After these things, when the wrath of King Ahasuerus was pacified, he remembered Vashti, and what she had done, and what was decreed against her. Then the king’s servants who served him said, “Let beautiful young virgins be sought for the king. Let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom, that they may gather together all the beautiful young virgins to the citadel of Susa, to the women’s house, to the custody of Hegai the king’s eunuch, keeper of the women. Let cosmetics be given them; and let the maiden who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti.” The thing pleased the king, and he did so.
There was a certain Jew in the citadel of Susa, whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite, who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captives who had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away. He brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle’s daughter; for she had neither father nor mother. The maiden was fair and beautiful; and when her father and mother were dead, Mordecai took her for his own daughter.
So, when the king’s commandment and his decree was heard, and when many maidens were gathered together to the citadel of Susa, to the custody of Hegai, Esther was taken into the king’s house, to the custody of Hegai, keeper of the women. The maiden pleased him, and she obtained kindness from him. He quickly gave her cosmetics and her portions of food, and the seven choice maidens who were to be given her out of the king’s house. He moved her and her maidens to the best place in the women’s house. Esther had not made known her people nor her relatives, because Mordecai had instructed her that she should not make it known. Mordecai walked every day in front of the court of the women’s house, to find out how Esther was doing, and what would become of her.
Each young woman’s turn came to go in to King Ahasuerus after her purification for twelve months (for so were the days of their purification accomplished, six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet fragrances and with preparations for beautifying women). The young woman then came to the king like this: whatever she desired was given her to go with her out of the women’s house to the king’s house. In the evening she went, and on the next day she returned into the second women’s house, to the custody of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch, who kept the concubines. She came in to the king no more, unless the king delighted in her, and she was called by name. Now when the turn of Esther, the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her for his daughter, came to go in to the king, she required nothing but what Hegai the king’s eunuch, the keeper of the women, advised. Esther obtained favor in the sight of all those who looked at her.
So Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus into his royal house in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign. The king loved Esther more than all the women, and she obtained favor and kindness in his sight more than all the virgins; so that he set the royal crown on her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti.
Then the king made a great feast for all his princes and his servants, even Esther’s feast; and he proclaimed a holiday in the provinces, and gave gifts according to the king’s bounty.
When the virgins were gathered together the second time, Mordecai was sitting in the king’s gate. Esther had not yet made known her relatives nor her people, as Mordecai had commanded her; for Esther obeyed Mordecai, like she did when she was brought up by him. In those days, while Mordecai was sitting in the king’s gate, two of the king’s eunuchs, Bigthan and Teresh, who were doorkeepers, were angry, and sought to lay hands on the King Ahasuerus. This thing became known to Mordecai, who informed Esther the queen; and Esther informed the king in Mordecai’s name. When this matter was investigated, and it was found to be so, they were both hanged on a gallows; and it was written in the book of the chronicles in the king’s presence.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 9, 11, 13, 15, 16, 18, 19, 21, 22 By the seven wise men of his counsel.
By the seven wise men of his counsel.
That is, he called the matter again into communication.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–23 Est 2:1 After these things, when the wrath of…
Est 2:1 After these things, when the wrath of king Ahasuerus was appeased, he remembered Vashti, and what she had done, and what was decreed against her.
Ver. 1. After these things] After the wine was out, the fuel of his anger spent, and the lust thereof satisfied.
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When the wrath of king Ahasuerus was appeased] There is nothing that a man is more ready to keep than his wrath; therefore the Hebrews put servare for servare iram, to keep for to keep his anger, as Jer 3:5 Psa 103:9 Lev 19:18. Ahasuerus, by invading Greece, had so incensed them, that their wrath αειμνηστος, unappeasable, for they thenceforth hated all barbarians for the Persians’ sake, and forbade them their sacrifices, as they used to do murderers. But Ahasuerus’s wrath against Vashti was after a time assuaged.
He remembered Vashti] Not without some remorse, but without all true repentance. He forsook not his rash anger as a sin, but regretted it for a time, and laid it asleep, to be raked up again upon as slight an occasion. In graceless persons vitia raduntur, non eradicantur; absconduntur saepius, non exscinduntur; vices may be barbed or benumbed, not mastered and mortified. A merchant may part with his goods, and yet not hate them. A man may part with his sins for self-respects, and yet retain his affection to them; as Phaltiel did to Michal, when he went weeping after her afar off. He may remember his Vashti, his bosom sins from which he seemeth divorced, and by such a sinful remembering of them, recommit them. See Eze 23:21 compared with Est 2:8.
And what was decreed against her] But whose fault was that? Wine and anger are the worst of all counsellors, say the ancients? and Ahasuerus found it so; as did also Alexander the Great, and many others, but all too late. Hence they came in afterwards with their Non putaram, Had I known; which Scipio said should never be heard out of a great man’s mouth (Plutarch). Augustus also was wont to say, that nothing doth so ill become a commander as hastiness and rashness (Sueton.). Cicero taxeth him for a fool, qui eundem laedit et laudat, who first wrongeth a man, and then commendeth him.
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 On vv1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 21, 23 He remembered Vashti with grief and shame, that in…
He remembered Vashti with grief and shame, that in his wine and rage he had so severely punished, and so irrevocably rejected, so beautiful and desirable a person, and that for so small a provocation, to which she was easily led by the modesty of her sex, and by the laws and customs of Persia.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 21 How God put down one that was high and…
How God put down one that was high and mighty from her seat we read in the chapter before, and are now to be told how he exalted one of low degree, as the virgin Mary observes in her song (Luk 1:52) and Hannah before her, Sa1 2:4-8. Vashti being humbled for her height, Esther is advanced for her humility. Observe,
I. The extravagant course that was taken to please the king with another wife instead of Vashti. Josephus says that when his anger was over he was exceedingly grieved that the matter was carried so far, and would have been reconciled to Vashti but that, by the constitution of the government, the judgment was irrevocable - that therefore, to make him forget her, they contrived how to entertain him first with a great variety of concubines, and then to fix him to the most agreeable of them all for a wife instead of Vashti. The marriages of princes are commonly made by policy and interest, for the enlarging of their dominions and the strengthening of their alliances; but this must be made partly by the agreeableness of the person to the king's fancy, whether she was rich or poor, noble or ignoble. What pains were taken to humour the king! As if his power and wealth were given him for no other end than that he might have all the delights of the sense wound up to the height of pleasurableness, and exquisitely refined, though at the best they are but dross and dregs in comparison with divine and spiritual pleasures. 1. All the provinces of his kingdom must be searched for fair young virgins, and officers appointed to choose them, Est 2:3. 2. A house (a seraglio) was prepared on purpose for them, and a person appointed to have the charge of them, to see that they were well provided for. 3. No less than twelve months was allowed them for their purification, some of them at least who were brought out of the country, that they might be very clean, and perfumed, Est 2:12. Even those who were the masterpieces of nature must yet have all this help from art to recommend them to a vain and carnal mind. 4. After the king had once taken them to his bed, they were made recluses ever after, except the king pleased at any time to send for them (Est 2:14); they were looked upon as secondary wives, were maintained by the king accordingly, and might not marry. We may see, by this instance, to what absurd practices those came who were destitute of divine revelation, and who, as a punishment for their idolatry, were given up to vile affections. Having broken through that law of creation which resulted from God's making man, they broke through another law, which was founded upon his making one man and one woman. See what need there was of the gospel of Christ to purify men from the lusts of the flesh and to reduce them to the original institution. Those that have learned Christ will think it a shame even to speak of such things as these which were done of them, not only in secret, but avowedly, Eph 5:12.
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II. The overruling providence of God thus brining Esther to be queen. Had she been recommended to Ahasuerus for a wife, he would have rejected the motion with disdain; but when she came in her turn, after several others, and it was found that though many of them were ingenious and discreet, graceful and agreeable, yet Esther excelled them all, way was made for her, even by her rivals, into the king's affections and the honours consequent thereupon. It is certain, as bishop Patrick says, that those who suggest that she committed a great sin to come at this dignity do not consider the custom of those times and countries. Every one that the king took to his bed was married to him, and was his wife of a lower rank, as Hagar was Abraham's; so that, if Esther had not been made queen, the sons of Jacob need not say that he dealt with their sister as with a harlot. Concerning Esther we must observe,
1. Her original and character. (1.) She was one of the children of the captivity, a Jewess and a sharer with her people in their bondage. Daniel and his fellows were advanced in the land where they were captives; for they were of those whom God sent thither for their good, Jer 24:5. (2.) She was an orphan; her father and mother were both dead (Est 2:7), but, when they had forsaken here, then the Lord took her up, Psa 27:10. When those whose unhappiness it is to be thus deprived of their parents in their childhood yet afterwards come to be eminently pious and prosperous, we ought to take notice of it to the glory of that God, and his grace and providence, who has taken it among the titles of his honour to be a Father of the fatherless. (3.) She was a beauty, fair of form, good of countenance; so it is in the margin, Est 2:7. Her wisdom and virtue were her greatest beauty, but it is an advantage to be a diamond to be well set. (4.) Mordecai, her cousin-german, was her guardian, brought her up, and took her for his own daughter. The Septuagint says that he designed to make her his wife; if that were so, he was to be praised that he opposed not her better preferment. let God be acknowledged in raising up friends for the fatherless and motherless; let it be an encouragement to that pious instance of charity that many who have taken care of the education of orphans have lived to see the good fruit of their care and pains, abundantly to their comfort. Dr. Lightfoot thinks that this Mordecai is the same with that mentioned in Ezr 2:2, who went up to Jerusalem with the first, and helped forward the settlement of his people until the building of the temple was stopped, and then went back to the Persian court, to see what service he could do them there. Mordecai being Esther's guardian or pro-parent, we are told, [1.] How tender he was of her, as if she had been his own child (Est 2:11): he walked before her door every day, to know how she did, and what interest she had. Let those whose relations are thus cast upon them by divine Providence be thus kindly affectioned to them and solicitous for them. [2.] How respectful she was to him. Though in relation she was his equal, yet, being in age and dependence his inferior, she honoured him as her father - did his commandment, Est 2:20. This is an example to orphans; if they fall into the hands of those who love them and take care of them, let them make suitable returns of duty and affection. The less obliged their guardians were in duty to provide for them the more obliged they are in gratitude to honour and obey their guardians. Here is an instance of Esther's obsequiousness t Mordecai, that she did not show her people of her kindred, because Mordecai had charged her that she should not, Est 2:10. he did not bid her deny her country, nor tell a lie to conceal her parentage; if he had told her to do so, she must not have done it. But he only told her not to proclaim her country. All truths are not to be spoken at all times, though an untruth is not to be spoken at any time. She being born in Shushan, and her parents being dead, all took her to be of Persian extraction, and she was not bound to undeceive them.
2. Her preferment. Who would have thought that a Jewess, a captive, and orphan, was born to be a queen, an empress! Yet so it proved. Providence sometimes raiseth up the poor out of the dust, to set them among princes, Sa1 2:8. (1.) The king's chamberlain honoured her (Est 2:9), and was ready to serve her. Wisdom and virtue will gain respect. Those that make sure of God's favour shall find favour with man too as far as it is good for them. All that looked upon Esther admired her (Est 2:15) and concluded that she was the lady that would win the prize, and she did win it. (2.) The king himself fell in love with her. She was not solicitous, as the rest of the maidens were, to set herself off with artificial beauty; she required nothing but just what was appointed for her (Est 2:15) and yet she was most acceptable. The more natural beauty is the more agreeable. The king loved Esther above all the women, v. 17. Now he needed not to make any further trials, or take time to deliberate; he is soon determined to set the royal crown upon her head, and make her queen, v. 17. This was done in his seventh year (v. 16) and Vashti was divorced in his third year (Est 1:3); so that he was four years without a queen. Notice is taken, [1.] Of the honours the king put upon Esther. He graced the solemnity of her coronation with a royal feast (Est 2:18), at which perhaps Esther, in compliance with the king, made a public appearance, which Vashti had refused to do, that she might have the praise of obedience in the same instance in which the other incurred the blot of disobedience. He also granted a release to the provinces, either a remittance of the taxes in arrear or an act of grace for criminals; as Pilate, at the feast, released a prisoner. This was to add t the joy. [2.] Of the deference Esther continued to pay to her former guardian. She still did the commandment of Mordecai, as when she was brought up with him, Est 2:20. Mordecai say in the king's gate; that was the height of his preferment: he was one of the porters or door-keepers of the court. Whether he had this place before, or whether Esther obtained it for him, we are not told; but there he sat contentedly, and aimed no higher; and yet Esther who was advanced to the throne was observant of him. This was an evidence of a humble and grateful disposition, that she had a sense of his former kindnesses and his continued wisdom. It is a great ornament to those that are advanced, and much to their praise, to remember their benefactors, to retain the impressions of their good education, to be diffident of themselves, willing to take advice, and thankful for it.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–23 After these things, when the wrath of King Ahasuerus…
After these things, when the wrath of King Ahasuerus was appeased,.... Which went off with his wine, and so was quickly after, a few days at most, unless this can be understood as after the expedition of Xerxes into Greece, from whence he returned to Shushan, in the seventh year of his reign; and if he is the Ahasuerus here meant, he married Esther that year, Est 2:16 and it seems certain, that after his expedition he gave himself up to his amours, and in his way to Sardis he fell in love with his brother's wife, and then with his daughter (b):
he remembered Vashti; her beauty, and was grieved, as Jarchi observes, that she was removed from him; and so Josephus says (c), that he passionately loved her, and could not bear parting with her, and therefore was grieved that he had brought himself into such difficulties: the Targumists carry it further, and say that he was wroth with those that advised him to it, and ordered them to be put to death, and that they were:
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and what she had done; that it was a trivial thing, and not deserving of such a sentence as he had passed upon her; that it was not done from contempt of him, but from modesty, and a strict regard to the laws of the Persians:
and what was decreed against her; that she should come no more before him, but be divorced from him; the thought of which gave him great pain and uneasiness.
(b) Herodot. Calliope, sive, l. 9. c. 107. (c) Antiqu. l. 11. c. 6. sect. 2.
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 On vv1, 3, 7, 9, 10, 13, 19 The virgins of the kingdom are gathered together, ver.…
The virgins of the kingdom are gathered together, ver. 1-4. And Esther with the rest, ver. 5-8. She finds favour with the king's chamberlain, ver. 9-11. The manner of preparing the virgins, and bringing them to the king, ver. 12-14. Esther pleases him, who makes her queen, ver. 15-20. Mordecai discovers a conspiracy against the king, ver. 21-23.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 21, 22, 23 The counsellors advise that a selection of virgins should…
CHAPTER II
The counsellors advise that a selection of virgins should be
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made throughout the empire, out of whom the king should choose
one to be queen in place of Vashti, 1-4.
Account of Mordecai and his cousin Esther, 5-7.
She is chosen among the young women, and is placed under the
care of Hegai, the king's chamberlain, to go through a year's
purification, 8-11.
The manner in which these young women were introduced to the
king, and how those were disposed of who were not called again
to the king's bed, 12-14.
Esther pleases the king, and is set above all the women; and he
makes her queen in the place of Vashti, and does her great
honour, 15-20.
Mordecai, sitting at the king's gate, discovers a conspiracy
formed against the king's life by two of his chamberlains; he
informs the king, the matter is investigated, they are found
guilty and hanged, and the transaction is recorded, 21-23.
NOTES ON CHAP. II
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23 Est 2:1. He remembered Vashti — With grief and…
Est 2:1. He remembered Vashti — With grief and shame, that in his wine and rage he had so severely punished, and so irrevocably rejected, so beautiful and desirable a person, and that for so small a provocation, to which she was easily led by the modesty of her sex and by the laws and customs of Persia.
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 On vv1, 3, 5, 7, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 21, 23 These events must belong to the time between the…
These events must belong to the time between the great assembly held at Susa in Xerxes’ third year (483 B.C.), and the departure of the monarch on his expedition against Greece in his fifth year, 481 B.C.
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 On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 Suffered. He began to repent. The Persians used to…
Suffered. He began to repent. The Persians used to deliberate when warm with wine: but their decrees were not ratified till they had examined them again the next day. (Herodotus i. 133.) --- This was not the case here; the king divorced his wife without any delay. (Calmet) --- Septuagint intimate that he presently lost thoughts of her. "He no longer remembered Vasthi with any affection, reflecting what she had said, and how he had condemned her." (Haydock) --- But the Alexandrian copy agrees with the Hebrew. (Calmet)
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).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 The Rise and Conflict of Opposite Elements
FIRST SECTION
The Rise and Conflict of Opposite Elements
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Esther 2, 3
A.—ESTHER IS RAISED TO THE PLACE OF VASHTI, AND MORDECAI MAKES HIMSELF DESERVING OF THE FAVOR OF AHASUERUS
Est_2:1-23
I. Esther’s Elevation. Est_2:1-18
1After these things [words], when [as] the wrath of king Ahasuerus was appeased [subsided], he remembered Vashti, and what she had done, and what was2decreed against her. Then [And] said the king’s servants [young men] that ministered unto him [his waiters], Let there be fair [good of appearance] young virgins sought [let them seek] for the king: 3And let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom, that they may [and let them] gather together all the fair young virgins [every young virgin good of appearance] unto Shushan the palace, to the house of the women, unto the custody [hand] of Hege the king’s chamberlain [eunuch], keeper of the women; and let their things for purification be given them [let there be a giving their furbishments]: 4And let the maiden [young woman] which pleaseth [that seems good to] the king be queen instead of Vashti. And the thing pleased [seemed good to] the king, and he did so.
