And the king Ahasuerus laid a tribute upon the land, and upon the isles of the sea.
Ahasuerus laid a tribute upon the land, and upon the isles of the sea, х wª'iyeey (H339) hayaam (H3220)]. This phrase was used specifically to designate known isles of the Mediterranean, the coasts of Greece, Italy, and Spain, with the western countries visited by the Phoenicians. In the crippled state of Persia, after the unfortunate expedition into Greece, Xerxes could not lay a tribute upon the nations of western Europe, and the phrase, therefore, must be considered as bearing a more restricted meaning, namely, the islands in the Persian Gulf, etc. The notice of this tribute is a natural and appropriate conclusion of the book of Esther; and without the mention of some such fact, there would have been a want in the filling up or completeness of this record, which would have detracted very much from its value as a historical document. It was with a view to defray the expenditure, to repair the ruin of his expedition into Greece, that he "laid a tribute upon the land, and upon the isles of the sea."
Thus between the first verse of this last chapter, and the narrative contained at the commencement of this book, there is one of those minute coincidences on which Paley, in his 'Horae Paulinae,' insists as affording that strong, because an undesigned, evidence of the truth and authenticity of the book-namely, that it is consistent with itself. Neither the nature nor the amount of the tax has been recorded, only it was not a local tribute, but one exacted from all parts of his vast empire.