On that night, the king couldn’t sleep. He commanded the book of records of the chronicles to be brought, and they were read to the king. It was found written that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs, who were doorkeepers, who had tried to lay hands on the King Ahasuerus. The king said, “What honor and dignity has been given to Mordecai for this?” Then the king’s servants who attended him said, “Nothing has been done for him.”
The king said, “Who is in the court?” Now Haman had come into the outer court of the king’s house, to speak to the king about hanging Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him.
The king’s servants said to him, “Behold, Haman stands in the court.” The king said, “Let him come in.”
So Haman came in. The king said to him, “What shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honor?” Now Haman said in his heart, “Who would the king delight to honor more than myself?”
Haman said to the king, “For the man whom the king delights to honor, let royal clothing be brought which the king uses to wear, and the horse that the king rides on, and on the head of which a royal crown is set. Let the clothing and the horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king’s most noble princes, that they may array the man whom the king delights to honor with them, and have him ride on horseback through the city square, and proclaim before him, ‘Thus it shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honor!’ ”
Then the king said to Haman, “Hurry and take the clothing and the horse, as you have said, and do this for Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the king’s gate. Let nothing fail of all that you have spoken.”
Then Haman took the clothing and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and had him ride through the city square, and proclaimed before him, “Thus it shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honor!”
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 8 Hebrew, the king’s sleep departed.
Hebrew, the king’s sleep departed.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–11 Est 6:1 On that night could not the king…
Est 6:1 On that night could not the king sleep, and he commanded to bring the book of records of the chronicles; and they were read before the king.
Ver. 1. On that night] That very night before Mordecai should have been hanged on the morrow morning, and so early that Esther could not have begged his life, would she never so fain. God will appear for his poor people, εν τω καιρω, in the nick and opportunity of time, 1Pe 5:6. He will be seen in the mount, he will come as out of an engine.
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Could not the king sleep] Heb. the king’s sleep fled away, and, like a shadow, it fled away so much the faster as it was more followed. Sleep is best solicited by neglect, and soonest found when we have forgotten to seek it. They are likeliest for it who, together with their clothes, can put off their cares, and say as Lord Burleigh did when he threw off his gown, Lie there, Lord Treasurer. This great Ahasuerus cannot do at present, for crowns also have their cares, thistles in their arms, and thorns in their sides. Lo, he that commanded one hundred and twenty-seven provinces cannot command an hour’s sleep: how should he when as sleep is God’s gift? Psa 127:2. And it was he that at this time kept him awake for excellent ends, and put small thoughts into his heart for great purpose, like as he did into our Henry VIII, when the bishop of Baion (the French ambassador), coming to consult with him about a marriage between the lady Mary and the duke of Orleans, cast a scruple into his mind which rendered him restless, whether Mary were legitimate, &c. (Life and death of Card. Wolsey, 65). If it were his surfeiting and drunkenness the day before that hindered Ahasuerus from sleeping, habent enim hoc ebrii, ut neque dormiant, neque vigilent (Plin.), They have this from drinking so that they are neither asleep nor awake. God’s goodness appeareth the more, in turning his sin to the good of the Church. Venenum aliquando pro remedio fuit, saith Seneca, He can make of a poisonous viper a wholesome treacle; and by an almighty alchemy draw good out of evil.
And he commanded to bring the book of records] Perhaps some special notes or commentaries, written for the king’s own use, as M. Aurelius had his τα εις εμαυτον. Julius Caesar had his commentaries written with his own hand, and for the help of his own memory, υπομνηματα. Tamerlane had the like book, wherein he read a great part of the night before the mortal battle between him and Bajazet (Turk. Hist.).
Of the chronicles] Perhaps, besides the former book of remembrances, or else the same, Librum Commentariorum, Chronica, as Tremellius rendereth it, the book of commentaries, even the chronicles, but the Vulgate and Tygurine make them different books.
And they were read before the king] Perhaps as a recipe, to bring on sleep, or at least to deceive the time; and yet it may be too for a better purpose, viz. to better his knowledge, and to stir up his memory, that dignity might wait upon desert; as it did in Tamerlane’s time, who kept a catalogue of their names who had best deserved of him, which he daily perused, oftentimes saying, that day to be lost wherein he had not done something for them. This Ahasuerus had not yet done for Mordecai, who therefore haply held with the poet,
Omnia sunt ingrata nihil fecisse benigne est.
But God was not unrighteous to forget his work and labour of love, Heb 6:10, though men were unthankful. Vetus gratia dormit. (Pindar). Per raro grati reperiuntur (Cicero).
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, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 11 How vain are all the contrivances and endeavours of…
How vain are all the contrivances and endeavours of this foolish, impotent man against the wise and omnipotent God, who hath the hearts and hands of kings and all men perfectly at his dispose, and can by such trivial accidents (as they are accounted) change their minds, and produce such momentous and terrible effects! The king’s mind being troubled, He knew not how, nor why,
he commanded to bring the book of records of the chronicles; he chooseth this for a divertisement, God putting this thought and inclination to him, for otherwise he might have diverted himself, as he used to do at other times, with his wives or concubines, or voices and instruments of music, which was far more agreeable to his temper.
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And they were read before the king until the morning, when he intended to rise out of his bed.
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, 4 Now Satan put it into the heart of Haman…
Now Satan put it into the heart of Haman to contrive Mordecai's death we read in the foregoing chapter; how God put it into the heart of the king to contrive Mordecai's honour we are here told. Now, if the king's word will prevail above Haman's (for, though Haman be a great man, the king in the throne must be above him), much more will the counsel of God stand, whatever devices there are in men's hearts. It is to no purpose therefore for Haman to oppose it, when both God and the king will have Mordecai honoured, and in this juncture too, when his preferment, and Haman's disappointment, would help to ripen the great affair of the Jewish deliverance for the effort that Esther was to make towards it the next day. Sometimes delay may prove to have been good conduct. Stay awhile, and we may have done the sooner. Cunctando restituit rem - He conquered by delay. Let us trace the steps which Providence took towards the advancement of Mordecai.
I. On that night could not the king sleep. His sleep fled away (so the word is); and perhaps, like a shadow, the more carefully he pursued it the further it went from him. Sometimes we cannot sleep because we fain would sleep. Even after a banquet of wine he could not sleep when Providence had a design to serve in keeping him waking. We read of no bodily indisposition he was under, that might break his sleep; but God, whose gift sleep is, withheld it from him. Those that are ever so much resolved to cast away care cannot always do it; they find it in their pillows when they neither expect nor welcome it. He that commanded 127 provinces could not command one hour's sleep. Perhaps the charms of Esther's conversation the day before gave occasion to his heart to reproach him for neglecting her, and banishing her from his presence, though she was the wife of his bosom, for above thirty days; and that might keep him waking. An offended conscience can find a time to speak when it will be heard.
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II. When he could not sleep he called to have the book of records, the Journals of his reign, read to him, Est 6:1. Surely he did not design that that should lull him asleep; it would rather fill his head with cares, and drive away sleep. But God put it into his heart to call for it, rather than for music or songs, which the Persian kings used to be attended with (Dan 6:18) and which would have been more likely to compose him to rest. When men do that which is unaccountable we know not what God intends by it. Perhaps he would have this book of business read to him that he might improve time and be forming some useful projects. Had it been king David's case, he would have found some other entertainment for his thoughts; when he could not sleep he would have remembered God and meditated upon him (Psa 64:6), and, if he would have had any book read to him, it would have been his Bible; for in that law did he meditate day and night.
III. The servant that read to him either lighted first on that article which concerned Mordecai, or, reading long, came to it at length. Among other things it was found written that Mordecai had discovered a plot against the life of the king which prevented the execution of it, Est 6:2. Mordecai was not in such favour at court that the reader should designedly pitch upon that place; but Providence directed him to it; nay, if we may believe the Jews' tradition (as bishop Patrick relates it), opening the book at this place he turned over the leaves, and would have read another part of the book, but the leaves flew back again to the same place where he opened it; so that he was forced to read that paragraph. How Mordecai's good service was recorded we read Est 2:23, and here it is found upon record.
IV. The king enquired what honour and dignity had been done to Mordecai for this, suspecting that this good service had gone unrewarded, and, like Pharaoh's butler, remembering it as his fault this day, Gen 41:9. Note, The law of gratitude is a law of nature. We ought particularly to be grateful to our inferiors, and not to think all their services such debts to us but that they make us indebted to them. Two rules of gratitude may be gathered from the king's enquiry here: - 1. Better honour than nothing. If we cannot, or need not, make recompence to those who have been kind to us, yet let us do them honour by acknowledging their kindnesses and owning our obligations to them. 2. Better late than never. If we have long neglected to make grateful returns for good offices done us, let us at length bethink ourselves of our debts.
V. The servants informed him that nothing had been done to Mordecai for that eminent service; in the king's gate he sat before, and there he still sat. Note, 1. It is common for great men to take little notice of their inferiors. The king knew not whether Mordecai was preferred or no till his servants informed him. High spirits take a pride in being careless and unconcerned about those that are below them and ignorant of their state. The great God takes cognizance of the meanest of his servants, knows what dignity is done them and what disgrace. 2. Humility, modesty, and self-denial, though in God's account of great price, yet commonly hinder men's preferment in the world. Mordecai rises no higher than the king's gate, while proud ambitious Haman gets the king's ear and heart; but, though the aspiring rise fast, the humble stand fast. Honour makes proud men giddy, but upholds the humble in spirit, Pro 29:23. 3. Honour and dignity are rated high in the king's books. He does not ask, What reward has been given Mordecai? what money? what estate? but only, What honour? - a poor thing, and which, if he had not wherewith to support it, would be but a burden. 4. The greatest merits and the best services are often overlooked and go unrewarded among men. Little honour is done to those who best deserve it, and fittest for it, and would do most good with it. See Ecc 9:14-16. The acquisition of wealth and honour is usually a perfect lottery, in which those that venture least commonly carry off the best prize. Nay, 5. Good services are sometimes so far from being a man's preferment that they will not be his protection. Mordecai is at this time, by the king's edict, doomed to destruction, with all the Jews, though it is owned that he deserved dignity. Those that faithfully serve God need not fear being thus ill paid.
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 vv1–11 On that night could not the king sleep,.... The…
On that night could not the king sleep,.... The night after he had been at Esther's banquet, which it might be thought would rather have caused sleep; and therefore Jarchi calls it a miracle; and no doubt it was owing to the overruling providence of God, and not to anxious thoughts about his neglect of Esther so long, nor what should be her request to him, nor jealousy of any amorous intrigue with Haman, nor of any conspiracy of theirs against his life:
and he commanded to bring the book of records of the chronicles; the diaries or journal, in which memorable facts were recorded; this he did to divert himself, and pass away time; though here also the providence of God was specially concerned; for otherwise he might have sent for any of his wives and concubines, or singing men and women, to have diverted him:
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and they were read before the king; until the morning, until it was time to rise, as appears by what follows.
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, 4, 6, 8 Providence recommends Mordecai to the king's favour, ver. 1-…
Providence recommends Mordecai to the king's favour, ver. 1- 3. Haman is constrained publickly to honour him thro' the city, ver. 4-11. His friends foretell his doom, ver. 12, 13, He goes to the banquet, ver. 14.
Sleep - How vain are all the contrivances of foolish man against the wise and omnipotent God, who hath the hearts and hands of kings and all men perfectly at his disposal, and can by such trivial accidents (as they are accounted) change their minds, and produce such terrible effects. Were read - His mind being troubled he knew not how, nor why, he chuses this for a diversion, God putting this thought into him, for otherwise he might have diverted himself, as he used to do, with his wives or concubines, or voices and instruments of musick, which were far more agreeable to his temper.
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, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10 That night the king, not being able to sleep,…
CHAPTER VI
That night the king, not being able to sleep, orders the
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chronicles of the kingdom to be read to him; and finds there
the record concerning the discovery of the treason of the two
eunuchs, made by Mordecai, 1, 2.
He inquires whether Mordecai had been rewarded, and was answered
in the negative, 3.
At this time Haman arrives, in order to request the king's
permission to hang Mordecai; and being suddenly asked what
should be done to the man whom the king delighted to honour,
supposing that himself must be meant, presented the ceremonial,
4-9.
The king orders him to give Mordecai those honours; which he
performs, to his extreme mortification, 10, 11.
He informs his wife Zeresh of these transactions, who predicts
his downfall, 12-13.
He is hurried by the eunuchs to the queen's banquet, 14.
NOTES ON CHAP. VI
Verse 1. On that night could not the king sleep] The Targum says the king had a dream, which was as follows:-"And the king sat one in the similitude of a man who spoke these words to him: Haman desireth to slay thee, and to make himself king in thy stead. Behold, he will come unto thee early in the morning, to ask from thee the man who rescued thee from death, that he may slay him: but say thou unto Haman, What shall be done for the man whose honour the king studieth? And thou wilt find that he will ask nothing less from thee than the royal vestments, the regal crown, and the horse on which the king is wont to ride."
The records of the chronicles] It may be well asked, Why should the king, in such a perturbed state of mind, wish such a dry detail, as chronicles afford, to be read to him? But the truth is, as chronicles were composed among the Persians, he could not have brought before him any work more instructive, and more entertaining; because they were all written in verse, and were generally the work of the most eminent poets in the empire. They are written in this way to the present time; and the famous epic poem of the finest Persian poet, Ferdusi, the Homer of India, is nothing else than a collection of chronicles brought down from the creation to the reign of Mohammed Ghezny, in the beginning of the tenth century. After thirty years' labour, he finished this poem, which contained one hundred and twenty thousand lines, and presented it to the Sultan Mahmoud, who had promised to give him a dinar (eight shillings and sixpence) for every line. The poem was finished A.D. 984; and was formed out of compositions of a similar nature made by former poets. This chronological poem is written in all the harmony, strength, and elegance of the most beautiful and harmonious language in the universe; and what adds greatly to its worth is, that it has few Arabic words, with which the beautiful Persian tongue was loaded, and in my opinion corrupted, after the conquest of the major part of Asia by the Mohammedans. The pedants of Hindoostan, whether they speak or write, in prose or in verse, affect this commixture of Arabic words; which, though they subjugate them to Persian rules, are producing a ruggedness in a language, which in Ferdusi, flows deep and strong like a river of oil over every kind of channel. Such, I suppose, was the chronicle that was read to Ahasuerus, when his distractions prevented his sleep, and his troubled mind required that soothing repose which the gentle though powerful hand of poetry is alone, in such circumstances, capable of affording. Even our rough English ancestors had their poetic chronicles; and, among many, the chronicle of Robert of Gloucester is proof in point. I need not add, that all that is real in Ossian is of the same complexion.