5Now in Shushan the palace there was a certain [man] Jew, whose [ad his] name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite, 6Who had been carried away [made captive] from Jerusalem with the captivity which had been carried away [made captive] with Jechoniah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away [made captive]. 7And he brought up [was supporting] Hadassah (that is Esther) his uncle’s daughter; for she had neither father nor mother, and the maid [young woman] was fair [beautiful of figure] and beautiful [good of appearance];1 whom [and her] Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for his own [to him for a] daughter.8 So [And] it came to pass [was], when the king’s commandment [word] and his decree was heard, and when many maidens [young women] were gathered together unto Shushan the palace, to the custody [hand] of Hegai, that [and, i.e. then] Esther was brought [taken] also unto the king’s house, to the custody [hand] of Hegai, keeper of the women. 9And the maiden [young woman] pleased him [seemed good in his eyes], and she obtained kindness of [received favor before] him; and he speedily gave [hastened to give] her her things for purification [furbishments], with [and] such things as belonged to her [her portions], and seven maidens [young women], which were meet [seen, i. e. chosen] to be given [give] her, out of the king’s house: and he preferred [changed] her and her maids [young women] unto the best [good] place of the house of the women. 10Esther had not showed [told] her people nor [and] her kindred [lineage]: for Mordecai hadcharged [enjoined upon] her that she should not show [tell] it. 11And Mordecai walked [was walking to and fro] every day [continually]2 before the court of the women’s house, to know how Esther did [the peace, i. e. welfare of Esther], and what should become of [be done with] her.
12Now [And], when every [each] maid’s turn was come [approached] to go in to [the] king Ahasuerus, after that she had been [at the end of her being] twelve months, according to the manner [law] of the women, (for so were the days of their purifications [furbishments] accomplished, to wit, six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet odors [spices], and with other things for the purifying [furbishments] of the women,) 13Then [And] thus [in this time] came every maiden unto the king; whatsoever she desired [might say] was [would be] given her, to go with her out of the house of the women unto the king’s house. 14In the evening she went, and on the morrow [in the morning] she3 returned into the second house of the women, to the custody [hand] of Shaashgaz the king’s chamberlain [eunuch], which kept [keeping] the concubines: she came [would come] in unto the king no more, except the king delighted in her, and that she were called by name. 15Now [And] when the turn of Esther, the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her for his [to him for a] daughter, was come [approached] to go in unto the king, she required [sought] nothing but what Hegai the king’s chamberlain [eunuch], the keeper of [keeping] the women, appointed [might say]: and Esther obtained [was receiving] favor in the sight [eyes] of all them that looked 16upon [seeing] her. So [And] Esther was taken unto [the] king Ahasuerus into his house royal in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign. 17And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained [received] grace [favor] and favor [mercy] in his sight [before him] more than all the virgins; so that [and] he set the royal crown upon her head, and made her 18queen instead of Vashti. Then [And] the king made a great feast [banquet] unto all his princes and his servants, even Esther’s feast [banquet]; and he made a release [rest] to the provinces, and gave gifts [a contribution] according to the state [hand] of the king.
II. Mordecai makes himself deserving of the favor of Ahasuerus. Est_2:18-20
19And when the virgins were gathered together the second time, then Mordecai sat [was sitting] in the king’s gate. 20Esther had not yet showed [was not telling] her kindred [lineage] nor [and] her people, as Mordecai had charged [enjoined upon] her: for Esther did the commandment [saying] of Mordecai, like as [what she was] when she was brought up [in her being supported] with him. 21In those days, while [and, i. e. when] Mordecai sat [was sitting] in the king’s gate, two of the king’s chamberlains, Bigthan and Teresh, of those which kept [keeping] the door [threshold] were wroth [was enraged], and sought to lay hand on the king Ahasuerus. 22And the thing [word] was known to Mordecai, who [and he] told it unto Esther the queen, and Esther certified [said to] the king thereof in Mordecai’s name. 23And when inquisition was made of [they sought] the matter [word], [and] it was found out; therefore [and] they were both hanged on a tree: and it was written in the book of the Chronicles [words (i. e. deeds) of the days] before the king.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
1 [Est_2:7. Of the two expressions here used, the former refers to general symmetry of person, יְפַ־תֹּאַר, and the latter specially to comeliness of countenance, טוֹבַת מַרְאֶת. Esther had not only a fine form, but also a fine face.—Tr.]
2 [Est_2:11. The expression here used is doubly emphatic, בְּכָל־יוֹם וָיוֹם, to show Mordecai’s intense solicitude for his ward.—Tr.]
3 [Est_2:14. The pronoun, being expressed, is here emphatic = each individual singly.—Tr.]
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Est_2:1-4. Plan for procuring a new Queen.— The history which informs us how Ahasuerus caused virgins to be brought together from all the parts of his kingdom; how in consequence he loved Esther in the place of Vashti, begins properly here, at the point when the anger of the king against Vashti had allayed, and when he thought of what she had done, and what was determined respecting her. In view of Est_2:16 we would be led to assume, since Esther was brought to the king’s palace in the seventh year, and the tenth month of the year, that now we stand in the fifth or even the sixth year of the reign of Ahasuerus. Hence there would be between Esther 1 (comp. Est_2:3) and chap. 2 a period of nearly three years. We may assume that it did not take longer than a half year to execute the order here given; and the preparation of the virgins described in Est_2:12 did not continue more than a year. Meanwhile Ahasuerus was employed in Greece during the sixth year of his reign, but he returned in the seventh. In all probability we are still in the time of the Grecian war. We may also very naturally conclude that under the circumstances many years were not suffered to pass before it was thought to find a substitute for Vashti. This resolution was formed soon after the rejection of Vashti, but its execution may have been delayed because of the newly undertaken Grecian war. The literal meaning of Est_2:1 seems to be that Ahasuerus rued in his sober moments what had passed, that hence the fear might have arisen lest he would now direct his anger from Vashti and let it fall upon his counsellors.
שֹׁךְ from שׁכךְ, to let down, to lie down, is here and in Est_7:10, spoken of the swellings of anger, in Gen_8:1, of movements of water, and is related to שָׁחַח, to be low or become low.גָּזַר is to decide, to conclude firmly, irrevocably, comp. גְּזָרָה, Dan_4:14.
Est_2:2. The youths4 that served before the king sought to avert the danger that threatened. Those here mentioned are his attendants (comp. Neh_4:10), who were employed about his person (comp. Est_6:3; Est_6:5). They advised that maidens, virgins, be brought to the king, and that these should be beautiful to look upon. יְבַקְשׁוּ, the 3d pers. plur., represents, as is usual in the Aram., the impersonal “one,” as a passive expression. נְעָרוֹת, marriageable persons, is in itself too indefinite to be other than an appendage to בְּתוּלוֹת.5
Est_2:3. They also gave the plan of execution of this project: The king, through his appointed officers, or through specially authorized men, was to cause to be brought together from all the provinces of his kingdom the most beautiful virgins, and placed under the hand of Hege in the house of the women. This Hege was the chief eunuch of the king, the keeper of the women, under whose care and direction every young maiden taken into the harem was placed, and by him prepared for one whole year to go into the presence of the king (comp. Est_2:12). הֵגֵא in Est_2:8; Est_2:15 called הֵגַי, was, as above stated, the chief overseer of the king’s harem.6And let their things for purification be given (them).—וְנָתוֹן, the infin. absol., gives prominence to the act purely as such, since it presupposes the subject as being self-evident: “Let them be given” [rather, “Let there be a giving”]. תַּמְרוּק (comp. Est_2:9; Est_2:12), from מָרַק, to rub, to cleanse, to make clean, is an abstract image, purification in the sense of cleansing; while מְרוּקִים in Est_2:12 means rather [passively] become cleansed, or pure. Evidently such a purification meant a cleansing and anointing with precious oils, Est_2:4. Their purpose was that the one who should please the king might become queen in the room of Vashti. מָלַךְ here speaks of the queen, as it elsewhere does of the king. Ahasuerus approved of this proposition also (comp. Est_1:21).
Est_2:5-7. Now our author can and must make a reference to Mordecai and Esther as the chief persons on the one side in the conflict that is to follow. Est_2:5. A certain Jew—remained about there—in Shushan the palace—whose name (was) Mordecai.—It is a characteristic of our author in his vivid mode of statement that, instead of continuing the connection, he makes use of וַיְהִי, so taking a fresh start (comp. Est_1:9-10). Thus a new element, which comes into play in this history, receives greater prominence.
The name Mordecai which in the later recensions is not written מָרְדְּכַי, but מָרְדֳכַי, has perhaps connection with the Persian mordkai, “little man” (mannikin). Its derivation from the name of the Chaldee God, Merodach, is, however, extremely improbable. Its import is equally as uncertain with that of most of the names mentioned in chap. 1.7The son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite.—According to most commentators, also Clericus and Rambach, Jair, Shimei and Kish were the nearest antecedents of Mordecai.8 Still it is much more natural to hold with Josephus, who traces the genealogy of Esther to a royal house, that King Saul is meant (Arch. XI. 6); while both Targums hold both Shimei and Kish as being much earlier in the line, namely, identical with the men mentioned in the Books of Samuel, Shimei, the son of Gera, who cursed David (2Sa_16:5 sqq.; 1Ki_2:8; 1Ki_2:36 sqq.), and Kish, the father of Saul (1Sa_9:1; 1Ch_8:33). This agrees with the statement that the former Shimei, the same as the one here mentioned, should have been a son of Kish. In 1Sa_16:5 he is designated as being of the lineage of Saul. Further we discover that Mordecai, by this derivation, was a Benjamite, and that already by this genealogical descent he is placed in opposition to Haman as his enemy. This is most clearly shown by our author in designating the latter as an Agagite (comp. Est_3:1). It is also well known that it was a custom of Biblical historians not to give the genealogy complete, but rather to form a connection more or less close with celebrated names of the older times (comp. e.g. Maaseiah in Neh_11:5, the son of Shiloni; or Pethahiah, Neh_11:24, the son of Judah; or Shallum, 1Ch_9:19, the son of Korah). The relative sentence in Est_2:6 : Who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captivity, which had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away cannot by any means be referred to the last named Kish, as is thought by older commentators, and also by Clericus and Baumgarten (I. c. p. 127), but only to Mordecai, to whom special reference is made as being a Benjamite. Not only the analogy of similar personal designations found in the Scriptures demands this, but especially the circumstance that this reference to Kish as a Benjamite would be purely arbitrary. Thus it gives the appearance as if Mordecai had himself belonged to the first period of the exile, and not his great grand-father, and as if the history of our book, instead of belonging to the period of Xerxes, really belonged to the period of a pre-existing king of Media (perhaps to that of Cyaxares, comp. Est_1:1). For the assumption that Mordecai had lived from the beginning of the exile up to the time of Xerxes, and then, being perhaps 120–130 years old, had become prime minister, is quite improbable. So is also the statement that he was identical with the Mordecai mentioned in Ezr_2:2; Neh_7:7, an exile returned to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel and Joshua, but afterwards coming back again to Chaldæa, or rather to Shushan (Rambach). The contrast with the youth of Esther renders it in that case well nigh impossible then that she should come into notice here. Still this natural consideration may be deceptive. Since all the other incidents point to the later time of Xerxes, we are justified, indeed compelled, to bear in mind that mode of speech which was then employed. This treats of things done by predecessors as having been witnessed by their progeny, who had a certain part in them; such an analogy is found in Gen_46:8 sqq. Perhaps also the expression here indicates in advance that Mordecai had been carried away not only along with Jeconiah, but also together with the captives led away at the time of Jeconiah.9 One thing, however, is clear: that though a Benjamite, he belonged to the “captivity” of Judah, and not to that of Israel, to which Joachim Lange would assign him. But in this place reference is made to him, as is indicated in Est_2:7, because of his relationship to Esther. And he brought up Hadassah [that is, Esther] his uncle’s daughter.— אֹמֵן, a participle connected with an accus., means a guardian (2Ki_11:5; Num_11:12), but it may also mean one who cares for, or who is a foster-parent (Isa_49:23). הֲדַסָּה, myrtle, usually masc. הֲדַם, plur. הֲדַסִּים, may be compared with the Greek names for maidens, Μυρτία, Μυῤῥίνη. The phrase, “that is, Esther,” has joined with it also the other name by which she has become known. Without doubt she received this at the Persian court. אֶסְתֵּר is old Persian stara with א prosth.; see the term for star, modern Persian sitareh, Greek ἀστήρ. As the daughter of his uncle, his father’s brother, hence also his cousin, it was very likely that she was somewhat younger than her foster-father, but not one hundred or more years younger, as would be the case if he had lived at the beginning of the exile. Her father’s name, according to Est_2:15, was Abihail.
In Est_2:8-11 it follows how Esther, and through her Mordecai, were involved in the history of Ahasuerus. Est_2:8. So it came to pass (literally “when was heard,” comp. Est_1:20 and Neh_6:1), when the king’s commandment and his decree was heard—i.e., the decree of the king as expressed in the publicly proclaimed law, so that all were obliged to give it obedience; among other maidens Esther was brought also into the king’s house.—Perhaps quite a time was allowed to elapse before executing the decree, on account of the war with Greece, which had broken out meanwhile. It is quite certain, according to what follows, that Esther was not brought into the palace of the king Ahasuerus before the sixth year of his reign.
Est_2:9. Now since Esther appeared very beautiful in the eyes of Hegai, and found favor in his sight נָשָׂא הֶסֶד or נָשָׂא הֵן (Est_2:15; Est_2:17; Est_5:2) occurs only in our book, commonly מָצָא חֵן, to obtain or bear away grace or favor—he speedily gave her her things for purification with such things as belonged to her (comp. Est_2:3). מָנוֹת are portions, not so much of oils for anointing as rather good food (comp. Est_9:19; Est_9:22). Perhaps those maidens that were selected by the king received during their time of purification an especially good diet (comp. Dan_1:5). But they were prepared one after the other. Hegai expedited matters that Esther should be counted among the virgins of the harem as soon as possible. The accus.: the things for her purification and such things as belonged to her, does not depend upon יְבַהֵל, but upon לָתֶת לָהּ; the object is placed before the infin. according to Aramæan usage. But the infin. is here added after the following object; and “the seven maidens selected” is repealed, lest the previous objective statement might seem too long. The seven maidens selected, i.e. from the king’s service, were by law given to her as servants and to keep her company. רְאֻיּוֹת means primarily selected for a definite purpose (comp. חֲזָא, Dan_3:19); in the Talmud and Rabbins רָאוּי takes the meaning of dignus, decens, conveniens10.—And he preferred her and her maids unto the best (place) of the house of the women,i.e. an especially good and beautiful part of it, the staterooms of the women’s house. Thus she might in every respect live as belonged to the distinction awaiting her.
