On that day, King Ahasuerus gave the house of Haman, the Jews’ enemy, to Esther the queen. Mordecai came before the king; for Esther had told what he was to her. The king took off his ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman.
Esther spoke yet again before the king, and fell down at his feet, and begged him with tears to put away the mischief of Haman the Agagite, and his plan that he had planned against the Jews. Then the king held out to Esther the golden scepter. So Esther arose, and stood before the king. She said, “If it pleases the king, and if I have found favor in his sight, and the thing seem right to the king, and I am pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the king’s provinces. For how can I endure to see the evil that would come to my people? How can I endure to see the destruction of my relatives?”
Then King Ahasuerus said to Esther the queen and to Mordecai the Jew, “See, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and they have hanged him on the gallows, because he laid his hand on the Jews. Write also to the Jews, as it pleases you, in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s ring; for the writing which is written in the king’s name, and sealed with the king’s ring, may not be reversed by any man.”
Then the king’s scribes were called at that time, in the third month, which is the month Sivan, on the twenty-third day of the month; and it was written according to all that Mordecai commanded to the Jews, and to the local governors, and the governors and princes of the provinces which are from India to Ethiopia, one hundred twenty-seven provinces, to every province according to its writing, and to every people in their language, and to the Jews in their writing, and in their language. He wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus, and sealed it with the king’s ring, and sent letters by courier on horseback, riding on royal horses that were bred from swift steeds. In those letters, the king granted the Jews who were in every city to gather themselves together, and to defend their life, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all the power of the people and province that would assault them, their little ones and women, and to plunder their possessions, on one day in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar. A copy of the letter, that the decree should be given out in every province, was published to all the peoples, that the Jews should be ready for that day to avenge themselves on their enemies. So the couriers who rode on royal horses went out, hastened and pressed on by the king’s commandment. The decree was given out in the citadel of Susa.
Mordecai went out of the presence of the king in royal clothing of blue and white, and with a great crown of gold, and with a robe of fine linen and purple; and the city of Susa shouted and was glad. The Jews had light, gladness, joy, and honor. In every province, and in every city, wherever the king’s commandment and his decree came, the Jews had gladness, joy, a feast, and a good day. Many from among the peoples of the land became Jews; for the fear of the Jews was fallen on them.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16, 17 That is, was received into the king’s favor and…
That is, was received into the king’s favor and presence.
That he was her uncle, and had brought her up.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–17 Est 8:1 On that day did the king Ahasuerus…
Est 8:1 On that day did the king Ahasuerus give the house of Haman the Jews’ enemy unto Esther the queen. And Mordecai came before the king; for Esther had told what he [was] unto her.
Ver. 1. On that day] This was a festival and a good day, as Est 8:17, albo lapillo notandus, for the many signal mercies that thereon came in together, viz. Esther’s petition granted, Haman hanged, Mordecai advanced, the proscribed Jews relieved, &c. As crosses seldom come single ( Catenata piorum crux), but trooping together commonly, and treading upon the heels of one another, like Job’s messengers, Jas 1:2; so do blessings from God: there is oft a continued series, a concatenation; there comes a troop, as she said, when her son Gad came, Gen 30:11. God is rich in mercy, Rom 10:12. Neither are we at any time constrained in him, but in our own heart.
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Did the king Ahasuerus give] For into the king’s hands was all Haman’s estate forfeited. The Turks have a proverb, He that is greatest in office is but a statue of glass. Few of their viziers die in their beds, but are cut off at a short warning, and all they have is confiscated.
The house of Haman] i.e. His goods and chattels, all that glory of his riches, whereof he had so greatly boasted, Est 5:11, and which he had been so many years heaping and hoarding. Nem0 confidat nimium secundis.
The Jews’ enemy] It is ill being the Church’s enemy: she hath a champion that will stick to her, Isa 37:23, so that her enemies shall all be found liars unto her, Deu 33:29. Let them read their destiny in that cup of trembling, burdensome stone, hearth of fire, mentioned Zec 12:2-3; Zec 12:6, and hear the Church’s motto, Nemo me impune lacessit; no one provokes me with impunity, there cannot be a greater folly than to be her enemy, for she conquereth even when conquered; as Christ overcame as well by patience as by power, Victa tamen vinces, eversaque Troia resurges.
Unto Esther the queen] So making good that of Solomon, Pro 13:22. The wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just. See Job 27:16-17. Thus was that of the Canaanites for the Israelites, of Nabal for David, of the former tyrants and persecutors, for Constantine the Great, to whom the good God (saith Austin, De C. D. 1. v. c. 25) gave so much worldly wealth, quantas optare nullus auderet, as no man could ever have wished. That Haman was exceeding rich, appeareth by that large offer of his, Est 3:9; who can tell but that he might have as much as Pope John XXII, in whose coffers were found by his heirs two hundred and fifty tons of gold, as Petrarch reporteth.
And Mordecai came before the king] As his continual attendant and special favourite, his cousin and counsellor; perhaps one of the seven mentioned Est 1:14. He that hitherto sat as a servant before the king’s gate is now grown so great a man all upon the sudden. It is the Lord that thus raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory, 1Sa 2:8. Promotion cometh neither from the east, west, nor south (where the warm sunshine is), but God is the judge, he putteth down one, and setteth up another, Psa 75:6-7. He advanced Jovinian and Valentinian, men of low birth, to the empire. In the year of grace 518 Justinus was first a swine herd, then a herdsman, then a carpenter, then a soldier, and lastly an emperor. Cromwell, a smith’s son of Putney or thereabouts (whose mother married after to a sheerman), what a great man grew he here to be in King Henry VIII’s time? Virtue exalteth the meanest, when villany tumbleth down the noblest.
