Discovery BoxEsther 1:5 
Context1:5 When those days 1 were completed, the king then provided a seven-day 2 banquet for all the people who were present 3 in Susa the citadel, for those of highest standing to the most lowly. 4 It was held in the court located in the garden of the royal palace.
Esther 9:16
Context9:16 The rest of the Jews who were throughout the provinces of the king assembled in order to stand up for themselves and to have rest from their enemies. They killed seventy-five thousand 5 of their adversaries, but they did not confiscate their property.
1 tc The Hebrew text of Esther does not indicate why this elaborate show of wealth and power was undertaken. According to the LXX these were “the days of the wedding” (αἱ ἡμέραι τοῦ γάμου, Jai Jhmerai tou gamou), presumably the king’s wedding. However, a number of scholars have called attention to the fact that this celebration takes place just shortly before Xerxes’ invasion of Greece. It is possible that the banquet was a rallying for the up-coming military effort. See Herodotus, Histories 7.8. There is no reason to adopt the longer reading of the LXX here.
2 tc The LXX has ἕξ ({ex, “six”) instead of “seven.” Virtually all English versions follow the reading of the MT here, “seven.”
3 tn Heb “were found.”
4 tn Heb “from the great and unto the small.”
5 tc For this number much of the Greek