Est_2:10. Esther owed this fortune next to her fairness to the shrewdness of Mordecai. Because of his advice Esther had not showed her people nor her kindred, as being one of the captive and despised Jews, else she would soon have been set back. Mordecai showed his love and shrewdness also in this, that even now he kept up his relationship to her. And Mordecai walked every day before the court of the women’s house, to know how Esther did, and what should become of her.—This was to find out whether she was really in preparation for the king. It appears that he could still approach her without hindrance, whereas in chap. 4 it is stated, that when he put on clothes of mourning, he was no more permitted either to stand in the gate of the king, or to pass up and down before the house of the women. Perhaps the laws of the harem were in those days not so strict that, though he could not speak to Esther directly, still he could find out about her by her associate maidens. We have neither a right nor claim on the explanation of Jewish commentators that he was a Persian official high in rank, and therefore he had admittance to her (comp. Est_2:19).11
Est_2:12-18. Esther was preferred before all the other virgins. But in order to give prominence to the modesty and simplicity of Esther, our author tells us beforehand, in Est_2:12-14, what would have been granted her in this decisive hour had she requested it. Now when every maid’s turn was come to go in to king Ahasuerus,etc.—תּוֹד, really order, according to Ewald, § 146 d, probably connected with תּוֹרָת (comp. 1Ch_17:17), here in our verse corresponds to “turn,” “row” (Est_2:15); comp. תּוֹרִים, rows, chains, Cantic. i. 11. So instead of saying: “When the turn of each maid came,” we would say: “When it was the turn of each maid.” After that she had been twelve months, according to the manner of the women.—One would be led to expect: “At the end of twelve months, after that,” etc. But the author desires to give expression to the thought: “At the end of the purifications and necessary preparations.” The “manner of the women” does not mean the custom of the women (Gen_18:11; Gen_31:35, Clericus), for it would not then be necessary to add “twelve months;” but it is the law prescribing those reparations which are more fully set forth in what follows. The term “women” instead of “maidens” must not seem strange to us at this place any more than תַּמְרוּקֵי at the end of the verse. Six months with the oil of myrrh,etc., is more fully supplemented by: “They were purified” or prepared. The purifications of the women last mentioned are still other means which were employed by the women for this purpose. The clause following in Est_2:13 should perhaps read: “At the coming of every maiden to the king all these things were given her,” etc. For this is really the declaration upon which a fact is based, namely, that when Esther came, she required nothing more of Hegai than what he appointed, as is stated in Est_2:15. The expression: “At her coming” is made with a previous clause of condition, and is attached by the conjunction “and” to the sentence gone before; and it is also connected in its participial form with the principal sentence, so that it is best introduced by the terms “and when” or “now when” (comp. Job_1:13; Job_1:16-17 seq., and Ewald, § 341 d). Such participial sentences of condition as are found in Est_2:14 correspond to the nominative absolute, somewhat like the genitive absolute of the Greeks. Then thus came (every) maiden unto the king; whatsoever she desired was given her to go with her—בָּזֶה may be understood to mean from that time, as does also the Sept., i.e., illo, sc. tempore; but it may also have reference to the condition, hoc modo, sc. ornata (comp. בְּכֵן, Est_4:16). The subject, “whatever” (all that), precedes for emphasis, and does not mean a companion (Rambach)—opposed to this is Est_2:15—but all kinds of articles of decoration and of precious value with which she would decorate herself to appear before the king. The lot that befel most virgins in spite of all preparation and decoration is also on this account made note of by the author in Est_2:14, in order to give due prominence to the good fortune that came to Esther in her simplicity and attractive demeanor by placing it in such contrast. In the evening she went, and on the morrow she returned into the second house of the women, to the custody of Shaashgaz,etc.—שֵֹׁנִי is for שֵׁנִית, as in Neh_3:30; another part of the harem which was occupied by the concubines. Shaashgaz, who had the special oversight over the concubines, may have been a subordinate officer. She came in unto the king no more, except the king,etc.—We find that נִקְרֳאָה is in other good MSS. also written with the usual punctuation נִקְרְאָה.
Following Est_2:15 we have Esther’s conduct and success. Now when the turn of Esther, the daughter of Ahihail, the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her for his daughter, was come,etc. Thus fully is this account given, since now the decisive moment had come, in which she should come into such an important relation to her people. She required nothing but what Hegai the king’s chamberlain, the keeper of the women, appointed.—Not, perhaps, because of shrewdness, as if she depended on the fact that Hegai understood best the taste of the king; she did not design to please the king by means of ornamentation, and only put on what was deemed indispensable by Hegai.12And Esther obtained favor in the sight of all them that looked upon her.—She was attractive, sc. in this momentous hour. נָשָׂא חֵן, like נָשָׂא חֶסֶד, in Est_2:9.—[Est_2:16. The month Tebeth.—“This word, which does not occur elsewhere in Scripture, is singularly like that of the corresponding Egyptian month, Tobi or Tubai. A name but slightly different is found in the Palmyrian inscriptions (Gesenius, Thesaur, p. 543). Tebeth corresponded nearly to our January.” Rawlinson.]
Est_2:17. And the king loved Esther, and made her queen instead of Vashti: no doubt at the time of the first interview.
Est_2:18. In addition he also made a joyous marriage-feast, viz.:a great feast unto all his princes and his servants (even) Esther’s feast.—Perhaps such a feast, named in honor of the queen, was a custom on these occasions, and its import is this: Esther’s marriage with the king was thereby celebrated in due form. To this it may be added that Ahasuerus gave to the provinces a release, and gave gifts, according to the state of the king.—The verbal form of the Hiphil of הֲנָחָה in Chaldee may mean a release from taxes; the Sept. has it more indefinitely as ἄφεσις. But the Vulg. has it requies, as if it meant only a day of rest, for which עָשָׁה may be more appropriate. מַשְׂאֵת, according to Amo_5:11; Jer_40:5, is a gift of corn or articles of food. כְּיַד הַמֶּלֶךְ, as in Est_1:7.
Est_2:19-23. The author connects with the elevation of Esther a meritorious act of Mordecai, namely, the discovery of a conspiracy against the life of Ahasuerus. This fact, though not at once apparent as to its present bearing, became of very great importance in the history yet to be developed. And it could even now serve to confirm the hope, by means of Esther’s elevation, that henceforth an especially good time was coming for Judaism in Persia. Mordecai, who had previously shown himself a very shrewd man, now also reveals himself as a righteous subject. It seems that he, even more than Esther, was to be celebrated. The introductory sentences in Est_2:19-20 are very obscure. And when the virgins were gathered together the second time, then Mordecai sat in the king’s gate.—It may be asked what is meant by this second gathering of virgins. Clericus thinks “they seem on the first occasion to have been collected into the various provinces, and afterwards at Susa, before they were introduced into the royal gynocæum. The writer returns to what had happened before the marriage of Esther.” So likewise Grotius: “It is an ἐπάνοδος or retrogression; for reference is made to the incidents in Est_2:2.”
But the word שֵׁנִית does not well correspond to this, nor the circumstance that, now, according to Est_2:20 sqq., Esther is already queen; so that Mordecai now no more takes his post at the inclosure of the house of the women, but in the gate of the king, and thus through him she is enabled to give information to Ahasuerus. Drusius and Bertheau assume that the writer speaks here of the gathering or transfer of those maids who had been with the king into the other part of the house of the women which was under the care of Shaashgaz. Thus we may explain the fact that Mordecai no longer walked up and down before the house of the women, but stopped in the gate of the king, and was at his post when the virgins were conducted from the house of the king back to the house of the women, where be might expect that Esther would pass, since as the beloved queen she frequently came to the king. But then we would not read of a gathering, especially one of virgins, בְּתוּלוֹת. Besides שֵׁנִית does not well have a place in this explanation, and the idea that in the gate of the king one would be nearer to the women when returning from the king’s palace is incorrect. The choice of the same expression קָכַץ, which was employed in verses 3 and 8 with reference to the first collection of women, as well as then שֵׁנִית, leads to the sense, as is recognised by Corn. à Lapide, as also by more modern expositors, Keil included, that after the elevation of Esther a still further collection of virgins was made, perhaps of such as came from distant provinces, and who arrived later. We must keep in mind that the selection of Esther did not prohibit Ahasuerus from loving other virgins also and crowning them queens, even though she had the preference before all the others. Solomon had seven hundred queens and three hundred concubines. The latter were only secundariæ uxores (concubines). Then it may further be asked, What purpose was served by the mention of the second gathering in this connection? Keil’s assumption that thereby the period of the history following is designated, is insufficient, especially since it does not well serve as a designation of a period of time. The words immediately following make it probable that it was intended thereby to express how Mordecai could before this remain the more readily and oftener at his post in the gate of the king without attracting attention, or even without regard being paid to him. It may be assumed that at that time people did often come to the gate of the king except when the virgins had arrived, and in order to see them, while at other times they remained away. Usually, however, it was the seat for the officials, whether high or low in position (comp. Est_3:2-3, and Dan_2:49; also Xenophon’s Cyrop. VIII., 1, 6; Herodot. II., 120). We find nothing leading us to suppose that Mordecai was already an officer of the court, and as such had a place in the gate. If such had been the case it would have been mentioned, since, as an explanation to sitting in the king’s gate, it was essential to the matter in hand. But, in Est_3:2, we again find him sitting in the king’s gate, and that too, day after day. This may be accounted for. We may assume that, in consequence of the event stated of him in this place, he had in a certain sense obtained the right to stand among the servants of the king who had their position there. A confirmation of this view may be found in Est_2:20, the object of which, without this connection, will remain obscure. Esther had not (yet) shewed her kindred nor her people,etc. If we look at what follows, where the door-keepers did not pay much regard to him, the sense seems to be: Mordecai did not remain there as the foster-father of Esther, for as such he would have been a distinguished personage, and one to be feared, but simply as an unimportant stranger. The reference is clearly to Est_2:10. The author, in the repetition of this remark, and as is also clearly shown by the use of the participle, desires to indicate that Esther, as from the first so now also, maintained a strict secrecy, even after having become queen. Besides, the position of the word מוֹלַדְתָּהּ is notable. מוֹלֶדֵת, in distinction from עָם, signifies the family connection or relationship, kindred. This is here placed first, because the relation of Esther to Mordecai is under consideration. The strong emphasis laid on the fact that, Mordecai had so instructed her, that she only carried out his wishes, as when she was under his care, seems to oppose the opinion that she did it from other reasons, as that she was ashamed of her descent, and hence kept silence. כַּאֲשֶׁר here means “like as when;” comp. Job_10:19, where it signifies “as if.” אָמְנָהֿ, education, care, has the raphe over the ה, so that the ending may not be taken for a suffix.
Est_2:21-23. In these days when Mordecai sat in the gate of the king, Bigthan and Teresh,13 two of the king’s chamberlains, of those which kept the door (Sept. ἀρχισωματοφύλακες), or watchmen of the palace (comp. 2Ki_12:10), were wroth, became angry (קָצַף), and sought to lay hand on the king.14 Contrary to Est_2:20 the Sept. adds: Because Mordecai had become distinguished. But the matter became known to Mordecai in some way, according to Josephus through the Jewish slave of one of the conspirators; in truth, perhaps, because the lower officers, who had become party to the conspiracy, did not exercise sufficient discretion. Mordecai, through Esther, gave the king notice thereof.
Est_2:23. The matter was investigated, and it was so found, i.e., established, and they were both hanged on a tree,i.e., they were hung on a stake, or impaled; a customary mode of crucifixion (comp. chaps. Est_5:14; Est_6:4; Est_7:9-10; Ezr_6:11; and Herodot. III., 125).15 These events were recorded in the book of the history of the reign, i. e, in the chronicles of the empire (comp. chaps. Est_6:1; Est_10:2; Ezr_4:15), and that before the king, which may mean, either in his presence, so that he might be assured of their correct insertion, or that the chronicles of the empire were deposited before him, in his palace (comp. Est_6:1). It was a Persian custom to insert the names of those into the chronicles of the empire, who had deserved well of the king, as is confirmed by Herodot. VIII., 85. He also relates that Xerxes, on his campaign against Greece, had historians in his train, who were required to record the deeds of the Persians in a book.16
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
It is of the every-day life of a purely worldly, of a heathen court, that the author of our chapter treats. This moves in the high places of this world, and yet it is a very low life. Ahasuerus begins to feel the loss which he has brought on himself by the rejection of his wife, and his courtiers advise him to procure for his lust another, most liberal indulgence. He lends an ear to their suggestion, and orders what might be expected to follow as a matter of course. Nothing seems more improbable in these events than a divine control and government; and we would hardly be led to expect the thoughts and guidance of God under such circumstances. Yet we are soon made aware that we are standing right in the midst of divine providence. Independent as the world may appear in its outward life, still the Lord knows how to make even the lowest impulses and movements—indeed even the sin present in them—serviceable to His purposes. While on the one side Ahasuerus desires nothing but to find the most beautiful of virgins, God on the other side places Esther in the right position, and through her brings help and protection to His people in the face of the dangers that threaten them on the part of the world. He permits His people to become involved in the low life of the world, nay, He has humbled them to such an extent that even their virgins must be brought to Shushan at the king’s command. But in thus revealing the full depth of their degradation He also begins again to elevate them. Besides, it is remarkable, how the life of human love, even in its sunken state, can illustrate the work of divine Love. For just as Ahasuerus caused virgins to be brought together from all peoples and tribes, in order to select the most beautiful for himself, so God has in a certain sense tested all the peoples of mankind to see if He could find one that would be peculiarly His own. And then, in preference to all others, however many there might be, and however many excellencies they might have in certain directions, He would select the one least noticed as His bride and spouse.
On Est_2:1-7. The author permits us here to take a hasty but deep insight into the domestic life of a powerful and wealthy heathen ruler, who lives in the world merely to live, and on the other hand he gives us a view into the every-day life of a seemingly poor Jew, who is also despised in the common lot of his people, but who nevertheless incontestably stands under the blessing of his fathers. Ahasuerus, amid all his wealth and splendor, feels an oppressive want. He remembers his wife whom he has rejected, and especially regrets the wrong which he has done her. Without doubt the feeling gains a place in him that the loss of a personal being whom he could call peculiarly his own, was a loss which could not be made good by any other possession, however precious. And the wrong which he thinks he had experienced from her, is, like all the wrongs of men of the world of which they accuse each other, rather of a doubtful kind. It may be a question whether it could not have been excused, or even taken in a good sense. In truth it was only because of his despotic and mistaken view of common rights, which even the wife has, that caused him to reject her. He had trampled under foot her feminine feelings. Nevertheless she was now for ever lost to him. He was not prudent, not cautious enough. He must even confess to himself that though he had consulted his counsellors, he still had acted in a passionate manner, and given too free a rein to his wrath. Though surrounded by affluence, he is yet discontented, more especially with himself; he is filled with vexation and conflict, though no one has dared to oppose him. Of course there are not wanting those who recommend to him means and ways for shaking off this oppressive feeling. One thing, however, is evident: he cannot attain to a true satisfaction in the manner which they recommend to him as regards the points in question. This can only be brought about by true love. But love, as is beautifully shown and carried out in Canticles, cannot be commanded nor yet purchased; it can only be won, and can only be brought into life and sustained by true love’s labor. The view into the domestic life of Ahasuerus is, therefore, a view of the brilliant, but hopeless misery of heathendom, which only deceives the sensual fool with reference to its true nature, but which convinces those more circumspect of the poverty of those living without God in the world.
How different a picture is presented to us in the domestic life of Mordecai! Mordecai is a lowly descendant of a formerly distinguished, indeed royal family. He belongs to the scattered foreigners fallen under contempt, who were carried away captives from Jerusalem. He is in a strange land. He has, it appears, neither father nor mother, neither wife nor child. Even his relatives, his uncle and his aunt, are dead. But the latter left an orphan; he is to her a father, she to him a daughter, indeed a precious treasure. Doubtless he is aware how great a trust was left to him in her and with her, how God is justly called the Father of orphans, and that He especially blesses those who pity and minister to them. He knows his duty toward her, and its fulfilment brings to him satisfaction, makes him happy. God has blessed her with beauty, but what is more, He has bestowed on her an obedient, humble, and unassuming spirit, as is afterward fully shown by her conduct in the royal house of the women, and as had doubtless been often manifested before. She loves her people, and surely also its customs, laws, and religion. Thus she is to him indeed a Hadassah, a myrtle in the true sense of the word, an unpromising and yet promising bud. Indeed to him she has developed into a lovely flower of hope; and though it happen that she is taken into the royal house of the women, she will still be to him a lovely flower, whose presence he seeks, whose prosperity lies at his heart day by day, whose development will cause him to rejoice. Again she will more and more become to him a brilliant star, an Esther (aster), in whose light he views his own and his people’s future. In this manner his life is not poor, though he appear insignificant and obscure, though it be filled with painful reminiscences and great perplexities which he must combat daily in his heathen surroundings. On the contrary he is rich in light and hope; and even if he had realized the latter in a less degree than he eventually did, still his existence would not have been in vain.
On Est_2:8-11. That which gave Esther distinction above all the other virgins, who were at the same time selected with her, and whereby she obtained first the favor of the keeper of the harem, and then the love of Ahasuerus, was certainly not merely greater personal beauty. This would hardly have made such a favorable impression upon the eunuch. But it was rather a certain graciousness of being and carriage, which could only be present where the spiritual element does not occupy a lower plane than the physical, as was the fact with most Persian poorly-trained maidens, but rather where the spiritual element elevates and transfigures the mere bodily element. This grace had its ground partly in her fortune, but also for a great part in the spiritual nature of Judaism through the blessing of an adoration of the true, exalted, and spiritual God. It was therefore not without reason that the then existing Jews thought themselves recognised and honored in the preference of Esther, which, no doubt, they did to its full extent. They all more or less participated in her spiritual advantages, or at least all could or should have participated in them. This, however, affords little ground for beholding in the victory she won an indication of the triumph which Judaism, then so oppressed and despised, should obtain over proud heathendom at large. Nevertheless in the before insignificant but lovely Hadassah, who is now the powerful Esther, we see a symbol of the weaker but better element in Israel perfecting itself as the powerful community of the Spirit in the Christian church, which will yet conquer the world.
Luther: “Whatever heart is thus minded, will bear ornamentation without danger to itself; for it bears and yet does not bear, dances and yet dances not, lives well and yet not well. These are the heavenly souls, the sacred brides of Christ; but they are scarce. For it is difficult not to have a lust for great ornamentation and display.” Stolberg: “Undazzled by splendor and royalty, the tender virgin rejected all these things. With noble simplicity she took the ornaments, neither selecting nor demanding anything, which the chief chamberlain brought to her. Even after she became queen above all the wives of the king, her heart still clung not only with gratitude, but with childlike obedience, to her pious uncle and foster-father, as in the time when he trained her as a little girl.”
