1.
And the king Ahasuerus laid a tribute upon the land, and upon the isles of the sea.
isles = coasts.
2.
And all the acts of his power and of his might, and the declaration of the greatness of Mordecai, whereunto the king advanced him, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia?
power. Hebrew. tokeph. See note on Esther 8:11 .
3.
For Mordecai the Jew was next unto king Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews, and accepted of the multitude of his brethren, seeking the wealth of his people, and speaking peace to all his seed.
next = the second = the Grand Vizier. Compare Esther 8:2 .
speaking peace = maintaining peace.
his seed: i.e. the People of Israel. N. B. in Persia, not Judea. Thus was prepared the way for the emancipation of the Jews, which, not long after, was proclaimed by Cyrus (Ezra 1:1 ), the son of Astyages and Esther (see App-57 ), and is further proof that this book comes, chronologically, before the book Ezra-Nehemiah. N.B. the year 461 is the midway year of the Babylonian Servitude (496-426). See special note on 2 Chronicles 36:21 .