Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Esther 1:6
[Where were] white, green, and blue, [hangings], fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble: the beds [were of] gold and silver, upon a pavement of red, and blue, and white, and black marble.
6. there were hangings of white cloth, of green, and of blue ] marg. fine cloth, white (or cotton) and blue. The word translated ‘green’ in the text is best rendered cotton, and is of Persian origin. [58] The cords, which by means of silver rings attached the hangings to the pillars, furnished a contrast of colour, viz. fine, white linen, mixed with a reddish purple.
[58] Karpas borrowed by the Greek in the form (Lat. carbasus).
pillars of marble ] The remains of the pillars found at Susa are of a dark blue limestone, which the Heb. word may very well denote.
the couches were of gold and silver ] i.e. with coverlets of gold and silver work, or possibly with a framework of these materials (so the Targum explains), like those which Herod. (ix. 82) tells us that Xerxes brought with him on his expedition against Greece.
of red, and white, and yellow, and black marble ] marg. or, of porphyry, and white marble, and alabaster, and stone of blue colour. For the ‘white and yellow’ of R.V. A.V. had ‘blue and white.’ A mosaic pavement of various costly materials is apparently meant, but the precise meaning of the terms used is uncertain. Perhaps we may take it that each is the name of a material, not a colour, and render porphyry (or alabaster), marble, pearl-stone, and dark paving-stone. We should observe, however, that the second of these is the same word as that used in the description of the pillars (see note), and that the last may mean marble with dark spots or streaks. The LXX. adds that there were crystal couches scattered over with roses.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Rather, where was an awning of fine white cotton and violet. White and blue (or violet) were the royal colors in Persia. Such awnings as are here described were very suitable to the pillared halls and porches of a Persian summer-palace, and especially to the situation of that of Susa.
The beds – Rather, couches or sofas, on which the guests reclined at meals.
A pavement … – See the margin. It is generally agreed that the four substances named are stones; but to identify the stones, or even their colors, is difficult.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 6. White, green, and blue hangings] It was customary, on such occasions, not only to hang the place about with elegant curtains of the above colours, as Dr. Shaw and others have remarked, but also to have a canopy of rich stuffs suspended on cords from side to side of the place in which they feasted. And such courts were ordinarily paved with different coloured marbles, or with tiles painted, as above specified. And this was the origin of the Musive or Mosaic work, well known among the Asiatics, and borrowed from them by the Greeks and the Romans.
The beds of gold and silver mentioned here were the couches covered with gold and silver cloth, on which the guests reclined.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The beds; for in those eastern countries and ancient times they did not sit at tables, as we do, but rested or leaned upon beds; of which we have many testimonies, both in Scripture, as Est 7:8; Amo 2:8; 6:4; Joh 13:23, and in all other authors.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6. Where were white, green, and bluehangings, &c.The fashion, in the houses of the great, onfestive occasions, was to decorate the chambers from the middle ofthe wall downward with damask or velvet hangings of variegated colorssuspended on hooks, or taken down at pleasure.
