Queen Vashti also held a [separate] banquet for the women in the palace of King Ahasuerus.

Now the queen [mother], overhearing the [excited] words of the king and his nobles, came into the banquet area. The queen [mother] spoke and said, “O king, live forever! Do not be alarmed at your thoughts or let your face be changed.

“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son.

And he sent his servants to call those who had [previously] been invited to the wedding feast, but they refused to come.

Then he sent out some other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited, “Look, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fattened calves are butchered and everything is ready; come to the wedding feast.”’

But an opportune time [finally] came [for Herodias]. Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his officials (nobles, courtiers) and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee.

Levi (Matthew) gave a great banquet for Him at his house; and there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others who were reclining at the table with them.

But when you give a banquet or a reception, invite the poor, the disabled, the lame, and the blind,

Then He said to them, “Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter [of the banquet].” So they took it to him.