On Est_2:12-18. In the small compass of what has here been said respecting heathen virgins on the one hand and Esther on the other, we find a beautiful picture of the world and of the kingdom of God—the opposite tendencies as also destinies, by which these conceptions are designated. Doubtless the heathen maids decorated themselves with all possible precious things, for the evening for which they had so long prepared themselves by their purifications and anointings, in order to make the best possible impression upon Ahasuerus, upon whose favor or disfavor their whole future happiness of life depended. But by all this tinsel they gained nothing more than to look beautiful in their own eyes, and that for a moment which flew away so soon, and in which they were allowed to harbor hope. The majority were only permitted to see the king, and thereafter for ever to bury their hopes. For them there remained the sad lot of the concubines; they must bid farewell to the joys which they might have had in another sphere of life, without obtaining any compensation for that loss in their strict seclusion. The elevated feeling that they had fulfilled their life-work must for ever be denied them. They had missed their life-purpose; life became to them more and more a uniform dark monotony. In like manner the children of this world act and deceive themselves. Although they are firmly intent on enjoying the pleasures of life, although they direct all their endeavors to this one object, and prepare and decorate themselves in their way at their very best, still they enjoy it but for a single fleeting moment. Esther, on the other hand, was distinguished by her lack of desire or claim to shine in external decoration. She only put on, what so to speak, was forced upon her. But she was thereafter beautiful not only in her own eyes, but in the eyes of all that beheld her.
Thus also her fortune was not a speedy disappointment; she really obtained, not what she had desired, but what she had never hoped nor expected. She really obtained a favorable intercourse with the king; she became his choice, his wife, she became queen. All these things plainly indicate that she possessed in an unusual degree God’s favor and friendship, which still accompanied her. The children of God enjoy a still higher happiness. They who reckon it to be a great favor to serve God in all simplicity, yea to be even door-keepers in His sanctuary, are made His chosen and loved ones, if in other respects they have properly decorated themselves for Him. He adopts them as His children, and cares for them according to what is needful for them, even with temporal blessings; for the meek shall inherit the earth. He also elevates them to kings and priests, and adorns them with the crown of life, for He brings them to the inheritance which is incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for them (comp. 1Pe_3:3; 1Pe_1:7).
On Est_2:17-18. It is quite possible that Ahasuerus did not clearly know why Esther was preferred before her heathen virgin competitors, and what he was pleased with in her, why he crowned her as his queen. Still we can readily discover in his demeanor an indication that heathenism is always desirous, even when it has tasted to the full all that it can procure for its own enjoyment, to obtain something different and higher. Certain it is that these higher needs, which could be satisfied with nothing low, and which exhibited a higher receptivity, should arrive at this point. It was meet also that the heathen should see the fact fulfilled, that they themselves, their heathen kings and princes must pay homage to the people of the Lord, as to a queen who above all is worthy to be placed upon the throne, and to impart to the world her laws and ordinances (comp. Isa_49:23; Isa_62:4 sqq.). When this shall be entirely fulfilled, then the marriage-feast which Ahasuerus made in honor of queen Esther, with the edict proclaiming a temporary freedom from taxation of the people, and the relief from their oppressive yoke granted at the same time, shall correspond to the entire life of mankind.
On Est_2:19-23. 1. Esther was silent in regard to her Jewish descent and religion, and this was permissible so long as she was not asked to reveal it, so long also as the weal of her people did not require a different course. This she could the more readily do, inasmuch as the Old Testament religion, by reason of its limitation, did not impose the duty of a missionary confession. Even the Christian can keep his faith out of sight so long as its confession will not benefit, but would rather do injury and so long as the duty of veracity is not violated. At all events the martyr’s crown, if it is not hastily seized, but rather borne with dignity, is far more glorious than a royal crown. Yet true faith will manifest its world-conquering power, and be encouraging to its devotees only when it is openly confessed, though its confessors stand at the martyr’s stake, or die by the claws of wild beasts.
2. Nothing justifies us in assuming that Mordecai reported those conspirators because of selfish reasons, or in order to gain distinction and merit, or because Ahasuerus as the husband of Esther was nearly related to himself. Besides being an indication, it may be an expression of shrewdness, of his sense of duty. Although the Jew as such did not have a very warm feeling of attachment to the Persian king, still, in so far as he lived according to the divine Word, he sought to perform his obligations also toward the heathen governmental authority (comp. Jer_29:7). Thereby he also becomes a practical illustration of the fact that the piety which is nurtured by God’s Word is also of benefit to the heathen state and to heathen rulers. The governments of modern times, which treat religion not only with toleration but also with indifference, should remember that godly fear, as it is useful for all things, is also the most substantial bulwark for the continuance of the state.
Brenz: “We have here a daughter bereft of the protection of man by the death of her parents, but God elevated her to great distinction, so that all men gave her honor. Why was she carried into exile, but that she should reign? why bereft of parents, unless that she might become the favorite of God and man?”
Feuardent: On Est_2:8-9. “From this it may be concluded, as later is actually affirmed by Paul, that God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world, and things which are despised, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are: that no flesh should glory in His presence. For what is weaker than a little girl, or what more lowly and contemptible than an exiled orphan, born among a people of all other nations the most ignored and hated? What, on the other hand, in the estimation of the flesh and this world, is more wise and prudent, more glorious and powerful than Ahasuerus, Vashti, Haman and the other Persian and Median satraps? Yet by the means of a single person, Esther, they are confounded, superseded, ejected. By her office, I said, but by the help of God, although by the authority and arrangement of judges, of whom Esther was only the organ; lest the flesh should have aught whereof to glory, but that all the praise of the church preserved in the Persian realms should be referred to God. He was able, as in former days, so to have rallied under a brave Samson or Gideon His entire people scattered hither and thither, and to have fortified them with arms and strength, as to destroy by mutual slaughter all His foes when the great battle was joined; but in that case men would have arrogated something to themselves, and perhaps have said: Our own right hand, and not God, has done all this.”—On Est_2:15 : “Let then both men and women learn by this case so to direct all their aims and desires as to please God alone by the ornament of a good conscience and by the forms of minds well adjusted; but to despise the adventitious bodily ornaments of this world as vain in His sight, and by this piety gain the surer rewards of heaven. For this alone is the true beauty, which is precious in God’s view, and which causes us to be approved by the King of kings, and joined to Him in spiritual matrimony.… . Surprising that even the heathen saw and taught this. For Crates says: ‘That is ornament which adorns. But that adorns which makes a woman more adjusted and more modest. For this end neither gold nor gems nor purple avails, but whatever has the import of gravity, modesty, and chastity.’ ”
Starke: On Est_2:1. “Whatever has been undertaken in anger against God’s command can well be changed (1Sa_25:34-35).”—On Est_2:2. “To heap sin on sin is the master work of art of all ungodly persons (2Sa_15:1; 2Sa_16:22; Isa_30:1; Jer_9:3).”—On Est_2:3-4. “The advice of courtiers is most generally directed towards the object to which they think their lords are chiefly inclined, and they speak to their wishes (2Sa_15:4; 2Sa_16:21). Carnal ears love to hear nothing better than what will please their lustful hearts (2Sa_16:22).”—On Est_2:5-7. “When orphans fear God, He will also care for them (Psa_27:10). In a pious and virtuous maiden beauty of person is a great gift of God (Pro_11:2). We should not neglect the orphans of blood relatives. God is the Father of orphans (Psa_68:6), and He knows how to open the hearts of pious people who will faithfully care for them (Psa_10:14).”—On Est_2:8-9. “What care and cost is required for the decoration of the soul, when it would prepare as an acceptable bride for Jesus (Psa_45:14)” —On Est_2:16-17. “God will raise the miserable one from the dust, so that He may seat him next to princes (Psa_113:7-8).”
Footnotes:
[1][Est_2:7. Of the two expressions here used, the former refers to general symmetry of person, יְפַ־תֹּאַר, and the latter specially to comeliness of countenance, טוֹבַת מַרְאֶת. Esther had not only a fine form, but also a fine face.—Tr.]
[2][Est_2:11. The expression here used is doubly emphatic, בְּכָל־יוֹם וָיוֹם, to show Mordecai’s intense solicitude for his ward.—Tr.]
[3][Est_2:14. The pronoun, being expressed, is here emphatic = each individual singly.—Tr.]
[4][נַעַר however, like παῖς in Greek, and boy in English, often denotes merely a male domestic, with little regard to age.—Tr.]
[5][It here, however, denotes something additional to the charms of the candidates for the queenly state. All young females are not virgins, nor are all virgins young. These were to be both, and more besides, to be fair.—Tr.]
[6][“The ‘gynæceum’ or ‘harem’ was always an essential part of an Oriental palace (comp. 1Ki_7:8). In the Persian palaces it was very extensive, since the Persian monarchs maintained, besides their legitimate wives, as many as 300 or 400 concubines (Parmen. ap. Athen. Deipon XIII. p. 608 a). Hege, strictly speaking, seems to have been ‘keeper of the virgins’ only, since the concubines were under the care of Shaashgaz (Est_2:14).” Rawlinson.—Tr.]
[7][“Mordecai has been probably identified with a certain Matacas, who, according to Ctesias, was the most powerful of the eunuchs during the latter part of the reign of Xerxes.……That Mordecai was a eunuch is implied by his adoption of a young female cousin, and also by the ready access which he had to the harem of Ahasuerus.” Rawlinson.—Tr.]
[8][So also Rawlinson: “If the writer had intended to derive Mordecai from a royal stock, he would scarcely have omitted the name of Saul himself. Nor would he have designated Kish as a mere “Benjamite.” The same writer adds that on the supposition “that the list is simply the true line of Mordecai’s descent from a certain Kish otherwise unknown, who was his grandfather,” and had been carried away by Nebuchadnezzar; then “the four generations, Kish, Shimei, Jair, Mordecai, exactly fill up the space of 130 years from Jeconiah’s captivity to the latter half of Xerxes’ reign.…… The age of Mordecai at the accession of Xerxes may have been about 30 or 40; that of Esther, his first cousin, about 20.” Still these coincidences seem to be outweighed by the considerations advanced by our author.—Tr.]
[9][“The relative clause, ‘Who had been carried away,’ need not be so strictly understood as to assert that Mordecai himself was carried away; but the object being to give merely his origin and lineage, and not his history, it involves only the notion that he belonged to those Jews who were carried to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar with Jeconiah, so that he though born in captivity, was carried to Babylon in the persons of his fore-fathers.” Keil.—Tr.]
[10][It is implied that each concubine received seven maidens, but that by the favor of Hegai, Esther received picked maidens. Rawlinson.—Tr.]
[11][“Mordecai occupied, apparently, an humble place in the royal household. He was probably one of the porters or door-keepers at the main entrance of the palace (see Est_2:21, and comp. Est_3:2; Est_5:13, etc.). This position separated him from his adopted daughter, and some effort was needed to keep up communication with her.” Rawlinson.—TR.]
[12][“No doubt the virgins generally took the opportunity—one that would occur but once in their lives—to load themselves with precious ornaments of various kinds, neck-laces, bracelets, ear-rings, anklets and the like. Esther allowed Hegai to dress her as he would.”—Rawlinson. Thus, as ever, it proved that true piety is the highest ornament, even in a heathen’s sight; and modesty is the brightest jewel of female beauty (1Pe_3:3-4).]—Tr.]
[13][“Bigthan (the Bigtha of Est_1:10) is probably the Old-Persian Bagadana, i.e., God-given. Teresh is by some derived from tars, ‘to fear;’ but it is more like a foreign than a Persian name.” Rawlinson.—Tr.]
[14][“Conspiracies inside the palace were ordinary occurrences in Persia. Xerxes was ultimately murdered by Artabanus, the captain of the guard, and Aspamitras, a chamberlain and eunuch (Ctesias, Pers., § 29; Diod. Sic. XI., 60, §1). A similar fate befell Artaxerxes Ochus.” Rawlinson.—Tr.]
[15][Especially “of rebels and traitors in Persia (“see Herod. III., 159; IV., 43; and the Behistun Inscription, passim).” Rawlinson.—Tr.]
[16][“These royal chronicles were distinctly mentioned by Ctesias, who said that he drew his Persian history from them (Diod. Sic. II., 32).” Rawlinson.—Tr.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv5, 11, 12, 17, 21 Now in Shushan the palace there was a certain…
Now in Shushan the palace there was a certain Jew--Mordecai held some office about the court. But his "sitting at the king's gate" (Est 2:21) does not necessarily imply that he was in the humble condition of a porter; for, according to an institute of Cyrus, all state officers were required to wait in the outer courts till they were summoned into the presence chamber. He might, therefore, have been a person of some official dignity. This man had an orphan cousin, born during the exile, under his care, who being distinguished by great personal beauty, was one of the young damsels taken into the royal harem on this occasion. She had the good fortune at once to gain the good will of the chief eunuch [Est 2:9]. Her sweet and amiable appearance made her a favorite with all who looked upon her (Est 2:15, last clause). Her Hebrew name (Est 2:7) was Hadassah, that is, "myrtle," which, on her introduction into the royal harem, was changed to Esther, that is, the star Venus, indicating beauty and good fortune [GESENIUS].
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 On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23 ESTHER MADE QUEEN, Est_2:1-18.
ESTHER MADE QUEEN, Est_2:1-18.
1. After these things — How long after the divorce of Vashti is uncertain. It may have been only a few months, or it may have been a year or more after. It is no doubt to be dated before Xerxes’ departure for Greece, so that the gathering of the virgins to Shushan took place while he was absent from his capital. See note on Est_2:16.
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He remembered Vashti — And along with the remembrance came a desire to have her restored to favour again, and probably, also, a feeling that she had been too severely dealt with.
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 On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 Chap. Est_2:1-18. Esther’s elevation to be queen
Chap. Est_2:1-18. Esther’s elevation to be queen
1. After these things] Two years elapsed between the council of leading men held at Susa (see on Est_1:1) and Xerxes’ actual departure on his expedition against Greece (b.c. 481). If we were to accept the historical character of the story, we should have to suppose that the search for an eligible consort would go on during his absence. But the writer in all probability does not contemplate any such interval, or recognise in his own mind the war of that date.
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he remembered Vashti] This and the words which follow suggest that the king was inclined to relent if the decree had not been irrevocable. The LXX., he no longer remembered Vashti, has no claim to be regarded as the right reading.
III
SPECIMEN OF THE FIRST TARGUM ON ESTHER
(on chap. Est_2:1 ff.).
[The following extracts may be of interest, as serving to exhibit the character of the paraphrastic translations of Old Testament Books into Aramaic. These Versions seem to have had their origin in a religious necessity, when the use of the Hebrew language was dying out as the speech of ordinary life. But the Targums on Esther and the other Megilloth (Rolls) are thought, unlike earlier ones, not to have been intended for public use. They were composed after the need for Aramaic translations had passed away, but, inasmuch as these came to be permanently cherished, the later ones were modelled upon them, and thus present us in the main with the same features.[89]]
[89] See further in Hastings’ Dict. of the Bible, Art. Targum.
After these things, when he had recovered and calmed down from his excessive potations, and when the violence of king Ahasuerus’s rage had abated, he began to remember Vashti. His great men answered him and spake thus, Art thou not he that passed sentence upon her, that she should die for what she did? The king said to them, I did not command that she should be put to death, but that she should present herself before me, and when she did not present herself, I commanded that she should be deprived of her queenly rank. They said to him, It is not so, but thou didst pronounce sentence of death upon her at the instance of the seven princes. Forthwith he was violently enraged, and ordered that the seven princes should be hung upon the gibbet. And the king’s young men who ministered to him said, Let there be sought out for the king’s needs young virgins, fair to look upon, and let the king appoint officers in every province of his kingdom, and let them assemble all young virgins that are fair to look upon unto Shushan the palace to the house of the women where there are baths and washing places, and where Hegai, the king’s chief eunuch, custodian of the women, holds office, and let it be decreed that unguents for their anointing be furnished to them, and let the young woman who finds favour in the eyes of the king be raised to the rank of queen in the place of Vashti. And the thing was pleasing in the king’s sight, and he did thus.
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 On vv1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 (1) After these things.—We have seen that the great…
II.
(1) After these things.—We have seen that the great feast at Susa was in the year 483 B.C. , and that in the spring of 481 B.C. Xerxes set out for Greece. At some unspecified time, then, between these limits the proposal now started is to be placed. The marriage of Esther, however (Est_2:16), did not come about till after the return from Greece, the king’s long absence explaining the otherwise curious delay, and moreover, even in this interval, he was entangled in more than one illicit connection.