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, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11 Est 6:1. On that night could not the king…
Est 6:1. On that night could not the king sleep — How vain are all the contrivances of foolish man against the wise and omnipotent God, who hath the hearts and hands of kings and all men perfectly at his disposal, and can by such trivial accidents (as they are accounted) change their minds, and produce such terrible effects. He commanded to bring the book of records — His mind being troubled, he knew not how, nor why, he chooses this for a diversion, God putting this thought into him, for otherwise he might have diverted himself, as he used to do, with his wives or concubines, or voices and instruments of music, which were far more agreeable to his temper. “In these records of the Chronicles, which we now call journals, (wherein was set down what passed every day,) the manner of the Persians was to record the names of those who had done the king any signal services. Accordingly, Josephus informs us, that upon the secretary’s reading these journals, he took notice of such a person who had great honours and possessions given him as a reward for a glorious and remarkable action, and of such another who made his fortune by the bounties of his prince for his fidelity; but, that when he came to the particular story of the conspiracy of the two eunuchs against the person of the king, and of the discovery of this treason by Mordecai, the secretary read it over, and was passing forward to the next; when the king stopped him, and asked him if the person had had any reward given him for his service; which shows indeed a singular providence of God, that the secretary should read in that very part of the book wherein the service of Mordecai was recorded. Why Mordecai was not rewarded before, it is in vain to inquire. To account for the humour of princes, and their management of public affairs, is almost impossible. We see daily, even among us, that men are frequently unmindful of the highest services which are done them, and take no care to reward them, especially if the person be in himself obscure, and not supported by a proper recommendation; and therefore we are not to wonder, if a prince, who buried himself in indolence, and made it a part of his grandeur to live unacquainted and unconcerned with what passed in his dominions, (which was the custom of most of the eastern kings,) should overlook the service Mordecai had done him; or, if he ordered him a reward, that by the artifice of those at court, who were no well-wishers to the Jews, he should be disappointed of it. There seems, however, to have been a particular direction of Providence, in having his reward delayed till this time, when he and all his nation were appointed to destruction; when the remembrance of his services might be a means to recommend them to the king’s mercy, and the honours conferred on him a poignant mortification to his proud adversary.” — Dodd.
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 vv3, 8 It was a settled principle of the Persian government…
It was a settled principle of the Persian government that “Royal Benefactors” were to receive an adequate reward. The names of such persons were placed on a special roll, and care was taken that they should be properly recompensed, though they sometimes waited for months or years before they were rewarded.
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, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10 Sleep. Anxious what Esther could desire. Septuagint, "But the…
Sleep. Anxious what Esther could desire. Septuagint, "But the Lord removed sleep from the king that night." (Haydock) --- Providence watched over the welfare of his people. --- Chronicles. The king took particular care (Calmet) to have their benefactors mentioned in history and rewarded. (Herodotus viii. 85.) Assuerus had not recourse to musicians, &c., wisely (Tirinus) reflecting that history is the most pleasing and useful amusement. (Cicero, &c.) (Tirinus) --- God directed him on this occasion, as his eye never sleepeth. (Josephus) (Worthington)
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 Esther 6-10
PART SECOND
THE DANGER REMOVED
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Esther 6-10
FIRST SECTION
The Fall of Haman
Esther 6, 7
A.—HAMAN, EXPECTING THE HIGHEST HONOR, IS BROUGHT LOW. HE MUST GIVE THE HIGHEST HONOR TO MORDECAI
6:1–14
I. Ahasuerus is reminded of Mordecai’s former meritorious act and desires to know what reward has been given him. Est_6:1-5
1On that night could not the king sleep [the sleep of the king fled]; and he commanded [said] to bring the book of records [memorials] of the Chronicles [words of the days]: and they were read1 before the king. 2And it was found written, that Mordecai had told of [upon] Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s chamberlains [eunuchs], the keepers of the door [threshold], who sought to lay hand on the king Ahasuerus. 3And the king said, What honour and dignity [greatness] hath been done to Mordecai for [upon] this? Then [And] said the king’s servants [young men] that ministered unto him [his attendants], There is nothing [has not a word been] done for [with] him. 4And the king said, Who is in the court? (Now [And] Haman was [had] come into the outward court of the king’s house, to speak [say] unto the king to hang Mordecai on the gallows [tree] that he had prepared for him). 5And the king’s servants [young men] said unto him, Behold, Haman standeth [is standing] in the court. And the king said, Let him come in.
II. Human describes the mode of honoring a deserving man, and Ahasuerus commands him to bestow such on Mordecai. Est_6:6-11
6So [And] Haman came in. And the king said unto him, What shall be done [is there to do] unto [in the case of] the man whom the king delighteth to honour [in whose honour the king delighteth]? (Now [And] Haman thought [said] in his heart, to whom would the king delight to do honour more than to myself?). 7And Haman answered [said to] the king, For the man whom the king delighteth to honour [in whose honour the king delighteth], 8Let the royal apparel be brought [let them bring, etc.] which the king useth to wear [with which the king has clothed himself], and the horse that the king rideth [has ridden] upon, and the crown-royal which is set upon his head: 9And let this [the] apparel and [the] horse be delivered to [given upon] the hand of one [a man] of the king’s most noble princes,2 that they may array [and let them apparel] the man withal whom the king delighteth to honour [in whose honour the king delighteth], and bring him on horseback [cause him to ride on the horses] through [in] the street [wide place] of the city, and proclaim [let them call] before him, Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king 10delighteth to honour [in whose honour the king delighteth]. Then [And] the king said to Haman, Make haste, and take the apparel and the horse, as thou hast said [spoken], and do even so to Mordecai the Jew that sitteth [the one sitting] at [in] the king’s gate: let nothing fail [not a word fall] of all that thou hast spoken. 11Then [And] took Haman the apparel, and the horse, and arrayed [apparelled] Mordecai, and brought him on horseback [caused him to ride] through [in] the street [wide place] of the city, and proclaimed [called] before him, Thus shall it be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour [in whose honour the king delighteth].
III. The vexation of Haman is only increased through the evil prophecy of his friends. Est_6:12-14
12And Mordecai came again [returned] to the king’s gate: but [and] Haman hasted [urged himself] to his house mourning, and having his head covered [veiled as to the head]. 13And Haman told [recounted to] Zeresh his wife and all his friends [lovers] every thing that had befallen him. Then [And] said his wise men and Zeresh his wife unto him, If Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews, before whom thou hast begun to fall, thou shalt not prevail against [be able to] him, but [for thou] 14shalt surely fall before him. And while they were yet talking with him [and, i.e., then] the king’s chamberlains [eunuchs] came [approached], and hasted to bring Haman unto the banquet that Esther had prepared [made].
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
1 [The original is very explicit, וַיִהְיקּ נִקְרָאִים, “and these were in the act of being called over.”—Tr.]
2 [“The princes, the Parthemim,” a term apparently of special distinction.—Tr.]
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Est_6:1-5. As in the former chapter the danger for Mordecai rose to the highest point, and we may expect nothing more than that both opponents, if left to themselves, should destroy each other on the following morning, even before the careful Esther has as yet accomplished her mission, we now perceive how timely is the occurrence of an event in the intervening night, which not only prevents Esther’s intercession for Mordecai from being too late, but also brings about the beginning of the downfall of Haman. The author ascribes this occurrence to the troubled sleep of Ahasuerus. Thus any who merely take a superficial view of things might ascribe it to chance. But to judge from what we have already seen, it is certainly not opposed to his view, that the second Targum in all things transpiring takes God into account, and represents things as if the angel of God’s mercy were well informed of the lamentations of the daughters of Israel, and at God’s command had disturbed the sleep of Ahasuerus.
Est_6:1. On that night could not the king sleep—but not because the issued edict against the Jews had caused him unrest. In consequence he commanded to bring the book of records of the Chronicles, in which, according to Est_2:23, Mordecai’s deed was inscribed. He caused it to be read, not in order to find out whether the Jews had really deserved their extermination. This would have been worthy of a better king, but it is opposed by the facts in Est_6:10 and Est_3:15, and also Est_7:5. His object was simply to entertain himself with the records of the past. Still it is remarkable that just that point, treating of Mordecai’s act, should have been read. On any other than a providential view, one would be inclined to think that he had commanded first of all to read those passages referring to the Jews.3 The use of the participle וַיִּהְיוּ נִקְרָאִים signifies that the reading lasted for some time, perhaps extended through the night. Hence we may not be astonished that when the passage referred to came to be read, Haman already waited in the outer court.
Est_6:2-3. The name Bigthana reads Bigthan in Est_2:21. The question of the king: what honour and dignity hath been done to Mordecai for this? means, What honor and reward has been assigned him? עַל־זֶה, because of this report. עָשָׂה with עִם means: to apportion, to requite, (comp. 2Sa_2:6; 2Sa_3:8 et al.).4
Est_6:4. The question: who is in the court? means, what officer is now present? The king desired to consult with him as to what distinction would be appropriate to Mordecai. It seems that those desiring to be admitted to the king’s presence had to wait in the outer court. With reference to the king’s intention to distinguish Mordecai, comp. Brisson De reg. Pres. princ. I., c. 135.
Est_6:5. Even though other officers were there already, still Haman stood first in choice 5Doubtless he was the most acceptable to the king. יָבוֹא is a short order: “Let him come in,” namely into the house of the king.
Est_6:6-11. Convinced that he only could be the man whom the king delighted to honor, Haman at once designates the very highest honor, and is immediately commanded to award it to Mordecai. Our author very strikingly portrays how Haman, in the very moment in which he expected to receive the highest distinction for himself, was most effectually and painfully brought low; and that his opponent, whom he hoped to destroy, was elevated to the highest place of honor. Both of these things, too—and this adds an additional charm to the whole— were brought about by Haman himself, by his own expressed judgment, indeed by his own hand.
Est_6:6. “When the king had asked the question, Haman thought within himself (אָמַר בְּלִבּוֹ), to whom would the king delight to do honor more than to myself?—יוֹתר מִמֶּנִּו, going beyond me, more than myself. יֹוֹתֵר occurs in this form only in a later period (comp. Ecc_12:12; Ecc_12:9; also Ecc_2:15; Ecc_7:11; Ecc_7:16).
Est_6:7. Haman was quickly prepared to give answer, and without any difficulty called up one distinction of honor after another. The sentence: For the man whom the king delighteth to honor, is placed in advance as being a theme brought up by the king and pleasant for his own ears to hear. We can replace it with the Nomin. Abs. in this way: As regards the man, etc. Thereafter he adds honor upon honor that should be bestowed on such a one, and seems hardly to know where to stop. But his aim is that the king should thereby designate this man to be thus honored as his second or other self, which in view of the divine dignity of the Persian kings, implied a great deal.
Est_6:8. Let the royal apparel be brought which the king useth to wear.—The constr. of לָבַשׁ with בְּ occurs only here and in the Arabic; in other places לָבַשׁ is followed by the accus., or by עַל with a distinct part of the body. The garment is not to be one such as the king is accustomed to wear, but as the perfect tense fully shows, one which he has worn. Hence it is not to be a common apparel for a special occasion, or the so-called Median dress, which the king himself wore, as also those distinguished by him, especially his princes (comp. Herod. III. 84; VII. 116; Xenophon’s Cyrop. VIII. 3, 1 as also Bähr’s annotation on Herod. III. 84); but it was a costly garment, whose value was much enhanced by the fact that the king had worn it. It is not expressly related that, the king gave as a present his own garments as a mark of honor, at least not by the Grecian authors. Plutarch, however, relates (in his Artax. 24), that Tiribazus had asked of the king that he put off his royal apparel and present it to him (Tiribazus, and doubtless as a mark of honor); but that the king had presented him with it, yet forbade him to wear it. 6 It is therefore to be remarked that those things which were used by the king, and which he had directly touched, especially his garments, were through him sanctified. A courtier even called the table sacred, from which Darius Codomannus had eaten, and wept when he saw Alexander the Great place his feet upon it. The steed upon which the king had ridden wore a crown, and was thereby designated as royal and sacred. נִתַּן can only be tertia præt. Niph., not prima Plur. Imperf. Kal, as in Jdg_16:5. אֲשֶׁר בְּרֹאשׁוֹ does not have reference to the head of a man, as if one could with Le Clerc, Rambach and others translate: “that the royal crown was placed on his head” (to this is opposed the præter נִתַּך, instead of which the Imperf. should have been chosen); but it rather means: upon the head of the horse. That the royal riding horse was thus crowned is also not expressly stated, still it is not improbable, since, according to Xenoph., Cyrop. I. 3, 3; 8:3, 16, to him belonged a golden harness. Besides all this there is seen on Assyrian and Old Persian monuments, not so distinct on the latter, horses of the king, and perhaps also of princes, that wear an ornament on their heads terminating in three points, which can easily be taken for a crown.7
Est_6:9. And let this apparel and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king’s most noble princes,etc.—נָתוֹן, the infinitive, is the supplement of the optative יָביִאוּ (comp. Est_2:3). Delivered to the hand of, i.e., given over to, given up to. As regards הַפּרְתְּמִים, comp. Est_1:3. The place רְהוֹב הָעִיר, upon which the man to be honored should ride up and down, must, according to Est_4:6, have been before the king’s gate and palace, and therefore a public thoroughfare. According to Gen_41:43, a similar honor was bestowed upon Joseph.
Est_6:10-11. The king perfectly agreed to the proposition of Haman at once—and this must no doubt surprise the reader; he orders this designated honor to be shown to Mordecai. That Mordecai was a Jew and accustomed to sit in the king’s gate could be well known to him from the records of the chronicle of the empire, or from the courtiers, who read the history to him, and who had doubtless also given him still other information respecting Mordecai.8 It is very remarkable that the king did not here remember, or at least overlooked the fact that he had decreed the destruction of the Jews, and had even given them over to Haman; but this is not entirely inexplicable, as may be seen from his usual mode of doing things.—Let nothing fail of all that thou hast spoken,i.e., omit nothing of all these things (comp. Jos_21:45; Jdg_2:19).
Est_6:12-14. While Mordecai returns, loaded with honors, to his usual place of station, the gate of the king,9 Haman, with covered head and sorrowful heart, hastens home to his friends and wife only to hear the discouraging prophecy that the unfortunate occurrence will be the beginning of his end. To cover the head was a sign of deep shame and distress (comp. 2Sa_15:30; Jer_14:4).10His friends are now called wise men, at least some of them, because they undertook to forecast his future. Perhaps there were among them some magicians, who, according to Cicero, Divin. I. 23, were a nation of wise and learned men. They very wisely concluded: If Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews, thenלֹא תוּכַל לוֹ, thou shalt not prevail against him; then shalt not thou be the conqueror, but he (comp. Gen_32:26, נָפוֹל תִּפּוֹל), either thou wilt entirely, or at least surely fall. It may be asked, how did they arrive at such a conclusion? If they only attributed enmity on the part of Mordecai, then they needed only to recall the edict against the Jews and published by Haman. But they also attribute a superior power to him, because he is a Jew. Hence they must base themselves on something else. Most interpreters, among them also Bertheau and Keil, think that although these friends had before counselled Haman to have Mordecai, the unfortunate Jew, hung, yet now when he had become a highly honored person on the part of the king, and this too, as it were, through a miracle, the truth impresses itself upon them that the Jews must be under the especial divine protection. And indeed we find far more indicated here than a fear of the shrewdness and energy of the Jews. The fact that the Jews still existed in spite of all afflictions which they had endured must have impressed many with the conviction that there was a higher power assisting and caring for them. But these persons are more concerned now to appear very wise. Hence they act as if they had not known that Mordecai was a Jew, although Haman, in 5:15, had expressly so stated.
