ESTHER, I. 1. "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)." The king here called Ahasuerus was, probably, Xerxes I., one of the greatest of the Persian kings, though that name was also given to several others: as in Ezra, iv. 6, it means Cambyses; and in Ezra, vii. 1, Xerxes I. is called Artaxerxes. In each case we learn what king is meant, not by his name, but by the events spoken of. That Xerxes I. was master of Egypt and Ethiopia we know from finding his name in hieroglyphics as here given, which is copied from the inscriptions sculptured in Egypt to his honour. It is spelt K, Sh, I, R, Sh; and may easily have resembled his real Persian name quite as closely as Xerxes, which was the Greek way of writing it. He reigned from B.c. 485 to 464. ESTHER, VIII. 10. "And he wrote in the king Ahasuerus' name, and sealed it with the king's ring, and sent letters by posts on horseback, and riders on mules, camels, and young dromedaries." The runners in the service of the King of Assyria.From a sculptured slab in the British Museum. They wait by the side of their horses, ready to carry his commands into the provinces, and were as necessary a part of his state and dignity as were his guards. The horses are lightly clothed, not covered with leathern armour, like those of the soldiers in the Assyrian sculptures, and those of the Egyptian war-chariot in Note on 1 Kings, x. 29. As the kings of Judah possessed fewer horses, their runners probably went on foot. These men are in our Authorised Version called the Pelethites (2 Sam. viii. 18). JOB, III. 8. "Let them curse it that curse the day, Or, according to the margin of the Bible,— The Egyptian priests were not content to gain a sway over the minds of their countrymen by their superior learning, but they practised the pretended arts of fortunetelling and using charms; and to strengthen the belief of their followers in their supernatural powers, they added thereto the more real tricks of ventriloquism, handling serpents, and playing with crocodiles. Such were the men spoken of in our text, who undertook to declare a day unlucky with their curses; and to prove their power to do so, would show that they could at least play with the crocodile without being hurt. The leviathan of the Authorised Version means the Egyptian crocodile. When the Romans conquered Egypt, and carried away as trophies a number of the statues and obelisks, they also took many of the rare animals to exhibit to the crowds in the theatre; and with the crocodiles they took some of the Egyptians, who could amuse the spectators by their skill in playing with them. Our figure is from a Roman statue now in the British Museum, representing an Egyptian and a crocodile as exhibited in the theatre in Rome. JOB, XXVI. 5. "Dead things [or ghosts, or evil spirits] are born beneath the waters, and are the inhabitants thereof." These evil spirits of the water are shown to us among the sculptures on the sarcophagus of Oimenepthah, king of Egypt, now in Sir John Soane's museum. They are of four classes, as here seen. The wavy lines represent the water. They are often mentioned in the Bible, but in the Authorised Version are called "the dead." Thus we should read, Prov. ii. 18, "For her bouse inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the evil spirits:" Prov. ix. 18, "But he knoweth not that evil spirits are there, and that her guests are in the depths of hell." JOB, XXXVIII. 17. Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death?" On the sarcophagus of Oimenepthah, mentioned in the former Note, we see the several scenes or events which, |