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 On vv1–23 THE QUEST FOR MAIDENS, AND THE CHOICE OF ESTHER…
THE QUEST FOR MAIDENS, AND THE CHOICE OF ESTHER TO BE QUEEN IN VASHTI"S PLACE. (Est_2:1-18) Vashti having ceased to be queen, Ahasuerus appears to have been in no haste to assign her dignity to any one else. Probably there was no one among his other (secondary) wives of whom he was specially fond, or who seemed to him pre-eminent above the rest. And he may even have begun to relent in Vashti"s favour (as seems to be somewhat obscurely intimated in ver. 1), and to wish to take her back. Under these circumstances the officers of his court would become alarmed. Vashti"s disgrace had been their doing, and her return to power would be likely to be followed by their own dismissal, or even by their execution. They therefore came to Ahasuerus with a fresh piece of advice: "Let there be fair young virgins sought for the king; let officers be appointed in every province to select fitting damsels, and send them up to the court, for the king to choose a wife from among them." So sensual a monarch as Xerxes (Herod., 9:108) would be strongly tempted by such a proposal (vers. 2, 3). Ahasnerus embraced it at once (ver. 4), and orders were given accordingly. The quest began, and among other maidens selected by the officials as worthy of the royal consideration, there happened to be a young Jewess, named Hadassah, the cousin and adopted daughter of a Jew called Mordecai, a eunuch attached to the court, who had a house in Susa. Hadassah was beautiful both in form and face (ver. 7), and having been selected by those whose business it was to make the choice, was conducted to the palace, and placed under the care of Hegai, the eunuch who had the charge of the virgins on their arrival (ver. 8). Hadassah, who on becoming an inmate of the palace received the Persian name of Esther (=Stella), attracted at once the special regard of Hegai, who granted her various favours (ver. 9), and after she had been "purified" for a year (ver. 12), sent her in her turn to appear before the king (ver. 16). The result was such as Hegai had perhaps anticipated. Ahasuerus, preferring her to all his wives and to all the other virgins, instantly made her his queen, placed the crown royal upon her head, and celebrated the joyful occasion by a grand feast, and a general remission of taxation for a specified period (vers. 17, 18). Thus the humble Jewish maiden, the orphan dependent for her living on a cousin"s charity, became the first woman in all Persia- the wife of the greatest of living monarchs the queen of an empire which comprised more than half of the known world.
After these things. Probably not very long after. Between the great assembly held in Susa in Xerxes" third year, B.C. 483, and his departure for Greece, B.C. 481, was a period of about two years, or a little more. The application of the officers must have been made to him, and the directions to seek for virgins given, during this space. Ahasuerus remembered Vashti. With favour probably, or at any rate with regret and relenting. His anger was appeased, and balancing what she had done in one scale, and in the other what had been decreed against her, he may have begun to question whether her punishment had not been too severe.
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Vers. 1-4.
Evil counsel overruled.
When a king takes counsel of flatterers and favourites, it bodes no good either to himself or to his people. Such parasites think only how they may make their masters" vices the stepping-stones to their own preferment and power. And a king encompassed with adulation, and encouraged to gratify his own passions, is not likely to rule over his subjects with justice or with wisdom. The ministers of Ahasuerus, in advising him to have his provinces ransacked for beautiful girls, to be brought to him for his approval, that from among the multitude he might select a consort to succeed the disobedient Vashti, were animated by a desire to please the voluptuous monarch, and so to strengthen their own position and influence. Yet even counsel so nefarious was overruled by Divine providence for good.
I THIS ADVICE WAS IN ITSELF BAD. Oriental despots were encouraged to lead a life of self-indulgence. Yet the counsel given to Ahasuerus passed all bounds of decency.
1. It was bad for the king, who was thereby led to think of his own sensualgratification, rather than of the cares of state which properly devolved upon him.
2. It was bad for the young women themselves, all whose thoughts wereengrossed by their desire and plans to please the monarch, and who were encouraged to regard themselves in no higher light than as instruments of royal pleasure.
3. It was bad for the population generally; for the families from amongstwhom the maidens were taken to supply the harem of the king, and for the young men who were deprived of wives whose beauty and amiability might assist them in living a virtuous and honourable life.
II THIS ADVICE WAS NEVERTHELESS OVERRULED FOR GOOD. HOW apparent is this principle to every thorough student of history, to every careful observer of life! How confirmatory of our belief in a general and particular Providence l
1. The policy in question was directly overruled for the advancement ofEsther. A virtuous, benevolent, and deserving girl was raised from an obscure position to one of eminence and influence.
2. And this policy was indirectly overruled for the deliverance of a nation.Vashti was deposed; Esther was raised to power; Mordecai was enabled to communicate with the throne; Haman was defeated and disgraced; Israel was delivered from the enemy. Such were the links in this chain of Providence.
Lessons:
1. We have no right to give evil counsel in the hope that good may issuefrom it, to "do evil that good may come.
2. We must not be discouraged when tyrants and flatterers seem to havetheir own way. The Lord reigneth. He has a thousand ways of fulfilling his own purposes. He bringeth the counsel of men to nought.
3. We must at all times trust and hope in the Lord. He bringeth forth theirrighteousness as the light, and their judgment as the noon-day. Our extremity is his opportunity. They that trust in him shall never be moved.
4. For we cannot forget that the evil counsel of Caiaphas, the greed or ambition of Judas, the weakness of Pilate, the fury of the Jews, were all overruled for the salvation of mankind!
HOMILIES BY P.C. BARKER Ver. 1.
Memory"s visitation.
The interval here indicated cannot be measured exactly. It is not important, or probably it would have been stated. But some things respecting it are worthy of note: that time is measurable by what we do in it, and by how the individual character grows in it. It is measurable in sadder ways by all the heap and accumulation of the undone lying at our feet. And once more, among many other ways, we are reminded here how it is measurable by the duration or the cooling down of temper, of "wrath." Though the fiercest passion and the hottest wrath burn out the quickest and cool down the most rapidly, it is not to be forgotten that their effects are not similarly disposed of or reversed. Far otherwise. The fire burns out rapidly because it has finally consumed its fuel, and the hot wrath cools down quickly because it has devoured its prey. These results are irreparable, though the loss they speak, the guilt they fix, the crime they mark, men gladly turn away from results indeed often incalculable. This passage calls attention to the subject of memorys visitations. We may make a distinction between memory"s visits and its visitation. The former often sweet and often welcome, even when most touched with the spirit of sadness; but the latter heralding for the most part reproof, remorse, and the retributive. Let us observe
I HOW MEMORY MAY BE HELD IN ABEYANCE; RATHER, UNDER CERTAIN TREATMENT, HOLDS ITSELF IN ABEYANCE. There is a sense in which it neither holds itself in abeyance, owing to any unconscious affronts we offer it, nor is held in abeyance by any distinct and defined efforts of our own. For is it not a thing worthy to be observed, as one of the evidences of a wise and merciful Creator, that memory itself does not insist on an equable exertion of all its power. Wide as its jurisdiction, it is abundantly evident that it is not all equally travelled. Its hemispherical chart shows only some strongly-marked places; multitudinous as the names engraved on its latitude and longitude, yes, even innumerable, they were, as regards the enormous majority of them, but very faintly graved, and they become soon enough illegible, indiscernible. The few things which we judge most important to be remembered, we charge ourselves with special pains and by special methods to remember. If memory were obliged to retain all that it had ever taken cognisance of, it is evident that it would choke up all other present exercise of our faculties, and would imperiously stop the working of the mental machinery. It would bring all to a deadlock. On the other hand, and to our present point, there are things which, instead of needing our study and effort and rational methods in order to charge memory to retain them, will need some soporific treatment if memory is to be disarmed. All our grand mistakes, all our vivid joys, all our vivid sorrows, all our vivid warnings, all our vivid experiences, of almost every kind the startled moment, the hairbreadth escape, the pang of irretrievable failure, the moment of supreme success, & Ntilde; all these and their likes write themselves with ink that suffers no absolute effacing, even for the present life; and though it does suffer itself to be dimmed, obscured, and over-written, so as a while to be illegible, this is gained only by methods intrinsically undesirable, very unsafe, very forced. These works of memory are of nature"s own quickening, and to try to stifle their due utterance is of the nature of a premeditated offence against nature. It is, with rare exceptions, at an indefensible risk that we consciously dare this, or by any species of recklessness court it. Of the devices of Satan in this sort let us not be ignorant, that we may be the rather forearmed. Some of the methods of dimming memories that should not be dimmed are illustrated forcibly in the history of Ahasuerus" present conduct; as, for instance
1. The blinding force of the storm of "wrath," of hate, of intemperateness, of lust.
2. The stupefying force of sensuality, of bodily indulgence, and excess ofluxuriousness.
3. All headstrong recklessness the defiant disposition that "neither fearsGod nor regards man.
4. The enfeebled conscience, and, of necessity, much more the temporarilyparalysed conscience.
5. The imperious yoke of self-seeking in all we think, and of supposed self-interest.
6. A heart already callous, hardened by habit, familiarised with sin. These and other causes frighten away the most useful messages of memory, weaken her wings, and she is not to be depended upon to alight with the needed whispers of either warning or encouragement. It is one of the worst of signs, one of the most ominous warnings of approaching spiritual disaster, when memory in certain directions abnegates her rights; offended and grieved, holds herself in the background; or, rudely repelled, seems awhile to accept the law of banishment pronounced against her.
II HOW AT AN UNSUSPECTED MOMENT MEMORY RE-ENTERS THE SCENE, WITHOUT DEROGATION OF ITS RIGHTS, AND WITH ADDED EFFECT. It was so to a remarkable degree now. The "wrath," with some concomitant auxiliaries, which had held memory awhile at bay, was subsided, and memory with silent majesty walks in. Its figure is not dim, its utterance is not indistinct, its indictment is not vague. No; the trial must be called on, the debt must be demanded, and interest must be added to debt. With what skilful brevity, of amazing power to suggest, the position is put before us. "Ahasuerus remembered Vashti, and what she had done, and what was decreed against her." The arbitrary, licentious man could depose the woman who resolved to maintain her own and her sex"s rightful dignity and modesty, but he could not depose his own memory. She was a mistress still, and one who stuck closer than an ill-treated, dishonoured wife. Affection helps memory; he sees with his inner eye the woman he had loved so well once to prefer her to all, and to make her wife and queen. Conscience perhaps in some part helped memory, as memory certainly was paving the way for the future work of conscience. The figure of Vashti was before his inner eye, but she herself was not. The law of Mede and Persian stood in the way, crumpled up the law of right, stifled the dictate of affection, and smothered the muffled, incoherent accents of conscience. The hall of trial is in his own disordered breast, but the essentials of the trial are present there nevertheless. He remembered Vashti, and "what she had done nothing worthy of divorce, of punishment. All the reflection was upon himself, fell back with a heavy thrust on himself. He remembered Vashti, "and what was decreed against her an iniquitous decree, a decree not merely injurious to her, but also to himself and his reputation henceforward down through all the world"s time. This is what memory"s visitation was now for Ahasuerus, and memory left him in the most appalling condition in which a human heart can be ever left left him drifting into a woeful BLANK. He missed Vashti. He could not replace her. He has decreed for himself a void which cannot be filled, even though a better object be offered for the void. Memory leaves him again awhile when it has forced this conviction on the unwilling victim, that he has stricken himself sore, and that on himself his "decree" has recoiled. B.
HOMILIES BY W. DINWIDDLE Vers. 1-4.
Vain regrets.
We observe here
I AN ABIDING MEMORY. The past cannot be wholly shut out from the present. The power of memory cleaves to the soul. The king "remembered Vashti." Time, which had appeased his wrath, had not destroyed the queen"s image, or cast into oblivion the facts connected with her disgrace.
The persons and things of the past continue to live in memory either to sweeten or embitter the life. We should lay up nothing in this storehouse but what will bear pleasant review.
II AN UNAVAILING REGRET. The narrative seems to indicate that as the king"s anger against Vashti died out, his love for her returned. But, with other memories, that of the irrevocable decree came into his mind. Whatever his regrets, they were in vain. It is a solemn thought that sins and wrongs once done cannot be undone. Even though bad decrees may be reversed, the evils they have wrought remain. How many through the follies of the present heap up regrets for the future!
III A STRANGE DEVICE. Of the plan suggested by the courtiers, it may be said
1. That it was significant of the king"s state of mind. It showed aperception of the feelings that troubled him. Such an appeal to his sensual nature could only be intended to drown a reviving affection and troublesome regrets.
2. That it was selfish and cunning. The restoration of Vashti would have been dangerous to those who counselled her disgrace. The possibility of a change in the king"s mind was anticipated in the decree that could not be altered. Yet such a king, under the prompting of passion, might break through any legal fiction, and therefore it was resolved to wean him from thoughts of Vashti by the prospect of an unlimited variety of sensual indulgence.
3. That it was heartlessly wicked. No thought or pity was expended on themany fair young maidens who were to be brought from their homes and sacri-riced to the lust of the king. The king and his courtiers would probably regard the transaction as bestowing a special honour on its victims. "The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.
4. That it was, nevertheless, not out of harmony with prevalent ideas andcustoms. Few would be shocked by it in all the vast empire. Whilst we hold the truth to be one in all circumstances, our judgment of conduct (like Christ"s Mat_11:21) should allow for differences of time and place.
5. That it marks a distinction between heathenism and Christianity. Under Christian rule such a device would be impossible. The mere idea of it excites a shuddering horror in the Christian heart. All heathenisms are hopelessly corrupt. They contain the seeds of their own decay. It is at once a blessed and a responsible thing to live in a country whose institutions, laws, and general life are governed by the Christian truth and spirit.
IV AN INCURABLE FOLLY. "And the thing pleased the king; and he did so." The novelty of it arrested him; the pleasure which it promised charmed him; all memories and regrets were speedily swallowed up in the anticipated delights of a new self-indulgence. There is a folly which no lessons will teach wisdom, which no experiences will long influence for good. Sin hardens the heart. A yielding to carnal lusts destroys the power of the soul to follow the lights and monitions that would deliver it. Occasional fears and perplexities may arise, but "the dog returns to its vomit.
V A SUGGESTION OF BETTER THINGS. The pleasures of sin may be fascinatingly great to the ungodly who have not tested their fruits. But however alluring, experience proves them to be short-lived, degrading to our nature, and laden with an ever-growing and corroding bitterness. They are not to be compared with the higher delights that spring from a virtuous and self-denying life, a conscious fellowship with Jesus Christ, a trustful obedience to the heavenly Father"s will, a possession of the hope that is full of immortality. D. (see Gal_5:19-26)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 5, 17, 20, 21 After these things, when the wrath of king Ahasuerus…
Est_2:1
After these things, when the wrath of king Ahasuerus was appeased, he remembered Vashti.
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Acting under the impulse of rage
The king had given full sway to his passion and wounded pride, and treated his wife with great severity. In his moments of cool reflection he probably repented of the harshness of his proceedings towards her. Excitement is a bad guide in human affairs. He who acts under the impulse of rage is sure to be driven astray, even as a vessel in a storm is driven to situations of embarrassment and peril. Man in wrath speaks freely and eloquently, but never wisely, and he works with decision and energy, but who is benefited by his operations? He doeth much, but uniformly to a bad purpose. (J. Hughes.)
Avenging memories
O, memory! thou art a bitter avenger. (T. McEwan.)
Bitter memories
Ah! these bitter memories of earth will be ingredients in the future cup of the penal suffering of the lost. (T. McEwan.)
Too late
Repentance may come too late. Ahasuerus could not retrace his steps. (A. B. Davidson, D. D.)
Vain remembering
I. The regret of the king for his rash and unwarrantable act. He was sensible that he had committed injury and that he had not only wronged Vashti, but also made himself a sufferer.
1. He could not devise a remedy. There are wishes that even the most powerful despots cannot get gratified, and limits to their will that even they cannot pass over.
2. The law of the Medes and Persians must stand.
II. The expedient which his counsellors suggested to free him from his difficulty. Learn--
1. When men suffer themselves to be carried away by the impulse of any violent passions, they may commit acts which cannot afterwards be remedied, and which they themselves may have especially to lament.
2. It forms no excuse for sin committed, that the transgressor had reduced himself to a condition in which he ceased to retain his full consciousness of the distinction between right and wrong. Take an illustration from the history of Saul. He failed to improve his privileges; the Spirit of the Lord departed and the evil spirit took possession of him--slew prophets, etc. He was held responsible because he had laid his heart open for the reception of the evil spirit.
3. Repentance may come too late. (A. B. Davidson, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v5 Est_2:5-6; Jam_4:1; Est_6:10-11; Est_9:1-4
MORDECAI
Est_2:5-6; Jam_4:1; Est_6:10-11; Est_9:1-4
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THE hectic enthusiast who inspires Daniel Deronda with his passionate ideas is evidently a reflection in modern literature of the Mordecai of Scripture. It must be admitted that the reflection approaches a caricature. The dreaminess and morbid excitability of George Eliots consumptive hero have no counterpart in the wise, strong Mentor of Queen Esther, and the English writers agnosticism has led her to exclude all the Divine elements of the Jewish faith, so that on her pages the sole object of Israelite devotion is the race of Israel. But the very extravagance of the portraiture keenly accentuates what is, after all, the most remarkable trait in the original Mordecai. We are not in a position to deny that this man had a living faith in the God of his fathers; we are simply ignorant as to what his attitude towards religion was, because the author of the Book of Esther draws a veil over the religious relations of all his characters. Still the one thing prominent and pronounced in Mordecai is patriotism, devotion to Israel, the expenditure of thought and effort on the protection of his threatened people.
