John Gill Commentary Esther 1:8

"And the drinking was according to the law; none could compel: for so the king had appointed to all the officers of his house, that they should do according to every man`s pleasure." — Esther 1:8 (ASV)

And the drinking was according to the law, none did compel ,
&c.] According to the law Ahasuerus gave to his officers next mentioned, which was not to oblige any man to drink more than he chose; the Targum is,

`according to the custom of his body;'

that is, as a man is able to bear it, so they drank: some ^F6 read it, "the drinking according to the law, let none exact"; or require it to be, according to the custom then in use in Persia; for they were degenerated from their former manners, and indulged to intemperance, as Xenophon ^F7 suggests: the law formerly was, not to carry large vessels into feasts; but now, says he, they drink so much, that they themselves must be carried out, because they cannot go upright: and so it became a law with the Greeks, at their festivals, that either a man must drink or go out ^F8 ; so the master of a feast, at which Empedocles was, ordered either that he should drink, or the wine be poured on his head ^F9 ; but such force or compulsion Ahasuerus forbad: and thus with the Chinese now, they force none to drink, but modestly invite them ^F11 :

for so the king had appointed to all the officers of his house, that
they should do according to every man's pleasure ;
to let them have what wine they would, but not force them to drink more than was agreeable to them.

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FOOTNOTES:

• F6: Vid. Drusium in loc.
• F7: Cyropaedia, l. 8. c. 51.
• F8: Cicero. Tusculan. Quaest. l. 5.
• F9: Laert. in Vit. ejus, l. 8. p. 608.
• F11: Semedo's History of China, par. 1. c. 13.