Also Vashti the queen made a feast for the women in the royal house which belonged to King Ahasuerus.
Parallel Translations
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Also Vashti the queen made a feast for the women in the royal house which belonged to King Ahasuerus.
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Also Vashti the queen made a feast for the women in the royal house which belonged to king Ahasuerus.
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Also Vashti the queen made a feast for the women in the royal house which belonged to king Ahasuerus.
Cross-references (2)
Passages linked to Esther 1:9 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Esther 5:4 Esther said, “If it seems good to the king, let the king and Haman come today to the banquet that I have prepared for him.”
- Esther 5:8 If I have found favor in the sight of the king, and if it pleases the king to grant my petition and to perform my request, let the king and Haman come to the banquet that I will prepare for them, and I will do tomorrow as the king has said.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (17 sources)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Est 1:9 Also Vashti the queen made a feast…
Est 1:9 Also Vashti the queen made a feast for the women [in] the royal house which [belonged] to king Ahasuerus.
Ver. 9. Also Vashti the queen made a feast for the women] Heb. A feast, or a compotation of women. This was better yet than Heliogabalus’s senate of women, with their ordinances correspondent; as what attire each woman should use, how they should take place, when salute, &c. The Romans decreed in senate that no women should drink wine. What Vashti’s practice was I know not; but by her name she should be a meribibula, a wine bibber, as was noted, Est 1:1.
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Conveniunt rebus nomina saepe suis.
The notables came together often with their own matters. Josephus, and after him Lyra, give her the commendation of a modest woman. ‘Tis probable she had the king’s consent to feast the women, because it was in the royal house; and it added much to the king’s munificence. But then she should have subdued her husband by obeying him, as Livia (as great an empress) did Augustus. Dio reporteth of her, that being asked how she got such a power over her husband, she answered, Multa modestia, By my much modesty (Dio in Tiberio). It is remarkable in this third feast, that, first, the women feasted within doors, not in the open court, as their husbands did, and, next, apart from the men. Which whether it were of pride, because Vashti would keep state by herself; or, of necessity, because either the custom of the country or the king’s jealousy would not allow her presence among so many of the other sex, yet surely this may condemn (as one well saith) our most lascivious mingling of both sexes together in dancing, and such like meetings; where nothing is more usual than lustful looks, filthy speeches, unclean touches. Apage omnem hanc impudentiam, shun all occasions of sin that doth so easily beset us. Lot, feasting and drinking wine with his own daughters, fell into the sin of incest. The Israelites doing the like with the daughters of Moab, were ensnared, and subverted. The dancing damsel so inflamed that old goat Herod, that, like a mad man, he sweareth to give her her desire to the half of his kingdom. In all mixed meetings of both sexes, let the husband’s eyes be eyes of adamant, which will turn only to one point; lest some Circe {a} enchant him, having faculty attractive with the jet, and retentive with the adamant. Let the wives also be like that Persian lady, who being at the marriage of Cyrus, and asked how she liked the bridegroom? How? saith she; I know not; I saw nobody but my husband.
{a} In Greek and Latin mythology the name of an enchantress who dwelt in the island of Aea, and transformed all who drank of her cup into swine; often used allusively.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Whilst the king entertained the men; for this was…
Whilst the king entertained the men; for this was the common custom of the Persians, that men and women did not feast together, but in several places.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Also Vashti the queen made a feast for the…
Also Vashti the queen made a feast for the women.... For it was not customary with the Persians, nor other eastern nations, to admit of women to their festivals (m), but they feasted by themselves. Who Vashti was is not known with any certainty. Bishop Usher, who takes Ahasuerus to be Darius Hystaspis, thinks Vashti was Atossa, the daughter of Cyrus, whom he married. The Targumist says, she was the daughter of Evilmerodach, the son of Nebuchadnezzar. Her name seems to be the same with Vesta, a deity worshipped by the Persians, as Xenophon (n), and signifies vehement fire, which was in great veneration with them; and therefore this queen is most likely to be of Persian original: she kept her feast
in the royal house which belonged to Ahasuerus; her guests not being so many, there was room enough in the king's palace for them, and where it was more decent for them to be than in the open air in the garden, and exposed to the sight of men.
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(m) Justin c Trogo, l. 41. c. 3. (n) Cyropaedia, l. 1. c. 23.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Women - While the king entertained the men. For…
Women - While the king entertained the men. For this was the common custom of the Persians, that men and women did not feast together.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 9. Also Vashti the queen] [Persian] Vashti is…
Verse 9. Also Vashti the queen] [Persian] Vashti is a mere Persian word; and signifies a beautiful or excellent woman.
Made a feast for the women] The king, having subdued all his enemies, left no competitor for the kingdom; and being thus quietly and firmly seated on the throne, made this a time of general festivity. As the women of the East never mingle with the men in public, Vashti made a feast for the Persian ladies by themselves; and while the men were in the court of the garden, the women were in the royal house.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Est 1:9. Also Vashti the queen made a feast…
Est 1:9. Also Vashti the queen made a feast for the women — While the king entertained the men. For this was the common custom of the Persians, that men and women did not feast together. In the royal house — Not in the open air, as the men were, but more privately, as was fit for women.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Vashti - If Ahasuerus is Xerxes, Vashti would be…
Vashti - If Ahasuerus is Xerxes, Vashti would be Amestris, whom the Greeks regarded as the only legitimate wife of that monarch, and who was certainly married to him before he ascended the throne. The name may be explained either as a corruption of Amestris, or as a title, vahishta, (Sanskrit: vasishtha, the superlative of vasu, “sweet”); and it may be supposed that the disgrace recorded (Est 1:19-21, see the note) was only temporary; Amestris in the later part of Xerxes’ reign recovering her former dignity.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Vasthi. Septuagint Astin. (Haydock) --- Serarius suspects she was…
Vasthi. Septuagint Astin. (Haydock) --- Serarius suspects she was the king’s sister, or daughter, as such marriages were common in Persia. (Tirinus) --- The name is not very different from that of Atossa, the daughter of Cyrus, who was married to Cambyses, Smerdis, and Darius; to the latter of whom she bore four children. (Herodotus iii. 68., and vii. 3. --- This prince had other wives, particularly Artistona, (Calmet; our Hadossa, (Haydock) or Esther) whom he espoused a virgin, and love the most. Herodotus seems to confound her with Atossa. --- Dwell. Some Greek copies have "in her own palaces." (Usher) --- It was proper for women to be more retired. (Menochius) --- The men feasted in the open air. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Also Vashti the queen made a feast for the…
Also Vashti the queen made a feast for the women--The celebration was double; for, as according to the Oriental fashion, the sexes do not intermingle in society, the court ladies were entertained in a separate apartment by the queen.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 9. Vashti the queen — Rawlinson is inclined to…
9. Vashti the queen — Rawlinson is inclined to identify this queen with Amestris, and supposes that her divorce and disgrace, recorded in this chapter, may have been only temporary, and that she was restored to her former dignity again in the latter part of Xerxes’ reign. More probably, however, she was not the queen-consort, but a favourite concubine, whom the king delighted to honour. As he lavished royal honours on a favourite officer, (Est_6:11,) so might he allow a favourite of his harem to make and preside at a feast for the women in the royal house. The Greek writers state that it was a custom of the Persians to introduce their wives and concubines at great feasts, but, when drunken and riotous, they sent their legitimate wives away, and called in the concubines and singing girls.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 9. Vashti the queen] If we identify Ahasuerus with…
9. Vashti the queen] If we identify Ahasuerus with Xerxes, the queen here mentioned must have been Amestris, his only wife known to secular history. She was daughter of Otanes (Herod. vii. 61), one of the seven who conspired against Pseudo-Smerdis (b.c. 522). The name Vashti has been explained as another form of Amestris, the letters m and v readily interchanging as labials. It may, however, be a modification of the Old Persian vahista, excellent.
