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EM M1^H©IRY or

Digitized by the Internet Archive in

2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft

Corporation

http://www.archive.org/details/explanatorycommeOOcassrich

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r

CLARK'S FOEEIGN

THEOLOGICAL LIBRARY.

NEW

SEEIES.

VOL. XXXIV

ffiassel's

ffiommentatg on

ffistj&er.

EDINBUKGH: T.

&

T.

CLARK,

38

GEOBGB STREET.

1888.

\

PRIITTED

BY

MOPvP.ISON

AND

GIBS,

FOR T.

LONDON,

.

DUBLIN,

NEW

YORK,

& .

T.

CLAEK, EDINBURGH.

...

.

....

.

HAMILTON, ADAilS, AND

GEORGE HERBERT. SCRIBNER AND WELFORD.

CO.

AN

EXPLAJfATORY COMMENTARY ON

B

S T

H E E,

CONSISTING OF

THE SECOND TAEGUM TRANSLATED FROM THE ARAMAIC WITH NOTES, MITHRA, THE WINGED BULLS OF PERSEPOLIS, AND ZOROASTER.

BY

Professor

PAULUS CASSEL,

D.D., Berlin,

AUTHOR OF THE COMMENTARIES ON JUDGES AND RUTH IN lange's 'bibelwerk,' etc.

STransIateti BY

Eev.

T.

k

T.

AAEON BEKNSTEIN,

B.D.

EDINBURGH: 38 GEORGE STREET.

CLARK,

1888.

^

, in

language.

We

of each nation.

dialects (comp.

man

9).

should

and should command, inoi, in his

Hence the decree was

in Persia, but everywhere,

c. viii.

be in force not only

to

and valid not merely in Persian

language, but in every language.

The Midrash makes a

peculiar remark

upon

decree was written in four principal languages. (as

The

this. ryi',

Greek

Hellenic was considered the same as Heathenism.

The

Talmud says the wisdom Alterth. pp.

:

"

Cursed be the

of the

Greeks"

196 and 338),

Persian, for lamentation

;

man who

{Sotah, p.

for the

(3) in

(1)

shall teach his son

49Z>),

purpose of singing

Hebrew,

more

especially in

History has taught, that in

Hebrew, the voice

One might almost say

that

;

Mag,

(2)

in

for holding intercourse

with one another; (4) in Latin, the language which carrying on war.

my

comp.

is

suitable for

all

languages,

of lamentation resounded.

Hebrew

literature has ceased to

Roi ... en degrade les lines, changeant ces Favorites en esclaves, qu'on en voye servir aiix plus has emplois et dans les quartiers reciilez dii Serail il en fait dirtier d'autres k coups de verge et de bS,ton, il en fait tuer, 11 en fait m^me brMer les unes et enterrer les autres toutes vives." According to the story of The Thousand and One Nights (xiii. 16), Harun Arrashid had a dark tower in which the favourites were imprisoned when they committed an offence.

le

CHAP.

43

22.

I.

that they need

modern times the Jews think

exist, since in

no longer mourn.

The author

(M. Esther,

91«.)

p.

under which Vashti

of the verdict

was

fell

Memucan, the last mentioned among the privy councillors. The Midrash tries to find out the personal motives which led him to entertain such hostile feelinsjs aj^ainst Vashti. One on

was, that

with a

a

slipper.

certain

she had struck

occasion

Such disgraceful treatment

is

his

face

certainly

no

rare occurrence in the East.^

The second was, because

had not been invited by

his wife

the queen to the feast.

The

third was, because he wanted to see his

Whether

promoted in the place of Vashti.

own daughter

the reasons given

by the Midrash were exactly the same which actuated the hatred of

Memucan

or not, one thing

is certain,

that he could

not tolerate the petticoat government of Vashti, and that such

and similar reasons

by the Eabbis have often led

as are given

to such results.

That Herodotus does not mention be wondered

at,

inasmuch as

Apart from

paign.

should have

this, it

not

to

court,

is

many

to

place in the inner

and that he should have incor-

porated this in his brief reports of the Persian war.

were

not

be expected that he

known everything which took

of the Persian

circle

event

happened before the cam-

it

is

this

There

writings and administrative measures issued from

Shushan, and these were of such a character as to be deposited

by

all

the governors

among

the acts of administration.^

1 In the legend The Thousand and One Nights, it is told that a king punished his son by beating him with his slipper on the face (iii. 24, ed. Konig). But the sUpper is specially an instrument of punishment in the hands of the women, as the story represents it in chap. xxiv. p. 40. [In Mohammedan schools in Palestine the teacher often throws a slipper upon a delinquent boy, when he, without crying, puts it on the foot of his master, and kisses his hands. Trans.] 2 In Athenaeus, lib. xiii. p. 556, we read "Among the Persians, the queen :

must the

tolerate

command

£>aoi'kiet.

many

concubines, because the king, like a master, has

over his wife."

lioi

ro

&};

Zsa'^c'ryiu

oip^cstu tjjj

yet/^csTi^s

tou

CHAPTER Ver.

wrath herecl

1.

nbi^n D''"imn

of

the

TI.

"After

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