The first mention of the name of Mordecai introduces a hint of his national connections. We read, "There was a certain Jew in Shushan the palace, whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite, who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captives which had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away." {Est_2:5-6} Curious freaks of exegesis have been displayed in dealing with this passage. It has been thought that the Kish mentioned in it is no other than the father of Saul, in which case the ages of the ancestors of Mordecai must rival those of the antediluvians, and it has been suggested that Mordecai is here represented as one of the original captives from Jerusalem in the reign of Jeconiah, so that at the time of Xerxes he must have been a marvellously old man, tottering on the brink of the grave. On these grounds the genealogical note has been treated as a fanatical fiction invented to magnify the importance of Mordecai. But there is no necessity to take up any such position. It would be strange to derive Mordecai from the far-off Benjamite farmer Kish, who shines only in the reflected glory of his son, whereas we have no mention of Saul himself. There is no reason to say that another Kish may not have been found among the captives. Then it is quite possible to dispose of the second difficulty by connecting the relative clause at the beginning of Est_5:6 -"who had been carried away"-with the nearest antecedent in the previous sentence-viz., "Kish the Benjamite." If we remove the semicolon from the end of Est_5:5, the clauses will run on quite smoothly and there will be no reason to go back to the name of Mordecai for the antecedent of the relative; we can read the words thus-"Kish the Benjamite who had been carried away," etc. In this way all difficulty vanishes. But the passage still retains a special significance. Mordecai was a true Jew, of the once royal tribe of Benjamin, a descendant of one of the captive contemporaries of Jeconiah, and therefore most likely a scion of a princely house. The preservation of his ancestral record gives us a hint of the sort of mental pabulum on which the man had been nurtured. Living in the palace, apparently as a porter, and possibly as a eunuch of the harem, Mordecai would have been tempted to forget his people. Nevertheless it is plain that he had cherished traditions of the sad past, and trained his soul to cling to the story of his fathers sufferings in spite of all the distractions of a Persian court life. Though in a humbler sphere, he thus resembled Artaxerxes cup-bearer, the great patriot Nehemiah.
The peculiarity of Mordecais part in the story is this, that he is the moving spirit of all that is done for the deliverance of Israel at a time of desperate peril without being at first a prominent character. Thus he first appears as the guardian of his young cousin, whom he has cherished and trained, and whom he now introduces to the royal harem where she will play her more conspicuous part. Throughout the whole course of events Mordecais voice is repeatedly heard, but usually as that of Esthers prompter. He haunts the precincts of the harem, if by chance he may catch a glimpse of his foster child. He is a lonely man now, for he has parted with the light of his home. He has done this voluntarily, unselfishly-first, to advance the lovely creature who has been committed to his charge, and secondly, as it turns out, for the saving of his people. Even now his chief thought is not for the cheering of his own solitude. His constant aim is to guide his young cousin in the difficult path of her new career. Subsequently he receives the highest honours the king can bestow, but he never seeks them, and he would be quite content to remain in the background to the end, if only his eager desire for the good of his people could be accomplished by the queen who has learnt to lean upon his counsel from her childhood. Such self-effacement is most rare and beautiful. A subtle temptation to self-regarding ambition besets the path of every man who attempts some great public work for the good of others in a way that necessarily brings him under observation. Even though he believes himself to be inspired by the purest patriotism, it is impossible for him not to perceive that he is exposing himself to admiration by the very disinterestedness of his conduct. The rare thing is to see the same earnestness on the part of a person in an obscure place, willing that the whole of his energy should be devoted to the training and guiding of another, who alone is to become the visible agent of some great work.
The one action in which Mordecai momentarily takes the first place throws light on another side of his character. There is a secondary plot in the story. Mordecai saves the kings life by discovering to him a conspiracy. The value of this service is strikingly illustrated by the historical fact that, at a later time, just another such conspiracy issued in the assassination of Xerxes. In the distractions of his foreign expeditions and his abandonment to self-indulgence at home, the king forgets the whole affair, and Mordecai goes on his quiet way as before, never dreaming of the honour with which it is to be rewarded. Now this incident seems to be introduced to show how the intricate wheels of Providence all work on for the ultimate deliverance of Israel. The accidental discovery of Mordecais unrequited service, when the king is beguiling the long hours of a sleepless night by listening to the chronicles of his reign, leads to the recognition of Mordecai and the first humiliation of Haman, and prepares the king for further measures. But the incident reflects a side light on Mordecai in another direction. The humble porter is loyal to the great despot. He is a passionately patriotic Jew, but his patriotism does not make a rebel of him, nor does it permit him to stand aside silently and see a villainous intrigue go on unmolested, even though it is aimed at the monarch who is holding his people in subjection. Mordecai is the humble friend of the great Persian king in the moment of danger. This is the more remarkable when we compare it with his ruthless thirst for vengeance against the known enemies of Israel. It shows that he does not treat Ahasuerus as an enemy of his people. No doubt the writer of this narrative wished it to be seen that the most patriotic Jew could be perfectly loyal to a foreign government. The shining examples of Joseph and Daniel have set the same idea before the world for the vindication of a grossly maligned people, who, like the Christians in the days of Tacitus, have been most unjustly hated as the enemies of the human race. The capacity to adapt itself loyally to the service of foreign governments, without abandoning one iota of its religion or its patriotism, is a unique trait in the genius of this wonderful race. The Zealot is not the typical Jew-patriot. He is a secretion of diseased and decayed patriotism, True patriotism is large enough and patient enough to recognise the duties that lie outside its immediate aims. Its fine perfection is attained when it can be flexible without becoming servile.
We see that in Mordecai the flexibility of Jewish patriotism was consistent with a proud scorn of the least approach to servility. He. would not kiss the dust at the approach of Haman, grand vizier though the man was. It may be that he regarded this act of homage as idolatrous-for it would seem that Persian monarchs were not unwilling to accept the adulation of Divine honours, and the vain minister was aping the airs of his royal master. But, perhaps, like those Greeks who would not humble their pride by prostrating themselves at the bidding of an Oriental barbarian, Mordecai held himself up from a sense of self-respect. In either case it must be evident that he showed a daringly independent spirit. He could not but know that such an affront as he ventured to offer to Haman would annoy the great man. But he had not calculated on the unfathomable depths of Hamans vanity. Nobody who credits his fellows with rational motives would dream that so simple an offence as this of Mordecais could provoke so vast an act of vengeance as the massacre of a nation. When he saw the outrageous consequences of his mild act of independence, Mordecai must have felt it doubly incumbent upon him to strain every nerve to save his people. Their danger was indirectly due to his conduct. Still he could never have foreseen such a result, and therefore he should not be held responsible for it. The tremendous disproportion between motive and action in the behaviour of Haman is like one of those fantastic freaks that abound in the impossible world of "The Arabian Nights," but for the occurrence of which we make no provision in real life, simply because we do not act on the assumption that the universe is nothing better than a huge lunatic asylum.
The escape from this altogether unexpected danger is due to two courses of events. One of them-in accordance with the reserved style of the narrative-appears to be quite accidental. Mordecai got the reward he never sought in what seems to be the most casual way. He had no hand in obtaining for himself an honour which looks to us quaintly childish. For a few brief hours he was paraded through the streets of the royal city as the man whom the king delighted to honour, with no less a person than the grand vizier to serve as his groom. It was Hamans silly vanity that had invented this frivolous proceeding. We can hardly suppose that Mordecai cared much for it. After the procession had completed its round, in true Oriental fashion Mordecai put off his gorgeous robes, like a poor actor returning from the stage to his garret, and settled down to his lowly office exactly as if nothing had happened. This must seem to us a foolish business, unless we can look at it through the magnifying glass of an Oriental imagination, and even then there is nothing very fascinating in it. Still it had important consequences. For, in the first place, it prepared the way for a further recognition of Mordecai in the future. He was now a marked personage. Ahasuerus knew him, and was gratefully disposed towards him. The people understood that the king delighted to honour him. His couch would not be the softer nor his bread the sweeter, but all sorts of future possibilities lay open before him. To many men the possibilities of life are more precious than the actualities. We cannot say, however, that they meant much to Mordecai, for he was not ambitious, and he had no reason to think that the kings conscience was not perfectly satisfied with the cheap settlement of his debt of gratitude. Still the possibilities existed, and before the end of the tale they had blossomed out to very brilliant results.
But another consequence of the pageant was that the heart of Haman was turned to gall. We see him livid with jealousy, inconsolable until his wife-who evidently knows him well-proposes to satisfy his spite by another piece of fanciful extravagance. Mordecai shall be impaled on a mighty stake, so high that all the world shall see the ghastly spectacle. This may give some comfort to the wounded vanity of the grand vizier. But consolation to Haman will be death and torment to Mordecai.
Now we come to the second course of events that issued in the deliverance and triumph of Israel, and therewith in the escape and exaltation of Mordecai. Here the watchful porter is at the spring of all that happens. His fasting, and the earnest counsels he lays upon Esther, bear witness to the intensity of his nature. Again the characteristic reserve of the narrative obscures all religious considerations. But, as we have seen already, Mordecai is persuaded that deliverance will come to Israel from some quarter, and he suggests that Esther has been raised to her high position for the purpose of saving her people. We cannot but feel that these hints veil a very solid faith in the providence of God with regard to the Jews. On the surface of them they show faith in the destiny of Israel. Mordecai not only loves his nation, he believes in it. He is sure it has a future. It has survived the most awful disasters in the past. It seems to possess a charmed life. It must emerge safely from the present crisis. But Mordecai is not a fatalist whose creed paralyses his energies. He is most distressed and anxious at the prospect of the great danger that threatens his people. He is most persistent in pressing for the execution of measures of deliverance. Still in all this he is buoyed up by a strange faith in his nations destiny. This is the faith that the English novelist has transferred to her modern Mordecai. It cannot be gainsaid that there is much in the marvellous history of the unique people, whose vitality and energy, astonish us even to-day, to justify the sanguine expectation of prophetic souls that Israel has yet a great destiny to fulfil in future ages.
The ugly side of Jewish patriotism is also apparent in Mordecai, and it must not be ignored. The indiscriminate massacre of the "enemies" of the Jews is a savage act of retaliation that far exceeds the necessity of self-defence, and Mordecai must bear the chief blame of this crime. But then the considerations in extenuation of its guilt which have already come under our notice may be applied to him. The danger was supreme. The Jews were in a minority. The king was cruel, fickle, senseless. It was a desperate case. We cannot be surprised that the remedy was desperate also. There was no moderation on either side, but then "sweet reasonableness" is the last thing to be looked for in any of the characters of the Book of Esther. Here everything is extravagant. The course of events is too grotesque to be gravely weighed in the scales that are used in the judgment of average men under average circumstances.
The Book of Esther closes with an account of the establishment of the Feast of Purim and the exaltation of Mordecai to the vacant place of Haman. The Israelite porter becomes grand vizier of Persia! This is the crowning proof of the triumph of the Jews consequent on their deliverance. The whole process of events that issues so gloriously is commemorated in the annual Feast of Purim. It is true that doubts have been thrown on the historical connection between that festival and the story of Esther. It has been said that the word "Purim" may represent the portions assigned by lot, but not the lottery itself, that so trivial an accident as the method followed by Haman in selecting a day for his massacre of the Jews could not give its name to the celebration of their escape from the threatened danger, that the feast was probably more ancient, and was really the festival of the new moon for the month in which it occurs. With regard to all of these and any other objections, there is one remark that may be made here. They are solely of archaeological interest. The character and meaning of the feast as it is known to have been celebrated in historical times is not touched by them, because it is beyond doubt that throughout the ages Purim has been inspired with passionate and almost dramatic reminiscences of the story of Esther. Thus for all the celebrations of the feast that come within our ken this is its sole significance.
The worthiness of the festival will vary according to the ideas and feelings that are encouraged in connection with it. When it has been used as an opportunity for cultivating pride of race, hatred, contempt, and gleeful vengeance over humiliated foes, its effect must have been injurious and degrading. When, however, it has been celebrated in the midst of grievous oppressions, though it has embittered the spirit of animosity towards the oppressor-the Christian Haman in most cases-it has been of real service in cheering a cruelly afflicted people. Even when it has been carried through with no seriousness of intention, merely as a holiday-devoted to music and dancing and games and all sorts of merry-making, its social effect in bringing a gleam of light into lives that were as a rule dismally sordid may have been decidedly healthy.
But deeper thoughts must be stirred in devout hearts when brooding over the profound significance of the national festival. It celebrates a famous deliverance of the Jews from a fearful danger. Now deliverance is the keynote of Jewish history. This note was sounded as with a trumpet blast at the very birth of the nation, when, emerging from Egypt no better than a body of fugitive slaves, Israel was led through the Red Sea and Pharaohs hosts with their horses and chariots were overwhelmed in the flood. The echo of the triumphant burst of praise that swelled out from the exodus pealed down the ages in the noblest songs of Hebrew Psalmists. Successive deliverances added volume to this richest note of Jewish poetry. In all who looked up to God as the Redeemer of Israel the music was inspired by profound thankfulness, by true religions adoration. And yet Purim never became the Eucharist of Israel. It never approached the solemn grandeur of Passover, that prince of festivals, in which the great primitive deliverance of Israel was celebrated with all the pomp and awe of its Divine associations. It was always in the main a secular festival, relegated to the lower plane of social and domestic entertainments, like an English bank-holiday. Still even on its own lines it could serve a serious purpose. When Israel is practically idolised by Israelites, when the glory of the nation is accepted as the highest ideal to work up to, the true religion of Israel is missed, because that is nothing less than the worship of God as He is revealed in Hebrew history. Nevertheless, in their right place, the privileges of the nation and its destinies may be made the grounds of very exalted aspirations. The nation is larger than the individual, larger than the family. An enthusiastic national spirit must exert an expansive influence on the narrow, cramped lives of the men and women whom it delivers from selfish, domestic, and parochial limitations. It was a liberal education for Jews to be taught to love their race, its history and its future. If-as seems probable-our Lord honoured the Feast of Purim by taking part in it, Joh_5:1 He must have credited the national life of His people with a worthy mission. Himself the purest and best fruit of the stock of Israel, on the human side of His being, He realised in His own great mission of redemption the end for which God had repeatedly redeemed Israel. Thus He showed that God had saved His people, not simply for their own selfish satisfaction, but that through Christ they might carry salvation to the world.
Purged from its base associations of blood and cruelty, Purim may symbolise to us the triumph of the Church of Christ over her fiercest foes. The spirit of this triumph must be the very opposite of the spirit of wild vengeance exhibited by Mordecai and his people in their brief season of unwonted elation. The Israel of God can never conquer her enemies by force. The victory of the Church must be the victory of brotherly love, because brotherly love is the note of the true Church. But this victory Christ is winning throughout the ages, and the historical realisation of it is to us the Christian counterpart of the story of Esther.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 5, 8, 11, 12, 15, 21 Est_2:1. After these things] How long after the divorce…
CRITICAL NOTES.]
Est_2:1. After these things] How long after the divorce of Vashti is uncertain. It may have been only a few months, or it may have been a year or more after. He remembered Vashti] And along with the remembrance came a desire to have her restored to favour again, and probably, also, a feeling that she had been too severely dealt with.
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MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH. Est_2:1
REGRETS—NATURAL, USELESS, AND WHOLESOME
Vashti was banished, but she was still a queen, for she reigned in the halls of the monarch’s sad memory. The jewelled turban may be placed on the head of another, but a royal soul cannot be stripped of queenly prerogatives by a monarch’s power. The king bowed to her greatness, and practically confessed her royalty, though kingly pride and Persian law might prevent a revocation of the edict. He remembered Vashti in fond but sad regrets.
I. Regrets are natural. The sweet vision of Vashti’s grace and beauty pleased the fancy of Ahasuerus while it troubled his soul. Her refusal to violate her modesty unconsciously called forth his admiration. And if he had any nobility in his nature, her marvellous daring must have commanded his esteem. How sad the reflection that in an evil and thoughtless moment of undue merriment and boasting he had been the cause of her fall and her banishment! Thus there would be a mixture of gloom and of light, of joy and of sorrow, of fond regrets and of painful upbraidings, as he remembered Vashti. It is natural for us to look back to the past, and indulge in grief over our losses and our follies. Man is a creature looking both before and behind. One sign of his greatness. He recalls the past, and he tries to picture the future. It was, then, natural for Ahasuerus, when his wrath was appeased, to remember Vashti, and what was decreed against her. Natural for all to regret their losses, and especially those that have been the result of their own folly.