the beds were of gold andsilverthat is, the couches on which, according to Orientalfashion, the guests reclined, and which were either formed entirelyof gold and silver or inlaid with ornaments of those costly metals,stood on an elevated floor of parti-colored marble.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Where were white, green, and blue hangings,…. Or curtains of fine linen, as the Targum, which were of these several colours; the first letter of the word for “white” is larger than usual, to denote the exceeding whiteness of them. The next word is “carpas”, which Ben Melech observes is a dyed colour, said to be green. Pausanias q makes mention of Carpasian linen, and which may be here meant; the last word used signifies blue, sky coloured, or hyacinth:
fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings, and pillars of marble; these pillars are said, in the Targum, to be of divers colours, red, green, and shining yellow and white, on which the silver rings were fixed, and into them were put linen strings of purple colour, which fastened the hangings to them, and so made an enclosure, within which the guests sat at the feast:
the beds were of gold and silver; the couches on which they sat, or rather reclined at eating, as was the manner of the eastern nations; these, according to the Targum, were of lambs’ wool, the finest, and the softest, and the posts of them were of gold, and their feet of silver. Such luxury obtained among the Romans in later times r:
these were placed in a pavement of red, and blue, and white, and black, marble; which, according to some, are the porphyrite, Parian, alabaster, and marble of various colours; the marble of the Persians is of four colours, white, black, red and black, and white and black s; but others take them to be precious stones, as Jarchi and Aben Ezra; the first is by the Targum interpreted crystal, by others the emerald, one of which Theophrastus t speaks of as four cubits long, and three broad, which might be laid in a pavement; the third is, by Bochart u, supposed to be the pearl; and in the Talmud w it is said to be of such a nature, that if placed in the middle of a dining room, will give light in it as at noonday, which seems to be what is called lychnites; to which Lucian x ascribes a like property: nor need all this seem strange, since great was the luxury of the eastern nations. Philostratus y speaks of a temple in India paved with pearls, and which he says all the Barbarians use in their temples; particularly it is said z, that the roofs of the palaces of Shushan and Ecbatana, the palaces of the kings of Persia, shone with gold and silver, ivory, and amber; no wonder then that their pavements were of very valuable and precious stones: and from hence it appears, that the “lithostrata”, the word here used by the Septuagint, or tesserated pavements, were in use four hundred years before the times of Sylla, where the beginning of them is placed by Pliny a; there was a “lithostraton” in the second temple at Jerusalem, by us rendered the pavement, Joh 19:13, perhaps the same with the room Gazith, so called from its being laid with hewn stone. Aristeas b, who lived in the times of Ptolemy Philadelphus, testifies that the whole floor of the temple was a “lithostraton”, or was paved with stone: it is most likely therefore that these had their original in the eastern country, and not in Greece, as Pliny c supposed.
q Attica, sive, l. 1. p. 48. r Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 33. c. 11. Sueton. Vit. Caesar. c. 49. s Universal History, vol. 5. p. 87. t Apud Plin. l. 37. c. 5. u Hierozoic. par. 2. l. 5. c. 8. w T. Bab. Megillah, fol. 12. 1. x De Dea Syria. y Vit. Apollon. l. 2. c. 11. z Aristot. de Mundo, c. 6. Apuleius de Mundo. a Nat. Hist. l. 36. c. 25. b De 70 Interpret. p. 32. c Ut supra. (Nat. Hist. l. 36. c. 25.)
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(6) Where were white. . . .This should be [hangings of] white cotton and blue. The word translated cotton (Heb., carpas) occurs only here. Canon Rawlinson remarks that white and blue (or violet) were the royal colours of Persia.
Linen.White linen; so the word is used, e.g., in 2Ch. 5:12.
Marble.White marble, as in the last clause of the verse.
Beds.That is, the couches. The gold is not to be referred simply to the gold- mbroidered coverings, but to the framework of the couch.
Red and blue . . .These words are not names of colours, but of actual stones, although the meaning of most is doubtful enough. The first (bahat) is rendered by the LXX. as a stone of emerald colour, and may perhaps be malachite. The second (shesh) is white marble, the third (dar) is pearly, and the last (sokhereth) black.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
6. White, green, and blue White and blue, or violet, seem to have been royal colours in Persia. Comp. Est 8:15. The great hall of marble pillars was adorned with hangings of various colours and materials, which were fastened in festoon-like form to the pillars, and served probably both for ornament and awning. It is difficult to identify precisely the various colours and substances mentioned in this verse. Keil renders the whole verse thus: White stuff, variegated and purple hangings, fastened with cords of byssus and purple to silver rings and marble pillars; couches of gold and silver upon a pavement of malachite and marble, mother-of-pearl and tortoise-shell. “The description,” he remarks, “consists of mere allusions to, or exclamations at, the splendour of the preparations. In the first half of the verse the hangings of the room, in the second the couches for the guests, are noticed.” These couches (which were placed upon the tessellated pavement of the court, and on which the guests reclined at the banquet) were probably not of solid gold and silver, but either “covered with cloth woven of gold and silver thread,” ( Keil,) or else mounted and beautifully set with plates of these precious metals. Herodotus (ix, 80-82) makes mention of the vast quantities of gold and silver vessels of various kinds, together with gold and silver couches and tables, and various coloured awnings, ( ,) which Xerxes carried with him on his expedition to Greece. Strabo (xv, 3, 19) says of the Persians, “their couches, drinking cups, and other articles are so brilliantly ornamented that they gleam with gold and silver.” Other ancient writers also mention the immense wealth of Persia.