Est_6:14. In order that the narrative may make a very strong impression, there must now follow blow upon blow in quick succession. Hardly had the prophecy been uttered before its fulfillment begins. Accordingly the eunuchs of the king arrive, who press Haman to come to the banquet of the king.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
Est_6:1 sq. 1. Mordecai, according to Est_4:14, was convinced that if Esther would not undertake the rescue of her people, there would be found other means and ways. He had placed his trust less in her than in the general providence which watched over him. Now it is seen that though Esther had become willing to intercede, he was correct in his position. Even before Esther had ventured to express her request for her people, Mordecai himself was threatened with destruction; and before he could do anything to avert, or was even acquainted with his danger, it was already removed. It seems to have been a very insignificant means of which Providence availed itself for his protection. But it was one which, because it clearly lay above human co-operation, very definitely revealed the higher activity in his behalf: it was the sleeplessness of Ahasuerus. When the Lord is desirous of protecting or saving His people, something must serve Him of which men least thought before. Nothing is either too great or too small for Him.
Brenz: “This is as it is written in the Psalm: ‘He suffered no man to do them wrong; nay, He rebuked even kings for their sake.’ For the pious are so great a care to God, that in order to preserve them He does not even spare kings, but brings upon them various calamities.”
Feuardent: “Let every one bear in mind day and night that pious proposition of Augustine concerning the solicitude of God for His saints (Conf. iii. 11): “So day and night dost Thou watch for my safe-guard as if, forgetful of Thy whole creation in heaven and earth, Thou consideredst me alone, and hadst no care for others.’ ”
Berl. Bible: “O Lord, it is good to trust in Thee in the expectation of Thy help! Thou dost continually watch over the souls left in Thy care. And though Thou dost even wait until things have come to extremities, in order to cause the greater exercise of faith, so that none may despair of Thy assistance, still at the right time Thou art ever ready to help.—What indeed is more natural than that a king cannot sleep, and that he should wish something read to him? It is this altogether natural, yet wonderful leading, which causes the hearts of those who experience it to rejoice! To all other hearts this is dark. This wise, divine Providence is still unknown to those who only live in and for themselves.”
2. It does not appear that Ahasuerus had a restless night because he had grievous thoughts regarding the edict of destruction against the entire Jewish peeple. We find that he is far too careless, much too indifferent and superficial, for such a state of mind (comp. Est_3:15; Est_7:5). Still we would have naturally expected it, and it would have been well for him if it had been so. Had he been concerned about the great number of subjects that would thus be murdered, it would not have been necessary for him first to be reminded of the fact, through the reading of the history of his reign, that he had once been in danger of being murdered himself. He would have spontaneously remembered that only a Mordecai saved him from his fate of destruction. It would have been quite just that he, while robbing so many of their rest and sleep, whom he had destined to a doom of death, should be sleepless not one, but many nights. Would that every one whose eyes cannot find sleep at night might ask whether he had at any time or in any manner done wrong, which he should be in haste to set right; or whether he does not still owe thanks for some benefit received! Would that all those who must be awake at night were clearly conscious of the fact that there is Another who is also awake, and that He it is who imposes upon us this sleeplessness! Only when we look up to Him can we find true rest (comp. Psa_119:55).
3. It was soon after the marriage of Ahasuerus with Esther that Mordecai discovered and reported the conspiracy. Hence it was now over five years that this meritorious deed had been recorded, but not yet rewarded. Instead of reward, he was threatened with destruction. Those who are diligent for the welfare of others must often give up the hope of receiving their well-merited reward, even at the present day. What is more sorrowful still is the fact that one is often inclined to impugn both their motives and their work, as if they had not designed it or exerted themselves to effect it. Mordecai’s history may be very instructive and comforting to such. Ahasuerus too may here again as elsewhere remind us of a faithful watchman, who, however it may go with him, never sleeps nor slumbers. The works of the good are not only recorded on earth, where they are often and easily forgotten, but they are above all recorded in heaven. It is because God saves men by His grace that He will render unto all according to their work—to those not obedient to the truth, but obeying unrighteousness, displeasure and wrath; and to the others according to their patience in good works, glory and honor (Rom_2:7). The seed that they have scattered, if it was good, is indestructible, and cannot be lost; and when the time comes, God will bring it to maturity, so that it may bear abundant fruit either to the sowers or to others (comp. Gal_6:9).
Brenz: “Although men are unmindful of benefits received, and, as Pindar says, old thanks sleep, still our Lord God is never forgetful.” When God’s time for reward has come, then even the zeal of enemies must assist Him, as we have seen in our history of Haman. However watchful and diligent our enemies may be in order to utterly destroy the pious, yet all their acts and labor form only the ground of the scene, which by the help of God is made to serve in perfecting the web of His leadings.—Brenz: “This is the right hand of the Most High which brings it to pass that those good things occur to the pious which the wicked hope for; and to the ungodly there come those evils which they have prepared for the godly.” For the wicked are only the bearers of that power which is ever desirous of evil, and yet ever produces good.
Feuardent: “In Haman thou perceivest how blind and erring is the temper of every ambitious man. He admires and regards only himself; he fancies himself worthy of all honor and reverence, and thinks that all things are due to him.’ He despises all others as obscure, abject and vile. It is well, however, that there is a God in heaven who laughs to scorn, contemns, judges and hurls down the proud from their seats, but glorifies the humble: so that all may learn to be wise concerning themselves, and to be content with moderate fortune.… Let all the pious therefore take courage, nor ever fail or despair of divine help on account of the rage and greatest power or violence of tyrants. For Christ still lives; He reigns, and will forever reign; and He puts all His enemies under His feet.”
Starke: “Princes should have diligent care that none who have deserved well of the State or of themselves are left to go unrewarded (Gen_41:42; Dan_2:48). God knows our acts of kindness; and though we may regard them as lost or ignored, yet He can bring them to the light at the proper time to receive even a greater reward than if they had been immediately rewarded (Gen_41:12 sq., 39sqq.).”
Est_6:6 sq. Feuardent: “Diligently weigh the change of the right hand of the Most High. Haman had come into the court in order that by authority of the king he might destroy Mordecai by an ignominious death. Him, however, he is compelled to exhibit and proclaim to all in royal magnificence. He had come for the purpose of raising him aloft fastened upon a very high cross with the utmost shame. But on the contrary he is compelled to adorn this very man with regal splendors, to set him on the king’s horse, and to herald him publicly as the monarch’s most dear and honored friend. He had come with the design of bringing a capital charge against him; and he has the task of decorating his head with the royal diadem.”
It seems to us to be like a divine irony in the destiny of Haman that he is himself compelled to assign the highest distinction to his mortal enemy, and that the king instructs him to impart this honor with his own hands, thus making his downfall the more striking and lamentable. But in fact this same truth is plainly shown daily over the entire ungodly world. The world must ever concede honor and glory to those who have deserved well respecting the welfare of mankind; but it is by no means its heroes and divinities who can claim this merit, though they have been regarded as the men of glory from antiquity (Gen_11:4).11 What the latter have accomplished has been deception, wars and vain labors. It is those whom the world regards least of all fit for their work that have done most for it. And whose will be all that the world has brought forth and fostered, and which it regards as great and beautiful? When the judgments of God shall have been consummated upon the world, lambs will pasture upon it as if upon their own pasture, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat (Isa_5:17).
Est_6:12-14. 1. When Haman had bestowed the highest dignity on Mordecai, he hastened home, sad and with covered countenance. It is a bad sign that he knew nothing better to do in such an hour. Those are upon difficult paths who feel themselves humbled when they have been obliged to show deserved honor to others. Even in the estimation of the world it would have been far better if he had endeavored to change his enemy into a friend. And had he but reflected and correctly apprehended his present position, he would have recognized the warning voice of God, which endeavored in a firm, but yet kind tone to lead him in the way of his salvation. The final judgments of God are ever preceded by other heralds. They are indeed the announcement of the beginning of the revelations of the wrath of God; but they are also proofs of the long-suffering and love of God, which would, even in the eleventh hour lead to salvation. But it is a remarkable fact that when the worldly need their wisdom most, especially they who have usually been regarded as wise, just then they are utterly bereft of counsel; and hence their proud and stubborn hearts all at once become faint.
Feuardent: “In prosperity he is highly insolent and cruel; but in adversity he is so broken and dejected that he knows not which way to turn.” But his counsellors are no better off than himself. Feuardent: “His friends do not console him, nor show him any plan for escaping his danger, which nevertheless was then the most needful help for Haman; but they throw him, just hesitating between hope and fear, into despair. ‘Thou wilt surely fall in his sight,’ say they. Had they admonished him indeed of his many and heinous sins toward God and His servants, of his duty of recognizing the inevitable judgment of God, of repentance, of reconciliation; then perchance it may have turned out better with him.”—When our author permits these advisers to give expression of the superiority of the people of God, their words are much more to the point and weighty, as Feuardent says: “The power and efficacy of truth is so great that even its enemies and all the ungodly bear testimony to it. So the magicians of Pharaoh are compelled to explain: ‘This is the finger of God;’ and the Egyptians cry: ‘Let us flee before Israel, for the Lord fighteth for them’ (Exo_8:19; Exo_19:25).”
2. What Haman fears, and what is hinted at by his advisers, is the great truth that the Lord had laid a stone in Zion, upon which those falling upon it shall be broken. But it is just those that have placed themselves upon this stone, who are secure against all assaults by the world. And what the world daily and clearly demonstrates is the fact that it is not enough to recognize or apprehend the truth; but it is necessary also to give the heart a proper position with respect to it. Happy are they who need not fear, but who can console their hearts when the Lord says: “I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee;” “Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm” (Psa_105:15); “He who toucheth you, toucheth the apple of his eye” (Zec_2:8).
Starke: “Self-conceit, obstinacy and selfishness are three shameful and harmful evils that have plunged many into ruin (1Ti_6:9). Wordly persons seek their highest good in external pomp and appearance (Psa_49:12).— Self-love appropriates all things to itself, and concedes nothing to its neighbor.—Men seek perishable honor; would that they strove diligently after the imperishable honor and glory of heaven!—The manner of wicked advisers is, when the haughty fare too well, to goad them on to vindictiveness; but if something unforeseen checks them, they drive them to despair.—God is the same always; He can bring it about that neither earth nor hell can prevail against us.—The wicked are nearest destruction when they deem themselves farthest from it (Psa_73:7; Psa_73:18-19).”
Footnotes:
[1][The original is very explicit, וַיִהְיקּ נִקְרָאִים, “and these were in the act of being called over.”—Tr.]
[2][“The princes, the Parthemim,” a term apparently of special distinction.—Tr.]
[3][“There is reason to think that the Persian kings were, in most cases, unable to read. (Rawlinson’s Ancient Monarchies. Vol. IV., p. 18). Hence documents, which they wanted to consult, were read to them.” Rawlinson.—Tr.]
[4][“It was a settled principle of the Persian government that ‘Royal Benefactors’ were to receive an adequate reward. The names of such persons were placed on a special roll (Herod. VIII. 5), and great care was taken that they should be properly recommended. (See Herod. III. 140; V. 11; VIII. 85; Thucyd. I. 138; Xenoph. Hel. III. 1 and 6, etc.). It is a mistake, however, to suppose (Davidson) that they were always rewarded at once. Themistocles was inscribed on the list in B. C. 480, but did not obtain a reward till B. C. 465. Other ‘benefactors’ waited for months (Herod. V. 11), or perhaps years (ib. IX. 107) before they were recompensed. Sometimes a ‘benefactor’ seems to have received no reward at all (ib. III. 138).“ Rawlinson.—Tr.]
[5][ “He was waiting in the outer court, till it should be announced that the king was ready to grant audiences.” Rawlinson.—Tr.]
[6][“The honors here proposed have been thought ‘excessive,’ and certainly they are such as Persian monarch rarely allowed to subjects. Each act would have been a capital offence if done without permission. Still there is nothing contrary to Oriental notions in their being done under sufferance.” Rawlinson.—Tr.]
[7][“The meaning of this clause is doubtful. Either it may be translated, ‘and on whose head a royal crown is set,’ the reference being to the horse, which conceivably might bear an ornament like a crown on its crest; or ‘and that a royal crown be set upon his head,’ the reference being to the man, and the suggestion being not to deprive the king of his own diadem, but to place on the head of the person about to be honored a crown similar in general character to the royal one. (Compare Est_1:11). The grammatical construction is in favor of the former rendering; but we have in evidence that Persian horses even wore crowns on their heads.”— Rawlinson. We may add that the latter idea is too fantastic for even Oriental taste.—Tr.]
[8][“There is nothing strange in the king’s knowing the nationality and position of Mordecai. His nationality would probably have been noted in the book of the chronicles; and, when told that nothing had been done for him (Est_6:3), the king would naturally have asked his position.” Rawlinson.—Tr.]
[9][“It is quite consonant with Oriental notions that Mordecai, after receiving the extraordinary honors assigned him. should return to the palace and resume his former humble employment. Ahasuerus regarding him as sufficiently rewarded, and not yet intending to do any thing more for him.” Rawlinson.—Tr.]
[10][It was also “through shame probably; not wishing any of his acquaintance to accost him.” Rawlinson. —Tr.]
[11]According to Thiersch (Ueber den christliehen Staat, p. 209), Napoleon maintained that a prince who followed his conscience would be a good and noble governor, but not a great man.
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 vv4, 6, 8, 9, 11 Now Haman was come into the outward court--This was…
Now Haman was come into the outward court--This was early in the morning. It is the invariable custom for kings in Eastern countries to transact business before the sun is hot, often in the open air, and so Haman was in all probability come officially to attend on his master.
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, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10 MORDECAI HONOURED, Est_6:1-14.
MORDECAI HONOURED, Est_6:1-14.
1. That night, which succeeded the events of the last chapter, settled with apparently a most ominous cloud upon the future of Mordecai, but it was the harbinger of a most auspicious day for him. God, who works in the darkness as in the light, caused sleep to flee from the king, and disposed him to beguile the wakeful hours, not with music or song, but by having one read to him from the book of records of the chronicles. His mind was in a mood to ruminate on the events of his own life, and the State annals (see on Est_2:23) were called for to assist his memory. Rawlinson thinks that the Persian kings were, in most cases, unable to read.
