Esther 1:8
דת אין אנס - Official Rule: No Compelling, Pushing, Coercing
And the Drinking is according to the official rule:6 there is no compelling, for thus the King laid the foundation upon all the abundance of the household of himself to make according to the delight of each man individually.7Giving to drink according to the edict; none compelling, for thus the king appointed to all the multitude of his house to do according to the desire of man and man.
And the drinking was according to the law, no one compelling; for so the king had ordered every first one of his house that they should do according to every man's pleasure.
And this banquet was not according to the appointed law; but so the king would have it: and he charged the stewards to perform his will and that of the company.
Footnotes
| Est. 1:8 | Est. 1:8 כדת — “according to official rule” The noun דת (dat) in late Biblical Hebrew (attested primarily in Ezra and Esther) denotes not merely “a law”, but an officially promulgated prescription, ordinance, or procedural regulation. Both Fürst and Gesenius agree that the term is a Persian loanword, entering Hebrew during the Achaemenid period and belonging to the administrative–juridical register of imperial governance. Fürst explicitly defines דת as “law; an order made public, an edict,” noting its Persian derivation from forms meaning “to give, command, appoint,” and its semantic field of justice, equity, and legal determination. Gesenius likewise emphasizes that דת is confined to later Hebrew, refers to a royal or state decree, and is not a native Hebrew development of customary law. In the expression והשתיה כדת (Esth. 1:8), the prefixed כ־ (“according to”) signals conformity not to habit or tradition, but to a prescribed protocol—that is, a drinking banquet conducted in accordance with an established and publicly authorized rule. The sense is reinforced contextually by the following clause אין אונס (“there was no coercion”), which clarifies that the regulation itself stipulated non-compulsion. Thus כדת describes regulated procedure. |
| Est. 1:8 | Est. 1:8 The Hebrew phrase אִישׁ וְאִישׁ (“man and man”) is a distributive or idiomatic construction denoting “each individual” or “every man separately.” Depending on context, it can indicate mutual action (Isa. 3:5), personal responsibility or freedom (Est. 1:8), or individual enumeration (2 Sam 10:6; Prov. 20:5; Ps. 87:5). It emphasizes that the action, attribute, or judgment applies to each person distinctly rather than collectively, often highlighting autonomy or reciprocal engagement. |