Esther 1:7
And they gave them drink in vessels of gold, (the vessels being diverse one from another,) and royal wine in abundance, according to the state of the king.
They gave them drink in vessels of gold, the vessels being divers one from another,.... In the pattern and workmanship of them, though of the same metal, which diversity made the festival the more grand; earthen cups, with the Persians, were reckoned very mean; when a king would disgrace a man, he obliged him to use earthen cups {d}. The Targum represents these vessels to be the golden vessels of the temple at Jerusalem Nebuchadnezzar carried away; which could not be, since they had been delivered by Cyrus to Zerubbabel, Ezra 1:7,
and royal wine in abundance, according to the state of the king; such as the king was able to give, the best he had, and that in great plenty; the wine the kings of Persia used to drink, as Strabo {e} relates, was Chalybonian wine, or wine of Helbon, as it is called, Ezekiel 27:18,
See Gill on "Ezekiel 27:18", but by the wine of the kingdom, as it may be rendered, is meant wine of the country; the wine of Schiras is reckoned the best in Persia {f}.
{d} Ctesias in Athenaei Deipnosoph. l. 11.
{e} Geograph. l. 15. p. 505.
{f} Universal History, vol. 5. p. 85.