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, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 1. could not the king sleep] better literally, as…
1. could not the king sleep] better literally, as marg., the king’s sleep fled from him. The LXX. paraphrases, ‘The Lord withheld sleep from the king’; and so the Targums. But in the present Heb. text the name of God never occurs; see Introd. p. xv.
Suetonius (cap. 50) says that the Roman emperor Caligula so suffered from sleeplessness that he used to rise and stand or roam about the palace. Procopius (Hist. Arcana, ed. Bonn, pp. 81 f.) relates the same of the emperor Justinian. The Turkish sultan, Selim I (died 1520), is said to have passed most nights in reading books; while sometimes he would have others read to him, or talk to him about State matters (Diez, Denkwürdigkeiten von Asien, i. 266).
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the book of records of the chronicles] lit. the book of memorials, even the chronicles. Cp. Mal_3:16, ‘book of remembrance.’ In Est_2:23 (where see note) we have the shorter expression ‘the book of the chronicles.’
and they were read before the king] The original resembles in its sense a Greek imperfect, implying that the reading lasted for a considerable time. The object doubtless was that the continuous sound of another’s voice might induce slumber. There is no suggestion in the passage that the king could not himself read, although such may very well have been the case. See Rawlinson, Ancient Monarchies (2nd ed.), iv. 228 f.
Chap. Est_6:1-11. Mordecai’s elevation
In this section we are shewn the strange concatenation of apparently trivial circumstances which collectively have the effect of bestowing the highest reward and most signal disgrace upon the humble and virtuous Israelite and the highly placed enemy of that people. It seems but a series of chances that the king was sleepless, that he adopted a particular method of alleviating his discomfort, that a certain section of the chronicles of the kingdom was read to him, that Haman was an early arrival at the palace on this occasion, and thus, through his haste to bring about Mordecai’s destruction, was himself of all persons the one chosen to do him honour. Nevertheless it was from the combination of all these occurrences that there arose the most mighty issues, and this fact plainly looms large in the mind of the narrator, though he does not in so many words attribute the ordering of the events to the hand of God. Here then we have the turning point of the narrative. Pride begins to approach its fall, and the humble to be exalted.
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, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11 (1) Could not the king sleep.—Literally, the king's sleep…
VI.
(1) Could not the king sleep.—Literally, the king's sleep fled away. Here, in the most striking way in the whole book, the workings of God’s providence on behalf of His people are shown. “God Himself is here, though His name be absent.” The king’s sleepless night falls after the day when Haman has resolved to ask on the morrow for Mordecai’s execution, a foretaste of the richer vengeance he hopes to wreak on the whole nation of the Jews. It is by a mere chance, one would say, looking at the matter simply in its human aspect, that the king should call for the book of the royal chronicles, and not for music. It was by a mere chance too. it might seem, that the reader should happen to light upon the record of Mordecai’s services; and yet when all these apparent accidents are wrought up into the coincidence they make, how completely is the providence visible, the power that will use men as the instruments of its work, whether they know it, or know it not, whether they be willing or unwilling, whether the glory of God is to be manifested in and by and through them, or manifested on them only.
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They were read before the king.—Canon Rawlinson remarks that there is reason to think that the Persian kings were in most cases unable to read.
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, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11 AHASUERUS, BEING WAKEFUL DURING THE NIGHT, HAS THE BOOK…
AHASUERUS, BEING WAKEFUL DURING THE NIGHT, HAS THE BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES READ TO HIM, AND FINDS THAT MORDECAI HAS RECEIVED NO REWARD. HE MAKES HAMAN NAME A FITTING REWARD, AND THEN DEPUTES HIM TO CONFER IT ON MORDECAI. (Est_6:1-11) It is among the objects of the writer of Esther to show how the smallest circumstances of life, those most generally regarded as left to chance, work together for good to such as deserve well, and for evil to such as deserve evil. He now notes that the turning-point in Haman"s and Mordecai"s fortunes was the apparently trivial circumstance of Ahasuerus on a particular night being troubled with sleeplessness. This led to his having the book of the chronicles read to him (ver. 1). Another seeming chance caused the reader to include in what he read the account of Bigthan"s and Teresh"s conspiracy (ver. 2). This brought Mordecai"s name before the king, and induced him to ask the question, "What honour and dignity hath been done to Mordecai for this?" The question could only be answered in one way is nothing done for him" (ver. 3). Such neglect being a gross breach of Persian law, and a great dishonour to the king who had allowed it, Ahasuerus naturally takes the matter up with earnestness. Something must be done at once to remedy the neglect, some agent must be found to set it right, and so the king asks, "Who is in the court?" Morning has probably arrived during the reading, and Haman, impatient to get the king"s consent to Mordecai"s execution, has come with the dawn to prefer his request. The king is told that Haman waits without, and sending for him, anticipates the business that his minister had intended to lay before him by the sudden question, asked the moment he has entered, "What shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour?" It was natural that Haman, after the favour shown him on the preceding day, should imagine himself the person aimed at, and should therefore fix upon the very highest honour that was within the range of his conceptions (vers. 8, 9). He thus became the suggester of honours for Mordecai which might otherwise not have occurred to any one. Ahasuerus, full of the idea of his own neglect, and ready to make any reparation, consents to all that is proposed, and, unaware that there is any unpleasantness between Haman and Mordecai, bids his minister confer the honours which he has suggested (ver. 10). The royal command cannot be disputed or evaded, and so Mordecai is escorted through the city by his enemy, who had expected about that very time to be superintending his impalement (ver. 11).
The book of records of the chronicles. Compare Est_2:23, where the title is given more briefly, as "the book of the chronicles." See also Est_10:2. The character of the book has been already explained. (see comment on Est_2:23) They were read. Either because the king could not read himself ("Ancient Monarchies," vol. 4. p. 184), or because the sound of a man"s voice might (it was thought) induce drowsiness.
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HOMILETICS.
Ver. 1.
A wakeful and eventful night.
There is something dramatic in this remarkable story. The movement is so regular and orderly, the plot unfolds itself so effectively, the crisis is reached so opportunely, that the story might be taken for a consummate work of art. In reality it is a work in which nature, or rather Providence, is signally conspicuous. This verse introduces the second part of the narrative. Hitherto Mordecai has been depressed, and Haman has been exalted. But the tide has now turned. From this point pride is to fall, and humility is to be raised.
I A KING CANNOT COMPEL SLEEP. Sleep is one of the best, most precious gifts of God to man. "He giveth his beloved sleep." The cares of business, of state, of pastoral life, may sometimes banish slumber, of which it is well said
The wretched he forsakes, Swift upon downy pinions flies from grief, And lights on lids unsullied with a tear.
It is not every statesman who, like Lord Burleigh, can take off his gown and say, Lie there, Lord Treasurer; or who, like Lord Liverpool, can draw off the cares of a kingdom with his stockings. Ruminating upon the affairs of his empire, his ambitious projects, Ahasuerus could not sleep.
II A SEEMINGLY SLIGHT INCIDENT MAY INVOLVE GREAT, MOMENTOUS ISSUES. Often may sleep have gone from the king"s eyes and nothing of consequence have followed. But that night was memorable, for that night"s sleeplessness was the occasion of the salvation of Mordecai, and perhaps of Israel. In the providence of God, as though to rebuke men"s self-confidence, little things are sent on high errands. Solomon speaks of small things which are yet exceeding great.
III RECORDS PROVE SERVICEABLE TO KINGS AND TO KINGDOMS. Books record what men forget. We know, not only from sacred, but also from profane history, that the Persian kings kept chronicles of all the important transactions of their reigns. It is believed that these great kings were unable to read themselves, and that there were educated attendants whose business it was to read aloud, in the hearing of the monarch, frog, the state records preserved in manuscript. Thus, on this occasion, the services of Mordecai were, so to speak, disinterred and brought to light.
IV AN AROUSED CONSCIENCE REPROACHES FOR FORGETFULNESS AND INGRATITUDE. How easy it is for the great to overlook benefits they have received, to take them as matters of course! But the inquiry Ahasuerus made shows that he was not altogether insensible to the claims which the Jew had upon his memory and his gratitude. It was late, but not too late, to make some recompense for a neglected and forgotten service.
V Thus SELF-INDULGENCE IS AROUSED TO ACT WITH JUSTICE AND GENEROSITY. The king had slept long enough; it was time to awake and to act. And this night"s vigil prompted him to a day"s justice.
Lessons:
1. Let waking hours of night be spent in profitable thoughts.
2. Let us be convinced of the overruling providence of God.
3. Let us remember that "man"s extremity is God"s opportunity.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON
Ver. 1.
The sleepless.
We are not surprised to read that "on that night could not the king sleep." Not, indeed, that there was anything in Ahasuerus (Xerxes) to make us expect a restless night; he appears to us here, as elsewhere, as a painful illustration of human heartlessness. That many thousands of his subjects were about to be butchered in order that his coffers might be filled should have caused the monarch many a troubled day and many a sleepless night; but such was the character of the man that no one suggests the impending massacre as the explanation of the king"s restlessness. He had reached that fearful spiritual condition in which human life was of no account to him so that his power might be continued and his pleasures multiplied or secured. It is a striking instance of Divine providence. He who "holds the king"s heart in his hand," who can touch with the finger of his power the secret springs of our thought and feeling, now sent troubled thoughts to this Persian king. That Lord of heaven, Keeper of Israel who slumbers not nor sleeps, (Psa_121:4) now gave a wakeful night to this earthly monarch. He was interposing on behalf of his chosen people. God willed that the sovereign should not slumber in order that he might thus be led to have "the book of records of the chronicles brought and read before the king," and Mordecai"s services be thus brought to his royal notice. Little did Ahasuerus, as he tossed his restless head on the pillow, imagine that a Divine hand was laid on his troubled brain. As little do we know when the finger of God is working on us, with us, for us, or mercifully against us. Thinking of the sleepless sons and daughters of men, we may have in view
I THE SLEEPLESS WHOM WE PITY. We do well to pity with heartfelt compassion those who tell us that they ": cannot sleep at night." Scarcely a sentence comes more plaintively from human lips. Well does one of our own poets write
Pity! oh, pity the wretches who weep, For they must be wretched who cannot sleep When God himself draws the curtain.
Whether it be pain, or trouble, or sorrow that causes the sleepless hours, we may pity sincerely and pray earnestly for these.
II THE SLEEPLESS WHOM WE ADMIRE. Those who
(1) tenderly nurse the sick through the livelong night, or
(2) sympathetically attend the sorrowful in their sleepless hours, or
(3) are "about the Father"s business," seeking the salvation of others.
It is the women who "watch" the best. There were, humanly speaking, at least three women who could have watched that "one hour", (Mat_26:40) and would not have been found asleep by the agonising Master. Few of the children of men are more worthy of our admiring affection than those self-denying sisters who watch so patiently lest there should be need of the ministering hand or the comforting word.
III THE SLEEPLESS WHOM WE ARE OBLIGED TO BLAME. There are those in every city who cannot sleep because they cannot forget. They shut their book at night; but have soon to sigh
Oh God! could I so close my mind And clasp it with a clasp.
They pay in restless hours the dark penalty of vice or crime; they are pursued and punished by dread of the wrath of God or of the justice of man, or by the rebukings of their own conscience. For such there is no remedy or escape but confession, reparation, forgiveness, human and Divine. "Return on thy way" at once.
IV THE SLEEPLESS WHOM WE MUCH WISH TO SERVE. Those who cannot sleep because of "great searchings of heart;" who are asking that old new question, "How shall mortal man be just with God?" who will give themselves no rest till the way of peace is found, till they have "peace with God through Jesus Christ." There are none anywhere so deserving and demanding, so certain to receive, the tender sympathy and delicate help of those who minister in the gospel of the Saviour.
V THE SLEEPLESS WHOM WE HOPE TO JOIN. On the other side of the river of death is a land where that which has been will not be, where we shall change this "body of our humiliation," and shall be clothed upon with the "body of his glory." There will be no sleeplessness like that of which we have spoken; no weary tossing, no heart-ache, no distress, no agitation. But there will be sleeplessness of another kind, for there will be no more need of long periods of unconsciousness and inactivity there. There will be "no more fatigue, no more distress," no more exhaustion; and therefore "there will be no night there," and no sleep, but ceaseless, tireless, unexausting energy; there they serve him "day without night." These we hope one day to join. Let us live "in Christ;" then shall we "fall asleep in him," and then shall we awake in the morning of an everlasting day where the shadows never fall, a land full of light because full of the near presence and the glory of the Lord. C.
HOMILIES BY W. DINWIDDLE Vers. 1-4.
A forgotten service brought to mind.
I GRANDEUR OF OUTWARD CONDITION DOES NOT PROTECT MIND OR BODY AGAINST ORDINARY INFIRMITIES. The king of Persia could not at will command sleep. The loss of the power to sleep is not confined to any position, though it is perhaps more common amongst the rich than the poor. The humble labourer may find sounder and sweeter sleep on his hard couch than a mighty and luxurious king on his bed of down.
II How TO SPEND SLEEPLESS HOURS BECOMES AN IMPORTANT QUESTION TO MANY. The nervous, the heart-burdened, and the invalided often sigh in vain for sleep, and many are the devices contrived to relieve the monotony of wakefulness. Some resort to anodynes which enforce sleep, but at the same time destroy vitality, and subject their victims to a terrible bondage. Others seek help from the reading of sensational or impure books, which defiles the heart and weakens the conscience. The king might have done worse than call for the chronicles of his reign. It is good to review the past. Nor could there be a better time for looking back at what is gone and done than in the still solemnity of the night watches. A man is unjust to himself, and incurs great loss, who cannot devote occasional hours to retrospection. Many a godly man has found sweet profit in following David"s method of occupying a sleepless mind. (Psa_4:4 Psa_63:5, Psa_63:6)
III A REVIEW OF THE PAST WILL IN EVERY CASE RECALL THE MEMORY OF MERCIES RECEIVED AND OF DUTIES UNDONE. The king had not listened long to the reading before he heard the record of the conspiracy of the two chamberlains against his life, and of his deliverance from it through the faithfulness of Mordecai. Arrested by this, there rose in his mind, in connection with it, not the thought of the suitable reward which had been bestowed on his deliverer, but the question whether any reward had been bestowed at all. He soon found that the great service of Mordecai had been unacknowledged. In the record of every man"s life there are notes of thoughtlessness, ingratitude, and wrong-doing. None of us can look back without being convicted of many sins and neglects. This thought should keep us humble, and lead us to seek the Divine mercy and help. Past failures should be as "stepping-stones to higher things.