II. Regrets and nothing more are useless. Tears will flow, but tears cannot save. They may excite pity, but cannot work out deliverance, nor undo the past. Regrets cannot suck up the water that has been spilt upon the ground. In this instance regrets cannot restore the deposed Vashti. If she knew of the monarch’s remembrance it might afford her some gratification, but this was all the good it would do her. Regrets cannot bring to life the dead which the past has entombed. Let us then so strive to live, to control our passions, that the remembrance of the past may not haunt us with reproaching misdeeds.
III. Regrets and something more may be wholesome. Regrets that issue in repentance are wholesome. It is well to remember the past when by it we are brought to true repentance. It would have been pleasant if we had been permitted to read that Ahasuerus repented as he remembered his folly. Regrets that lead to honest effort are wholesome. Wise is the man who, as he regrets the past, seeks to put forth every effort to repair the wrongs of the past, and be himself a better man for the future. Surely Ahasuerus might have done something more to repair the wrong done to Vashti in spite of the rigour of Persian law. Regrets that prompt the desire for forgiveness are wholesome. If it were not seemly for Ahasuerus to seek forgiveness from Vashti, yet he ought to have sought forgiveness from God. Have we no wrongs that need to be righted? Have we no sins that require forgiveness? We regret our sins when they expose us to temporal evils. Let us regret our sins as committed against God. Let us pray God for Christ’s sake to be merciful unto us. He is ready to forgive. Let us learn that self-pleasing is the highway to self-loathing. Our greatest sorrows are often the harvest of the seed our own hands have scattered. Remorse is a bitter cup to drink, and we prepare the repellent ingredients. Memory can be a great tormentor, and the sinner makes the lash with which memory inflicts its painful strokes. And those who injure the just will find that they injure themselves much more. The just may perish, but their memory is ever blessed. The fragrance of correct thinking, of truthful speaking, and of right doing comes from the tombs of the martyrs, and blesses the world. Oh, whatever may come of worldly honours, let men and women be true to principle, and so live that truth-loving men will pleasantly remember their names, and, in a not distant future, even persecutors will assist in decorating their tombs!
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Est_2:1
All that he could do was to indulge in vain regrets; mingled, perhaps, with self-upbraidings. It is the usual penalty of rashness, especially the rashness of temporarily inflamed passion. To bring down the things of court and fashion to every-day life, how many of our police reports, attended with fines and imprisonments, are to be attributed to the very same causes as led to the deposition of Vashti, and the subsequent regrets of the king. When passion is allowed to get the reins of reason, violence is almost sure to follow, and after-reflection to administer the lash of self-censure and remorse. The seat of those domestic feuds and dastard assaults on the weak and defenceless which are brought to light in our criminal courts, and excite our indignation and horror, is just the anger, malice, and reckless speech with which we may be ourselves chargeable. It is not that we should censure them the less who have been carried into these outward acts of personal injury and brutality, but that we should be incited the more to guard our own hearts. For whether the injustice and cruel wrong be done by kings surrounded by their councillors, and defended by their rank from civil penalties, or by the meanest subjects who are lodged in our jails, the Judge of all the earth deals equitably, and in his final allotments will show that he is no respecter of persons. He brings our feelings and motives and secret passions to the same tribunal as actions, and pronounces sentence accordingly. With the fear of God upon us, let us be jealous of unbridled passion, and stamp out wrath, and we shall be saved from many of those remembrances and regrets which rob life of much happiness. “Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.”
O memory! thou art a bitter avenger. Vashti might weep, but Artaxerxes had to repent. In the heat of passion, the one small offence, which had not been of her own making, had bulked so largely in his eyes as to shut out her many excellencies, kindnesses, and devotion; but when passion had subsided, these came prominently into view, and made that one offence seem as a very mote on a ground which was generally good and praiseworthy. But he could now do nothing to remedy the evil which had been done. In this view there is something terrible in the two words which Abraham is represented as addressing to the rich man in the New Testament historical parable, “Son, remember!” Recall the past! Think on the former unrequited, unacknowledged, and abused goodness of God! Think of how thou didst despise the poor, ulcerated, dog-licked beggar at thy gate! Ah! these bitter memories of earth will be ingredients in the future cup of the penal suffering of the lost! May God in his mercy deliver us from them all, and give us in their stead the blessed memory of an accepted Saviour, and “a life of faith on the Son of God, who loved us, and gave himself for us!”—McEwen.
I. Sin and punishment are inseparable companions. They go together with chains of adamant. Like individual twins, they are born together, live together, are attended the one by the other, as the body by the shadow.
II. When sin is in the saddle then punishment is on the crupper. Isidore, the monk, was one that vaunted he had felt in himself no motive to sin for forty years together. The Hebrews have but one and the same word for both; and blind nature prompted those mariners to demand of the obnoxious prophet Jonah, What evil hast thou done (Jon_1:7), that the hand of thy God doth follow thee so close? and those barbarians to censure St. Paul for some murder, whom, though he had escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffered not to live (Act_28:4).—Trapp.
1. He thought upon the happy days he had spent in her society.
2. He remembered the proofs of affection she had formerly given.
3. He remembered her punishment. How sad and heavy! Now that his wrath is appeased, and his judgment again balanced, he can see his weakness. The wrong which he thinks he has experienced from her he now sees to be of a very doubtful kind. “He must even confess to himself that, though he had consulted his counsellors, he still had acted in a passionate manner, and given too free a rein to his wrath.” This should have taught him to control his passions.
4. He remembered Vashti, but she was now lost to him. Lost for ever as his queen. Lost by his own act. The result of his own passion and wrath. And now the folly of his own act, like a serpent, stings him. Ahasuerus, amid all his wealth and splendour, now feels an oppressive want. He suffered a loss which could not be made good by any other possession, however precious. He may have more wives, and many of them, but they are not Vashti. David may have another son, but not a fair Absalom.
In speaking of the king’s sorrow, it should be distinguished from repentance, or godly sorrow. From what we know of the character of Ahasuerus, we may safely conclude that the remorse he felt would be of a selfish character. He was no doubt troubled, but was it—
1. Because of the injustice he had done to a virtuous, yet helpless woman? or
2. Because he felt that he had sinned against the law of right? or
3. Because he had lost his beautiful queen? Doubtless the latter chiefly, if not entirely. It was, therefore, only selfish sorrow. The kind of repentance or sorrow which a thief has when he finds himself in prison, deprived of liberty. He grieves, not because he is a thief, and wrongs his fellows, but because he has lost the chance to steal. Had Ahasuerus not lost Vashti, he would probably have never felt a pang. This feeling is as different as possible from repentance. Real repentance begins in humiliation of heart, and ends in reformation of life; it consists in the heart being broken for sin, and by sin. If we ever enjoy that peace which comes from God, our repentance must be that which is not to be repented of.
The nature of true repentance is well set forth in the following outline, by a wise old writer:—
There seems to be an hysterosis in the words, “Repent thee of thy remissness, laziness, lukewarmness, and learn by that thou sufferest to be zealous of good works,” “fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.” Be zealous and repent; that is, be in earnest and thorough in thy repentance, and each part thereof, contrition, or humiliation, and conversion, or reformation.
1. Know that God will never leave pursuing thee until the traitor’s head be thrown over the wall, till thou humble thyself, and walk with God. As one cloud follows another, until the sun consumes them, so one judgment after another, till godly sorrow dispels them. Let the glory be to him, taking the shame and blame of it ourselves, submitting to anything that he shall see good to inflict. Say, Here I am, let him do to me as seemeth him best. If God will have my life, here it is; if my goods, here they are; if my children or any other dear pledge of his former favour, I resign them freely into his hands. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; not your hands only, with Pilate, but your hearts also, with David (Psalms 51). Make use of all means, improve all occasions, turn all the streams into this one channel, for the driving of that mill may grind the heart.
2. Our sorrow must be unto a transmutation, or inward change. Our contrition must be joined with conversion, else all is lost; for this latter is the consummation of the former, and the seal of its sincerity. Here, then, you must set to work again, and be zealous in it. Let your crosses teach you to cast away all your transgressions, to turn from all your wickedness, repent of all your dead works, and put off all the fruits of the flesh. Spare no sin, but least of all thy beloved sin—thy familiar devil; pitch thy hatred chiefly upon that, fight neither against small nor great in comparison of that; say of it, as Haman of Mordecai, What avails me anything so long as that liveth? But that once dead, the rest will soon follow, as all the servants attend the master’s funeral.—Trapp.
When the wrath of Ahasuerus was cooled, did he not, think you, envy persons of a less powerful position than himself?
Remorse now punished the king almost as severely as his imperious and unjust decree had punished the unhappy queen.
Man is not so wise that his decrees are perfect, and his enactments incapable of improvement.
He ought to have felt grief and shame, that, in his wine and rage, he had so severely punished, and in such an irrevocable manner rejected, so fair and desirable a woman.
Time assuageth the heat of anger, but time does not always fill up the gaps which human wrath makes.
Man has wants which no wealth can meet. There is a want which the best social arrangements cannot supply.
There is a craving in the human heart which no earthly power can satisfy.
Guilty man needs to be placed in a right relation towards God.
“Ahasuerus was as poor as the humblest slave in his dominions in this respect, and far poorer than the poorest of the children of Judah, dispersed through his empire as exiles, but knowing Jehovah.” When the soul can rest on God, as the God of redemption, when it can claim Jesus Christ as its portion, then all outward inequalities of rank and fortune become subordinate; the Christian possessor of a large inheritance feels that his chief good is in Christ, the poor believer feels that he has a share of the same exhaustless fulness. There is nothing that a man is more ready to keep than his wrath. But Ahasuerus’s against Vashti was after a time assuaged. He remembered Vashti not without some remorse, but without all true repentance. He forsook not his rash anger as a sin, but regretted it for a time, and laid it asleep, to be raked up again on as slight an occasion. In graceless persons vices may be barbed or benumbed, not mastered and mortified. A merchant may part with his goods, and yet not hate them. A man may part with his sins for self-respects, and yet retain his affection for them; he may remember his Vashti, his bosom sins, from which he seemeth divorced, and, by such a sinful remembering of them, recommit them.—Trapp.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 2
Discipline of the passions. The passions may be humoured until they become our master, as a horse may be pampered till he gets the better of his rider; but early discipline will prevent mutiny, and keep the helm in the hands of reason. Properly controlled, the passions may, like a horse with the bit in his mouth, or a ship with the helm in the hand of a skilful mariner, be managed and made useful.
A rich landlord once cruelly oppressed a poor widow. Her son, a little boy of eight years, saw it. He afterwards became a painter, and painted a life likeness of the dark scene. Years afterwards, he placed it where the man saw it. He turned pale, trembled in every joint, and offered any sum to purchase it, that he might put it out of sight. Thus there is an invisible painter drawing on the canvas of the soul a life likeness, reflecting correctly all the passions and actions of our spiritual history on earth. Now and again we should be compelled to look at them, and the folly of our acts will sting us, as it did the landlord, and also Ahasuerus.
Control of anger. Socrates, finding himself in emotion against a slave, said: “I would beat you if I were not angry.” Having received a box on the ears, he contented himself by only saying, with a smile, “It is a pity we do not know when to put on the helmet.” Socrates, meeting a gentleman of rank in the streets, saluted him; but the gentleman took no notice of it. His friends in company, observing what passed, told the philosopher “That they were so exasperated at the man’s incivility, that they had a good mind to resent it.” He very calmly replied, “If you met any person in the road in a worse habit of body than yourself, would you think you had reason to be enraged with him on that account? Pray, then, what greater reason can you have for being incensed at a man for a worse habit of mind than any of yourselves?” That was a brave, strong man.
Impressions of sin. The great stone book of nature reveals many records of the past. In the red sandstone there are found, in some places, marks which are clearly the impression of showers of rain, and these are so perfect that it can even be detected in which direction the shower inclined, and from what quarter it proceeded—and this ages ago. Even so sin leaves its track behind it, and God keeps a faithful record of all our sins.—Biblical Treasury.
“If you cut a gash in a man’s head, you may heal it; but you can never rub out, nor wash out, nor cut out the scar. It may be a witness against you in his corpse; still it may be covered by the coffin, or hidden in the grave; but then it is not till decomposition shall take place, that it shall entirely disappear. But, if you smite your soul by sin, you make a scar that will remain; no coffin or grave shall hide it; no fire, not even the eternal flames, shall burn out sin’s stains.”
Counterfeit repentance. Beware that you make no mistake about the nature of true repentance. The devil knows too well the value of the precious grace not to dress up spurious imitations of it. Wherever there is good coin there will always be bad money.—Ryle.
Repentance before pardon. The first physic to recover our souls is not cordials, but corrosives; not an immediate stepping into heaven by a present assurance, but mourning, and lamentations, and a little bewailing of our former transgressions. With Mary Magdalene we must wash Christ’s feet with our tears of sorrow, before we may anoint his head with “the oil of gladness.”—Browning.
In all parts of the East, women are spoken of as being much inferior to men in wisdom; and nearly all their sages have proudly descanted on the ignorance of women. In the Hindoo book called the ‘Kurral,’ it is declared, “All women are ignorant.” In other works similar remarks are found: “Ignorance is a woman’s jewel. The feminine qualities are four—ignorance, fear, shame, and impurity. To a woman disclose not a secret. Talk not to me in that way; it is all female wisdom.”—Roberts.
Degradation of woman. The farmers of the upper Alps, though by no means wealthy, live like lords in their houses, while the heaviest portion of agricultural labour devolves on the wife. It is no uncommon thing to see a woman yoked to the plough along with an ass, while the husband guides it. A farmer of the upper Alps accounts it an act of politeness to lend his wife to a neighbour who is too much oppressed with work; and the neighbour, in his turn, lends his wife for a few day’s work, whenever the favour is requested.—Percy.
Radical reform. A small bite from a serpent will affect the whole body. There is no way to calm the sea but by excommunicating Jonah from the ship. If the root be killed, the branches will soon be withered. If the spring be diminished, there is no doubt that the streams will soon fail. When the fuel of corruption is removed, then the fire of affliction is extinguished.—Secker.
Individual responsibility. Daniel Webster was once asked, “What is the most important thought you ever entertained?” He replied, after a moment’s reflection, “the most important thought I ever had was my individual responsibility to God.” There is no royal road, either to wealth or learning. Princes and kings, poor men, peasants, all alike must attend to the wants of their own bodies, and their own minds. No man can eat, drink, or sleep by proxy. No man can get the alphabet learned for him by another. All these are things which everybody must do for himself, or they will not be done at all. Just as it is with the mind and body, so it is with the soul. There are certain things absolutely needful to the soul’s health and well-being. Each must repent for himself. Each must apply to Christ for himself. And for himself each must speak to God and pray.—Ryle.
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.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The Choice of Esther to be Queen. Mordecai's Service
The Choice of Esther to be Queen. Mordecai's Service
1. He remembered, etc.] LXX has 'he thought no more of Vashti, remembering what,' etc.
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3. The house of the women] This was the house of the virgins, as contrasted with the house of the concubines (Est_2:14).
Their things for purification] Various perfumed oils and ointments (Est_2:12).
5. Mordecai] The name, though used by Jews (cp. Ezr_2:2; Neh_7:7), was derived from tfie Babylonian deity Merodaeh (Marduk).
Shimei.. Kish] probably Mordecai's grandfather and great grandfather (Est_2:6 applying to Kish). Others regard the genealogy as abbreviated, and take Shimei and Kish to be remoter ancestors, identifying them with the Shimei and Kish of 2Sa_16:5; 1Sa_9:1 (in which case Est_2:6 must refer to Mordecai's family two or three generations back).
7. Hadassah] a Hebrew name meaning 'Myrtle.' Esther] connected by some with the Persian word for 'star'; according to others, the same as the Babylonian 'Ishtar,' the Canaanite 'Ashtoreth.'
9. Such things as belonged to her] lit. 'her portions'; perhaps richer viands than ordinary: cp. Dan_1:5.
11. And Mordecai walked, etc.] He apparently occupied a position in the king's household (cp. Est_3:2), and in the apocryphal 'Rest of Esther' (11:3) he is expressly styled a servitor in the king's court. He would thus have opportunities of communicating with Esther.
12. After that she had been, etc.] RV 'after that it had been done to her according to the law for the women, twelve months.'
13. Whatsoever she desired] i.e. for the adornment of her person.
14. Into the second house of the women] so LXX. Some render, 'returned a second time' (i.e. back again) 'into the house of the women,' but at any rate into a different quarter of it, where they were under the charge of Shaasghaz, not of Hegai.
15. She required nothing, etc.] i.e. instead of selecting her articles of attire for herself like other maidens (Est_2:13), she left everything to the choice of Hegai.
16. Tebeth] i.e. December-January. The seventh year] i.e. 479 b.c. Thus four years elapsed between the degradation of Vashti and the promotion of Esther (see Est_1:3). In the interval between 483 and 479 Xerxes' expedition into Greece took place, the battle of Salamis being fought in 480 b.c.
