Esther 1:1
New International Version
This is what happened during the time of Xerxes, the Xerxes who ruled over 127 provinces stretching from India to Cush:

New Living Translation
These events happened in the days of King Xerxes, who reigned over 127 provinces stretching from India to Ethiopia.

English Standard Version
Now in the days of Ahasuerus, the Ahasuerus who reigned from India to Ethiopia over 127 provinces,

Berean Standard Bible
This is what happened in the days of Xerxes, who reigned over 127 provinces from India to Cush.

King James Bible
Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus, (this is Ahasuerus which reigned, from India even unto Ethiopia, over an hundred and seven and twenty provinces:)

New King James Version
Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus (this was the Ahasuerus who reigned over one hundred and twenty-seven provinces, from India to Ethiopia),

New American Standard Bible
Now it happened in the days of Ahasuerus, the Ahasuerus who reigned from India to Cush over 127 provinces,

NASB 1995
Now it took place in the days of Ahasuerus, the Ahasuerus who reigned from India to Ethiopia over 127 provinces,

NASB 1977
Now it took place in the days of Ahasuerus, the Ahasuerus who reigned from India to Ethiopia over 127 provinces,

Legacy Standard Bible
Now it happened in the days of Ahasuerus, the Ahasuerus who reigned from India to Ethiopia over 127 provinces,

Amplified Bible
It was in the days of Ahasuerus (Xerxes) who reigned from India to Ethiopia (Cush) over 127 provinces,

Christian Standard Bible
These events took place during the days of Ahasuerus, who ruled 127 provinces from India to Cush.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
These events took place during the days of Ahasuerus, who ruled 127 provinces from India to Cush.

American Standard Version
Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus (this is Ahasuerus who reigned from India even unto Ethiopia, over a hundred and seven and twenty provinces),

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And it was in the days of Akhshiresh, he was the son of Akhshiresh who was made king of India and unto Cush, over a hundred and twenty provinces.

Brenton Septuagint Translation
And it came to pass after these things in the days of Artaxerxes, - (this Artaxerxes ruled over a hundred and twenty-seven provinces from India) -

Douay-Rheims Bible
In the days of Assuerus, who reigned from India to Ethiopia over a hundred and twenty-seven provinces:

English Revised Version
Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus, (this is Ahasuerus which reigned, from India even unto Ethiopia, over an hundred and seven and twenty provinces:)

GOD'S WORD® Translation
In the days of Xerxes the following events took place. This was the same Xerxes who ruled over 127 provinces from India to Sudan.

International Standard Version
This is a record of what happened during the reign of Ahasuerus, the Ahasuerus who ruled over 127 provinces from India to Cush.

JPS Tanakh 1917
NOW IT came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus--this is Ahasuerus who reigned, from India even unto Ethiopia, over a hundred and seven and twenty provinces--

Literal Standard Version
And it comes to pass, in the days of Ahasuerus—he [is] Ahasuerus who is reigning from Hodu even to Cush, one hundred twenty-seven provinces—

Majority Standard Bible
This is what happened in the days of Xerxes, who reigned over 127 provinces from India to Cush.

New American Bible
During the reign of Ahasuerus—the same Ahasuerus who ruled over a hundred and twenty-seven provinces from India to Ethiopia—

NET Bible
The following events happened in the days of Ahasuerus. (I am referring to that Ahasuerus who used to rule over a hundred and twenty-seven provinces extending all the way from India to Ethiopia.)

New Revised Standard Version
This happened in the days of Ahasuerus, the same Ahasuerus who ruled over one hundred twenty-seven provinces from India to Ethiopia.

New Heart English Bible
Now it happened in the days of Achshayarsh (this is Achshayarsh who reigned from India even to Ethiopia, over one hundred twenty-seven provinces),

Webster's Bible Translation
Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus, (this is Ahasuerus who reigned from India even to Cush, over a hundred and seven and twenty provinces:)

World English Bible
Now in the days of Ahasuerus (this is Ahasuerus who reigned from India even to Ethiopia, over one hundred twenty-seven provinces),

Young's Literal Translation
And it cometh to pass, in the days of Ahasuerus -- he is Ahasuerus who is reigning from Hodu even unto Cush, seven and twenty and a hundred provinces --

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Xerxes' Royal Feast
1This is what happened in the days of Xerxes, who reigned over 127 provinces from India to Cush. 2In those days King Xerxes sat on his royal throne in the citadel of Susa.…

Cross References
Ezra 4:6
At the beginning of the reign of Xerxes, an accusation was lodged against the people of Judah and Jerusalem.