IV REPARABLE OMISSIONS OR INJURIES DONE IN THE PAST SHOULD BE REPAIRED. Here the king sets us a lesson. If we can now pay in full creditors whose bygone claims we failed to meet, it is our duty to do so. It is not enough to express sorrow for any evil we have done if we can in any measure make amends for it. Deeds in such a case are better than words. Zaccheus. (Luk_19:8)
V A WORK OF REPARATION SHOULD BE DONE AT ONCE. There is no time unfit to begin it. The king, while still in bed, in the early morning, bestirred himself without a moment"s delay to discharge his neglected duty. He remembered his former good intentions, and the forgetfulness that followed delay. Unfulfilled obligations are often the result of a disposition to put off. Happy the man who has the will to obey at once every clear sense of duty. He will save himself and others from much suffering. How many lose themselves by putting off decision for Christ. D. (Psa_90:12; 2Co_6:2)
HOMILIES BY P.C. BARKER Ver. 1.
A sleepless monarch and a wakeful Providence.
The place of this verse fully vindicated by its contents. When its position is observed in the original it is found to be very nearly the bisection of the book. Certainly it is the critical point, the hinge on which the deep moral and religious interest of the history turns. There is a sense in which it might seem that up to this point the reader has but groped his way. He has asked for a little more distinctly religious light and speech. He craves to see a Divine presence, and to hear the accents of a Diviner voice than have been hitherto vouchsafed. Perhaps these are still withheld in their fullest manifestation, but it can no longer be felt that any vital element of evidence is absent. The night in question was the night between the two banquets of Esther, the night before the almost certainly foregone conclusion of permission to hang Mordecai on the new-made gallows of Haman. Everybody was not in the secret. Neither Esther, nor Mordecai, nor the king himself knew of the project. Yet from a merely human point of view it was all but certain. How the night passed for Esther and for Mordecai we know not. Both had to acknowledge distinguishing mercies which the preceding day bad brought. But they both knew that one crisis happily passed did but usher in another, and if this should not issue as favourably, vain were the promise of the day before. Likely enough, then, the solemn hours of that night were counted by them with wakeful anxiousness. For what issues of life or death hung upon the next day. Haman"s night invites not a solitary sympathy. This much we may surmise about it, that it was disturbed by the noise of those who "made the gallows", (Est_5:14 Est_6:4 Est_7:9) and that its length was not prolonged over-far into the morning. But the storm-centre travels toward the night of Ahasuerus, and there very soon it threateningly hangs. Ahasuerus was not a good man; he was not a good king. How otherwise could he have permitted an insufferably vain, self-seeking minion like Haman to be such a wecome and close companion? How could he have committed to such a subject an authority so dangerously approaching his own? Yet, as we have before seen, (Est_1:4) there was a certain large lavish way about Ahasuerus the outside of a certain kindliness, impulsiveness, unthinking trustingness within, which proved a heart not callous. These qualities did indeed harmonise well with what we read elsewhere of Xerxes, and how his feelings so overcame him when, from his throne of marble, he reviewed his innumerable troops crossing the Hellespont, and reflected upon human mortality. Ahasuerus was thoughtless and rash the very things that cannot be defended in either king or man but he was not yet abandoned of every higher presence; he was not yet "let alone." As the word of God here detains us to make special remark on the sleepless night of this king, and exhibits it as the very crisis of the providential history under relation, let us note
I SOME OF THE SIGNIFICANT FACTS GATHERING ROUND IT AS THE EXPERIENCE OF THE KING.
1. We observe, and with some surprise, that there seems not the slightestdisposition on the part of the king, or of any one else, to attribute it to a physical cause, nor to minister to it any physical antidote. Neither the soporific of a drug or of drinking, nor the soothing of music, nor any diversion are offered to it. Nor is it possible to suppose as will hereafter appear that "the book of records of the chronicles" was sent for under the expectation that it would serve simply to amuse, or to dissipate thought and kill time.
2. However harassing it may have been, it seems to have been endured tillmorning. The brief description which follows the statement, that "the king"s sleep fled that night," argues that what ensued happened all in close connection, and so as to end with an hour that found men gathered in their usual way in the gate, and Haman arrived (doubtless not late) in the court. This would give time for thought"s growth into determination.
3. Whether the sleeplessness of the night was occasioned by any moralthoughtfulness or not, it was in this direction that the mind of Ahasuerus ran. Sleepless hours are often enough weary hours, yet perhaps more than we think they open opportunity and offer choice to us. They ripen the thought of iniquity, as they were at this very time doing for Haman; or they are precipitating thought of good quality and beneficent result, as they were now doing for Ahasuerus. Either, then, the sleeplessness of Ahasuerus was occasioned by a moral movement of things within, or it turned to that use. In either alternative there was a moral strangeness and significance about it. The dark and imperfect religiousness, which was all that can be claimed for it in and of itself, does in some senses add to its interest.
4. The thoughts of that sleepless night did not die away. Generally, howsoon they do pass away, like the dreams of deep sleep. They are "like the morning cloud and the early dew; as the chaff that is driven of the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney." Nature"s darkness, human stillness, even the body"s attitude of repose, all favour highly-stimulated forms of thought. The sleepless night is often memory"s field-day. Regrets and new resolutions meet together; repentance and remorse alternate; the thoughts of happier days and the projects of more innocent ones crowd the mental rendezvous but with dawn they have trooped away. But now not so with the. thoughts of the sleepless night of the King Ahasuerus. They last, and they lead on to action. Purpose and determination do not die away. They live, and to good purpose. In his own way, and for once true to his light, though a light that burned lurid and low, he will hearken to his "law and testimony," if haply they have anything to say to him.
II SOME OF THE SIGNIFICANT SUGGESTIONS ARISING OUT OF IT IN EVIDENCE OF AN EVER-WAKEFUL PROVIDENCE.
1. The evidence of the simple facts of this night is in favour of theinterference of some external cause. It is not straining facts to take this view of them, it would be restraining their legitimate force not to do so. There is no known cause for the restlessness, but it is decided. The two things that might have been expected to constitute a cause evidently exert no influence. The proximate effect, for all that, nevertheless looks in that direction.
2. The kind of use to which the sleeplessness is turned argues not only external interference, but the external interference of One above. This man, a most extremely unpromising subject on whom to work, is wrought upon practically to religious purpose. Thought, and reading, and listening, and question, and action follow one another in quick, orderly, Divine kind of succession.
3. The means employed are like those of Divine operation, very simple, awhile mistakable for most natural events.
4. The beneficent nature of the results of that night opportune, to the exact moment of time and the exceeding greatness of them evidence together a merciful wakeful Providence. That Providence is ever wakeful when men are most deep asleep, but is not then least wakeful when sometimes it bids us wake and keeps us sleepless. B.
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, 3, 6 On that night could not the king sleep.
Est_6:1
On that night could not the king sleep.
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The power of a sleepless night
A trifling circumstance to record. Ah! how important are little things: the unnoticed things are the life-blood of the world. In a great palace we think of the marble and the stone, the cedar and the iron, but who thinks of the mortar and the nails? And yet, in the architecture, mortar and nails are as important as pillars and columns and beams. Thus in the architecture of the world, and in the conduct of its moral affairs, trifles are the mortar and the nails.
I. The first thing I see here is a wonderful lesson in the illimitable plan of providence. How events ripen to the close! How crime matures itself to its doom! Amazing is the work of providence. You see two distinct sets of actions progressing at the same moment. The election of Esther, the choice of a merely capricious king; the elevation to dignity: the integrity of Mordecai; the ambition of Haman: the desire to crush the Jews; the yearning desire to save them. All these things are working together. You remember My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. And all things work together for good to them that love God. Calmly and surely proceeds the Divine plan, and, unaware of the Divine idea, proceeds the infernal plan. See how triumphantly Haman looks at the letters of persecution signed with the signet of the king: and see how he gloats as the morning sun shines over the black gallows-tree, and never for a moment suspects it to be his own. The poor blind fool checkmated by himself! ingeniously rearing his own scaffold, and twisting the rope for his own neck. You will perhaps say to me, And the answer perhaps only pushes the inquiry farther back. Why did He allow Haman to be near the court at all? The answer must be, that God and providence are not the capricious and intermeddling agencies you have sometimes supposed: they prosecute their own path, and Satan and sin prosecute their path too. On they hasten, every step hastens to judgment; every movement winds the entangling coil of circumstances more irretrievably around them.
II. How, from the wide sweep of immense providences we descend to trifles! How the scheme of providence includes and encloses the small details of human affairs! I will extract three other lessons--
1. How remote, and yet how distinct and minute, are the operations of Gods providence! Here was a circumstance connected with the history of the Church, with the preservation of Gods people, and with the conservation of Divine truth, and the advent of the Messiah. How small a place is Shushan and the whole of Media and Ahasuerus!
2. See the perfect compatibility, nay, unity, of prayer with the plans of providence. The prayers of Mordecai, the mournings of the Jews, they are the operating causes round the sleepless couch. The prayer so troubled the couch, that the king could not sleep.
3. May I not apply it yet once more, and ask you the meaning of some sleepless nights, some troubled days? (E. P. Hood.)
Ahasuerus sleepless night-the Divine government
1. Who is the sleepless monarch on this night?
2. What was the book he read that night?
3. What was the discovery he made that night?
4. What was the result of the discovery that night?
Two things, at least, came out from the kings sleeplessness this night.
(1) The preservation and exaltation of Mordecai.
(2) The frustration of enormous wickedness, and the salvation of the whole Jewish people.
Truly, this was a memorable night, From this subject we may learn a few lessons in connection with Gods government of the world.
I. He often works out his purpose through the free workings of depraved minds, unconscious of his influence. The brethren of Joseph, prompted by evil passions, sell him to the Ishmaelites, and he is borne a slave into Egypt. They are free in their wicked counsels and deed; but, unconsciously to themselves, all the while they are carrying out the purposes of Heaven. The same with Vespasian and Titus in their destruction of Jerusalem. Though a spirit most fiendish moved and directed these bloodthirsty and ambitious pagans, yet they wrought out almost with letter minuteness the long-threatened judgment of Heaven. As nature moves on to the magnificence of summer, as well through cloudy skies and thunderstorms as sunshine and serenity, so providence advances its purposes, as well through such a mind as that of Ahasuerus as that of Peter, or of Paul.
II. He always overrules the conduct of sinners foe the overthrow of their own plans. The very destruction which Haman and his accomplices plotted for Mordecai and the whole Jewish people came upon themselves. On the lofty gallows that Haman had raised for another, he was hanged himself. Thus it ever is. The men of Babel build a tower in order to be kept in close social combination; but that structure leads to their confusion and separation. The Egyptians rush into the Red Sea in order to wreak vengeance on the fleeing Israelites; but the channel in which they sought to bury their enemies became their own grave. It is the very nature of sin to confound itself. Its struggles for pleasure will lead to misery; for honour, will lead to degradation. Sin always conducts the sinner to a result never sought, never intended. What sinner aims, as an intelligent purpose, at the blasting of all his hopes, the loss of all his friendships, the everlasting ruin of his soul? Yet to these every sin he commits is conducting him. Like Haman, every sinner is building his own gallows. Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
III. He sometimes works out his purposes by means apparently most insignificant. (Homilist.)
The sleepless night
I. How God operates to mighty ends through inconsiderable agencies. We are apt to measure God by standards established between man and man. The Divine greatness is regarded as that of some very eminent king: what would be inconsistent with the dignity of the potentate is regarded as inconsistent with the dignity of God; and what seems to us to contribute to that dignity is carried up to the heavenly courts, or supposed exist there in the highest perfection. But we should gain a grander and juster idea of our Maker by considering in what He differs from men, than by ascribing to Him, only in an infinite degree, what is found amongst ourselves. It is not by putting unbounded resources at the disposal of God and representing Him as working through stupendous instrumentality that we frame the highest notions of Him as a sovereign and ruler. There is something sublimer and more over-whelming in those sayings of Scripture, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast Thou ordained strength, God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty, than in the most magnificent and gorgeous descriptions of dominion and strength. Christianity, for example, diffused through the instrumentality of twelve legions of angels would have been immeasurably inferior, as a trophy of Omnipotence, to Christianity diffused through the instrumentality of twelve fishermen. When I survey the heavens, with their glorious troop of stars, and am told that the Almighty employs them to His own majestic ends, I seem to feel as though they were worthy of being employed by the Creator. But show me a tiny insect, just floating in the breeze, and tell me that, by and through that insect, God will carry forward the largest and most stupendous of His purposes, and I am indeed filled with amazement. And is there anything strained or incorrect in associating with an insect the redemption of the world? Nay, not so. In saving the race whence Messiah was to spring, God worked through the disturbed sleep of the Persian monarch, and the buzz of an inconsiderable insect might have sufficed to break that monarchs repose. When God interfered on behalf of His people groaning under the bondage of Pharaoh, it was with miracle and prodigy, with a mighty hand and a stretched-out arm; but I fall before Him as yet more amazing in wisdom and power, when I find the bloody purpose of Haman defeated through such instrumentality as this: The king could not sleep, etc.
II. The setting under a right point of view of the utility of prayer. It is often objected against prayer that it seeks for miracles and expects God to interrupt at our call the established course of things. It may be that when the Jews betook themselves to prayer, that they looked for visible and miraculous interference, as in other emergencies when God bared His arm in defence of His people. Although I thoroughly believe that were a case to arise in which nothing short of a miracle would meet the circumstances of a servant of God, the miracle would not be withheld; yet I am satisfied that it is not required that there should be miracles in order to our prayers being granted, neither does the granting them suppose that God is variable or changes in His purposes. There was no miracle in His causing Ahasuerus to pass a sleepless night: a little heat in the atmosphere, or the buzzing of an insect, might have produced the result; and philosophy, with all its sagacity, could not have detected any interruption of the known laws of nature. Neither were Gods purposes variable, though it may have actually depended on the importunity of prayer, whether or not the people should be delivered. Gods purpose may have been that He would break the kings sleep if prayer reached a certain intenseness; that He would not break it if it came below that intenseness; and surely this would accord equally with two propositions--
1. That the Divine purposes are fixed and immutable.
2. That notwithstanding this fixedness and immutability, they may be affected by human petitions, and therefore leave room for importunate prayer. Comparatively I should not be encouraged, were I told that what disquieted the monarch was the standing of a spectre by his bedside in an unearthly form, which in unearthly accents upbraided him for leaving Mordecai unrequited. But when I observe that the kings rest was disturbed without anything supernatural; that all which God had to do in order to arrange a great deliverance for His people was to cause a sleepless night, but so to cause it, that no one could discern His interference, then indeed I learn that I may not be asking what the world counts miracle, though I ask what transcends all power but Divine. There is something encouraging in this to all who feel their insignificance. If the registered deliverances, vouchsafed to the Church, were all deliverances which had been effected through miracles, we might question whether they formed any precedent on which creatures like ourselves could justly rest hope. We dare not think that for us armed squadrons will be seen in the heavens, or the earth be convulsed, or the waters turned into blood. But look from Israel delivered from Pharaoh to Israel delivered from Haman, and we are encouraged to believe that God will not fail even us in our extremity, seeing that He could save the people through such a simple and unsuspected process as this: On that night could not the king sleep, and he commanded to bring the book of the records of the chronicles. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
The sleepless night
There may have been three or four reasons for this restlessness.