For Esther had told what he was unto her] viz. Her first cousin and foster father, her friend that was as her own soul, as Moses phraseth it, Deu 13:6, and preferreth him before brother, son, daughter, wife. His relation to Esther was as a stirrup to help him into the saddle of highest preferment.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17 The house of Haman, with all his goods and…
The house of Haman, with all his goods and estate, which being justly forfeited to the king, he no less justly bestows it upon the queen, to compensate the danger to which Haman had exposed her.
Mordecai came before the king, i.e. was by the queen’s desire admitted into the king’s presence, and favour, and family, and, as it seems, made one of the seven princes.
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What he was unto her, i.e. how nearly he was related to her; which till this time she had wisely concealed, this being the fit season to declare it.
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, 3, 15 It was but lately that we had Esther and…
It was but lately that we had Esther and Mordecai in tears and in fears, but fasting and praying; now let us see how to them there arose light in darkness. Here is, 1. Esther enriched. Haman was hanged as a traitor, therefore his estate was forfeited to the crown, and the king gave it all to Esther, in recompence for the fright that wicked man had put her into and the vexation he had created her, Est 8:1. His houses and lands, good sand chattels, and all the money he had heaped up which he was prime-minister of state (which, we may suppose, was no little), are given to Esther; they are all her own, added to the allowance she already had. Thus is the wealth of the sinner laid up for the just, and the innocent divides the silver, Pro 13:22; Job 27:17, Job 27:18. What Haman would have done mischief with Esther will do good with; and estates are to be valued as they are used. 2. Mordecai advanced. His pompous procession, this morning, through the streets of the city, was but a sudden flash or blaze of honour; but here we have the more durable and gainful preferments to which he was raised, which yet the other happily made way for. (1.) He is now owned as the queen's cousin, which till now, though Esther had been four years queen, for aught that appears, the king did not know. So humble, so modest, a man was Mordecai, and so far from being ambitious of a place at court, that he concealed his relation to the queen and her obligations to him as her guardian, and never made us of her interest for any advantage of his own. Who but Mordecai could have taken so little notice of so great an honour? But now he was brought before the king, introduced, as we say, to kiss his hand; for now, at length, Esther had told what he was to her, not only near a-kin to her, but the best friend she had in the world, who took care of her when she was an orphan, and one whom she still respected as a father. Now the king finds himself, for his wife's sake, more obliged than he thought he had been to delight in doing honour to Mordecai. How great were the merits of that man to whom both king and queen did in effect owe their lives! Being brought before the king, to him no doubt he bowed, and did reverence, though he would not to Haman an Amalekite. (2.) The king makes his lord privy-seal in the room of Haman. All the trust he had reposed in Haman, and all the power he had given him, are here transferred to Mordecai; for the ring which he had taken from Haman he gave to Mordecai, and made this trusty humble man as much his favourite, his confidant, and his agent, as ever that proud perfidious wretch was; a happy change he made of his bosom-friends, and so, no doubt, he and his people soon found it. (3.) The queen makes him here steward, for the management of Haman's estate, and for getting and keeping possession of it: She set Mordecai over the house of Haman. See the vanity of laying up treasure upon earth; he that heapeth up riches knoweth not who shall gather them (Psa 39:6), not only whether he shall be a wise man or a fool (Ecc 2:19), but whether he shall be a friend or an enemy. With what little pleasure, nay, with what constant vexation, would Haman have looked upon his estate if he could have foreseen that Mordecai, the man he hated above all men in the world, should have rule over all that wherein he had laboured, and thought that he showed himself wise! It is our interest, therefore, to make sure those riches which will not be left behind, but will go with us to another world.
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 vv1–15 On that day did the King, Ahasuerus, give the…
On that day did the King, Ahasuerus, give the house of Haman, the Jews' enemy, unto Esther the queen,.... That, and all the goods in it, and estate belonging to it; which being confiscated to the king, he gave to Esther, who would have been the sufferer, had his scheme taken place; so the Targum adds,"and the men of his house, and all his treasures, and all his riches:"
and Mordecai came before the king; was introduced into his presence, became one of his privy counsellors, one of those that saw the king's face, and sat first in the kingdom, Est 1:14
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for Esther had told what he was unto her; what relation he stood in to her; her uncle, according to the Vulgate Latin version, and so Aben Ezra and Josephus, but wrongly, for she was his uncle's daughter; so that they were brother's children, or own cousins, see Est 2:7.
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, 2, 3, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 15, 16 The estate of Haman is given to Esther, ver.…
The estate of Haman is given to Esther, ver. 1, 2. Esther petitions the king, to reverse the edict against the Jews, ver. 3-6. They are authorized to defend themselves, ver. 7-14. The Jews and their friends rejoice, ver. 15-17.
The house - With all his goods and estate, which being justly forfeited to the king, he no less justly bestows it upon the queen, to compensate the danger to which Haman had exposed her. Came - Was by the queen's desire admitted into the king's presence, and family, and, as it seems, made one of the seven princes. Had told - How nearly he was related to her: which 'till this time she had wisely concealed.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 17 Ahasuerus invests Mordecai with the offices and dignities
CHAPTER VIII
Ahasuerus invests Mordecai with the offices and dignities
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possessed by Haman, 1, 2.
Esther begs that the decree of destruction gone out against the
Jews may be reversed, 3-6.
He informs her that the acts that had once passed the kings seal
cannot be reversed; but he instructs her and Mordecai to write
other letters in his name, and seal them with his seal, and
send them to all the provinces in the empire, giving the Jews
full liberty to defend themselves; which is accordingly done;
and the letters are sent off with the utmost speed to all the
provinces: in consequence, the Jews prepare for their own
defence, 8-14.
Mordecai appears publicly in the dress of his high office, 15.
The Jews rejoice in every place; and many of the people become
Jews, because the fear of the Jews had fallen upon them,
16, 17.