Esther 2:3
and let the king appoint commissioners in each province of his kingdom to assemble all the beautiful young women into the harem at the citadel of Susa. Let them be placed under the care of Hegai, the king's eunuch in charge of the women, and let them be given beauty treatments.

Esther 8:9
At once the royal scribes were summoned, and on the twenty-third day of the third month (the month of Sivan), they recorded all of Mordecai's orders to the Jews and to the satraps, governors, and princes of the 127 provinces from India to Cush--writing to each province in its own script, to every people in their own language, and to the Jews in their own script and language.

Esther 9:30
And Mordecai sent letters with words of peace and truth to all the Jews in the 127 provinces of the kingdom of Xerxes,

Daniel 9:1
In the first year of Darius son of Xerxes, a Mede by descent, who was made ruler over the kingdom of the Chaldeans--


Treasury of Scripture

Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus, (this is Ahasuerus which reigned, from India even to Ethiopia, over an hundred and seven and twenty provinces:)

Ahasuerus.

Ezra 6:14
And the elders of the Jews builded, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they builded, and finished it, according to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the commandment of Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia.

Ezra 4:6
And in the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, wrote they unto him an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.

Daniel 9:1
In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans;

from India.

Esther 8:9
Then were the king's scribes called at that time in the third month, that is, the month Sivan, on the three and twentieth day thereof; and it was written according to all that Mordecai commanded unto the Jews, and to the lieutenants, and the deputies and rulers of the provinces which are from India unto Ethiopia, an hundred twenty and seven provinces, unto every province according to the writing thereof, and unto every people after their language, and to the Jews according to their writing, and according to their language.

Isaiah 18:1
Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia:

Isaiah 37:9
And he heard say concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, He is come forth to make war with thee. And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,

an hundred.

Daniel 6:1
It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom an hundred and twenty princes, which should be over the whole kingdom;

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Ahasuerus Ahasu-E'rus Cush Divisions Ethiopia Hundred India Kingdom Provinces Reigned Reigning Ruled Ruler Seven Time Twenty Twenty-Seven Xerxes
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Ahasuerus Ahasu-E'rus Cush Divisions Ethiopia Hundred India Kingdom Provinces Reigned Reigning Ruled Ruler Seven Time Twenty Twenty-Seven Xerxes
Esther 1
1. Xerxes makes royal feasts.
10. Vashti, sent for, refuses to come.
13. Xerxes, by the counsel of Memucan, puts away Vashti, and decrees men's sovereignty.














(1) Ahasuerus.--Three persons are called by this name in the Old Testament--(1) the Ahasuerus of Daniel 9:1, the father of "Darius the Mede;" if, as is probable, this latter is the same with Astyages, Ahasuerus must be identified with Cyaxares: (2) the Ahasuerus of Ezra 4:6, who is doubtless the same with Cambyses, the son of Cyrus; and (3) the one now before us, whom we have shown in the Introduction to be almost certainly Xerxes. For the history and character of this sovereign reference must be especially made to the contemporaneous writers, Herodotus (vii., viii. 1-90), and 'schylus in his play of The Persians. The spirited lines of Juvenal should also be read (Sat. x. 173-187). We find that Xerxes succeeded his father, Darius Hystaspes, in the year 485 B.C. , five years after the momentous battle of Marathon. Undeterred by his father's failure, he resolves upon a fresh attack on Greece, and sets out in 481 B.C. from Susa for the West. He winters at Sardis, leaving it in the spring of the following year. The summer sees the fight of the pass of Thermopylae, which has covered the name of Leonidas and his three hundred, though vanquished and slain, with undying glory; in the autumn Themistocles, by his victory over the Persians at Salamis, changes the history of the world, and the beginning thus made is carried on by the victories at Plataea and Mycale in 479 B.C. From the rout at Salamis, Xerxes had fled to Sardis, which he did not leave till the spring of 478 B.C. All that we know of the further course of the reign of Xerxes is but one unbroken tale of debauchery and bloodshed, which came to an end in 464 B.C, when he was murdered by two of his officers, Mithridates and Artabanus, and Artaxerxes Longimanus, his son (see Ezra 7; Nehemiah 2), reigned in his stead.