1. The care of his kingdom.
2. The revolving of ambitious schemes.
3. His raging passions. His passions often showed themselves in a ridiculous way. When he came back from his Grecian expedition he was so mad at the river Hellespont for breaking up his bridge of boats, that he ordered his servants to whip that river with three hundred lashes.
4. A troubled conscience. There is nothing like an aroused conscience to keep a man awake when he wants to sleep. There was a ruler who one morning was found with his sword cutting a nest of swallows to pieces. Somebody came up and said, Why do you cut that nest of swallows to pieces? Why, he replied, those swallows keep saying that I murdered my father. The fact was, that the man had committed the crime, and his conscience, by Divine ventriloquism, was speaking out of that birds nest. No, Ahasuerus could not sleep. The more he tried to sleep, the wider he got awake. All around about his pillow the past came. There, in the darkness, stood Vashti, wan and wasted in banishment. There stood the princes whom he had despoiled by his evil example. There were the representatives of the homes he had blasted by his infamous demand that the brightest be sent to his palace; broken-hearted parents crying, Give me back my child, thou vulturous soul! The outrages of the past flitting along the wall, swinging from the tassels, crouching in the corner, groaning under the pillow, setting their heels on his consuming brain, and crying, Get up! This is the verge of hell! No sleep! No sleep! (T. De Witt Talmage.)
The sleepless night
How many different causes or occasions there may be of the sleepless night! Some cannot sleep in the remembrance of recent sin. Some are kept waking by great sorrow. Some by brain excitement. Some in very weariness of overwork. (A. Raleigh, D. D.)
Sleep a necessity
Without it human life would soon come to an end. It would burn rapidly away. (A. Raleigh, D. D.)
Men sleep or wake as God wills
Kings have no specific to secure healthful rest; rather they are apt to miss the best specific, hard work and a good conscience. (A. M. Symington, B. A.)
Resource in sleeplessness-
A good book is a better resource in sleeplessness than drugs. (A. M. Symington, B. A.)
Divine providence
I. Note the minute universality of Gods supervision and control. The notion of many is that providence is concerned only with great matters. But those who so believe forget that perfection in anything cannot be secured without attention to details, and that great issues often hinge on apparently very trifling affairs. A sleepless night is in itself no very important thing. Again, it is a matter of little moment what a man shall do to fill in the hours of sleepless ness and keep himself from ennui; but if Xerxes had adopted any other plan than that which he followed, or if the attendant had chosen to read from any other section of the chronicles of the kingdom than that which he selected, there would have been nothing to recall Mordecais services to the kings remembrance. Once more: if Haman had not come to the court at the time he did, and been introduced into the presence at the precise moment when the mind of the king was pondering the question what honour should be conferred on Mordecai, then the first word might have been his, and so the fiat might have gone out for the consigning of Mordecai to the gallows, even at the moment when the monarch was thinking about doing him honour. Now, this history is not exceptional in any respect. It certainly is not exceptional in this particular. You see the same supervision of the most apparently trifling things by God in the biography of Joseph, and there are many striking illustrations of it in secular history. A change of wind from west to east is not s great matter, and yet on such a change as that, at a particular hour of a particular day, the history of Great Britain turned; for thereby the fleet of William of Orange was wafted to Torbay, while that of James II. was by the same means prevented from putting out to sea to intercept its progress.
II. But note that we have here no interference with the operation of the laws of nature, and no infringement of the liberty of moral agents. We have no record of any miracle in this case. There is nothing supernatural in a mans having a sleepless night, or in his fixing on a certain part of his chronicles to read, or in the coming in of another person upon him at a particular juncture; and no single one of the actors in the case was working under compulsion--each one knew at the moment that he was following his own bent. But it was not less the work of God, or less glorifying to God. Now this non-miraculous providence, if I may so call it, is a greater and grander and more glorious achievement of Gods than it would have been if the same results had been accomplished through the direct forth putting of His own omnipotence. Now, if what I have advanced on this important matter be true, it may cast some light on the way in which God answers His peoples prayers. There are those who affirm that to ask God to confer on us a physical blessing is to ask Him to work a miracle in our behalf. Even if I believed that, I would still ask Him for what I need, because He has commanded me to do so, and I would trustfully leave the method of His answer in His own hands. But I do not believe that to ask a physical blessing from God is to ask Him to work a miracle in our behalf, and such a history as this of Esther confirms me in that non-belief. Then, finally, here, if what I have advanced in this connection be correct, it may tend to reconcile us to the minor inconveniences that come upon us in life. What an amount of fretting we do over little things! We go off our sleep, or we miss a train, or we have to wait for some tedious hours at a railroad station, or we approach the harbour in a fog and have to lie outside for a long while, so near our homes and yet so far from them, or a friend disappoints us and our plans are deranged. Yet why should we be impatient if it be true that even these little things are taken cognisance of by God, and woven by Him for His glory and our good into the fabric of our lives? If we could but pause a moment and say within ourselves, This is all in the plan of God concerning us, we should at once have self-control. Lessons--
1. Think how valuable Gods commonest gifts are. Keep your conscience clean, that nothing of guilt may put thorns into your pillow. Take no ambitious schemes with you to your couch, lest you should be constrained to lie awake in the attempt to work them out. Finish each days business in its own day, that there may be no nervous anxiety in your mind about the morrow. Watch over your table, and take nothing there that will make you restless. Think more of this common blessing of sleep, and see in that one of the richest tokens of the Divine goodness which is not to be trifled with, but to be valued and enjoyed.
2. And this leads me, by a very natural transition, to ask whether you have ever reviewed your obligations to God for all that He has done for you? Xerxes utilised his sleepless hours in discovering wherein he had failed to meet his obligations to his benefactors. But what a benefactor you have had in God! He gave His only Son for your salvation. Xerxes indebtedness to Mordecai was nothing in comparison to your obligation to Jehovah. Now let me ask, What have you done to Him for that? (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)
Sleeplessness providentially used
There is no reason assigned for this. The king was not afflicted with illness, he was not suddenly seized with any disease to cause this wakefulness, nor was it occasioned by any intelligence of a distressing character, such as that formidable enemies had made their appearance before Shushan, or that grievous misfortunes had happened to any one dear to him. No; but the matter was entirely of the Lord. God has employed sleep for weighty purposes, in various ages of the world. It was while Adam was in deep sleep that one of his ribs was taken, and made a living being and an help meet for him. It was while Jacob was asleep that he was favoured with that wonderful vision, in which he beheld a ladder set upon the earth, whose top reached to heaven--a striking representation of Gods providential care for His people, and likewise of that Redeemer who is the way to the Father--a way in which whosoever walketh the angels of glory continually afford him their friendly ministrations. It was when Joseph was asleep that he was directed from heaven to take Mary for his wife, because that which had been conceived in her was of the Holy Ghost. But here God carries His purposes into execution by means of the absence of sleep. He is never at a loss to bring His designs to pass. (J. Hughes.)
Watches of the night
Had Ahasuerus been a pious man, and acquainted with the Word of God, he would have filled up She watches of the night with religious meditations, or called for the book of the law of the Lord, in which he would have found both instruction and entertainment. (T. McCrie, D. D.)
Historical records
Nor was the custom wholly confined to the East. The Chronicles of the Cid, William of Malmesburys Chronicles of the Kings of England, the six old English Chronicles, viz., Assers Life of Alfred, and Chronicles of Eldred, Ethelred, Nennius, Geoffrey of Monmouth, and of Richard, and The Chronicles of the Crusaders, of Robert of Gloucester, and Ossian, and the famous Spanish and English ballads, are a part and parcel of the history and literature of our own day. (W. A. Scott, D. D.)
A sleepless king
In one of the dungeons of the fortress of Glatz lay a Prussian nobleman. King Frederick William III. had confined him there for treason. He had been long a prisoner, and there was no hope that he would ever be released. His only company was a Bible--the book he hated, and never read. But suffering and solitude wore upon his spirit, and he did read at last--till there rose in his soul some sense of a just God, who punishes those that forsake Him. He had forsaken Him--and now he repented of it. One night, by the dim light of his dungeon lamp, he was turning the leaves of the Bible for consolation, when his eyes fell on Psa_50:15, Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me. Then, for the first time since childhood, the proud man knelt and prayed, and the peace of God came into his heart and dwelt there. That same night King Frederick in his palace, like King Ahasuerus, could not sleep. Worn out, he begged the Lord to give him one hour of rest from pain; and his prayer was granted. He awoke refreshed and grateful, and said to his wife, Who in all my kingdom has wronged me most? I will forgive him. Said Queen Louise, It is the Count M--in the prison of Glatz. Send orders to release him at once, commanded the king. And in a few days the prisoner was a free man, glorifying God for both spiritual and temporal deliverance.
All records before Gods eye continually
When Ahasuerus read in the book of the records of the chronicles, and there found how Mordecai had discovered a plot of treason against his person, he did not lay the book aside, and slightly pass by such a piece of service, but inquires what honour and what dignity had been done to Mordecai. It seems if the king had thought on, or read of him sooner, he had rewarded him sooner: but God hath ever in His eye all the records and chronicles of His peoples actions; He reads their journals every day. (J.Spencer.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 6 Est_6:1. On … sleep] Heb. the king’s sleep fled…
CRITICAL NOTES.]
Est_6:1. On … sleep] Heb. the king’s sleep fled away, an unusual thing. “That night] which succeeded the events of the last chapter, settled with apparently a most ominous cloud upon the future of Mordecai, but it was the harbinger of a most auspicious day for him. God, who works in the darkness as in the light, caused sleep to flee from the king, and disposed him to beguile the wakeful hours, not with music or song, but by having one to read to him from the book of records of the chronicles] His mind was in a mood to ruminate on the events of his own life, and the State annals were called for to assist his memory. Rawlinson thinks that the Persian kings were in most cases unable to read.”—Whedon’s Com. They were read before the king] These were in the act of being called over. In the original there is a participle which denotes the long continuance of this reading.
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MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH. Est_6:1
A HUMILIATED KING
IT is not to be presumed that this was the only night on which the king found it impossible to command the recuperating services of that sleep which is nature’s sweet restorer. Other nights there were, most likely, when the king could not sleep. But on those other nights there might be found satisfactory explanations of the sleeplessness. There may have been physical pain preventing the enjoyment of sweet repose. There were visible or ascertainable causes to account for the unusual restlessness. On this occasion the king could not sleep, and yet he could not account for the restless condition. How is it that I cannot sleep? I have no physical pain. I have no fears. I am not conscious of danger. All appears to be much as it has been on other nights when I have enjoyed repose. The king was now touched by a hand that he could not see. The king was now moved and controlled by a power that he did not acknowledge. An unseen and irresistible force now rendered uneasy the couch on which the mighty monarch in vain sought for sleep. Kings have their master. Sleepy and sleepless kings have their humiliating Conditions. All are in a state of subjection. God can at all times use us for his great purposes, but he has need of wakeful creatures. Even kings must not sleep when the Great King has work to be performed. Here is a lesson for all. We must be willing to sacrifice sleep when God’s Church and God’s world has pressing claims upon our immediate service.
I. A king in need. Eastern monarchs sought by the pomp of circumstances to separate themselves from their subjects, and thus to maintain a condition of superiority. At all times monarchs have been regarded by the vast majority as superior beings. Yet it is plain, and a truism to assert, that kings have their needs as well as subjects. They too are human, and require those helps which are needful to the rest of humanity. Ahasuerus, the monarch ruling over a hundred and seven and twenty provinces, seeks for sleep just as the meanest peasant seeks for sleep in his rude cot. Sleep is said to be the image of death. As the latter, so the former is a great leveller. They know no distinctions of rank. They do not recognize the gorgeous trappings of royalty. A sleeping king is just as helpless as a sleeping beggar. What becomes of our greatness when we are compelled to sleep? The beggar in his sleep may dream himself to be possessed of vast wealth. For a beggar may have his pleasant dreams; while kings may be haunted with the nightmare. Kings must sleep, or kings must die. Kings too must sleep the final sleep; the sleep from which there is only one awakening. We all must sleep the great sleep of death. How often have we laid ourselves down to sleep, and yet it may be, that many of us have never thought of this sleep prefiguring our last sleep? Death is near to us, not only by our liability to accident and to disease, but by its image in our nightly sleep. When death comes will it find us ready? Shall we lie down to sleep with the assured conviction that we shall awake in the resurrection of the just?
II. Thus a king in subjection. A king ruling and yet ruled. He is in subjection to the law that sleep is a necessity of nature. Kings are under law. They even cannot violate the laws of nature, which are the laws of God, with impunity. Philosophers may assume kingly prerogatives. They may patronize nature and nature’s God. They may talk in grandiloqueut terms about how the universe was framed, and how it ought to be framed. But philosophers must sleep. Philosophers must humbly bow and submit themselves to this humiliating condition. A philosopher snoring is a withering irony on a philosopher talking. Who could believe that the philosopher recumbent, wrapped in the embraces of sleep, is the same being as the philosopher erect, defying with his tongue all the powers in earth and in heaven? If the kings of men own no other kingly power, they must place themselves in subjection to king sleep. This is one of the great sovereigns that rules humanity. It will not be denied. It demands its offering of time. If the offering be not constantly presented, it comes with awful vengeance. Sleep is the messenger that death sends before to tell of his coming. Mighty sleep, but mightier death! Sleep is a king ruling gently and sweetly. Death is a king ruling sternly and dreadfully. God is a king mightier than either sleep or death. They rule only with delegated authority. They too are subject. God can take away sleep, as he did on that night when Ahasuerus could not sleep. God can stay death as he did in the cases of Enoch and of Elijah. If we would sweetly sleep and calmly die, we must sleep resting assured that He is our friend who giveth to his beloved sleep; we must die in Jesus Christ. “Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord.” When the day is drawing to a close, when night is throwing the sable curtains about a bright and busy world, when the exhausted system is seeking the help of its restorer, and is wooing the sweet embraces of balmy sleep; how delightful to feel that in seeking the earthly rest we get a type of the heavenly rest, and to say to the body, Return to rest on that pillow which will one day lose its power to soothe; to the soul, Return to rest on that bosom of Divine love which will never fail in its comforting and recruiting influences. When life’s evening is drawing to its close, when earth can no more give rest, when with trembling feet we are treading the darkest valley of all, how great the peace if we can feel that we are going to rest for ever where no adverse forces will disturb the divine repose.