made a feast for the women] The sexes were separated in the case of all public meals, although the Persian custom seems to have been that the queen was as a rule admitted to the king’s table.[60]
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[60] See Herod. ix. 110, who tells us that at the annual banquet in celebration of the king’s birthday Amestris the queen ‘made request of Xerxes that he would please to give her as her present the wife of Masistes’ (the king’s brother) as it was her cruel desire to torture her.
in the royal house] The harem was probably on the south side of the above-mentioned hall of pillars.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (9) Vashti.—According to Gesenius, the name Vashti means beautiful.…
(9) Vashti.—According to Gesenius, the name Vashti means beautiful. Among the Persians it was customary that one wife of the sovereign should be supreme over the rest, and her we sometimes find exercising an authority which contrasts strangely with the degraded position of women generally. Such a one was Atossa, the mother of Xerxes. Vashti, too, before her deposition, was evidently the queen par excel. lence. We find, however, that the name given by the Greek writers to the queen of Xerxes was Amestris, of whose cruelty and dissolute life numerous details are given us by Herodotus and others. There seem good grounds for believing that she was the wife of Xerxes before he became king, which if established would of itself be sufficient to disprove the theory of some who would identify Esther and Amestris. Moreover, Herodotus tells us (7:61. 82) that Amestris was the cousin of Xerxes, the daughter of his father’s brother; and although we cannot view Esther as of a specially high type of womanhood, still it would be most unjust to identify her with one whose character is presented to us in most unlovely guise. Bishop Wordsworth suggests that Amestris was a wife who had great influence with Xerxes between the fall of Vashti and the rise of Esther. If, however, Amestris was really the chief wife before Xerxes came to the throne, this could hardly be, and the time allowed seems much too scanty, seeing that in it falls the invasion of Greece. Or, lastly, we may with Canon Rawlinson say that Vashti is Amestris (the two names being different reproductions of the Persian, or Vashti being a sort of title) and that the deposition was a temporary one.
The women.—There should be no article.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Vashti, the queen. The only wife of Xerxes known…
Vashti, the queen. The only wife of Xerxes known to the Greeks was Amestris, the daughter of Otanes, one of the seven conspirators (Herod., 7:61). Xerxes probably took her to wife as soon as he was of marriageable age, and before he ascended the throne had a son by her, who in his seventh year was grown up (ibid. 9:108). It would seem to be certain that if Ahasuerus is Xerxes, Vashti must be Amestris. The names themselves are not very remote, since will readily interchange with v; but Vashti might possibly represent not the real name of the queen, but a favourite epithet, such as vahista, sweetest. " Made a feast for the women. Men and women did not take their meals together in Persia unless in the privacy of domestic life (Brisson, "De Regn. Pers.," 2. pp. 273-276). If the women, therefore, were to partake in a festivity, it was necessary that they should be entertained separately. In the royal house. In the gynaeceum or harem, which was probably on the southern side of the great pillared hall at Susa (Fergusson).
The position of women.
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A noticeable feature of the king"s banquet was that even the women were not excluded from participation in the festivities. In the court of the garden the king entertained only men. But inside the palace Queen Vashti made a feast for the women.
I A PICTURE OF QUEENLY DUTY. As queen, Vashti entered into the king"s mind, and gave his projects such support as she could in her own circle of duty and influence.
II A PICTURE OF WIFELY DUTY. AS wife, Vashti was mistress of the female portion of the king"s household. She took charge of the women, and ruled them to the advantage and comfort of her husband.
III A PICTURE OF ORIENTAL CUSTOM WITH RESPECT TO WOMEN. The two sexes are rigidly separated in public and social life.
Women rarely travel beyond the narrow limits of the house or the apartments assigned to them. They live together in mysterious seclusion, and are carefully guarded against intercourse with the outside world.
IV THE INFLUENCE OF WOMAN.
1. On the field of governmental policies and national events. It has oftenbeen dominant, even though unseen, both in civilised and in uncivilised countries. A beautiful and clever woman may easily make a weak prince her slave, and through him affect the current of history either for good or evil. There are not a few instances of the exercise of the feminine power in the region of politics both in sacred and secular history, both in ancient and modern times.
2. On the field of domestic, social, and religious life.
(1) Mothers. To a large extent mothers give the mould of thought and character to each generation. The early years, the formative periods, of men and women alike, are in their hands. The early home, whatever its character, is never forgotten.
(2) Wives. The power of a trusted and loved wife over her husband cannot be estimated. It will, as a rule, work its way gradually and surely, either to his well-being or to his detriment. The effect of so close, and tender, and constant a companionship will inevitably show itself, somehow, in his character, his happiness, and his work. The spirit that rules his wife will come in some real measure to rule him; it will strengthen or weaken his character, brighten or darken his home, benefit or blast his life. Is there anything more beautiful, and strong, and good in human society than the influence of the modest, loving, virtuous, and Christian wife?
(3) Women generally. In societies which allow free intercourse in the family and world between men and women of all ages, feminine influence touches human life at every point. When it is pure it is always purifying. When it is impure it has a terrible power to corrupt. Intercourse with a high-minded and good-hearted Christian woman is a lift heavenward. Willing intercourse with an unprincipled or unsexed woman is a plunge hellward. In all circles, and in all directions, the influence of women powerfully tells. It is at once the best and the worst element in all grades of society.
V THE IMPORTANCE OF A FULL RECOGNITION OF THE JUST CLAIMS OF WOMEN. The effect of secluding women, and treating them as the chattels and toys of men, has been to degrade them, and to deprive society of their proper influence. It is undoubtedly true that the position assigned to women in Eastern nations has been one of the chief causes of their decay, and is now one of the chief obstacles to all civilising or Christianising movements.
VI THE BENIGN POWER ()F CHRISTIANITY IN RELATION TO WOMEN. Wherever the gospel of Jesus is allowed to govern families or communities, the gentler sex is raised by it into its true relative position. We think of the holy women to whom Jesus gave such a mingled respect and affection, and of those who were associated with the apostles in their work, and of whom such honourable mention is made. The Christian religion ever brings with it the emancipation of women from the thraldom of man"s tyrannical lust, and secures to them their rightful share of work and influence. It makes them mistress in their own sphere. It clothes them with a new responsibility and power, and, by surrounding them with high duties and ministries, draws into beneficent activity the best qualities of their nature. Nations that degrade their women are doomed; nations that cherish a Christian respect for them have a spring of life that will make them strong and enduring. The greatest trial of gospel missionaries arises from the utter ignorance of heathen women and the difficulty of reaching them with the Divine truth they teach. D.
HOMILETICS.
Vers. 9-11.
Queen Vashti.
