That in those days, when the king Ahasuerus sat on the throne of his kingdom, which was in Shushan the palace,
When the king Ahasuerus sat on the throne of his kingdom - i:e., in the third year of his reign.
In Shushan the palace, х Shuwshan (H7800), a lily: 'Moroea Sisyrynchium, Ker. Iris Sisyrynchium' (Linn.)].
In Shushan the palace, х Shuwshan (H7800), a lily: 'Moroea Sisyrynchium, Ker. Iris Sisyrynchium' (Linn.)]. By some persons, it is supposed that the extraordinary abundance of that flower in the neighbourhood gave the name of Shushan, the City, to this locality. Loftus, also Athenoeus and Stephen of Byzantium, as cited by Bochart ('Sacred Geography,' part 2:; Kinneir, 'Memoir on the Persian Empire,' p. 98), says, 'Shus, in the Pehlevi, signifies "pleasant."' Susa, Sus, or Shush, the capital of Susiana, and of all Persia, the favourite winter residence of the Persian kings.
It has been attempted to prove that there were two cities of this name in the province of Susiana-one, the Shushan of Scripture, in the Bakhtigali mountains; the other, the Susa of the Greeks. It was supposed that, the scriptural expression, "Shushan the palace" (cf. Daniel 8:1-2), was indicative of a distinction from some other city of the same name ('Journal of the Geographical Society,' vol. 9:, p. 85), but the reasoning was based on fallacious grounds. That Shushan and Susa are one and the same we learn from the agreement, of Josephus with Scripture (Esther 2:3; Esther 2:8; Esther 3:15; Nehemiah 1:1; Loftus, 'Chaldea and Susiana,' p. 338).
"In Shushan the palace" х bª-Shuwshan (H871a) habiyraah (H1002)] - in Shushan, the citadel fortress. There was at Susa a remarkable edifice, the erection of which Josephus ascribes to Daniel (Daniel 8:27: cf. 'Antiquities,' b. 10:, ch. 11:, sec. 7), distinguished for its vastness, elaborate architecture, and freshness of appearance-owing, as Reland says, to the hardness of the stone-which was, like the Pyramids of Egypt used as a mausoleum for the Persian and Parthian kings, and the custody of which was committed by the will of the founder to the custody of a Jewish governor. The Jewish historian places this tower, as the present text of his history reads, at Ecbatana in Media; but Jerome, who professes to quote it verbatim from the copies in use in the fourth century, places it ('Commentary' on Daniel 8:2) at Susa in Persia, Josephus calls the tower Baris (cf. 'Antiquities,' b. 15:, ch.
iii.), almost identical with the Hebrew original which we translate, "Shushan the palace" (see further, Loftus, 'Chaldaea and Susiana,' p. 338; Ker Porter's 'Travels,' 2:, pp. 411-414).