Explicit exponential stability conditions for linear differential equations with several delays

New explicit conditions of exponential stability are obtained for the nonautonomous linear equationx˙(t)+∑k=1mak(t)x(hk(t))=0, where ∑k=1mak(t)⩾0,hk(t)⩽t, by comparing this equation with a nonoscillatory exponentially stable equation of the formx˙(t)+∑k∈Iak(t)x(gk(t))=0, where I⊂{1,…,m}I⊂{1,…,m}, gk(t)⩽tgk(t)⩽t. Every comparison result gives m2−12m−1 different stability conditions due to the a priori choice of a subset I.