NOTES ON CHAP. VIII
Verse 1. The king - give the house of Haman] As Haman was found guilty of treasonable practices against the peace and prosperity of the king and his empire, his life was forfeited and his goods confiscated. And as Mordecai had been the means of preserving the king's life, and was the principal object of Haman's malice, it was but just to confer his property upon him, as well as his dignity and office, as Mordecai was found deserving of the former, and fit to discharge the duties of the latter.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17 Est 8:1. Did the king give the house of…
Est 8:1. Did the king give the house of Haman unto Esther — That is, he bestowed upon her the whole estate belonging to his family, his lands, his goods, his servants, his cattle, with all the money he had treasured up. All this is included here in his house, which, being justly forfeited to the king, is no less justly bestowed by him upon the queen, to compensate, in some degree, the danger to which Haman had exposed her. And Mordecai came before the king — Was by the queen’s desire admitted into the king’s presence and family, and probably made one of the seven princes. For Esther had told what he was unto her — How nearly he was related to her, which till this time she had wisely concealed.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 17 Give the house of Haman - Confiscation of goods…
Give the house of Haman - Confiscation of goods accompanied public execution in Persia as in other Oriental countries.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 15, 17 House, and furniture. Septuagint, "all the possessions of Aman,…
House, and furniture. Septuagint, "all the possessions of Aman, the devil," (accuser, &c.; Haydock) which were confiscated for treason; and no one had a better title than the queen, whose life had been is such danger. Yet she did not touch the estates of the children, ver. 13., and chap. ix. 10. --- King. in the place of Aman, chap. ix. 4., and x. 3. --- Uncle, or cousin. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 The Deliverance of the Jews
SECOND SECTION
The Deliverance of the Jews
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Esther 8, 9
A.—ESTHER AND MORDECAI PROCURE PERMISSION FOR THEIR PEOPLE TO STAND ON THEIR OWN DEFENCE
Est_8:1-17
I. Esther and Mordecai receive authority to order all things needful for the deliverance of the Jews. Est_8:1-8
1ON that day did the king Ahasuerus give the house of Haman, the Jews’ enemy, unto Esther the queen: and Mordecai came before the king; for Esther had told what he was unto her. 2And the king took [removed] off his ring [signet], which he had taken [caused to pass] from Haman, and gave it unto Mordecai. And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman. 3And Esther spake yet again [added and spoke] before the king, and fell down at [before] his feet, and besought him with tears [wept and supplicated to him] to put away [cause to pass] the mischief [evil] of Haman the Agagite, and his device that he had devised against the Jews. 4Then [And] the king held out the golden sceptre toward [to] Esther. So [And] Esther arose, and stood before the king, 5And said, If it please [be good upon] the king, and if I have found, favor in his sight [before him], and the thing [word] seem right before the king, and I be pleasing [good] in his eyes, let it be written to reverse the letters [books] devised by [of the devising of] Haman the son of Hammedatha [the Medatha] the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews which[who] are in all the king’s provinces: 6For how can I endure to see [and (i.e., when) I see (i.e., look) on] the evil that shall come unto my people [my people shall find]? or [and] how can I endure to see [and (i.e., when) I see (i.e., look) on] the destruction 7of my kindred? Then [And] the king Ahasuerus said unto Esther the queen, and to Mordecai the Jew, Behold, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and him they have hanged upon the gallows [tree], because [upon that] he laid [sent forth] his hand upon the Jews. 8Write ye also [And write ye] for [upon] the Jews, as it liketh you [is the good in your eyes], in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s ring [signet]: for the writing which is written in the king’s name, and sealed with the king’s ring [signet], may no man [there is no one to] reverse.
II. Mordecai authorizes the Jews to make preparations for a common defence. Est_8:9-14
9Then [And] were the king’s scribes called at that time in the third month, that is, the month Sivan, on the three and twentieth [twenty] day thereof [in it]: and it was written, according to all that Mordecai commanded, unto the Jews, and to the lieutenants [satraps], and the deputies [pashas], and [the] rulers [princes] of the provinces which are from India [Hodu], [and] unto Ethiopia [Cush], a hundred [and] twenty and seven provinces, unto every province [province and (i.e., by) province], according to the writing thereof, and unto every people [people and (i.e., by) people] after [according to] their language [tongue], and to the Jews according to their writing, and according to their language [tongue]. 10And he wrote in the king Ahasuerus’ name, and sealed it with the king’s ring [signet]; and sent letters [books] by posts [the hand of the runners] on horseback [the horses], and riders on [of] mules [the steed], camels [the mules], and young dromedaries [sons of the 11mares]: Wherein [Which] the king granted [gave to] the Jews which [who] were in every city [and (i.e., by) city] to gather [congregate] themselves together, and to stand for [upon] their life [soul], to destroy, to slay [smite], and to cause to perish, all [every] the power of the people and province that would assault them, both 12little ones and women, and to take [he gave] the spoil of them for a prey. Upon one day, in all the provinces of king Ahasuerus, namely, upon the thirteenth [thirteen] 13day of [to] the twelfth [twelve] month, which [that] is the month Adar. The copy of the writing, for a commandment [law] to be given in every province [and (i.e., by) province] was published [revealed] unto all people [the peoples], and that the Jews should [for the Jews to] be ready against [to] that day to avenge themselves on [from] their enemies. 14So the posts [runners] that rode upon [riders of] mules and camels [the steed] went out, being hastened and pressed on by the king’s commandment [word]. And the decree [law] was given at [in] Shushan the palace [citadel].
III. Mordecai’s honor and the joy of the Jews. Est_8:15-17
15And Mordecai went out from the presence of [before] the king in royal apparel of blue [violet] and white [linen], and with a great crown of gold, and with a garment [robe] of fine linen [byssus] and purple: and the city of Shushan rejoiced [shouted] and was glad. 16The Jews had [To the Jews was] light, and gladness, and joy, and honour. 17And in every province and in every city [and (i.e., by) city], whithersoever [which] the king’s commandment [word] and his decree [law] came [was approaching], the Jews had [was to the Jews] joy [gladness] and gladness [joy], a feast and a good day. And many of [from] the people [peoples] of the land became Jews [Judaized themselves]; for the fear of the Jews fell upon them.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
It seems almost self-evident after what occurred in chap. 7 that now, next to Esther, Mordecai should also come to great distinction. Whether, however, they would be able fully to reverse the fate that threatened the Jews, remained uncertain in view of the difficulty of the situation. Even after Mordecai had taken his own protective measures, up to the very hour when success was assured, uncertainty continued. In chap. 8 it is to be shown first what authority he received and what measures of policy he adopted.
Est_8:1-8. First, Mordecai’s authority. On the very day in which Haman fell the king presented the queen with his house. Justly enough the Targums understand by the term “house,” also the people in it, and the entire possessions belonging thereto. It was usual for Persian kings to possess themselves of the property of those who had been punished with death (Josephus, Antiq.XI. 1, 3; 4, 6). Mordecai came before the king,i.e. he was made one of the officers who saw the face of the king (comp. Est_1:10; Est_1:4; Est_7:9). He owed his position, not merely to his merit, as having himself been of service to the king, and now meriting the title benefactor of the king (Herod. VIII. 85), but because of his relation to Esther (Est_2:7). Indeed the king took off his ring (Est_8:2, וַיָּפַר, as in Est_3:10), his seal-ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it unto Mordecai.—הֶעֱבִיר מִן, as in Jon_3:6; he made him prime minister (Gen_41:42; 1Ma_6:15; comp. Est_3:10).1 In addition Esther placed him over the house of Haman, i.e. left to him the honorable and lucrative management of the large estate thus reverting to her, in fact made him her governor of the house. Both henceforth enjoyed a brilliant position; but they were not misled thereby into evil. The remarks with reference to the present prosperity of Esther and Mordecai are evidently made with regard to what followed. They did not take their ease at the expense of the needed care over their people; these were not forgotten. On the contrary they believed it incumbent upon them to do all in their power to make their people happy and prosperous. The mourning of Esther was still great; it did not cease until full deliverance came to them.
Est_8:3. And Esther spake yet again before the king, and fell down at his feet, and besought him with tears.2—She thus caused him to understand distinctly that she was by no means satisfied with what had been done. In so far as Esther had implored him in a general manner to cause to be put away, to neutralize, to annul (הֶעֱבִיר) the mischief of Haman (which he expected to inflict upon the Jews), and his device that he had devised against the Jews (comp. Jer_18:11; Eze_38:10), the king showed his willingness to comply, and as in Est_4:11; Est_5:2, he again stretched forth the golden sceptre toward her, so that she could take courage to arise and stand before him. Still it was necessary to find out the ways and means how the thing should be begun.
Est_8:5. Esther suggested: If it please the king (comp. Est_1:19; Est_5:4; Est_5:8; Est_7:3); and further on feeling the doubtful character of her proposition, she added: and the thing seem right, advisable to him. כָּשֵׁר = to succeed, to accomplish, and in this sense has reference to seed which has sprouted well (Ecc_11:6, in the Hiphil, Ecc_10:10); it is a later word of which elsewhere we only find the noun בִּשְׁרוֹן (Ecc_2:21; Ecc_4:4; Ecc_5:10). Let it be written, or commanded by an edict, as in Est_3:9, to reverse the letters (לְהָשִׁיב, to cause to change from the state of being to non-existence) devised by Haman.—As is often the case, here the substance of a letter is indicated by an apposition, מַחֲשֶׁבֶת הָמָן (comp. Est_3:8 sq. and 12 sqq.). But in order the more certainly to carry through this doubtful proposal, she adds in Est_8:6 : For how can I endure to see evil that shall come unto my people? or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?—With reference to the connection of אוּכַל וְרָאִיתִי, we may indicate that one of the verbs, instead of being in the Infin. (with לְ) is subordinate to the other as a finite verb (with וְ), comp. Ewald, § 285 c. Still לא אוּכַל itself means: “I cannot endure, it,” or “I will not be able to stand it” (comp. Isa_1:13), and the term וְאָרִיתִּי is equal to “when I shall have seen.” רָאָה with בְּ indicates to look upon some one with interest, be it that of pleasure, as is usual, or of pain or sorrow, as is the case here; comp. in this relation Gen_12:1.
Est_8:7-8. In order to indicate in advance that his good will abounds towards Esther and Mordecai, and that he would grant them all that the law would sanction in favor of the Jews, the king here reminds them of what he had so far done for Esther and Mordecai. Since, however, he could not directly annul his first decrees, but could simply make them powerless in effect, he commands them not to send new orders to the governors—in this manner a suspension or recall of the first edict could not be accomplished— but to send an edict to the Jews themselves, commanding them to prepare for their defence. The sentence: For the writing which is written in the king’s name, and sealed with the king’s ring, may no man reverse, may have the sense, and so it is generally held, that the simple recall of the first edicts was not possible.אֵין לְהָשִׁיב may indicate a reflection upon לְהָשִׁיב in Esther’s petition in Est_8:5.3 But since these words so nearly correspond to what precedes: “Let it be written in the name of the king, and seal it with the king’s ring,” it is clearer and more natural to understand him to say: The new edict to the Jews will be just as authoritative and irreversible as was the former one to the governors. This must equally be obeyed with that. Of course the confirmation belongs still to the words of the king. The phraseology speaks only in an objective sense of the “king,” because it refers to a general rule. The infin. absol. Niph. וְנַחְתּוֹם is used instead of the perfect [by an ellipsis of the substantive verb].