III. A king in defeat. Kings have their defeats as well as common men; not only on the battle-field, not only in the national councils, but in the ordinary circumstances of life. Here a king is defeated. Ahasuerus seeks sleep, and yet it refuses to come at his request. He cannot now secure the boon which is obtained by the meanest subject in his realm. All material appliances are at his command, and yet sleep will not be compelled. Sweet music cannot lull to repose where it is denied. Soft couches and splendid drapery cannot always compel the embraces of sleep. It is coy and fickle; and sometimes when most earnestly sought, it appears to fly the farthest away. At other times when not sought at all it comes readily. On that night could not the king sleep. The king is defeated. Here is a lesson for Ahasuerus if he had only been wise. What a lesson on our limitations! Here is a lesson for all. We may know our weakness, and yet we will not bow in lowly reverence to the Great Supreme. How humble should all men be in the presence of their limitations! How little reason has a proud man to vaunt himself of his greatness!
IV. A king in subjection commands. He commanded to bring the book of records of the chronicles. He commands because he is commanded. He was commanded not to sleep. He was also commanded to turn his attention in sleepless hours to the book of records of the chronicles. Here we have doubtless the case of an ungodly man under Divine inspiration. It may be said that it was only a freak on the part of the king. He was restless and did not know what to do with himself, and so he turned to these royal records. Such a freak, however, is unaccountable unless we suppose him unconsciously directed from heaven. It would have been more natural for him to have commanded the presence of a musician to bring forth dulcet strains to soothe the restless nature. Or to have called for some calmly entertaining story. Or to have summoned the doctor to administer, so as to settle the perturbation. Imagine the Queen on some sleepless night calling for the Blue Book to be brought into her presence. Picture yourselves asking for police statistics, for the records of crime, when sleep forsakes in the dark and stilly night; why it would be enough to drive sleep away. It may be supposed that Ahasuerus asked for these chronicles as being dry reading and calculated to induce slumber, just as some people take a volume of old dry divinity to bed to read: just as some people go to church in order to get slumber. Still the case is not altered. However it came about in human working, it was settled in Divine purpose that Ahasuerus must read in these records, and read at the particular part of those records relating to Mordecai. Ungodly men may be under Divine inspiration. God can use the wicked. But God will use the good for their own greater good; for the good of others, and for his own glory. Let us seek to be good, and ready for Divine uses. When we cannot sleep, when an unusual restlessness takes hold of our nature, what should we summon to our aid? Should we not ask for the book of the Divine records? Let us seek ever to God’s word. Let us find in it light in the darkest nights, repose in the most restless periods, and help in our varied weaknesses.
V. A king in defeat listens. A king in defeat is more likely to listen than a king triumphant. The records of the chronicles were read before the king. Dull reading no doubt, but still he listened. When the attention is properly engaged, then the dullest reading becomes interesting. It would require a skilful reader to make these chronicles attractive and lively. This king we may well imagine did not look for the nicely modulated voice. He was Divinely directed to take a special interest—an interest he had never felt previously; yea, it is likely he had never heard the records before—in these dull chronicles. Our times of humiliation are mostly our best times of listening. Our times when we are under Divine impulses are our times for receiving with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save our souls. Let us be in earnest as the Divine records are read in our hearing. Let the attention be thoroughly aroused and awake to the subject matter, and then the manner of the speaker will be of comparatively small importance. With some the voice of the messenger is the all-important concern. The message should be that which commands and engages the supreme attention. This defeated king listens with intelligent interest. He notes the very point which is requisite for the working out of Divine purposes; as we shall see more fully in the after-part of this narrative. Let then the whole mind be engaged while the Divine records are being proclaimed. The head as well as the heart must be employed. Listen, for important interests are at stake. Listen for your own benefit, and thus you will become of benefit to others. Ahasuerus listened for himself, and in thus listening he became a true service to Mordecai and all his people. Good listeners help to make good readers and good doers. They benefit both themselves and the community at large.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Est_6:1
God has employed sleep for weighty purposes, in various ages of the world. It was while Adam was in “deep sleep,” that “one of his ribs was taken,” and made a living being, and an help meet for him. It was while Jacob was asleep, that he was favoured with that wonderful vision, in which he beheld a ladder set upon the earth, whose top reached to heaven—a striking representation of God’s providential care for his people; and likewise of that Redeemer, who is the way to the Father—a way, in which whosoever walketh, the angels of glory continually afford to him their friendly ministrations. It was when Joseph was asleep, that he was directed from heaven to take Mary for his wife; because that which had been conceived in her was of the Holy Ghost. He was in the same condition, when he was warned from above to take the Holy Child with his mother to Egypt, to avoid the death intended him by Herod; and when he was ordered to bring him back to Judea, after death had taken that cruel tyrant from the earth. But here God carries his purposes into execution by means of the absence of sleep. He is never at a loss to bring his designs to pass. All things are in his hand, and he maketh them all, even those most contrary to each other, to work together for the good of his chosen. “He hath put all things under the feet” of Christ and given him to be the head over all things to the Church, for the benefit of his believing people.
Sleep, my brethren, is the gift of God, and an invaluable mercy. Our feeble frames require it frequently, and the Lord frequently imparts it. It re-animates our drooping spirits, and reinvigorates our wearied limbs: with grateful hearts ought we then to say with David, “I laid me down and slept. I awaked: for the Lord sustained me.” But precious as is this gift, if we employ the bodies, whose weakness demands these frequent cessations from labour, in the service of him that bought them, they shall be ere long in a condition in which it will not be needed. Our resurrection bodies will be as active as our spirits, and with them will serve God without fatigue, without intermission, throughout eternity. “It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.”
When Ahasuerus was thus supernaturally robbed of his sleep, he commanded the records of the empire to be brought before him. He might have fixed upon many other ways of beguiling the slowly passing hours: but this tended to facilitate the object which Esther had in view: therefore her God disposed the king to adopt it. If he had ordered instruments of music to be brought before him (which was customary among the Eastern monarchs, Dan_6:18), he might have diverted his mind, and possibly rendered his sleepless hours pleasurable; but, in that case, Mordecai would not have come to his mind: the fidelity of that subject, which he had forgotten, and by which his life had been preserved, had remained still in forgetfulness, and nothing would have been done towards the accomplishment of Esther’s design. Let our contemplation of God’s wisdom and overruling power herein, constrain us to say, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things: and blessed be his glorious name for ever, and let the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen and Amen.”—Hughes.
Est_6:1. On that night could not the king sleep, and he commanded to bring the book of records of the chronicles; and they were read before the king.
The king could not sleep, any more than we, when he pleased. Of what use, some will say, is royal dignity, if it cannot procure sleep to the wearied eyelids? A king, by the wise administration of government, may procure sleep to his people; on the contrary, by his oppression, he may cause many wearisome nights to his subjects, in which their sorrows will not suffer them to sleep. But the regal dignity will not insure sleep to him who enjoys it. It is more likely to debar his eyes from rest by those anxious cares which attend it; or by those uneasy reflections which attend the abuse of power. Labour, and a good conscience, will procure sweeter sleep than all the riches in the world.
On that night could not the king sleep.—On what night? The night preceding the decisive day on which Esther was to present her petition, and the morning on which Haman had a petition of an opposite kind to be presented to the king. Observe how Divine Providence kept sleep from the eyes of Ahasuerus, to serve its own gracious purposes. It is said that “God giveth his beloved sleep.” But he sometimes too withholds sleep from them for good purposes; and he sometimes hath withheld sleep from other persons, or disturbed it with strange dreams, for their benefit. A dream was sent to Pharaoh, that Joseph should be delivered from his prison, and exalted to power. Another dream was sent to Nebuchadnezzar, to procure the exaltation of Daniel and his friends. Ahasuerus was kept from sleep, that he might not suffer Mordecai to be hanged.
It is of great use to know how to improve those moments of the night in which we are debarred from sleep. Ahasuerus, it seems, thought he could not employ his waking moments better than by hearing the chronicles of his reign. Here too we may observe the superintending care of Providence. Why did not a prince, who delighted in pleasure, rather call for the melody of the harp and viol, than for the chronicles of his reign? It was the will of God that he should be put in mind of what Mordecai had done for him, because now the fit time was come that he should receive the reward of his fidelity.
“Blessings on him,” says Sancho Panza, “who invented sleep.” This is a sentimént in which all the world will agree. Sleep is, indeed, as much the true remedy for the troubles and worries of the mind, as it is for the fatigues of the body. In every one’s life there are occasions when the gloom of the present is only exceeded by the darkness of the future. If there were no such thing as sleep, a man would succumb either mentally or bodily; he would die of exhausted nervous power, or if it were possible for him to live, would become a maniac.
After some hours of the deepest mental distress, relief is usually brought by sleep, and the sufferer feels his exhausted powers revive. He wakes with the memory of his troubles still present to his mind, but also feeling that he is better prepared to face them. The keenness by which they wound him is somewhat blunted; and this gradual process of blunting is nightly repeated. Thus, by causing intermission in our troubles, it is that “tired nature’s sweet restorer” reanimates our drooping spirits. Sleep was supposed to be caused by accumulation of blood in the head; and in support of this view the facts have been advanced, that full-blooded people are usually the best sleepers, and that the recumbent position which promotes the flow of blood to the brain, induces sleep. But it is now the most generally received opinion, that sleep is caused by a withdrawal of blood from the brain. In perfect sleep there is no consciousness. It has been, therefore, called with truth the image of death. It is a temporary death, as far as concerns all action and motion which lie under the power of the will. But although the brain is at rest, the heart and lungs continue their tasks, because they are presided over by a department of the nervous system which acts independently of the brain. The brain is the seat of consciousness, and from it all the nerves which originate and control voluntary motions take their rise more or less directly. The intellectual faculties sometimes continue active during sleep. La Fontaine made admirable verses in his sleep. Alexander is said to have planned battles. In the same way mathematicians have solved problems, and school-boys have accomplished tasks.—Physiology far Practical Use.
Earthly crowns often sit heavily on the monarch’s head:—
O polished perturbation! golden care,
That keeps the ports of slumber open wide
For many a watchful night.
Est_6:1. This is as it is written in the Psalm: “He suffered no man to do them wrong; nay, he rebuked even kings for their sake.” For the pious are so great a care to God, that in order to preserve them he does not even spare kings, but brings upon them various calamities.—Brenz.
Let every one bear in mind day and night that pious proposition of Augustine concerning the solicitude of God for his saints: so day and night dost thou watch for my safeguard as if, forgetful of thy whole creation in heaven and earth, thou considerest me alone, and hadst no care for others.—Feuardent.
O Lord, it is good to trust in thee in the expectation of thy help! Thou dost continually watch over the souls left in thy care, and thou dost even wait until things have come to extremities, in order to cause the greater exercise of faith, so that none may despair of thy assistance, still at the right time thou art ever ready to help. What indeed is more natural than that a king could not sleep, and that he should wish something read to him? It is this altogether natural, yet wonderful, leading, which causes the hearts of those who experience it to rejoice! To all other hearts this is dark. This wise, Divine Providence is still unknown to those who only live in and for themselves.—Berl. Bible.
“He that keepeth Israel, and neither slumbereth nor sleepeth,” causeth sleep that night to depart from him that had decreed to root out Israel. Great Ahasuerus, that commanded a hundred and seven and twenty provinces, cannot command an hour’s sleep. Poverty is rather blessed with the freedom of rest, than wealth and power. Cares and surfeit withhold that from the great, which passeth upon the spare diet and labour of the meanest. Nothing is more tedious than an eager pursuit of denied sleep, which, like to a shadow, flies away so much faster as it is more followed.—Bishop Hall.
God gives sleep to the bad, in order that the good may be undisturbed.—Sadi.
Oh, sleep, sweet sleep! whatever form thou takest, thou art fair, holding unto our lips thy goblet fill’d out of oblivion’s well, a healing draught.—Longfellow.
Could not the king sleep.] Heb. the king’s sleep fled away, and, like a shadow, it fled away so much the faster as it was more followed. Sleep is best solicited by neglect, and soonest found when we have forgotten to seek it. They are likeliest for it who together with their clothes can put off their cares, and say as Lord Burleigh did when he threw off his gown, “Lie there, Lord Treasurer.” This great Ahasuerus cannot do at present, for crowns also have their cares, thistles in their arms and thorns in the sides. Lo, he that commanded one hundred and twenty-seven provinces cannot command an hour’s sleep. How should he when sleep is God’s gift? And it was that at this time kept him awake for excellent ends, and put small thoughts in his heart for great purpose, like as he did into our Henry VIII., when the Bishop of Baion (the French ambassador) coming to consult with him about a marriage between the Lady Mary and the Duke of Orleans, cast a scruple into his mind which rendered him restless, whether Mary were legitimate (‘Life and Death of Card. Wolsey,’ 65). If it were his surfeiting and drunkenness the day before that hindered Ahasuerus from sleeping, God’s goodness appeareth the more, in turning his sin to the good of the Church. Venenum aliquando pro remedio fuit, saith Seneca. He can make poisonful viper a wholesome treacle; and by an almighty alchemy draw good out of evil.—Trapp.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 6
Est_6:1. Safe sleeping. When one asked Alexander: how he could sleep so soundly and securely in the midst of danger, he told him that Parmenio watched; he might well sleep when Parmenio watched. Oh how securely may they sleep over whom he watches that never slumbers nor sleeps! “I will,” said David, “lay me down and sleep, for thou, Lord, makest me to dwell in safety.”—Venning.
A sleepless night. “Because God wouldn’t let him,” was the answer given by a little boy in one of our Sunday Schools of a large city in the West of England to a question asked by the teacher in reference to the Persian monarch not being able to enjoy his accustomed slumbers. It was a simple but sound reply, for God’s providence was watching over his ancient people, and when they appeared to be in imminent danger of falling by the hand or the sword he again proved faithful to his promises, and made transpiring events and circumstances subservient to his purpose. On that night the king could not sleep because
“There’s a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will.”
Biblical Museum.
A sleepless night. A few years ago, a pious man at Gravesend had retired to rest late on the Saturday night, having first secured the doors and windows of his house and shop. Weary, however, as he was with the labours of the week, he found it impossible to sleep; and, having tossed about in his bed for an hour or two without rest, he resolved to rise and spend an hour in the perusal of his Bible, as preparatory to the engagements of the Sabbath. He went downstairs with the Bible under his arm, and advancing towards one of the outer doors, he found several men who had broken into the house, and who but for this singular interruption would probably, in a very short period, have deprived him of the whole of his property.—R. T. S. Anec. quoted in Biblical Museum.
