Bible Strands
Esther 2:18
Then the king held a great banquet, Esther’s banquet, for all his officials and servants. He proclaimed a tax holiday in the provinces and gave gifts worthy of the king’s bounty.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records the king’s actions immediately after elevating Esther to the throne. He addresses his officials and servants by hosting a royal banquet and issuing provincial tax relief.
The words — The Hebrew וַ/יַּ֨עַשׂ (va/i.Ya.'as) translates literally as “and he made,” anchoring the king’s formal establishment of a מִשְׁתֶּה (mish.Teh) or “feast.” This verb frames the event as a deliberate administrative act rather than a spontaneous gathering.
The thread — Official feasting marks pivotal shifts in Genesis 29:22, Judges 14:10, and 1 Samuel 25:8. These passages similarly use royal hospitality to seal covenants, celebrate marriages, or negotiate diplomatic standing.
Why it lands — The text presents favor as an institutional reality enacted through taxation, public proclamation, and material distribution. It requires the reader to track how political elevation operates through state machinery rather than private emotion.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Then the king made a great feast unto all his princes and his servants, even Esther’s feast; and he made a release to the provinces, and gave gifts, according to the state of the king.
Cross-references
- Genesis 29:22 So Laban invited all the men of that place and prepared a feast.
- Judges 14:10 Then his father went to visit the woman, and Samson prepared a feast there, as was customary for the bridegroom.
- 1 Samuel 25:8 Ask your young men, and they will tell you. So let my young men find favor with you, for we have come on the day of a feast. Please give whatever you can spare to your servants and to your son David.’”
- Nehemiah 8:11 And the Levites calmed all the people, saying, “Be still, since today is holy. Do not grieve.”
- Esther 1:3 In the third year of his reign, Xerxes held a feast for all his officials and servants. The military leaders of Persia and Media were there, along with the nobles and princes of the provinces.
- Esther 1:7 Beverages were served in an array of goblets of gold, each with a different design, and the royal wine flowed freely, according to the king’s bounty.
- Esther 9:22 as the days on which the Jews gained rest from their enemies and the month in which their sorrow turned to joy and their mourning into a holiday. He wrote that these were to be days of feasting and joy, of sending gifts to one another and to the poor.
- Song of Solomon 3:11 Come out, O daughters of Zion, and gaze at King Solomon, wearing the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding—the day of his heart’s rejoicing.
- Matthew 22:2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.
- Luke 14:8 “When you are invited to a wedding banquet, do not sit in the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited.