2:15Terrible things will happen to you people of Babylonia who cause people who live in nearby countries to become drunk. You force them to drink a lot of wine from wineskins until they are drunk and then they walk around naked, in order that you can see that.

Matthew Henry on Esther 1:2-10

Esther How the providence of God watched over the Jews that had returned out of captivity to their own land, and what great and kind things were done for them, we read in the two foregoing books; but there were many who staid behind, having not zeal enough for God's house, and the holy land and city, to carry them through the difficulties of a removal thither. These, one would think, should have been excluded the special protection of Providence, as unworthy the name of Israelites; but our God deals not with us… Read the whole commentary →

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