Providence of God in withholding sleep.—The late Sir Evan Nepean, when Under-Secretary of State, related to a friend of his that one night he had the most unaccountable wakefulness that could be imagined. He was in perfect health, had dined early and moderately, had no care—nothing to brood over—and was perfectly self-possessed. Still he could not sleep, and from eleven till two in the morning had never closed an eye. It was summer, and twilight had far advanced; and to dissipate the ennui of his wakefulness, he resolved to rise and breathe the morning air in the park. There he saw nothing but sleepy sentinels, whom he rather envied. He passed the Home Office several times, and at last, without any particular object, resolved to let himself in with his pass key. The book of entries of the day before lay open on the table, and in sheer listlessness he began to read. The first thing appalled him!—“A reprieve to be sent to York for the coiners ordered for execution the next day.” It struck him that he had no return to his order to send the reprieve, and he searched the minutes, but could not find it. In alarm, he went to the house of the chief clerk, who lived in Downing Street, knocked him up (it was then long past three), and asked him if he knew anything of the reprieve being sent. In greater alarm, the chief clerk could not remember. “You are scarcely awake,” said Sir Evan; “collect yourself: it must have been sent.” The chief clerk said he did now recollect he had sent it to the Clerk of the Crown, whose business it was to forward it. “Good!” said Sir Evan; “but have you his receipt and certificate that it is gone?” “No!” “Then come with me to his house. We must find him, though it is so early!” It was now four, and the Clerk of the Crown lived in Chancery Lane. There was no hackney coach, and they almost ran. The Clerk of the Crown had a country house, and meaning to have a long holiday, he was at that moment stepping into his gig, to go to his villa. Astonished at the visit of the Under-Secretary at such an hour, he was still more so at his business. With an exclamation of horror, cried the Clerk of the Crown, “The reprieve is locked up in my desk!” It was brought. Sir Evan sent to the Post Office for the trustiest and fleetest express, and the reprieve reached York at the moment the unhappy people were ascending the cart. Surely this was the finger of God.—Leisure Hour.
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.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 I. We have here a wonderful lesson in the…
Est 6:1
I. We have here a wonderful lesson in the illimitable plan of Providence. How events ripen to the close. How crime matures itself to its doom. The pathway of God’s providence is a fixed idea; the pathway of Satanic design is a fixed idea; wide apart, they meet at last, only that the ruin of the one and the triumph of the other may be completed.
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II. How from the wide sweep of immense providences we descend to trifles. How the insignificant circumstance is the culminating and completing link in the great chapter of causation. "In that night could not the king sleep."
III. How remote, and yet how distinct and minute, are the operations of God’s providence! Here was a circumstance connected with the history of the Church, with the preservation of God’s people, and with the conservation of Divine truth and the advent of the Messiah. How small a place is Shushan and the whole of Media. Where are they all now but in the words of that little episode?
IV. See the perfect compatibility, nay, unity of prayer with the plans of Providence. The prayers of Mordecai, the mourning of the Jews—they are the operating causes round the sleepless couch of the king.
V. May we not ask ourselves the meaning of some sleepless nights, some troubled days? What spirit has pressed your brow, and given you troubled dreams and sleep? The same that disturbed the king. Is it successful, or has the morning light dispelled all?
E. Paxton Hood, Sermons, p. 357.
I. It is hardly affirming too much to say that on the sleepless night of the Persian king was made to depend our rescue from everlasting death; at least, and undeniably, the restlessness of the king was one of those instruments through which God wrought in carrying on His purpose of redeeming our race through a Descendant of David according to the flesh. Observe, then, how wonderful is God in that He can accomplish great ends by insignificant means.
II. Notice how little there was which could be called supernatural interference, how simply, without any violence, the Divine providence effected its purpose. It was in no way singular that the king should be restless; no miracle was required to explain his choosing to hear the records of his empire; everything was just what might equally have happened had matters been left to themselves, in place of having been disposed and directed by God.
III. We are mightily encouraged in all the business of prayer by the broken rest of the Persian king. Look from Israel delivered from Pharaoh to Israel delivered from Haman, and we are encouraged to believe that God will not fail even us in our extremity, seeing that He could save His people through such a simple and unsuspected process as this.
IV. The agency employed on the king was so natural, so undistinguishable from the workings of his own mind, that he could never have suspected a Divine interference, and must have been perfectly at liberty either to do or not to do, as the secret impulse prescribed. It depends on ourselves, on the exercise of our own will, whether the suggestions of God’s Spirit be cherished or crushed, whether the impulses be withstood or obeyed.
H. Melvill, Sermons, vol. i., p. 116.
References: Est 6:1—G. W. McCree, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xi., p. 11. Est 6:1-14.—A. D. Davidson, Lectures on Esther, p. 213. 6—A. Raleigh, Book of Esther, p. 134. 6-7—Ibid., p. 155. Est 7:1-10.—A. D. Davidson, Lectures on Esther, p. 236. Est 7:3.—Old Testament Outlines, p. 89. Est 8:1-7.—A. Raleigh, Book of Esther, p. 180. Est 8:1-14.—A. D. Davidson, Lectures on Esther, p. 257. Est 8:6.—J. Edmunds, Sermons in a Village Church, p. 282. Est 8:7 -ix.—A. Raleigh, Book of Esther, p. 205. Est 8:15-17 -ix. 1-19.—A. D. Davidson, Lectures on Esther, p. 278. Est 9:1.—Spurgeon, vol. xx., No. 1201. Est 9:20-32—xi. 3.—A. D. Davidson, Lectures on Esther, p. 299. Est 9:27, Est 9:28.—G. Moberly, Sermons at Winchester College, p. 324. 9-11—A. Raleigh, Book of Esther, p. 231. Est 10:3.—Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 335.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 Mordecai is Honoured
Mordecai is Honoured
An account of how the king being reminded of Mordecai's services, and wishing to reward him, consulted Haman, and how Haman, thinking himself the object of the king's interest, counselled him, and was directed to render to Mordecai the honours he had advised.
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1. The book.. chronicles] in which the chief occurrences of the king's reign, including any signal services done by his subjects (Est_2:23), were recorded.
8. The royal apparel.. useth to wear] Not apparel similar to that which was worn by the king, but apparel which the king had actually used, just as the horse upon which the person to be honoured was mounted was that which the king had actually ridden (cp. 1Ki_1:23). The crown royal.. head] RV 'and on the head of which' (i.e. of the horse) 'a crown royal is set.' The royal charger bore on its head a crown or coronet.
12. Having his head covered] as a sign of humiliation and woe: cp. 2Sa_15:30; 2Sa_19:4; Jer_14:4.
13. If Mordecai.. fall before him] LXX adds, 'for the Living God is with him.'
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 1. The sleepless night (Est 6:1-3)
THE SLEEPLESS NIGHT AND MORDECAI’S EXALTATION
CHAPTER 6
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1. The sleepless night (Est 6:1-3)
2. The exaltation of Mordecai (Est 6:4-11)
3. Haman anticipates his doom (Est 6:12-14)
Est 6:1-3. A sleepless night is the next event. The king wanted to sleep but sleep refused to come. What was the cause of his insomnia? Some say too much excitement and anxiety in connection with his kingdom; others that he was speculating on the petition the queen would make on the morrow. The ancient Jewish expositors say that God took his sleep away from him. And this is the correct answer. His wakefulness was ordered by God. Next God puts it into his heart to order the book of record of the chronicles to be brought so that they might be read to him, not to produce sleep but to spend the sleepless night in a profitable way. Once more we see the hand of God in directing the reading of the record of Mordecai’s discovery of the plot against the king’s life and how he had saved the king. The deed of Mordecai had been unrewarded through the wise purpose of the Lord; and now it is brought to light by the same providence. In that memorable, sleepless night the machinations of revenge, so finely spun in the dark, are suddenly arrested and their exposure becomes assured. And let us remember that the same providence still works, mysteriously and openly in the lives of God’s people.
The king hears that Mordecai had not been rewarded. His pride and dignity were suddenly stirred up. He felt it was not just that such a deed should go unrewarded. It must also have come to his mind that this Mordecai had not reminded the king of his deed, by sending a petition for a reward or by requesting a favour, so common in oriental life. He had kept silent.
Est 6:4-11. The king must have been indignant that such a matter had been overlooked and he wants to have the matter rectified at once. He asks “Who is in the court?” Whosoever would be there would have to carry out the king’s commission. He did not expect that Haman was waiting outside. Perhaps he also had a sleepless night, nervously excited as he thought that soon Mordecai would dangle from the gallows; and how he would enjoy the banquet of Esther on the same day. He was in a great hurry and desired that the execution of the despised Jew should take place in the early morning. All is working together and God’s majestic hand is seen every step of the way! “Never was there exhibited a more frivolous and thoughtless judgment than that shown by many higher critics in their light estimation of the book of Esther. For surely there can be no more beautiful description of the impending dramatic catastrophe than that with which the whole of this book is full. At the moment when the mind of the king has but one thought, to compensate Mordecai with the long-merited honour and dignity, and so much the more because it ought to have been done long ago, at the very moment when he looks for a person to carry out his plans, just then, Haman appears on the scene” (Professor Cassel).
And the king asks Haman, “What shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour?” In his blind self-love, his deluded pride, Haman thought he was the man to whom the king would do still more honour. Well says a writer in the Talmud--”inasmuch as the writer of the book of Esther knew what was in Haman’s heart, he must have been inspired in writing this account.”
And pride fills his lips with an extraordinary demand. When his wicked lips spoke the words, he must have imagined himself clad in royal apparel riding the king’s charger, wearing his crown, and thus led forth through the city, announced by the town-crier that he is the man whom the king delighteth to honour.
The king speaks: “Make haste and take the apparel and the horse, as thou hast said and do even so to Mordecai the Jew, that sitteth at the king’s gate, let nothing fail of all thou hast spoken.” What a thunderbolt this must have been for Haman! While he dreamt of his own honour and greatness he is suddenly awakened by the unalterable command of the king, whose word is law, to do all he had spoken to the man whom he hated and despised, whose death warrant he expected to have signed by the king. He could not tarry in the king’s presence for the king demanded haste. He could not parley with the king; that would have been an insult. All that was left to Haman was to make haste and take the apparel and the horse to Mordecai. He arrayed him and then led him through the city and proclaimed before him the king’s message. And Mordecai? His mouth must have been filled with laughter and with praises to his God, when his deadly enemy came to do him honour. How great was his triumph in the marvellous exaltation brought about by the keeper of Israel, who neither sleeps nor slumbers! The Jews read the entire book of Esther on the Purim feast. When the reader reaches this passage he reads the record with a raised and triumphant voice.
Est 6:12-14. Mordecai is back at the gate; Haman in bitter disappointment, with evil forebodings, his head covered, the sign of grief, returns to his wife and friends. When they hear what happened they told him that his case would be hopeless. In the conflict between the Jew and the offspring of Amalek, victory is on the side of the Jew. (Exo 17:16; Numb. 24:20; Deu 25:17-19) And then the king’s chamberlains knocked at the door to hurry Haman to Esther’s banquet.
Typical Application
The great lesson of this chapter is the wonderful working of divine providence. Surely “God works in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform.” And how He cares for His people and watcheth over them! He is still the same, for He is the Lord who changeth not.
And Mordecai stands out in this chapter as another type of our Lord. All the men of God in Old Testament history, in their humiliation and exaltation, like Joseph, Moses, David, etc., are types of the humiliation and exaltation of our Lord.
What was done to Mordecai will also be some future day the happy lot of Israel when they will be delivered out of the hand of their enemies.
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, 10 The King Asks Haman’s Advice
The King Asks Haman’s Advice
v. 1. On that night could not the king sleep, literally, "fled away the sleep of the king," and he commanded to bring the book of records of the chronicles, the annals of the kingdom, in which all events worthy of interest were entered by scribes or chroniclers appointed for that purpose; and they were read before the king, the reading evidently continuing through the entire night.
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v. 2. And it was found written that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s chamberlains, the keepers of the door, porters at the royal threshold, who sought to lay hand on the King Ahasuerus, Est 2:21-22.
v. 3. And the king said, What honor and dignity hath been done to Mordecai for this? He implied that it was self-evident that a royal reward should be assigned to Mordecai. Then said the king’s servants that ministered unto him, There is nothing done for him, he had not in any manner been requited for his special service.
v. 4. And the king said, Who is in the court? that is, what officer of higher standing is on duty or present at this time? Now, Haman was come into the outward court of the king’s house, thus early in the morning, to speak unto the king to hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him. He had come practically at the dawn of day, since his hatred of Mordecai would not permit him to rest.
v. 5. And the king’s servants said unto him, Behold, Haman standeth in the court. And the king said, Let him come in, namely, into the apartments of the king, since he was probably reclining on his bed.
v. 6. So Haman came in. And the king said unto him, What shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honor? This was done in accordance with the Oriental custom which lets the royal courtiers name the rewards for special services. Now, Haman, puffed up with his own vanity, thought in his heart, To whom would the king delight to do honor more than to myself? The Hebrew implies that Haman thought it impossible for the king to go beyond him, to slight and disregard him at this time.
v. 7. And Haman answered the king, stating what he desired for himself, For the man whom the king delighteth to honor,
v. 8. let the royal apparel be brought which the king useth to wear, a dress which he had actually worn, the wearing of which by any other person was the very highest honor, and the horse that the king rideth upon, and the crown royal which is set upon his head, the royal steeds wearing an ornament upon their heads which had the shape of a diadem or crown;
v. 9. and let this apparel and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king’s most noble princes, that they may array the man withal whom the king delighteth to honor, the prince acting as a servant in this instance, and bring him on horseback through the street of the city, riding up and down through the chief thoroughfares, and proclaim before him, Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honor. The unbelievers have only the honor of this world before their eyes, but even in these hopes they are often disappointed and brought to disgrace.
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, 4, 7, 10 Bigthana and Teresh
Bigthana and Teresh
These are the names of two men. See how your translated their names in Esther 2:21. (See: How to Translate Names)
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It was found recorded there
Here "found" is an metaphor for learning. Both "found" and "recorded" can be expressed in active form. AT: "They found that the writers had recorded there" or "They learned that the writers had written" (See: Metaphor and Active or Passive)
What was done to give honor
This can be expressed in active form. AT: "What did I do to give honor" or "What did we do to give honor" (See: Active or Passive)
Nothing was done for him
This can be expressed in active form. However it may be good to find a way that does not give the impression that servants were accusing the king. AT: "No one did anything for Mordecai" (See: Active or Passive)
translationWords
king
command
servant
reign
Mordecai
Ahasuerus
honor
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 vv1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 10 6:1 the king had trouble sleeping: God was working…
6:1 the king had trouble sleeping: God was working to protect Esther and Mordecai. • the book of the history of his reign: Ancient kings kept royal annals of their reigns.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.