It would seem that the character of Vashti has been by many writers darkened in order to bring out the brightness of Esther"s virtues. But it is not fair to make one queen simply the foil to the other. Haughty, disobedient, defiant, Vashti may have been, but she was placed in no ordinary position, and treated in no ordinary manner.
I Observe THE POSITION OF VASHTI Her name (according to some) indicates her beauty, and it is expressly said that she was fair to look upon. She was the legitimate wife of Ahasuerus. If he were Xerxes, it is possible she may have been the Amestris of the Greek historians. She fulfilled her royal duties. We read of her feasting the ladies, the princesses, in the royal palace; within doors, and apart from the men.
II Observe THE INSULT OFFERED TO VASHTI When his heart was merry with wine, the king bade his chamberlains bring the queen, in her stately robes, and with her royal crown upon her head, before him, that he might show her beauty to the princes and to the people. Now this was
1. A violation of national custom. We are told indeed, that, when in their cups, the Persian kings would dismiss their wives and send for their concubines and singing girls. It was certainly a command contrary to custom, however it may have been in accordance with the capricious character of Xerxes.
2. An outrage upon her womanly modesty. That a young and beautiful woman should appear before a vast company of boisterous and half-intoxicated nobles, and this that they might admire her loveliness, was a foul shame.
3. A derogation from her wifely dignity. The king should have honoured Vashti as his consort, worthy of respectful treatment; for the disgrace of the wife is the disgrace of the husband. Ahasuerus must have been despised by any sober and honourable noble who heard him give this order.
4. It was a slur upon her royal station. This station was acknowledged by her position at the head of the table, where the banquet was given to the chief ladies of the realm. If it was fit that she should preside as hostess, it was not fit that she should be brought forward for the general gaze and admiration, like a courtesan famous for beauty and infamous for immodesty.
III Observe THE FAULT CHARGEABLE UPON VASHTI This was disobedience and defiance. But
1. It was a fault with much to extenuate it. The command was unreasonable. Compliance would have done no one concerned any good, and would have outraged her own modesty.
2. It was a fault punished with disproportionate severity. Certainly it was harsh and cruel to deprive Vashti of her position as queen because of her refusal to comply with the unreasonable requirement of a drunken husband. Disputes between the nearest akin are often the most keen. It was with reason that the inspired apostle penned the admonition love your wives, and be not bitter against them!"
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH. Est_1:9
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH. Est_1:9
VASHTI, THE PERSIAN MONARCH’S QUEEN
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I. Her significant name. Those critics who determine the personality of Ahasuerus do not speak so positively about the personality of Vashti. We read her name, but cannot tell either her ancestors or the place of her birth. It may be supposed that she came from Yezd, for the women of this province were esteemed the most beautiful in Persia. The proverb is, that to live happy a man must have a wife of Yezd, eat the bread of Yezdecas, and drink the wine of Shiraz. However, she stands before us in a great measure unknown. She plays her part in the drama, and then disappears from the stage, but does not pass away without imparting useful lessons. Her very name is significant, and means in old Persian “the best.” She was good of countenance, and doubtless possessed “the light of that dark eye” which made the power of Eastern women, “wondrous strong, yet lovely in their strength.” There was a charming grace in her motion, and a pleasant witchery in her voice. Her “long locks foiled the painter’s power.” She was so lovely, that after the assembled magnates had been satiated with beautiful sights, she must be brought forth to minister to the pleasure of natures cloyed with the very excess of beauty and the brilliance of regal splendours. The wise man says that “favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.” Physical beauty is the gift of God, and by no means to be despised; but that beauty is vain which is the only means employed to procure favour, and which conceals internal unloveliness. But surely there may be the combination of physical beauty and moral loveliness. If we cannot find in nature either the flower well shaped and beautifully tinted that gives forth sweet fragrance, or the bird of beautiful plumage that can send out rich music, yet surely the beautiful woman may by Divine grace give forth the sweet fragrance of godliness, and her deeds become so many glad songs in this weeping world. And much may be done for religion by strong-minded and spiritually-gifted Vashtis. Even many professing Christian women may learn useful moral lessons from one whose religious tenets they might reject. Whatever view may be taken of her conduct, this is plain, that she was not a mere plaything for man, that she was not ready to sacrifice the moral sense in order to feed her own vanity by ministering to the bacchanalian caprice of a despot. Many names are given at random, and do not set forth the attributes of the persons to whom they are applied. A woman may be called Vashti, and yet not be the best either physically, or intellectually, or morally. Certain it is that many bear the better name of Christian who are not Christlike. The outward beauty is not increased by the outshining of inward loveliness; the “marred” countenance is not rendered attractive by the pervasive and far-gleaming influence of a soul “full of grace and truth.” The Christian should be the best, if not in physical beauty, if not in intellectual grace and power, yet in that spiritual loveliness which can make all attractive. Better than the name that proclaims either physical beauty or glorious ancestry, better than the boasted titles of earth, is that name which tells of Divine grace in the soul, which links us on to the sublime ancestry of God’s true heroes, and betokens our Divine royalty.
II. Vashti the queen also gives a feast. It is asserted that Vashti was one of the king’s inferior wives, dignified with the title of queen. And this statement is supported by a reference to Herodotus. Now in the book to which the reference is here made we find that the great historian relates that the Persians made this statement to King Amyntas—that it is a custom with us Persians, when we have given a great feast, to introduce our concubines and lawful wives to sit by our side. But the statement was evidently made for an illegitimate and licentious purpose, and is not, therefore, to be received as a correct representation of Persian customs. And if it were, the appeal proves too much, for it shows that Vashti was neither a lawful wife nor a concubine, for both are said to be introduced to the feasts. The separation of men and women is in accordance with existing Oriental customs, which oblige women to feast separately from the men, even on the same occasions of rejoicing. And this was plainly the custom in the time of Ahasuerus. Certainly it was a special favour shown unto Esther when the king and Haman attended the banquet she had prepared. If Vashti were a mere concubine she would not have been sent for with such courteous formality, and she would not have ventured to refuse to comply with the despot’s command. The feast is said to be in the palace, as if to mark the separation more distinctly. And she gave the feast to the ladies either in her own apartments, or in some portion of the royal dwelling placed at her disposal. According to this custom men must feast together, and women must be excluded. But the Divine word teaches the better rule, that men should never so conduct themselves as to make it expedient to exclude the society of virtuous women. For the woman is the complement of the man. Each from each, each to each, should both receive and give. Perfect manhood cannot be attained except there be the refining touch of a woman’s gentle hand. And perfect womanhood cannot be reached unless a man’s influence is at work imparting strength. But this above all—no man should go where a virtuous and high-souled woman cannot enter. Christianity has still a great work to do in teaching men that all pleasures should be forbidden in which wives and children cannot participate. The feasting is injurious where pure and sensitive spirits are not regarded as welcome guests.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Est_1:9
It is remarkable in this third feast—
I. That the women feasted within doors. Not in the open court, as their husbands did.
II. That they feasted apart from the men. Which, whether it were of pride, because Vashti would keep state by herself, or of necessity, because either the custom of the country or the king’s jealousy would not allow her presence among so many of the opposite sex, yet surely this may condemn our most lascivious mingling of both sexes together in dancing and such like meetings, where nothing is more usual than lustful looks. Lot, feasting and drinking wine with his own daughters fell into sin. The Israelites doing the like with the daughters of Moab were ensnared and subverted. The dancing damsel so inflamed that old goat Herod, that, like a madman, he sweareth to give her her desire to the half of his kingdom.—Trapp.
