Then the king consulted the wise men who knew the times, for it was customary for him to confer with the experts in law and justice.
We have here a damp to all the mirth of Ahasuerus's feast; it ended in heaviness, not as Job's children's feast by a wind from the wilderness, not as Belshazzar's by a hand-writing on the wall, but by is own folly.
Commenting on Esther 1:10-22
Then the king said to the wise men that knew the times,.... Astrologers, as Aben Ezra, that knew the fit time for doing anything; or that had knowledge of ancient times, historians, well read in history, and knew things that had happened similar to this: for so was the king's manner towards all that knew law and judgment; it was customary with him in any...
Then the king said to the wise men--These were probably the magi, without whose advice as to the proper time of doing a thing the Persian kings never did take any step whatever; and the persons named in Est 1:14 were the "seven counsellors" (compare Ezr 7:14) who formed the state ministry.