Genesis 31:54

31:54 Then Jacob offered a sacrifice ¹  on the mountain and invited his relatives to eat the meal. ²  They ate the meal and spent the night on the mountain.

Genesis 40:20

40:20 On the third day it was Pharaoh’s birthday, so he gave a feast for all his servants. He “lifted up” ³  the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker in the midst of his servants.

Esther 1:3

1:3 in the third ⁴  year of his reign he provided a banquet for all his officials and his servants. The army ⁵  of Persia and Media ⁶  was present, ⁷  as well as the nobles and the officials of the provinces.

Daniel 5:1

Belshazzar Sees Mysterious Handwriting on a Wall

5:1 King Belshazzar ⁸  prepared a great banquet ⁹  for a thousand of his nobles, and he was drinking wine in front of ¹⁰  them all. ¹¹ 

Mark 6:21

6:21 But ¹²  a suitable day ¹³  came, when Herod gave a banquet on his birthday for his court officials, military commanders, and leaders of Galilee.

¹ tn The construction is a cognate accusative with the verb, expressing a specific sacrifice.

² tn Heb “bread, food.” Presumably this was a type of peace offering, where the person bringing the offering ate the animal being sacrificed.

³ tn The translation puts the verb in quotation marks because it is used rhetorically here and has a double meaning. With respect to the cup bearer it means “reinstate” (see v. 13), but with respect to the baker it means “decapitate” (see v. 19).

⁴ sn The third year of Xerxes’ reign would be ca. 483 b.c.

⁵ tc Due to the large numbers of people implied, some scholars suggest that the original text may have read “leaders of the army” (cf. NAB “Persian and Median aristocracy”; NASB “the army officers”; NIV “the military leaders”). However, there is no textual evidence for this emendation, and the large numbers are not necessarily improbable.

⁶ sn Unlike the Book of Daniel, the usual order for this expression in Esther is “Persia and Media” (cf. vv. 14, 18, 19). In Daniel the order is “Media and Persia,” indicating a time in their history when Media was in the ascendancy.

⁷ sn The size of the banquet described here, the number of its invited guests, and the length of its duration, although certainly immense by any standard, are not without precedent in the ancient world. C. A. Moore documents a Persian banquet for 15,000 people and an Assyrian celebration with 69,574 guests (Esther [AB], 6).

⁸ sn As is clear from the extra-biblical records, it was actually Nabonidus (ca. 556-539 B.C.) who was king of Babylon at this time. However, Nabonidus spent long periods of time at Teima, and during those times Belshazzar his son was de facto king of Babylon. This arrangement may help to explain why later in this chapter Belshazzar promises that the successful interpreter of the handwriting on the wall will be made third ruler in the kingdom. If Belshazzar was in effect second ruler in the kingdom, this would be the highest honor he could grant.

⁹ sn This scene of a Babylonian banquet calls to mind a similar grandiose event recorded in Esth 1:3-8. Persian kings were also renowned in the ancient Near Eastern world for their lavish banquets.

¹⁰ sn The king probably sat at an elevated head table.

¹¹ tn Aram “the thousand.”

¹² tn Grk “And.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

¹³ tn Grk “a day of opportunity”; cf. BDAG 407 s.v. εὔκαιρος, “in our lit. only pert. to time than is considered a favorable occasion for some event or circumstance, well-timed, suitable.”