I cannot but envy the modesty of heathen dames. Vashti the queen and her ladies, with all the several ranks of the sex, feast apart, entertaining each other with a bashful courtesy, without wantonness, without that wild scurrility which useth to haunt promiscuous meetings. Oh shameful unchastity of those loose Christians, who must feed their lust while they fill their bellies, and think the feast imperfect where they may not satiate their eye no less than their palate.—Bishop Hall.
While the king showed the honour of his majesty, the queen and her ladies showed the honour of their modesty, which is truly the majesty of the fair sex.—M. Henry.
The king did not grudge to his queen and the women of Shushan the pleasures which he allowed himself and his male subjects, so far as they could be enjoyed without indecency.
It would have been dangerous to morals and inconsistent with received usages for the queen and ladies of Shushan to have associated with the other sex in their banquet; but they had a feast by themselves, in which, doubtless, they respected the laws of decorum and temperance.
Let not women be locked in their chambers as if they were criminals that must be locked under close restraint; but let them not use their liberty for an occasion to the gratification of idleness, or a spirit of dissipation. Let them beware of that society that would corrupt their morals or stain their character.—Rev. George Lawson.
The name Vashti has probably a connection with the old Persian vahisti (the best), or with the related behisht. In modern Persian Vashti signifies a beautiful woman. Vashti gave the feast to the ladies in the king’s palace, i.e. either in her own apartments, which also were in the royal residence, or in some other dwellings there which were placed at her disposal for this festive occasion.—Lange.
The condition of woman in antiquity was little better than that of a slave. She was the property of her husband, if married; if unmarried, she was the plaything or slave of man, never his equal. The morality of married life, which is the strength and glory of any people, was hardly known. Pompey and Germanicus were singular in the fidelity that marked their marriage relations on both sides, and were famous through the singularity. The utter impurity of the men reacted in a similar self-degradation of the other sex. In Rome marriages became, as a rule, mere temporary connections. In order to escape the punishments inflicted on adultery in the time of Tiberius, married women, including even women of illustrious families, enrolled themselves on the official lists as public prostitutes. St. Paul only spoke the language which every one who knows the state of morals of those days must use, when he wrote the well-known verses in the opening of his Epistle to the Romans. The barbarians of the German forests, alone of the heathen world, retained a worthy sense of the true dignity of woman. “No one there laughs at vice,” says Tacitus, “nor is to seduce and to be seduced called the fashion.” “Happy indeed,” continues the Roman, thinking of the state of things around him, “those states in which only virgins marry, and where the vows and heart of the bride go together. Infidelity is very rare among them.” The traditions of a purer time still lingered beyond the Alps; the after-glow of light that had set elsewhere.—Geikie.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE WHOLE CHAPTER
This book presents us with impressive views of man with and without grace; of the great instability of human affairs; of the sovereign power, justice, and faithfulness of the Supreme Being. We now call your attention to the first chapter.
I. The king of Persia at this time was Ahasuerus. Commentators differ about him. He was a heathen—a stranger to God—possessing extensive dominions. His was the second of the four great empires. These empires have come to nought; but, brethren, there is a kingdom which passeth not away. Its King will remain in heaven for ever. Let us be numbered among its subjects.
II. This mighty potentate, Ahasuerus, wished to make a display of his greatness: made a feast—the power of Media and Persia present—he exhibited his riches, and honour, and glory. Notice his pride. Beware of pride. Pray that you may habitually remember what you are—poor, fallen sinners.
III. At this feast, though a heathen one, moderation was observed. “And the drinking was according to law: none did compel.” Intemperance is an abomination and a degradation; hence we should flee from it.
IV. But though the feast of Ahasuerus was free from the disgrace of compelling the guests to proceed to drunkenness, yet did very evil consequences result from it. It is but seldom that such meetings are free from such consequences. We read of Belshazzar’s feast; we read of Herod’s feast. In such entertainments God is liable to be forgotten. Solomon, who with extraordinary diligence, and unparalleled success, had examined and tried the sources of all earthly gratification, tells us, in language which ought never to be out of remembrance, that “it is better to go to the house of mourning than the house of feasting.”
V. Let us consider the evil which was occasioned by the feast.—The king ordered the queen to be brought. She refused to come. The wrath of the king was kindled. The result was a council, then the divorcement of the queen. Quarrels, animosities, and heart-burnings are so contrary to that religion of love which a received gospel generates, that we ought to strive to the utmost for the preservation of the opposite virtues. Christ is the Prince of Peace; let us not only trust in his death for salvation, but imitate his meekness and lowliness of heart.
Two short remarks shall close this discourse:—
1. It behoveth us to lead excellent lives, and the higher we are placed in the community the more ought this to be the object of our ambition. Let our lives be continual sermons to those among whom we live.
2. It behoveth us to regard the duties which appertain to the relations of life in which we are placed. “Brethren, let every man wherein he is called, therein abide with God.”—Hughes.
I. The vast extent of the Persian empire. It comprehended all the countries from the river Indus on the east to the Mediterranean on the west; and from the Black Sea and Caspian in the north to the extreme south of Arabia, then called Ethiopia. This gigantic dominion was divided into 127 provinces or governments, each of which was placed under a satrap, or, in modern language, a pasha, who managed its affairs, and annually transmitted a certain sum as revenue to the king. The seat of government was variable, according to the season of the year, the summer months being spent by the court at Ecbatana, and the winter months at Susa, or, as it is called in this chapter, Shushan, the palace. The form of government in the East has from the earliest times been despotic, one man swaying the destinies of millions, and having under him a crowd of smaller despots, each in his more limited sphere oppressing the people subjected to his rule.
1. Despotism has its occasional fits of generosity and kindness. It is as kind-hearted that Ahasuerus is brought before you in the early part of this chapter. He was spending the winter months at Susa. The retinue of the monarch was vast, and the fountains and gardens were on a scale of grandeur which we cannot well conceive. There, then, the king, but little concerned about the welfare of his subjects, was spending his time, chiefly in selfish ease and unbounded revelry. To him it was of no moment how his people were oppressed by those whom he set over them; his sole concern was to enjoy his pleasures.
2. With all the luxury and temptation to self-indulgence, there was no compulsion employed to draw any one beyond the bounds of temperance. The law was good, but the king himself had too largely used the liberty, and hence his loss of self-control and all sense of propriety. When heated with wine he sent for Vashti, &c. Lessons suggested are—
(1) Extravagancies and follies into which men are betrayed by intemperance.
(2) That which dethrones reason and destroys intellect should surely be avoided.
(3) All the consequences which affect the man individually, and others also, rest upon the head of the transgressor.
(4) Intemperance (a) blots out distinction between right and wrong; (b) foments all the evil passions of the natural heart; (c) destroys the proper exercise of the power of the will; (d) and often inflicts grievous wounds upon the innocent, as the case of Vashti here already demonstrates.
(5) The necessity of guarding against these evils.
