From the early Church Fathers to now.
1 Jewish · 2 Reformed · 1 Catholic
“And the king said to her: What wilt then, queen Esther? what is thy request? if thou shouldst even ask one half of the kingdom, it shall be given to thee.”
“Even to half the kingdom A thing that is in the middle and at the halfway mark of the kingdom. That is the Temple, which they started to build in the days of Cyrus, and he reneged and commanded to discontinue the work, and Ahasuerus, who succeeded him, also discontinued the work. The simple meaning of the verse is: Even if you request half the kingdom from me, I will give it to you.”
“Then said the king unto her, what wilt thou, Queen Esther?.... He supposed she had some business with him, some suit to make to him, by her coming in this manner: and what is thy request? signifying he was ready to grant it, be it what it would: it shall be even given thee to the half of the kingdom; as it was usual with the Persian kings to give their wives cities for certain purposes; see Gill on Est 2:18, here Ahasuerus, out of his great affection to Esther, offers half of his dominions, his one hundred and twenty seven provinces; meaning that he would grant her anything, and everything that was reasonable, and even magnificent; it is an hyperbolical and courtly way of speaking, and which has been used in later times, and in other countries; see Mar 6:23.”
“Kingdom. Chap. vii. 2. This compliment only (Calmet) meant, that every rational (Haydock) request should be granted, Mark. vi. 23.”
“it shall be even given thee to the half of the kingdom--This mode of speaking originated in the Persian custom of appropriating for the maintenance of great men, or royal favorites, one city for his bread, another for his wine, a third for his clothes, &c., so that the phrase denoted great liberality.”
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.