And when these days were expired, the king made a feast unto all the people that were present in Shushan the palace, both unto great and small, seven days, in the court of the garden of the king's palace;
Ver. 5. The king made a feast unto all the people] This was not amiss, so that care were taken that no irregulares gulares unsatisfied appitites, were found among them; for kings should carry themselves toward their people as kindly as parents do toward their children, and shepherds toward their sheep. Are they not therefore called patres patriae, fathers of their country, and shepherds of their people? ποιμενες λαων. David and Cyrus were taken from the sheepfolds to feed men, Psalms 78:70 .
Both unto great and small] Pell-mell, one with another, to show his liberality; which yet he might better have bestowed in another away, than in belly cheer, and such open housekeeping to all comers without difference; since this is rather prodigality than bounty.
Seven days] Too long together to be a feasting; since at such times men are so apt to exceed and lash out; eating that on earth that they must digest in hell; and drowning both bodies and souls in wine and strong drink, as Richard III did his brother Clarence in a butt A cask for wine or ale, of capacity varying from 108 to 140 gallons. of Malmsey.
In the court of the garden] In the banqueting house, or sub dio, in the open air in the garden, where they had elbow room, and all manner of delights, fit to have been seasoned and allayed with the sight of a sepulchre (the Jews built their tombs beforehand in their gardens), or else of a death's head (as was the manner of the Egyptians at their great feasts), to keep them from surfeiting.