II. The evils which arose from the peculiar family arrangements of those countries. We take occasion here to observe two great evils:—
1. The condition of the female sex was that of degradation. The married woman was not really what the Divine institution intended her to be, the true companion and friend of her husband. She was kept in a state of seclusion, real freedom she knew not; she was, in truth, only a slave, having power to command some other slaves. She was without education, and generally unintelligent, frivolous, and heartless. She was guarded with zealous care, as if she had been very precious, but at the same time she was wholly dependent upon the caprices of her lord.
2. Yet, strangely enough, in the second place, it is to be noticed that, as if to afford evidence that the law of nature cannot be trampled upon with impunity, it very frequently happened that the female influence was felt by the despotic husband, so as to make him in reality the slave. Not conscious of it, but imagining that he held the place of absolute authority, he was himself governed; yet not through the power of real affection, but through the imbecile doting which constituted all that he knew of real affection. Common history abounds with illustrations of this fact, and in the sacred history we have examples of the same kind; David, Solomon, and Ahab are instances. There is never a violation of God’s righteous appointments, but it is followed by some penalty. From this Book of Esther, it appears very obviously that Ahasuerus, with all his caprices and his stern, imperious self-will, was at first completely under the influence of Vashti, as he afterwards came to be under that of Esther. The whole domestic system being unnaturally constructed, there was, of necessity, derangements in the conducting of it. The despot might be one day all tenderness and submission, and the next day he might, to gratify his humour, exact from his slaves what, a short time afterwards, he would have counted it absolutely wrong in himself to command, and punishable in them to do.
III. The degradation of Vashti. We have to look at the circumstances which are brought before us in the narrative. At a season when sound counsel could scarcely have been expected, and when he who sought it was not in a fit condition to profit by it, the serious question was proposed by the king, “What shall be done to Vashti?” &c. To defer the consideration of so grave a subject to a more fitting season would have been so clearly the path which a wise counsellor would have recommended, that we feel astonished that it was not at once suggested. But the wrath of the king was so strongly exhibited that his compliant advisers did not venture to contradict him. “Memucan answered,” &c. Now, with respect to this opinion of the chief counsellor, it may be observed that it was based upon a principle which in itself is unquestionably right, although there was a wrong application made of it. Rank and station, while they command a certain measure of respect, involve very deep responsibility. Fashions and maxims usually go downward from one class of society to another. Customs, adopted by the higher orders as their rule, gradually make their way until at length they pervade all ranks. Thus far Memucan spoke wisely, when he pointed to the example of the queen as that which would certainly have an influence, wherever it came to be known, throughout the empire. But the principle, in the present instance, was wrongly applied when it was made the ground of condemning the conduct of Vashti. The design was to make her appear guilty of an act of insubordination, which it was necessary for the king to punish, if he would promote the good of his subjects, whereas, in reality, she had upon her side all the authority of law and custom, and was to be made the victim both of the ungovernable wrath of the king, who was beside himself with wine, and also of flatterers who, to gratify him, would do wrong to the innocent. See here the danger of flattery.
Let us extract some practical lessons from our subject.
1. The inadequacy of all earthly good to make man truly happy. Surveying the whole scene portrayed in the early verses of this chapter, we might imagine that the sovereign who ruled over this empire, upon whose nod the interests of so many millions depended, and for whose pleasure the product of so many various climes could be gathered together, had surely all the elements of enjoyment at his command.… And yet we must say that the mightiest sovereign of his time, with 127 provinces subject to him, with princes serving him, and slaves kissing the dust at his feet, was not half so happy as the humblest individual here, who knows what is meant by the comforts of home, where he is in the midst of those who love him.
2. A few remarks may be offered upon the domestic question here settled by the king and his counsellors, as to the supremacy of man in his own house. How could they pronounce a sound judgment upon a question which their customs prevented them from rightly knowing?
3. We have in the text a law spoken of which changeth not. And, my friends, there is such a law, but it is not the law of the Medes and Persians, it is the law of the Eternal. Jehovah’s law changeth not. And what does it say? “This do and live.” “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them.” That seals us all up under wrath. But we turn the page, and we read and see that “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness.” And is not this our conclusion, then—“I will flee from the curse of the immutable law, and shelter myself under the righteousness of Christ, which is also perfect and immutable, that through him and from him I may have mercy and eternal life”?—Dr. Davidson.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 1
Power. Pompey boasted, that, with one stamp of his foot, he could rouse all Italy to arms; with one scratch of his pen, Ahasuerus could call to his assistance the forces of 127 provinces; but God, by one word of his mouth, one movement of his will, can summon the inhabitants of heaven, earth, and the undiscovered worlds to his aid, or bring new creatures into being to do his will.
Dignity. A French doctor once taunted Flechier, Bishop of Nismes, who had been a tallow-chandler in his youth, with the meanness of his origin; to which he replied, “If you had been born in the same condition that I was, you would still have been but a maker of candles.”
Great men. Columbus was the son of a weaver, and a weaver himself. Cervantes was a common soldier. Homer was the son of a small farmer. Demosthenes was the son of a cutler. Terence was a slave. Oliver Cromwell was the son of a London brewer. Howard was an apprentice to a grocer. Franklin was a journeyman printer, and son of a tallow-chandler and soap-boiler. Dr. Thomas, Bishop of Worcester, was the son of a linen-draper. Daniel Defoe was a hostler, and son of a butcher. Whitfield was the son of an innkeeper at Gloucester. Virgil was the son of a porter. Horace was the son of a shopkeeper. Shakespeare was the son of a woolstapler. Milton was the son of a money scrivener. Robert Burns was a ploughman in Ayrshire. Yet all these rose to eminence.
How to make a feast. “Lord Chief Justice Hall frequently invited his poor neighbours to dinner, and made them sit at table with himself. If any of them were sick, so that they could not come, he would send provisions to them warm from his table.”
Favour of God. It was the saying of a wise Roman, “I had rather have the esteem of the Emperor Augustus than his gifts;” for he was an honourable, understanding prince, and his favour very honourable. When Cyrus gave one of his friends a kiss, and another a wedge of gold, he that had the gold envied him that had the kiss as a greater expression of his favour. So the true Christian prefers the privilege of acceptance with God to the possession of any earthly comfort, for in the light of his countenance is life, and his favour is as the cloud of the latter rain.—Butler.
Pride of wealth. Alcibiades was one day boasting of his wealth and great estate, when Socrates placed a map before him, and asked him to find Attica. It was insignificant on the map; but he found it. “Now,” said the philosopher, “point out your own estate.” “It is too small to be distinguished in so little a space,” was the answer. “See, then!” said Socrates, “how much you are affected about an imperceptible point of land.”
Your bags of gold should be ballast in your vessel to keep her always steady, instead of being topsails to your masts to make your vessel giddy. Give me that distinguished person, who is rather pressed down under the weight of all his honours, than puffed up with the blast thereof. It has been observed by those who are experienced in the sport of angling, that the smallest fishes bite the fastest. Oh, how few great men do we find so much as nibbling at the gospel book.—Seeker.
Abuse of wealth. I am no advocate for meanness of private habitation. I would fain introduce into it all magnificence, care, and beauty, when they are possible; but I would not have that useless expense in unnoticed fineries or formalities—cornicing of ceilings, and graining of doors, and fringing of curtains, and thousands of such things—which have become foolishly and apathetically habitual.… I speak from experience: I know what it is to live in a cottage with a deal floor and roof, and a hearth of mica slate; I know it to be in many respects healthier and happier than living between a Turkey carpet and a gilded ceiling, beside a steel grate and polished fender. I do not say that such things have not their place and propriety; but I say this emphatically, that a tenth part of the expense which is sacrificed in domestic vanities, if not absolutely and meaninglessly lost in domestic comforts and encumbrances, would, if collectively afforded and wisely employed, build a marble church for every town in England.—Ruskin.