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Est 1:6. Where were white, green, and blue hangings See Exo 24:10. Dr. Shaw, after having said that the floors in the Levant are laid with painted tiles or plaister of terras, informs us in a note, that a pavement like this is mentioned in Esther, a pavement of red, and blue, and white, and black marble. But this is not the happiest of the Doctor’s illustrations, since floors of different-coloured marble are common now in the east. Dr. Russel tells us, that they pave their courts at Aleppo with marble, and often with a mixture of yellow and white, red and black, by way of ornament; this of Ahasuerus is generally supposed to have been of that kind; since there is a great difference in point of magnificence between a pavement of marble, and one of painted tiles; and consequently the palace of so mighty a monarch as Ahasuerus is rather to be supposed paved with marble; besides, the historian is giving an account of the pavement of a court-yard, not of a room. See 1Ki 7:7. Dr. Shaw refers to this passage in the same page on another account. He says, the eastern chambers, in houses of better fashion, are covered and adorned from the middle of the wall downwards, “with velvet or damask hangings, of white, blue, red, green, or other colours, (Est 1:6.) suspended upon hooks, or taken down at pleasure.” Here again this ingenious author seems to have been less exact, and should rather, I imagine, have referred to the present passage, when he told us, that “the courts or quadrangles of their houses, when a large company is to be received into them, are commonly sheltered from the heat and inclemency of the weather, by a velum, umbrella, or veil, which, being expanded upon ropes from one side of the parapet-wall to the other, maybe folded or unfolded at pleasure.” See Travels, p. 209. Though there are some things in this passage which cannot be determined without difficulty, yet it is extremely plain that the company were entertained in a court of the palace of Ahasuerus; which agrees with Dr. Shaw’s account, that when much company is to be admitted to a feast the court is the place of their reception. Now, though their chambers are hung with velvet or damask hangings, it does not appear that on such occasions their courts are thus adorned; but there is a veil stretched out over-head to shelter them from the inclemency of the weather; and, indeed, to something of this sort it is commonly supposed these words refer, though no one has given a better illustration of this piece of ancient history than Dr. Shaw has undesignedly done in his account of their receiving company, when the number is large, in these courts, and covering them with veils expanded on ropes. See Observations, p. 102 and Scheuchzer, tom. 6: p. 12.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Est 1:6 [Where were] white, green, and blue, [hangings], fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble: the beds [were of] gold and silver, upon a pavement of red, and blue, and white, and black, marble.
Ver. 6. Where were white, green, and blue hangings ] Rich and royal tapestry, set forth with variety of colours, pleasant to the eye.
Fastened with cords of fine linen
And pillars of marble
The beds
Were of gold and silver
Upon a pavement of red, and blue, and white, and black, marble
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
beds = couches.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
white: Exo 26:1, Exo 26:31, Exo 26:32, Exo 26:36, Exo 26:37
blue: or, violet, Est 8:15
the beds: These were couches, covered with gold and silver cloth, on which the guests reclined; for the Orientals do not sit, but recline at their meals. Est 7:8, Eze 23:41, Amo 2:8, Amo 6:4
red: etc. or, of porphyre, and marble, and alabaster, and stone of blue colour
Reciprocal: Mar 6:39 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Est 1:6. Where were white, green, and blue hangings Set up like tents. The beds were of gold and silver On which they sat, or rather lay, at their meat. The beds themselves, it is probable, were of the softest wool; but the bedsteads were of gold and silver, that is, studded with gold and silver, or overlaid with plates of them, as the fashion then was. Upon a pavement of red, and blue, and white, and black marble The Hebrew words babat and shesh, and dar, and sochereth, signify several sorts of marble, as Bochart hath proved beyond contradiction.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1:6 [Where were] white, green, and blue, [hangings], fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble: the {d} beds [were of] gold and silver, upon a pavement of red, and blue, and white, and black, marble.
(d) Which they used in those countries instead of tables.