Est_8:9-14. These contain the measures of Mordecai.4 In the same manner as did Haman (Est_3:12-15) on the 13th of the first month, so Mordecai wrote to and “commanded the Jews and the rulers of the provinces,” on the 23d of the third month, i. e. Sivan. This was fully two months later, although Haman’s fall must have occurred soon after the edict of extermination was published. No doubt Mordecai thought it expedient first to establish himself in his new position before taking such steps and proposing such measures. He wrote to the Jews, but so that the governors became acquainted with the nature of this order, and were obliged to forward it in their extensive provinces to every single Jewish community (comp. Est_1:1).
The subject of וַיִּכְתֹּב in Est_8:10 is the one transmitting or originating the writing, i. e. Mordecai. In order to speedily make known the edict so as to free the Jews from their anxiety, and avert the evil in time, he dispatched the messengers with the greatest speed. רָצִים, i.e. couriers, בַּסּוּסִים, i.e. on horses, by posts on horseback, and riders on mules, and young dromedaries.—רֶבֶשׁ, in distinction from סוּם, is the saddle-horse (dromedary), the race-horse (1Ki_5:8), and is here used in a collective sense. אֲחֵשְׁתְּרָנִים (Est_8:10-14) are not “asses,” according to the modern Persian estar, which in the Sanscrit = acvatara, and hence may have been acpatara in old Persian; but they were princely, royal horses, hence belonging to the court, from kshatra, “royal,” king, according to Haug, in Ewald’s Bibl. Jahrb. V., p. 154. רַמָּךְ= the Syriac ramco, “herd,” particularly a herd of horses, with which we may also compare the word ramakat, “stud,” in the Arabic.
Est_8:11. Mordecai wrote that the king granted the Jews which were in every city to gather themselves together, and to stand for their life,i.e. to defend themselves (comp. Dan_12:1), to destroy, to slay, and to cause to perish all the power, which like an army would raise itself against them (חַיִל), of the people and province that would assault them, both little ones and women, and to take the spoil of them for a prey.—This too was to take place on the day already designated in Est_3:13, viz. the thirteenth day of the twelfth month. The reduplication of the expression “to destroy,” etc., refers to Est_3:13. The same should be granted the Jews which, according to Haman’s edict, was allowed the heathen. The Jews were permitted to apply the jus talionis. The case then stood that the governors and other authorities were by no means obligated to assist in the preparation for the destruction of the Jews, nor yet to obstruct or hinder the resistance which the Jews would offer to their assailants, as might seem to be implied in the first edict. For then the second edict, which was equally authoritative, would have been little respected; but they could leave the case to the people, whether they would attack the Jews and risk a conflict, and they need not afterward punish such Jews as had slain their enemies. But still more. It was permitted the Jews to assemble and prepare and arm for their common defence in advance, so that they might act as one man against all the assaults and reverses, which in case of their standing disunited would surely have befallen them. לְהִקָּהֵל (to collect), placed in advance here, was especially important (comp. its prominence in Est_9:2; Est_9:15-16; Est_9:18). Without this the Jews would not have possessed more than the simple right of self-defence, which, under any circumstances, they would have availed themselves of. Besides, even in the Persian empire the larger portion of the inhabitants seem to have possessed humanity enough to feel the disreputableness of an attack upon the Jews for the purpose of rapine, and they were little inclined to participate therein. On Est_8:13 comp. Est_3:14 b, and on Est_8:14, Est_3:15.
Est_8:15-17. The effect of this new measure was to produce great and general joy, and to bring great honor to Mordecai. He went forth from the presence of the king in royal apparel of blue and white (comp. Est_1:6), and with a great crown of gold,[5] and with a garment of fine linen and purple[6] (תַּכְרִיךְἁπ. λεγ., in Aramaic תַּכְרִיכָא). He was thus adorned doubtless to show what honor had been shown him by the king, but more particularly to make it manifest how he had succeeded in the matter of the Jews, and at the same time to publish his joyous feelings thereat. Importance attaches here not to the royal garment, which had already been given him in Est_6:8 sq., but to the State robes of the first minister at court, which, it appears, Mordecai had not put on at the time of his elevation (Est_8:1-2), but which he put on after his care for his people was removed. Then the city of Shushan, i.e., its inhabitants one and all, and not the Jews alone, of whom there is separate mention made in Est_8:16, rejoiced (צהל is not exactly to cry aloud, comp. Isa_24:14) and was glad.—Hence they had deprecated the massacre awaiting the Jews, and perhaps apprehended with fear the great disorders and dangers that would ensue. But the Jews, Est_8:16—i.e., those living in Shushan—for the others are mentioned in Est_8:17, had light and joy in contrast to the darkening of their future fate (אוֹרָה, found in the fem. in Psa_39:12; in Isa_26:19, pl. אוֹרֹת), and gladness, and joy, and honor.
Est_8:17. So also the joy spread to those without, who were so exceedingly distressed through Haman’s edict (Est_9:3). They indulged in feasts, and in a good, joyous day, i.e., a holiday (comp. Est_9:19; Est_9:22). But this was not all. Many of the people of the land became Jews (מִתְיַהֲדִים, derived from יְהוּדִי, and found only here), because the fear of the Jews, and doubtless also of the mighty and powerful God of the Jews, ruling over their destiny, and not so much the fear of Mordecai and Esther, had fallen upon them (comp. Exo_15:16; Deu_11:25).7
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
On Est_8:1 sqq. 1. If in the present case the danger that threatened the Jews had not been so imminent and the disposition of both Esther and Mordecai so patriotic, then they might possibly have become proud in view of the wealth and high life and station that they now enjoyed, or they might have grown indifferent or reserved with respect to the distress of their countrymen. It is too frequent an occurrence that upstarts fear to lose caste by paying regard to former relations. Hence they are quick to forget and neglect their previous friends. There is no question that the attainment of honor and wealth will bring a blessing only when these become an incentive to good works, especially in promoting God’s kingdom. There is connected with their enjoyment sufficient discontent, envy and misery, and also enough trouble and curses. In general, Christians who have come to power are more timid in taking care of their friends than worldly people are. Hence the latter can more safely count on the applause of the great mass of men. But the world will not thank the former for their timidity, and God will hold them to account.
