Esther 1:14

The names of the seven princes have evidently suffered much in transmission. According to Herodotus (vii. 5 17) Mardonius (Xerxes" cousin) and Artabanus (his uncle) were the king's chief advisers in the early part of his reign. These names may be represented in the text by -Marsena" and -Admatha." The LXX. gives but three names. This may be owing to a scribe (or the original translators) having a partially illegible manuscript to work upon.

the seven princes of Persia and Media who took rank as members of the king's council above the other great men of the kingdom. So in Ezra (Ezra 7:14) we find that Artaxerxes had seven special advisers. There were, according to Herodotus (iii. 84), seven great families in Persia, the heads of which had peculiar rights. One of these rights was that of access to the king at all times, unless when he was in the women's apartments.

which saw the king's face i.e. who had the right of access to his presence. Some connect this privilege with the story of the assassination of the Pseudo-Smerdis (b.c. 522) by Darius and six other conspirators. The latter, we are told, made a bargain with their colleague, whose claims to the throne they were championing, to the effect that they should at all times have the right of approach just mentioned (Herod. iii. 84).