Danger. “A boy climbing among the Alps saw some flowers on the verge of a precipice, and sprang forward to get them. The guide shouted his warnings; but the heedless boy grasped the flowers, and fell a thousand feet upon the rocks below with them in his hand. It was a dear price for such frail things, but he is not the only victim of such folly.”
Danger of prosperity. When Crates threw his gold into the sea, he cried out, Ego perdam te, ne tu perdas me, that is, “I will destroy you, lest you should destroy me.” Thus, if the world be not put to death here, it will put us to death hereafter. Then we shall say, as Cardinal Wolsey, when discarded by his prince and abandoned to the fury of his enemies: “If I had served my God as faithfully as my king, he would not have thus forsaken me.” Poor man! all the perfumes on earth are unable to prevail over the stench of hell.—Secker.
In a long sunshine of outward prosperity, the dust of our inward corruptions is apt to fly about and lift itself up. Sanctified affliction, like seasonable rain, lays the dust, and softens the soul.—Salter.
When fire is put to green wood there comes out abundance of watery stuff that before appeared not; when the pond is empty, the mud, the filth, and toads come to light. The snow covers many a dunghill, so doth prosperity many a rotten heart. It is easy to wade in a warm bath, and every bird can sing in a sunshiny day. Hard weather tries what health we have; afflictions try what sap we have, what grace we have. Withered leaves soon fall off in windy weather, rotten boughs quickly break with heavy weights, &c.—Brooks.
Some of you glory in your shame, that you have drunk down your companions, and carried it away—the honour of a sponge or a tub, which can drink up or hold liquor as well as you.—Baxter.
We commend wine for the excellency of it; but if it could speak, as it can take away speech, it would complain that, by our abuse, both the excellencies are lost; for the excellent man doth so spoil the excellent wine, until the excellent wine hath spoiled the excellent man. Oh, that a man should take pleasure in that which makes him no man; that he should let a thief in at his mouth to steal away his wit; that for a little throat indulgence he should kill in himself both the first Adam—his reason, and even the second Adam—his regeneration, and so commit two murders at once.—Adams.
An earnest young minister was in the house of a rich friend. He was pressed to take wine, but refused. It was again pressed upon him. At length he yielded to their importunities, and drank a little. Gradually he formed a liking for wine, and at length began taking far too much. By degrees, and almost before he was aware of it, he became a drunkard. He was degraded from his office of the ministry, and sank lower and lower. Years after he had been pressed to drink by his rich friend, he came again to his door; this time to beg for a little food, and was ordered away as a drunken vagabond.
Joseph Ralston, of Philipsburg, Penn., met with a horrible death by freezing. He had been drinking freely, and had, while drunk, to wade the Moshandoo Creek; but, ere he proceeded two-thirds of the way, his limbs refused to perform their office. He grasped a bough of an overhanging tree, unable to advance farther; and soon the fast-congealing water cemented close about him—a tomb of ice which stretched from shore to shore. Two days after he was found there rigid as an icicle, his knees embedded in a sheet of the frozen element seven inches thick, his body inclined a little forwards, his hands clutching the boughs, eyes astare, and despair pictured on his features.—Pittsburgh Despatch.
God trieth men’s love to him by their keeping his commandments. It was the aggravation of the first sin that they would not deny so small a thing as the forbidden fruit, in obedience to God! And so it is of thine, that will not leave a forbidden cup for him. O miserable wretch! dost thou not know thou canst not be Christ’s disciple if thou forsake not all for him, and hate not even thy life in comparison of him, and wouldst die rather than forsake him? And thou like to lay down thy life for him, who wilt not leave a cup of drink for him? Canst thou burn at a stake for him, that canst not leave an alehouse, or vain company, or excess, for him? What a sentence of condemnation dost thou pass upon thyself!—Baxter.
Not in the day of thy drunkenness only dost thou undergo the harm of drunkenness, but also after that day. And as when a fever is passed by, the mischievous consequences of the fever remain, so also when drunkenness is passed, the disturbance of intoxication is whirling round both body and soul. And while the wretched body lies paralyzed, like the hull of a vessel after a shipwreck, the soul, yet more miserable than it, even when this is ended, stirs up the storm and kindles desire; and when one seems to be sober, then most of all is he mad, imagining to himself wine and casks, cups and goblets.—Chrysostom.
“If you have glutted yourselves with worldly pleasures, it is no wonder that you should find an unsavoury taste in spiritual delights. Doves that are already filled find cherries bitter.”—J. Lyth, D.D.
Bountiful King. The Lord, like a most bountiful king, will be angry if any man will ask a small thing at his hands; because he had rather give things of great worth than of small value. His goodness is infinite.—Powell.
Fulness of Christ. I have found it an interesting thing to stand at the edge of a noble rolling river, and to think, that although it has been flowing on for 6000 years, watering the fields, and slaking the thirst of a hundred generations, it shows no sign of waste or want. And when I have watched the rise of the sun as he shot above the crest of the mountain, or, in a sky draped with golden curtains, sprang up from his ocean bed, I have wondered to think that he has melted the snows of so many winters, and renewed the verdure of so many springs, and planted the flowers of so many summers, and ripened the golden harvest of so many autumns, and yet shines as brilliantly as ever; his eye not dim, nor his natural strength abated, nor his floods of lightness fail, for centuries of boundless profusion. Yet what are these but images of the fulness that is in Christ! Let that feed your hopes, and cheer your hearts, and brighten your faith, and send you away this day happy and rejoicing! For when judgment flames have licked up that flowing stream, and the light of that glorious sun shall be quenched in darkness, or veiled in the smoke of a burning world, the fulness of Christ shall flow on through eternity in the bliss of the redeemed. Blessed Saviour! Image of God! Divine Redeemer! In thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. What thou hast gone to heaven to prepare, may we be called up at death to enjoy!—Dr. Guthrie.
Wife. “And now let us see whether the word ‘wife’ has not a lesson. It literally means a weaver. The wife is the person who weaves. Before our great cotton and cloth factories arose, one of the principal employments in every house was the fabrication of clothing: every family made its own. The wool was spun into threads by the girls, who were therefore called spinsters; the thread was woven into cloth by their mother, who, accordingly, was called the weaver, or the wife; and another remnant of this old truth we discover in the word ‘heirloom,’ applied to any old piece of furniture which has come down to us from our ancestors, and which, though it may be a chair or bed, shows that a loom was an important article in every house. Thus the word ‘wife’ means weaver; and, as Trench well remarks, ‘in the word itself is wrapped up a hint of earnest, indoor, stay-at-home occupation, as being fitted for her who bears the name.’ ”
Pleasures. The pleasures of the world surfeit with satisfying, while heavenly pleasures satisfy without surfeiting. The surfeited nature of the sensualist requires a constantly increasing stimulus to rouse his used-up powers, but with each advance in Christian enjoyment there is an increased power to appreciate heavenly joys. The pleasures of the world are like the kiss of Judas, given but to betray; the pleasures of heaven make the soul bright and beautiful, as when the face of Moses was transformed by the vision of God.—J. G. Pilkington.
