1 Kings 10:21

10:21 All of King Solomon’s cups were made of gold, and all the household items in the Palace of the Lebanon Forest were made of pure gold. There were no silver items, for silver was not considered very valuable in Solomon’s time. ¹ 

Esther 1:7

1:7 Drinks ²  were served in golden containers, all of which differed from one another. Royal wine was available in abundance at the king’s expense.

Daniel 5:2-3

5:2 While under the influence ³  of the wine, Belshazzar issued an order to bring in the gold and silver vessels – the ones that Nebuchadnezzar his father ⁴  had confiscated ⁵  from the temple in Jerusalem ⁶  – so that the king and his nobles, together with his wives and his concubines, could drink from them. ⁷  5:3 So they brought the gold and silver ⁸  vessels that had been confiscated from the temple, the house of God ⁹  in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, together with his wives and concubines, drank from them.

¹ tn Heb “there was no silver, it was not regarded as anything in the days of Solomon.”

² tn Heb “to cause to drink” (Hiphil infinitive construct of שָׁקָה, shaqah). As the etymology of the Hebrew word for “banquet” (מִשְׁתֶּה, mishteh, from שָׁתָה, shatah, “to drink”) hints, drinking was a prominent feature of ancient Near Eastern banquets.

³ tn Or perhaps, “when he had tasted” (cf. NASB) in the sense of officially initiating the commencement of the banquet. The translation above seems preferable, however, given the clear evidence of inebriation in the context (cf. also CEV “he got drunk and ordered”).

⁴ tn Or “ancestor”; or “predecessor” (also in vv. 11, 13, 18). The Aramaic word translated “father” can on occasion denote these other relationships.

⁵ tn Or “taken.”

⁶ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

⁷ sn Making use of sacred temple vessels for an occasion of reveling and drunkenness such as this would have been a religious affront of shocking proportions to the Jewish captives.

⁸ tc The present translation reads וְכַסְפָּא (vÿkhaspa’, “and the silver”) with Theodotion and the Vulgate. Cf. v. 2. The form was probably accidentally dropped from the Aramaic text by homoioteleuton.

⁹ tn Aram “the temple of the house of God.” The phrase seems rather awkward. The Vulgate lacks “of the house of God,” while Theodotion and the Syriac lack “the house.”