This is Ahasuerus.--This is added to make clear which particular sovereign we are here dealing with. We have seen that three of the name are mentioned in the Old Testament.

Ethiopia.--Herodotus tells us that Ethiopia paid tribute to Xerxes (iii. 97).

An hundred and seven and twenty.--In Daniel 6:1. we find that Darius the Mede appointed a hundred and twenty satraps, but probably the similarity in numbers is quite accidental. There seem to have been a gradually increasing number of satrapies in the kingdom of Darius--20, 21, 23, 29 (Herod, iii. 89-94), and the nations in the empire of Xerxes are said to be sixty (ib. vii. 61-95). Thus the provinces here mentioned must include subdivisions of these.

Verse 1. - In the days of Ahasuerus. Ahasuerus, in the original Akhashverosh, corresponds to Khshayarsha (the Persian name from which the Greeks formed their Xerxes) almost as closely as possible. The prosthelic a was a necessity of Hebrew articulation. The only unnecessary change was the substitution of v for y (vau for yod) in the penultimate syllable. But this interchange is very common in Hebrew. This is Ahasuerus which reigned, etc. The writer is evidently acquainted with more than a single Ahasuerus. Ezra had mentioned one (Ezra 4:6), and Daniel another (Daniel 9:1). If he knew their works, he would necessarily know of these two. Or he may have known of them independently. The Ahasuerus of his narrative being different from either, he proceeds to distinguish him

(1) from the Ahasuerus of Daniel, as a "king," and

(2) from the Ahasuerus of Ezra by the extent of his dominion.

Cambyses (see comment on Ezra 4:6) had not ruled over India. India is expressed by Hoddu, which seems formed from the Persian Hidush ('Nakhsh-i-Rus-tam Inser.,' par. 3, 1. 25), by the omission of the nominatival ending, and a slight modification of the vocalisation. The Sanscrit and the Zend, like the Greek, retained the n, which is really an essential part of the native word. Ethiopia is expressed, as usual, by Cush. The two countries are well chosen as the extreme terminal of the Persian empire. An hundred and twenty-seven provinces. The Hebrew medinah, "province," does not correspond to the Persian satrapy, but is applied to every tract which had its own governor. There were originally no more than twenty satrapies (Herod., 3:89-94), but there was certainly a very much larger number of governments. Judaea was a medinah (Ezra 2:1; Nehemiah 11:3), though only a small part of the satrapy of Syria.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
This is what happened
וַיְהִ֖י (way·hî)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 1961: To fall out, come to pass, become, be

in the days
בִּימֵ֣י (bî·mê)
Preposition-b | Noun - masculine plural construct
Strong's 3117: A day

of Xerxes,
אֲחַשְׁוֵר֑וֹשׁ (’ă·ḥaš·wê·rō·wōš)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 325: Ahasuerus -- king of Persia

who reigned over
הַמֹּלֵךְ֙ (ham·mō·lêḵ)
Article | Verb - Qal - Participle - masculine singular
Strong's 4427: To reign, inceptively, to ascend the throne, to induct into royalty, to take counsel

127
שֶׁ֛בַע (še·ḇa‘)
Number - feminine singular
Strong's 7651: Seven, seven times, a week, an indefinite number

provinces
מְדִינָֽה׃ (mə·ḏî·nāh)
Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 4082: A judgeship, jurisdiction, a district, a region

from India
מֵהֹ֣דּוּ (mê·hōd·dū)
Preposition-m | Noun - proper - feminine singular
Strong's 1912: Hodu

to
וְעַד־ (wə·‘aḏ-)
Conjunctive waw | Preposition
Strong's 5704: As far as, even to, up to, until, while

Cush.
כּ֔וּשׁ (kūš)
Noun - proper - feminine singular
Strong's 3568: A son of Ham, also his descendants, also a land in the southern Nile Valley


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OT History: Esther 1:1 Now it happened in the days (Est Esth. Es)
Nehemiah 13:31
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