Pleasures. Pleasures, like the rose, are sweet, but prickly; the honey doth not countervail the sting; all the world’s delights are vanity, and end in vexation; like Judas, while they kiss, they betray. I would neither be a stone nor an epicure; allow of no pleasure, nor give way to all; they are good sauce, but naught to make a meal of. I may use them sometimes for digestion, never for food.—Henshaw.
Price of pleasure. Goethe, in his “Faust,” introduces for his hero a student longing for the pleasures of knowledge. The devil appears, to seduce him from his pursuit; Faust is to have all possible sensual enjoyment in life, but is to pay for it by yielding his soul to the devil at last. At the end, Mephistopheles, jealous of his claim, appears and carries off his victim, the student’s lost soul.
Anger. I am naturally as irritable as any; but when I find anger, or passion, or any other evil temper, arise in my mind, immediately I go to my Redeemer, and, confessing my sins, I give myself up to be managed by him.—Clarke.
Anger subdued. Two good men on some occasion had a warm dispute; and remembering the exhortation of the Apostle, “Let not the sun go down upon your wrath,” just before sunset one of them went to the other, and knocking at the door, his offended friend came and opened it, and seeing who it was, started back in astonishment and surprise; the other, at the same time, cried out, “The sun is almost down.” This unexpected salutation softened the heart of his friend into affection, and he returned for answer, “Come in, brother, come in.” What a happy method of conciliating matters, of redressing grievances, and of reconciling brethren!—Arvine.
Hypocrisy. A very capital painter in London exhibited a piece representing a friar habited in his canonicals. View the painting at a distance, and you would think the friar to be in a praying attitude: his hands are clasped together and held horizontally to his breast, his eyes meekly demissed like those of the publican in the gospel: and the good man appears to be quite absorbed in humble adoration and devout recollection. But take a nearer survey, and the deception vanishes; the book which seemed to be before him is discovered to be a punch-bowl, into which the wretch is all the while in reality only squeezing a lemon. How lively a representation of a hypocrite!—Salter.
Idols. A man’s idol is not necessarily an image of gold; it may be a child of clay, the fruit of his own loins, or the wife of his bosom; it may be wealth, fame, position, success, or business—anything which absorbs unduly the affections and attention. Against all such the Almighty pronounces the decree: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me,” and hurls his resistless missiles of destruction. Either ourselves or our idols must be destroyed.
Idolatry! You cannot find any more gross, any more cruel, on the broad earth, than within the area of a mile around this pulpit. Dark minds, from which God is obscured; deluded souls, whose fetish is the dice-box or the bottle; apathetic spirits, steeped in sensual abomination, unmoved by a moral ripple, soaking in the swamp of animal vitality; false gods, more hideous, more awful than Moloch or Baal, worshipped with shrieks, worshipped with curses, with the hearthstone for the bloody altar, and the drunken husband for the immolating priest, and women and children for the victims.—Dr. Chapin.
Loss of time. We are doomed to suffer a bitter pang as often as the irrevocable flight of our time is brought home with keenness to our hearts. The spectacle of the lady floating over the sea in a boat, and waking suddenly from sleep to find her magnificent ropes of pearl necklace by some accident detached from its fastening at one end, the loose string hanging down into the water, and pearl after pearl slipping off for ever into the abyss, brings before us the sadness of the case. That particular pearl which at the very moment is rolling off into the unsearchable deep, carries its own separate reproach to the lady’s heart, but is more deeply reproachful as the representative of so many other uncounted pearls that have already been swallowed up irrecoverably while yet she was sleeping, of many, besides, that must follow before any remedy can be applied to what we may call this jewelly hemorrhage.
The intrepid judge. One of the favourites of Henry V., when Prince of Wales, having been indicted for some misdemeanour, was condemned, notwithstanding all the interest he could make in his favour, and the prince was so incensed at the issue of the trial that he struck the judge on the bench. The magistrate, whose name was Sir William Gascoigne, acted with a spirit becoming his character. He instantly ordered the prince to be committed to prison, and young Henry, sensible by this time of the insult he had offered to the laws of his country, suffered himself to be quietly conducted to jail by the officers of justice. The king, Henry IV., who was an excellent judge of mankind, was no sooner informed of this transaction, than he cried out in a transport of joy, “Happy is the king who has a magistrate possessed of courage to execute the laws, and still more happy in having a son who will submit to such chastisement.”—Arvine.
Flattery. The coin most current among mankind is flattery: the only benefit of which is, that, by hearing what we are not, we may learn what we ought to be.
Whitfield, when flattered, said, “Take care of fire: I carry powder about me.”
A flattering priest told Constantine the Great that his virtues deserved the empire of the world here, and to reign with the Son of God hereafter. The emperor cried, “Fie, fie, for shame; let me hear no more such unseemly speeches; but, rather, suppliantly pray to my Almighty Maker, that, in this life and the life to come, I may be reckoned worthy to be his servant.”
Excuses. He that does amiss never lacks excuse. Any excuse will serve when one has not a mind to do a thing. The archer that shoots ill has a lie ready. He that excuses himself accuses himself. A bad workman always complains of his tools.
Wicked counsel. A young man devoted himself to a religious life. His ungodly parents sent him many letters to dissuade him. Being fully decided to go on in his chosen course, when any letters came addressed to him he threw them into the fire at once, without opening them. When friends and kindred stand between us and Christ, they must be disregarded.
Sin. Sin is like the little serpent aspis, which stings men, whereby they fall into a pleasant sleep, and in that sleep die.—Swinnock.
Envy. We shall find it in Cain, the proto-murderer, who slew his brother at the instigation of envy. We shall find in the dark, and gloomy, and revengeful spirit of Saul, who, under the influence of envy, plotted for years the slaughter of David. We shall find it in the king of Israel, when he pined for the vineyard of Naboth, and shed his blood to gain it. Yes; it was envy that perpetrated that most atrocious crime ever planned in hell or executed on earth, on which the sun refused to look, and at which nature gave signs of abhorrence by the rending of the rocks—I mean the crucifixion of Christ, for the evangelist tells us that for envy the Jews delivered our Lord.—J. A. James.
The poets imagined that envy dwelt in a dark cave; being pale and lean-looking as guilt, abounding with gall, her teeth black, never rejoicing but in the misfortunes of others; ever unquiet and careful, and continually tormenting herself.—Wit.
Friendship. True friendship can only be made between true men. Hearts are the soul of honour. There can be no lasting friendship between bad men. Bad men may pretend to love each other; but their friendship is a rope of sand, which shall be broken at any convenient season. But if a man have a sincere heart within him, and be true and noble, then we may confide in him.—Spurgeon.
Ingratitude. A petted soldier of the Macedonian army was shipwrecked, and east upon the shore apparently lifeless. A hospitable Macedonian discovered him, revived him, took him to his home, and treated him in a princely manner, and, when he departed, gave him money for his journey. The rescued soldier expressed warm thanks, and promised royal bounty to his benefactor. Instead, when he came before Philip, he related his own misfortunes, and asked to be rewarded by the lands and house of his rescuer. His request was granted, and he returned, and drove out his former host. The latter hastened to lay the true state before the king; when he restored the land, and caused the soldier to be branded in the forehead, “The Ungrateful Guest,” as the reward of his baseness.