Feuardent: “We are taught by Mordecai’s example that even pious men sometimes come to the head of affairs, and are safely entrusted with the reins of government; and that God adorns with this glory on earth those whom He will afterwards crown in heaven likewise. They are promoted, however, not so much for their own sake as that they may aid and promote the church and people of God, and may free and console those in affliction.”
Starke: “We should have sympathy for oppressed brethren in the faith (1Pe_3:8; Col_3:12; Gal_6:10). The innocence of the guiltless should be protected (Sir_4:9; 1Sa_20:32). He who has no pity for the pious and innocent when they are in danger is not worthy of the name of a man, much less that of a Christian; for we are members of one body (1Co_12:12).”
2. Although Haman had been removed and Mordecai raised to his present station, yet the people still stood in jeopardy of their lives. Since the edict issued against them was irrevocable, their case was still critical. There were not many perhaps who deemed it possible that any means could be found to avert the threatened calamity. Mordecai himself may have long been in doubt regarding the way to be pursued out of the difficulty. And even after it suggested itself to him, it may have seemed improbable that it should lead to success. All depended on the question whether the assailants would not be too numerous for the Jews to overpower. This could not be previously ascertained. It may afford us light to know that he waited two months after his elevation before he issued the new edict. The period until then was one of dark foreboding to the Jews. But the pious Jews doubtless knew how to comfort themselves. “God often delays help, not because He will render none, but in order to exercise our faith, and to stimulate us the more to call upon Him. Then also the help granted will make the deliverance more sweet, and transform a great distress into a great joy” (Berl. Bible).
Mordecai, for his part, doubtless held fast to the thought that one must not despair of the salvation of God’s people, and that though the danger be ever so great, God is infinitely greater, and that it is man’s duty to do all in his power for himself. With respect to Esther, it was something extraordinary that she, although by descent nothing but a poor Jewess, should propose to the great king of the Persians, the mighty and proud Ahasuerus, that he would revoke in one way or another an edict whose irrevocable character as a Persian dogma was fixed. Really this was a demand to divest himself of that higher divine glory (δόξα) which the faith of the people had surrounded him with. It was to run the risk of unsettling the faith of the people in himself, and to expose himself to State disturbances. The difficulties surrounding him may even remind us of the problem that presented itself to Christ, when He, in the face of the sentence of condemnation upon the sinner on the part of justice, still made provision for grace. Esther might have feared that though her power over Ahasuerus had become great, still he might resent such boldness, and indignantly turn her away, refuse her request, and, if possible, become still more embittered against the Jews. Whatever considerations, however, may have arisen in her heart at the time, still she was doubtlessly incited by the predominant thought that the higher position one holds, the greater are the responsibilities connected therewith; that the more influence one wields, the greater must also be the courage to sustain it, so that one must not hesitate to strive after the highest aims and to tread the most difficult paths in the line of duty. But this correct view, this beautiful conviction, could not have been possible unless she had been first in possession of a pure love for her work. As is the case with men, so it was also with her, as a woman, that a true and correct conviction depended upon the state of her heart. If, in the following chapter, she manifests a sharp contrast with the heathen according to the Jewish Old Testament view, which threatened to cause her to err in the Christian view, and to bring vengeance and hate into play, yet, on the other hand, she reveals toward her people a love so strong, so self-sacrificing, and so bold, that it seems as if she had heard and apprehended the great question: “This I did for thee; what doest thou for me?” She here shows that mercy which is appropriate to him who recognizes how great the mercy was that met him.
3. It is a great and precious word which Esther utters in justification of her large and bold request: “How can I endure to see all the evil which will come upon my people, and how shall I bear to see the destruction of my friends?” She here openly expresses the fact that, though she is now greatly elevated, yet she is not able to sever the bond that unites her to her kindred. But, still more, she asserts that her life, though embellished with all the glory that Ahasuerus could bestow, has no value to her if she cannot also know that the lives of her kindred are safe from harm. All this was so well expressed by her that her word is very appropriate in pointing for our comfort to that Prince who in reality makes this sentiment His own—who, though in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but laid aside His glory, and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross. But it is also appropriate as an exhortation for us, which should impel us in our circumstances to more and more approach her in this duty. It would be little credit to us should we prefer only those who are alike spiritually-minded with ourselves, and should we neglect or ignore those who are related to us according to the body, and should we look upon the perdition of so many souls with indifference.
