For he sent letters into all the king’s provinces, into every province according to the writing thereof, and to every people after their language, that every man should bear rule in his own house, and that it should be published according to the language of every people.
The king sent letters to all the provinces in his kingdom, writing to each province in its own script and to each people group in their own language. The message declared that every man should be the ruler in his own household, and this announcement was to be proclaimed in the language that each people group could understand.
King Xerxes sent a decree throughout his vast empire declaring that men should be the head of their households, making sure every ethnic group received this message in their own language.
📚 Historical Context
This verse concludes the story of Queen Vashti's removal from her position after she refused to appear before the king and his guests. King Xerxes' advisors convinced him that Vashti's disobedience would encourage other women throughout the empire to disobey their husbands. The Persian Empire was massive, spanning from India to Ethiopia with many different languages and cultures, which explains why the decree needed translation into multiple languages.
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