Conscience wakeful. Though in many men conscience sleeps in regard to motion, yet it never sleeps in regard to observation and notice. It may be hard and seared, it can never be blind. Like letters written with the juice of lemon, that which is written upon it, though seemingly invisible and illegible, when brought before the fire of God’s judgment, shall come forth clear and expressive.—M‘Cosh.
Guilty conscience. It gives a terrible form and a horrible voice to everything beautiful and musical without. Let Byron describe its anguish, for who felt it more than he?—
“The mind that broods o’er guilty woes
Is like the scorpion girt by fire;
In circle narrowing as it glows,
The flames around their captive close,
Till inly searched by thousand throes,
And maddening in her ire,
One sad and sole relief she knows—
The sting she nourished for her foes;
Whose venom never yet was vain,
Gives but one pang, and cures all pain,
And darts into her desperate brain;
So do the dark in soul expire,
Or live like scorpion girt with fire.
So writhes the mind remorse has riven,
Unfit for earth, undoomed for heaven,
Darkness above, despair beneath,
Around it flame, within it death.”
Forgiveness. As the prince or ruler only has power to forgive treason in his subjects, so God only has power to forgive sin. As no man can forgive a debt only the creditor to whom the debt is due, so God only can forgive us our debts, whose debtors we are to an incalculable amount. But we know that he is always ready to forgive. “He keeps mercy for thousands, and pardons iniquity, transgression, and sin.”
Forgiveness. In a school in Ireland, one boy struck another, and when he was about to be punished, the injured boy begged for his pardon. The master asked. “Why do you wish to keep him from being flogged?” The boy replied, “I have read in the New Testament that our Lord Jesus Christ said that we should forgive our enemies; and, therefore, I forgive him, and beg he may not be punished for my sake.”
At the present day the green turben which marks descent from Mahomet is often worn in the East by the very poor, and even by beggars. In our own history the glory of the once illustrious Plantagenets so completely waned, that the direct representative of Margaret Plantagenet, daughter and heiress of George, Duke of Clarence, followed the trade of a cobbler in Newport, Shropshire, in 1637. Among the lineal descendants of Edmund of Woodstock, sixth son of Edward I., and entitled to quarter the royal arms, were a village butcher and a keeper of a turnpike gate; and among the descendants of Thomas Plantagenet, Duke of Gloucester, fifth son of Edward III., was included the late sexton of a London church.—Geikie.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain Vashti’s Insubordination and its Punishment
Vashti’s Insubordination and its Punishment
v. 9. Also Vashti, the queen, made a feast for the women in the royal house which belonged to King Ahasuerus, in her own apartments of the palace, for according to Oriental custom the sexes did not mingle at the banquet and feast.
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v. 10. On the seventh day, the last day of the feast, the climax of the banqueting, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, drunkenly happy with the excess of revelry, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, and Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcas, the seven chamberlains that served in the presence of Ahasuerus the king, the eunuchs who usually transmitted the king’s orders to the queen’s apartments,
v. 11. to bring Vashti, the queen, before the king with the crown royal, in full regal apparel, including the high, pointed turban distinctive of her rank, but evidently without her veil, to show the people and the princes her beauty; for she was fair to look on, beautiful of countenance, and Xerxes was very proud of her beauty, as reflecting credit also upon himself.
v. 12. But the Queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s commandment by his chamberlains; therefore was the king very wroth, all the more because her refusal of obedience happened upon this state occasion, and his anger burned in him, since his authority both as husband and as king had been set aside.
v. 13. Then the king said to the wise men, which knew the times, the astrologers and magicians of the Persian court, who were also his advisers, (for so was the king’s manner toward all that knew law and judgment, he followed this course of getting expert advice in all his undertakings;
v. 14. and the next unto him was Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena. and Memucan, the seven princes of Persia and Media, which saw the king’s face, and which sat the first in the kingdom, being his ministers or the members of his cabinet,)
v. 15. What shall we do unto the Queen Vashti according to law because she hath not performed the commandment of the King Ahasuerus by the chamberlains? Her refusal had, accordingly, been absolute, not qualified.
v. 16. And Memucan, undoubtedly after a consultation of the counselors, answered before the king and the princes, Vashti the queen hath not done wrong to the king only, her flat disobedience setting aside his authority as husband and king, but also to all the princes, and to all the people that are in all the provinces of the King Ahasuerus.
v. 17. For this deed of the queen shall come abroad unto all women, so that they shall despise their husbands in their eyes, when it shall be reported, The King Ahasuerus commanded Vashti, the queen, to be brought in before him, but she came not. They feared the consequences of the queen’s evil example.
v. 18. Likewise shall the ladies of Persia and Media, the wives of the nobles, say this day unto all the king’s princes which have heard of the deed of the queen. Thus shall there arise too much contempt and wrath, literally, "in sufficient amounts," that is, more than enough to suit us.
v. 19. If it please the king, let there go a royal commandment from him, a special order, or decree, with special reference to this occurrence, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes, that it be not altered, having the legal authority that such decrees had in the Persian Empire, That Vashti come no more before King Ahasuerus, being deposed entirely from her royal dignity;and let the king give her royal estate unto another that is better than she.
v. 20. And when the king’s decree which he shall make shall be published throughout all his empire, (for it is great,) all the wives shall give to their husbands honor, both to great and small, the harsh measures adopted would have this effect of strengthening the authority of the husbands.
v. 21. And the saying pleased the king and the princes. And the king did according to the word of Memucan;
v. 22. for he sent letters into all the king’s provinces, into every province according to the writing thereof, in its own script or characters, and to every people after their language, this feature of communicating with all conquered nations in their own language being found in Persia at that time, that every man should bear rule in his own house, and that it should be published according to the language of every people, the language of the husband being given the preference in the home. This was, in view of the circumstances, not an idle and superfluous, but probably an ineffectual protest against a real and growing evil. So far as Christian households are concerned, the position of the husband over against his wife is not one of absolute authority, but of head-ship, with the example of Christ held before all spouses at all times, Eph 5:20; Gal 3:18; 1Ti 2:11-15.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On the seventh day
On the seventh day
"After 6 days" (See: Numbers)
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the king's heart was feeling happy because of the wine
Here "heart" refers to the king, and "feeling happy" is an idiom that means he was drunk. AT: "the king was drunk with wine" (See: Synecdoche and Idiom)
Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, Abagtha, Zethar, and Karkas
These are names of men. (See: How to Translate Names)
the seven officials who served before him
This is background information to explain who these men were. (See: Background Information)
her features were stunning
"she was very beautiful"
translationWords
Vashti
royal
king
Ahasuerus
heart
crown
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 1:9 Since Vashti means the best, desired, beloved, this…
1:9 Since Vashti means the best, desired, beloved, this is possibly the title for a favored wife rather than her actual name. Ancient Greek historians refer to her as Amestris (e.g., Herodotus, Histories 7.114). Her son, Artaxerxes I, became king of Persia (465–424 BC) after Xerxes’ death (see Ezra 4:7-23; 6:14; 7:1, 7, 11-26; 8:1; Neh 1:1; 2:1; 5:14; 13:6).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.