On Est_8:7-14. The great excitement which now took place in Shushan, beginning among the scribes of the king and spreading through all the one hundred and twenty-seven provinces of the great Persian empire, from India to Ethiopia, by means of the couriers who rode the best and fleetest horses of the king’s stud, and which seized all satraps and governors, but particularly all Jewish communities, may, as a first effect, have provoked much inquiry respecting the meaning of the message, and then great astonishment at it. It is, however, hardly possible that any one already comprehended the significance of the event. What was visible was seemingly only a shell in which lay secreted a seed capable of infinite developments, a new universal law, or rather a new and glorious gospel which should henceforth rule over the world’s history and expand to ever increasing authority. The Jews were to have the right to arm themselves against the day of attack on the part of the heathen. This implied that though externally dependent, still among and in themselves they should have freedom and the right to observe their laws and religion. This again prophetically indicates that the kingdoms of the world, although outwardly powerful, should inwardly lay themselves more and more open to the power of the kingdom of God. The Jews should now be empowered to take their defence against their enemies into their own hands. Thus it was implied that, in spite of the restricted sphere to which they were consigned, they still had a right to self-exertion. This mode of action upon attack only left them in an externally insufficient position for successful defence. Yet even in this was contained the prophecy that the people of God are permitted, in an inward and higher sense, themselves to do the best for victory over their enemies, and this the more since the means of the world’s empires are here insufficient. Both the right to exist and to be active in the new sphere which they should enter, though as yet existing in embryo, was never sanctioned here. And if Judaism even today expects to find in the book of Esther that which will afford it joy, then we must go still further and apprehend its deeper and more glorious import for Christianity and the Christian church.
On Est_8:15-17. Mordecai, after having attained all his requests, went out from the king clothed in royal garments, adorned with a large golden crown upon his head. And in all the land and cities, wherever the new law was promulgated, joy and rejoicing arose among the Jews. A great festival day had come for them. We do not know in how far their joy was pure. If it only arose because they could now make the necessary preparations to defend themselves from the attacks of their assailants, then no one will begrudge them their joy. It was certainly a time of deliverance for them. It is just such times as these that have made great impressions not only upon the Jews, but likewise upon the heathen surrounding them. As in the case of the exodus of the Jews from Egypt (Exo_12:38; Num_10:29), so also here many of the people of the land joined themselves to the Jews, indeed were converted to Judaism. Prophecies such as Isa_14:1; Isa_44:5 began to be in part realized. Periods of deliverance are chiefly periods of the extension of God’s kingdom. Would that we might realize this in our times of trouble! Since the time of sorrow must of necessity have an end and make way for a time of deliverance, we may very properly rejoice in prospect of the future growth in the church, however threatening the outlook may be. It is on this account that our Lord exhorts us to raise the head when all these things are in process of fulfilment.
The points most important in our chapter are given in brief terms closely following each other. There is God’s watchful and energetic care for His instruments for good. Esther and Mordecai are in advance established in their influential position, so that they may the more effectually execute His will. Then comes His care for His people, from whom He averts the threatening danger, and lastly the world is cared for.
Brenz: “What an example is here presented to us of the issue of the greatest dangers which may threaten God’s people or church. But what is said of the safety of the universal church, the same holds true of every private individual who is a member of the church. ‘I pray not for them alone,’ says Christ, ‘but for those who through their word shall believe in me.’ ”
Starke: “It is a small thing for God to turn the seasons of sorrow of the pious into hours of joy (Psa_30:12; Joh_16:20). God helps His people (Luk_1:52) and causes them to rejoice over their enemies (Psa_92:12).”
Footnotes:
[1][“A pleasure-seeking Persian king, like Xerxes, was glad to be relieved of the toil of governing, and willingly committed to one favorite after another the task of issuing and signing with the royal signet the decrees by which the government was administered. That the official entrusted with these high powers might be a eunuch, appears from Diodorus (XVI. 50). Rawlinson.—Tr.]
[2][From the statement of Est_8:4 that the king again held out to her the golden sceptre, “we must understand that Esther had once more intruded on Ahasuerus unsummoned.” Rawlinson.—Tr.]
[3][“The answer of Ahasuerus is a refusal, but one softened as much as possible. He first dwells on the proofs which he had just given of his friendly feeling towards the Jews (Est_8:7). He then suggests that something may be done to help them without revoking the decree (Est_8:8). Finally, he excuses himself by appealing to the well-known immutability of Persian law”. Rawlinson.—Tr.]
[4][“ The suggestion of Ahasuerus quickened the inventive powers of Esther and Mordecai. The scribes were at once summoned, and a decree issued, not revoking the former one, but allowing the Jews to stand on their defence, and to kill all who attacked them. It has been pronounced incredible that any king would thus have sanctioned civil war in all the great cities of his empire; but some even of the more sceptical critics allow that Xerxes might not improbably have done so (De Wette, Einleitung, p. 198 a).” Rawlinson.—Tr.]
[5][“Not a crown like the king’s (כֶּתֶר), but a mere golden band or coronet (עֲטָרָה).” Rawlinson.—Tr.]
[6][“The tunic or minor robe of the king was of purple, striped with white (Xenoph. Cyrop. VIII. 3, § l3; Plutarch, Alex. § 51; Q. Curt. III. 5).” Rawlinson.—Tr.]
[7][“Mordecai’s power might by itself hare caused some fear, but the chief alarm felt probably was lest the Jews, when the day came for revenging themselves, should account the large class of indifferent persons among their enemies. Persons of this class avoided the danger by becoming Jews.” Rawlinson.—Tr.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 11, 15 the king took off his ring, . . .…
the king took off his ring, . . . and gave it unto Mordecai--By that act transferring to him all the power and authority which the ring symbolized, and promoting him to the high dignity which Haman had formerly filled.
Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman--as her steward or factor, to manage that large and opulent estate which had been assigned to her.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17 MORDECAI’S PROMOTION, AND EDICT IN BEHALF OF THE JEWS,…
MORDECAI’S PROMOTION, AND EDICT IN BEHALF OF THE JEWS, Est_8:1-17.
1. On that day — The very day of Haman’s execution.
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Give the house of Haman — By “the house of Haman” we are to understand not merely his residence, but all his property, including servants, attendants, and the various paraphernalia that pertained to a Persian noble. The confiscation of the property of one publicly executed followed as a matter of course. This was a universal custom in the East. And to whom could the goods of the Jews’ enemy be more appropriately transferred than unto Esther the queen? As yet the king did not know her relationship to Mordecai, but we naturally suppose that upon his giving her the house of Haman she made known to him that Mordecai was her cousin, and doubtless received his consent to consign her gift to his charge. See next verse.