18. Made a release] Either from taxation or military service. Some would render 'granted a holiday.' According to the state] RV 'according to the bounty of': i.e. with regal generosity.
19. And when the virgins, etc.] Some connect this with Est_2:14, and take 'the virgins' to mean 'the young women.' Others render, 'now when virgins were gathered together a second time' (as on the earlier occasion described in Est_2:8). Sat in the king's gate] perhaps as the official who received applicants that desired to have audience with the king.
23. Hanged] or, 'impaled,' a form of punishment frequently inflicted by Persian sovereigns. The book of the chronicles] Herodotus relates instances of Xerxes' similarly recording the names of certain men who distinguished themselves in the war against Greece.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv3, 6, 16 Or, Hegai, Est 2:8
Hege
Or, Hegai, Est 2:8
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v23 1. The suggestion (Est 2:1-4)
ESTHER CHOSEN QUEEN AND MORDECAI’S DISCOVERY
CHAPTER 2
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1. The suggestion (Est 2:1-4)
2. Mordecai and Esther introduced (Est 2:5-7)
3. Esther brought to the king’s house (Est 2:8-11)
4. Esther chosen as queen (Est 2:12-18)
5.Mordecai’s discovery and exposure of the plot (Est 2:19-23)
Est 2:1-4. This probably did not happen immediately after the feast. We learn this from verse 16 in this chapter. He took Esther in the place of Vashti in the seventh year of his reign, but the feast described in the opening chapter happened in the third year. About four years elapsed. During these years, profane history tells us, Ahasuerus (Xerxes I), undertook a campaign against Greece with which many misfortunes were connected. He must have returned exhausted and unhappy. Then his conscience spoke. He probably missed the companionship of Vashti and he remembered her and what was decreed against her. But why did the monarch not take Vashti back into favor and forgive her, if remorse troubled him? As nothing more is said of Vashti it is more than probable that she was put to death. Perhaps the unfortunate war, the great losses he had sustained, were looked upon by the king as being the punishment for his drunken wrath against the queen. Then the courtiers made their suggestions which is in fullest keeping with the customs of Persia and still practised by oriental sultans and shahs. Fair young virgins are to be brought to the harem, the house of the women, under the custody of Hegai, the king’s chamberlain and keeper of the women. The king was well pleased with this suggestion.
“One cannot but admire the simple, quiet historical style of our narrative. Laying aside all the reports which only would prolong our way of coming to the essential part of the contents of the book, there is nothing omitted which would contribute to the historical and psychological introduction and illustration. How much is necessary to happen before Israel could have ready help in time of need! What great things, according to the external appearance, must precede, in order to make it possible that a Jewish girl by the influence of her charms ascend the throne of the Persian Empire! The great conference of all the officers of the state, the dreadful war with Greece, and the unfortunate issue of the same, were they not in the hands of Providence so many stepping stones in the path of Esther’s ascendancy? in order to replace the loss of Vashti, a woman of equal endowments must be sought for the king, wherever and however it might be! How many things must subserve to the frustration of Haman’s wicked plan! The wrath of Xerxes against Greece, and his wrath against his wife. Court intrigues against the powerful influences of a wife, and the vain conceit of offended sovereignty? First drunkenness, then homicidal passion, then new excited sensuality, were the sad instruments which preceded Israel’s redemption.
“When the people were delivered, they could well be penitent when they considered the way in which Vashti--though not herself guiltless--was one of the main causes of their deliverance. And if deep penitence must have resulted from the reflection that a woman like Vashti had to die a violent death in order that the people of God should live,--what kind of penitence must the thought call forth when we remember that Christ gave His Life in order that Israel and the Gentiles might live” (Professor P. Cassel).
Est 2:5-7. These verses introduce us now to the leading actors in this book. Mordecai, the Jew, was the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite; who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captives which had been carried away with Jechoniah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away.
Here we face one of the inconsistencies charged by higher criticism. But their mistake is quite apparent. They claim that Mordecai belonged to the captives carried away by Nebuchadnezzar. Then they say, that being the case Mordecai must have been over 130 years old and Esther at least 70 years. But does it say that Mordecai was carried away at the time of King Jechoniah? It was not Mordecai who was carried away but his great-grandfather Kish. “The clear and instructive intentions of the historian in this genealogical passage are evident. He points out, through the enumeration of the four generations from Kish to Mordecai, the time which elapsed since the banishment of Jechoniah, which took place before the destruction of the temple. The period of about 120 or more years which since then elapsed to the sixth year of Xerxes are exactly expressed by the four generations. We have also some intimation concerning the period of the narrative, which is assigned to the reign of Xerxes I. That Kish was a Benjamite, is only told for the purpose of distinguishing him from other men with the same name who belonged to the tribe of Levi. One might have thought it impossible that Biblical expositors should commit the mistake of making the information concerning the exile of Jechoniah refer to Mordecai himself--an idea for which there is neither textual nor historical foundation, but rather both against it” (Professor Cassel). Mordecai had brought up Hadassah. She was an orphan, fair of form and good of countenance, his uncle’s daughter. Mordecai had adopted her. Hadassah means “myrtle” and Esther “star.” Critics have identified the name Esther with Babylonian goddess Isthar (similar to Ashtoreth), and they also claim that Hadassah was the Babylonian title for the same goddess. But such statements are mere inventions.
Est 2:8-11. Esther on account of her great beauty was taken with the many other virgins in obedience to the King’s command. Jewish tradition informs us that Mordecai, her guardian and second father, had kept her concealed, in order not to be obliged to deliver her to the royal agents, but people who knew her, and who had not seen her for some time drew the attention of the agents to the concealment. She with the others is placed in charge of Hegai the keeper of women. In all we see the hand of the Lord preparing step by step the help needed for the preservation and deliverance of His people during the approaching crisis. And Esther pleased Hegai; he showed her kindness. This kindness was expressed in furnishing her the means of improving her appearance, such as cosmetics and perfumes, according to Oriental customs. Then she received no doubt beautiful garments and jewelry to enhance her person still more. Then the best place in the house of the women was given to her and the seven maids who waited on her. (Very interesting and curious is the Jewish tradition concerning these seven servants. This tradition as preserved in the Targumim makes their names to correspond with the work of the six days of creation. Thus the fourth maid-servant’s name was “Starlight” because on the fourth day the heavenly bodies came into view. Remarkable is the name of the maid who attended her on the sixth day--Friday; her name was “Lamb.” On the seventh day, the Sabbath, the servant’s name, who waited on her was “Rest”‘ she reminded Esther of the Sabbath. And the Servant who attended her on the day after the Sabbath (Our Lord’s day) bore the name of the mystical bird Phoenix, the symbol of light, rising out of the fire and out of death. It is certainly interesting, to say the least, to find such traditional statements.)
And Esther had not showed her people and her kindred. This was done on the advice of Mordecai. This has been characterized as deception, extraordinary adroitness, and cowardice. It was neither. Divine Providence ordered it thus. Inasmuch as Esther’s parents were dead such concealment of nationality was not difficult; had her parents lived it would have been next to impossible. Had it been known that she belonged to the alien race, intrigues for her destruction would have soon been set afoot. Haman’s wicked endeavour may even then have been in process of planning. Mordecai walking daily before the court of the women’s house, proves his great concern for his adopted daughter.
Est 2:12-18. The description of Est 2:12-14 is a perfect picture of Persian customs and the licentiousness of Persian and other Oriental rulers. In due time Esther’s turn came to be presented to the king. “She required nothing.” Professor Cassel in his exposition gives the best exposition of this statement. The other women could not find enough artificial means with which to make an impression upon the king. But Esther cared nothing about these things. She had no such ambitious desires. Her heart did not burn to become something illustrious, yet unbecoming to a Jewess. Reluctantly she must have left her home, and reluctantly she must have put on the ornaments. She was wanted, and was ordered to appear, and therefore she obeyed Hegai and allowed herself to be prepared for the occasion. She was compelled to be there, while no doubt in heart she detested the whole affair.
She was brought in to the king. Attracted by her beauty he set the royal crown upon her head and the Jewish maiden became queen in the place of Vashti. This took place in the month Tebeth in the seventh year of the reign of Ahasuerus.
Then a great feast was made, even Esther’s feast, a release was made, probably a release of prisoners and taxes and gifts were bestowed. God in His providence.
Est 2:19-23. This paragraph contains another important providential event which in the subsequent history plays a very leading part. The opening words of verse 19 have been pronounced obscure by critics. “And when the virgins were gathered together the second time.” Jewish expositors have explained this as meaning a conspiracy, that the enemies of the new queen had collected more virgins so that in some way Esther might be eclipsed and placed into the background. It is claimed by others that the words “the second time” should be omitted from the text as there is some doubt about them. If this is done the statement would then refer to the gathering of the virgins mentioned in the eighth verse of the chapter. But the suggestion that the second gathering was an act of conspiracy might be the true meaning; it would show the purpose of the unseen enemy and it also explains the watchfulness of Mordecai. He sat at the king’s gate. It was according to oriental custom a place of public resort, where news was heard and conversation with friends and others were carried on. The suggestion by some that Mordecai sat in the king’s gate because he was an official of the government must be dismissed as incorrect.
Est 2:20 informs us of two interesting facts. Esther did not disclose her nationality and she continued in humble obedience to her foster father as if she were still under his roof and not the great queen. The royal glory and dignity which surrounded her on all sides had not affected her in the least. She had not forgotten that the whole royalty was not a matter of pleasure to her, but only an act of obedience, the providential purpose of which she did not know, but which she found out afterward. Her interest was with Mordecai outside and not with the royal splendour inside.
Let us note the providential leading in all this. If Esther had revealed her connection, if it had become known that Mordecai at the gate was her uncle and she his adopted daughter, he would not have remained in the obscure position before the gate. Then the conspirators would have been cautious and not spoken within the hearing of such a person so closely related to the queen. The knowledge of the planned attempt upon the life of the King Mordecai owed to the fact that nobody knew who he was and therefore paid no attention to him.
The conspirators were Bigthan and Teresh. They sought to lay hands on the king. According to Jewish tradition they intended to put a venomous reptile in the king’s cup when he was about to drink. The plot was overheard by Mordecai who at once communicated the fact to Esther and she told the king of it in the name of Mordecai. She did so guided by the divine hand, which is so evident in this remarkable history. The plot is at once investigated and the report is found true. The conspirators were hanged and the event is historically recorded in the book of the Chronicles. (King Ahasuerus, Xerxes, lost his life by assassination in 465 B.C. Artaban, the commander of his cavalry, conspired with Mithridates, his confidential chamberlain, who admitted him into the king’s bedroom, and Artaban stabbed him to death while he slept.)
Esther had saved the king’s life by giving him the report of Mordecai. And Mordecai received no reward. His faithfulness was evidently forgotten; but God had ordered it all.
Typical Applications
Dispensationally Esther typifies the Jewish remnant, which will be called by the King of Israel, our Lord, when Gentile-Christendom has been disowned and set aside for its unfaithfulness, as Vashti was set aside. The parable of the good and the wild olive tree in Romans 11 is thus illustrated by Vashti and Esther. The branches of the wild olive tree--professing Christendom (but not the true Church) which were grafted in upon the root of the good olive tree (Israel and the Abrahamic covenant) on account of their failure will be cut out and cast aside. The broken off branches (the remnant of Israel) will be put back upon the root of the good olive tree. (See annotations on Romans 11, or for a fuller exposition read “The Jewish Question,” an exposition of Romans 11 by A.C. Gaebelein.) This remnant will then be brought into definite relationship with the Lord, pass through the period of the great tribulation, foreshadowed in Haman’s wicked Plot, and then receive the kingdom, be delivered and have part in the kingdom, as it was the case with Esther, Mordecai and the Jews at Shushan.
The gospel application is also of interest. The humble Jewish girl is raised to the place of a queen, to the place beside the King. She did not seek that place. It never entered into her mind to receive such a place. She was sought for. All this illustrates the gospel by which the beggar upon the dunghill is raised to sit amongst princes and to inherit the throne of glory (1 Samuel 2). She, who was a foreigner, becomes married to the king, to share his glory, his riches and his honors. And so the believing sinner becomes one spirit with the Lord, a member of His body “flesh of His flesh and bone of His bones,” to share His eternal glory and His eternal riches.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 15 The Choice of Virgins for the Position of Queen
The Choice of Virgins for the Position of Queen
v. 1. After these things, when the wrath of King Aliasuerus was appeased, when the excitement attending the banquet and the affair of the queen’s insubordination had subsided, he remembered Vashti, and what she had done, and what was decreed against her, his brooding over the matter tending to make him melancholy and causing the king’s counselors to suggest a course of procedure to him and to divert a threatening danger.
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v. 2. Then said the king’s servants that ministered unto him, Let there be fair young virgins sought for the king, the requirements being youth, beauty, and virginity;
v. 3. and let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom, a matter easy to perform with the extensive Persian post system, that they may gather together all the fair young virgins unto Shushan, the palace, to the house of the women, the apartments set apart for the royal harem, unto the custody of Hege (or Hegai), the king’s chamberlain, the chief eunuch, keeper of the women; and let their things for purification be given them, which, including cleansing and anointing with precious oils and perfumes, extended over some time;
v. 4. and let the maiden which pleaseth the king be queen instead of Vashti. And the thing, the suggestion as made,pleased the king; and he did so.
v. 5. Now, in Shushan, the palace, there was a certain Jew, whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite, of the lineage of King Saul, apparently holding some office in the court of the Persian king,
v. 6. who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captivity which had been carried away with Jeconiah (or Jehoiachin), king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had carried away, that is, his house had been carried into exile at that time, about 130 years before, Mordecai himself having been born in Babylonia.
v. 7. And he brought up, nourished and reared, Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle’s daughter; although her cousin, he became her foster-father and guardian, since he was evidently very much older than she; for she had neither father nor mother, she was a full orphan, and the maid was fair and beautiful, both in face and form;whom Mardecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for his own daughter, taking the place of a full parent toward her.
v. 8. So it came to pass, when the king’s commandment and his decree was heard, that concerning the selection of virgins for the position of queen, and when many maidens were gathered together unto Shushan, the palace, to the custody of Hegai, that Esther was brought also unto the king’s house, to the custody of Hegai, keeper of the women, especially the virgins included in this experiment.
v. 9. And the maiden pleased him, she immediately gained the good will of this chief eunuch, and she obtained kindness of him, found grace and favor before him; and he speedily gave her things for purification, all the cosmetics required to enhance her beauty, with such things as belonged to her, especially portions of wholesome food, for a good diet was very essential for the purpose of the king, and seven maidens, which were meet to be given her, out of the king’s house, as her servants and companions; and he preferred her and her maids unto the best place of the house of the women, assigned the best apartments to her and her slave-girls.
v. 10. Esther had not showed her people nor her kindred; for Mordecal, with a shrewdness which had the advantages of Esther in mind at all times, had charged her that she should not show it, she should not reveal her nationality.
v. 11. And Mordecal walked every day before the court of the women’s house, as near the royal harem as he dared to go, to know how Esther did and what should become of her, ever solicitous of her welfare.
v. 12. Now, when every maid’s turn was come to go in to King Ahasuerus, after that she had been twelve months, according to the manner of the women, as custom and etiquette demanded, (for so were the days of their purifications accomplished, to wit, six months with oil of myrrh, this massaging intended for the purpose of bringing out suppleness and grace, and six months with sweet odors, with the perfumes which the Orientals delight in,and with other things for the purifying of the women,)
v. 13. then thus came every maiden unto the king, fully prepared and ornamented to gain the king’s pleasure; whatsoever she desired was given her to go with her out of the house of the women unto the king’s house, and many had taken the opportunity to bedeck themselves with every possible ornament in order to attain to the position of queen.
v. 14. In the evening she went, and on the morrow she returned into the second house of the women, the harem of the concubines,to the custody of Shaashgaz, the king’s chamberlain, the eunuch in charge of these apartments, which kept the concubines; she came in unto the king no more except the king delighted in her and that she were called by name. In the entire narrative the vanity and nothingness of this world’s goods, also of mere physical beauty, is brought out with great impressiveness. A lair face alone will not bring lasting happiness.
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 vv1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10, 12, 14, 15, 17, 19, 22 After these things
After these things
This introduces a new event that happened a while later. (See: Introduction of a New Event)
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the anger of King Ahasuerus subsided
"the king became less angry"
the decree
This is refers to the decree in Esther 1:19-20.
Let a search be made
This can be stated in active form. AT: "Tell your servants to search" (See: Active or Passive)
on the king's behalf
The men speak to the king in the third person as a sign of respect. AT: "on your behalf" (See: First, Second, or Third Person)
translationWords
king
Ahasuerus
Vashti
decree
servant
virgin
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 On vv6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 2:6 His family (literally He): Since King Jehoiachin was…
2:6 His family (literally He): Since King Jehoiachin was exiled in 597 BC (2 Kgs 24:6-16), over 100 years earlier, it was probably one of Mordecai’s ancestors who was part of the group taken into Babylonian captivity.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.