The interpretation timeline

Esth 1:7

How this passage has been read — the sources, oldest to newest.

From the early Church Fathers to now.

1 Jewish · 2 Reformed · 1 Methodist · 1 Catholic

Esth 1:7 · Douay-Rheims
“And they that were invited, drank in golden cups, and the meats were brought in divers vessels one after another. Wine also in abundance and of the best was presented, as was worthy of a king’s magnificence.”
Scholastic c. 1100 – 1500
1105
A.D.
Rashi Jewish
1040–1105
“And they gave them to drink in golden vessels Heb., like וּלְהַשְּׁקוֹת, and to give to drink. and the vessels differed from one another Heb. שּׁוֹנִים, different from each other, and likewise, (below 3: 8) “and their laws differ (שּׁנוֹת),” and our Sages expounded what they expounded. and royal wine was plentiful It was abundant; and our Sages said that he gave each one to drink wine that was older than he.”
Source
666 years pass — nothing from this stretch is hosted yet
Post-Reformation c. 1650 – 1900
1771
A.D.
John Gill Reformed
1697–1771
“They gave them drink in vessels of gold, the vessels being divers one from another,.... In the pattern and workmanship of them, though of the same metal, which diversity made the festival the more grand; earthen cups, with the Persians, were reckoned very mean; when a king would disgrace a man, he obliged him to use earthen cups (d). The Targum represents these vessels to be the golden vessels of the temple at Jerusalem Nebuchadnezzar carried away; which could not be, since they had been delivered by Cyrus to Zerubbabel, Ezr 1:7, and royal wine in abundance, according to the state of the king; such as the king was able to give, the best he had, and that in great plenty; the wine the kings of Persia used to drink, as Strabo (e) relates, was Chalybonian wine, or wine of Helbon, as it is called, Eze 27:18; see Gill on Eze 27:18, but by the wine of the kingdom, as it may be rendered, is meant wine of the country; the wine of Schiras is reckoned the best in Persia (f). (d) Ctesias in Athenaei Deipnosoph. l. 11. (e) Geograph. l. 15. p. 505. (f) Universal History, vol. 5. p. 85.”
Source
1832
A.D.
Adam Clarke Methodist
1762–1832
“Vessels being diverse - They had different services of plate.”
1849
A.D.
1774–1849
“Vessels. When Lysanias had taken the camp of Mardonius, and beheld the rich vessels, he could not help expressing a surprise that people possessing such advantages, should come to molest the Lacedemonians, who lived so poorly. (Herodotus ix. 79.)”
1871
A.D.
1871
“they gave them drink in vessels of gold--There is reason to believe from this account, as well as from Est 5:6; Est 7:2, Est 7:7-8, where the drinking of wine occupies by far the most prominent place in the description, that this was a banquet rather than a feast.”
Modern · 1953 →

The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.