Comentário sobre Ester 1:3

The nobles. Governors, in the Persian language.¹¹Maseches Megillah 12a. Alternatively, people of royal descent. (Ibn Ezra)

QUESTIONS:
WHY did Achashverosh host this huge banquet? The precise reason is not stated.WHAT need saw the writers of the Megillah to state all the details of the banquet?THE order of those called over [invited] is puzzling. First the “princes and servants” then the army, and then the text goes back to nobles and then to princes of the provinces. Why are “officials” mentioned twice and why are the “governors and officials” mentioned after the “servants” who are, presumably, of lower status? And one understands that princes of the provinces are included in the general princes.WHAT is the need to say “before him”?WHY does it say “in the third year of his reign,” whereas when Esther becomes queen, the phrase “in the seventh year of his kingdom” is used?

In order to achieve his ambition of unlimited power in the third year of his reign (this is the kingdom that he thought of reigning with a strong hand for many years) he made a banquet as a cunning stratagem towards this end. The order of those present at the banquet teaches us Achashverosh’s the purpose of his intentions: he sat first (i.e. giving more honor) all his officials and servants, the army of Paras and Madai, and only after them the governors and officials who were before him, that is who had preceded him, holding office before Achashverosh conquered their countries. This clearly demonstrated his conviction that his rule was not dependent on their agreement and appointment because, if so, wouldn’t the officials of the major states come before those of the small country he originally controlled and wouldn’t they definitely precede the servants and soldiers of the army? By placing his own servants and the army of conquest first, he showed that he regarded the governors and officials as merely vestiges of the era before him and before his conquest occurred – and now they are placed below him as lower and despised servants.