On the day of the king’s birth every month, they were led along with bitter constraint to eat of the sacrifices. When the feast of Dionysia came, they were compelled to go in procession in honor of Dionysus, wearing wreaths of ivy.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 7. Sacrifices. Greek “each month, to the sacrifice (and feast) of entrails,” ( Bible.) which were given back to him who presented the victim. Grot.—The eastern kings celebrated their birth-days; Epiphanes did it every month. 1 B. 1:61. Matthew 14:6.—About. Greek “to follow the march;” πομπευειν. Calmet.—Prot. “to go in procession to Bacchus, carrying ivy.” Ward (Err. p. 114) reads πομπαδυειν, and refers the reader to the lexicon to see if there be anything in it like the Catholic processions, or whether it signify so much as “to go about,” as other Prot. Bibles translate it. These interpreters frequently use Catholic terms, where they might render them odious. Id. Bible.