8. decree--or, "interdict."
that it be not changed--
(Es 1:19; 8:8).
This immutability of the king's commands was peculiar to the Medes and
Persians: it was due to their regarding him infallible as the
representative of Ormuzd; it was not so among the Babylonians.
Medes and Persians--The order of the names is an undesigned mark of
genuineness. Cyrus the Persian reigned subordinate to Darius the Mede as
to dignity, though exercising more real power. After Darius' death, the
order is "the Persians and Medes"
(Es 1:14, 19,
&c.).
JFB.
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