Mordecai came before the king — He was summoned by the king himself, who at once resolved to advance him to Haman’s place in his court. Mordecai’s loyalty and past service were fresh in the king’s mind, and now when he learns his relationship to Esther, he feels that no better man can be found to stand in Haman’s place.
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 vv3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17 Chap. Est_8:3-17. Arrangements for the deliverance of the Jews
Chap. Est_8:3-17. Arrangements for the deliverance of the Jews
3. spake yet again before the king] thus apparently taking the risk of again entering his presence unsummoned, but, under the new circumstances, free from such forebodings of evil as those which had attended her previous essay.
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to put away the mischief etc.] This first form of request (cp. Est_8:5) was vague. Her anxiety is still for her people, Haman’s fall not of itself securing their deliverance from danger. Mordecai, even in his access to fortune and royal favour, seems to think it safest that Esther, and not he, should make the needful appeal.
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, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 17 (1) Did . . . give the house of…
VIII.
(1) Did . . . give the house of Haman.—Confiscation of goods necessarily followed on a sentence of death in the East. So, with ourselves, a convicted felon’s property is forfeited to the Crown.
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, 7, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 HAMAN"S HOUSE GIVEN TO ESTHER, AND THE KING"S SIGNET…
HAMAN"S HOUSE GIVEN TO ESTHER, AND THE KING"S SIGNET MADE OVER TO MORDECAI. (Est_8:1, Est_8:2) Two consequences followed immediately on Haman"s execution. His property escheating to the crown, Ahasuerus made the whole of it over to Esther, either simply as a sign of favour, or in compensation of the alarm and suffering which Haman had caused her. Further, Haman"s office being vacant, and Mordecai"s close relationship to Esther having become known to the king, he transferred to Mordecai the confidence which he had been wont to repose in Haman, and gave him the custody of the royal signet. Under these circumstances Esther placed Mordecai in charge of the house which had been Haman"s, as a suitable abode for a minister.
On that day did the king give the house of Haman. When a criminal was executed, everything that belonged to him became the property of the crown, and was disposed of according to the king"s pleasure. It pleased Ahasuerus to make over to Esther the house of Haman, with, no doubt, all its content, attendants, furniture, and treasure. The Jews" enemy. This now becomes Haman"s ordinary designation. (see Est_9:10, Est_9:24) Traditional practices have in many places kept up his memory as one of the most hated adversaries of the nation (see Stanley, "Lectures on the Jewish Church," Third Series, pp. 177, 178). And Mordecai came before the king. Mordecai became a high official one of those in constant attendance on the king. For Esther had told what he was to her. i.e. had revealed his relationship, had told that he was her cousin. Mordecai having been recognised as a "king"s benefactor", (Est_6:3-11) and Esther having been forced to confess herself a Jewess in order to save her nation, (Est_7:3, Est_7:4) there was no object in any further concealment.
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Vers. 1, 2.
The lowly exalted.
In the East, where monarchs are absolute, and where king"s favourites are ministers of state, changes of fortune are familiar and proverbial. When one of our statesmen quits office he usually does so in an honourable way, and loses little of consideration by the change. But a vizier when deposed is disgraced, his property is often forfeited, and he himself is often put to a violent death. So was it with Haman. When the king"s wrath turned against him he was slain, and his palace and establishment given to the queen, and his office and authority to Mordecai.
I IN GOD"S PROVIDENCE THE RIGHTEOUS AND LOWLY ARE, EVEN IN THIS WORLD, OFTEN EXALTED TO HONOUR. "The Lord bringeth low, and lifteth up. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dung-hill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory." History records many striking instances of the elevation to high positions in Church and State of those born in poverty, but qualified by natural gifts, by high character, by faithful service, for exalted station. It is a Divine law, and no artificial regulations should interfere with its working. In Scripture we often meet with instances of the younger, the weaker, the despised being raised to honour and power.
II UNDER GOD"S RIGHTEOUS GOVERNMENT THE LOWLY AND FAITHFUL ON EARTH SHALL BE RAISED TO HONOUR AND HIGH SERVICE HEREAFTER. If it be asked why so many pure and gentle characters are allowed by Providence to remain through life in positions of obscurity, the true answer is this: They are training for positions of authority and honour in the future life. Those who here are faithful over a few things shall there be made rulers over many things, shall enter into the joy of their Lord. There are mansions for them there to inhabit; there is authority for them there to exercise; there is favour for them there consciously and eternally to enjoy.
HOMILIES BY W. DINWIDDLE
Vers. 1-3.
Hopeful changes.
I THE CHANGES IN HUMAN LIFE ARE OFTEN WONDERFUL. They startle us
1. By their suddenness. An empire, a city, a house, a reputation, or a power which it has taken long to build up may fall in a day.
2. By their completeness. What may have seemed durable as time itself passes away and leaves no memorial. "Like the baseless fabric of a vision," magnificent empires have perished, and left "not a wrack behind". (Psa_9:6)
3. By the rapid succession of events which lead up to them. Our narrative includes in the history of one day the king"s sleeplessness, the reading of the chronicle, the adoption of Haman"s device, the honouring of Mordecai, the humiliation of Haman, Esther"s banquet, the accusation, conviction, and death of Haman, the bestowal of Haman"s wealth on the queen, the promotion of Mordecai to Haman"s place, and the successful intercession on behalf of the Jews. God may bear long and patiently with the wicked, but when his time arrives, "then sudden destruction cometh upon them". (1Th_5:3)
II IT IS PLEASANT TO BESTOW AND RECEIVE JUST REWARDS. When the king gave to Esther "the house," or rather the possessions, of Haman, he expressed thereby his sense of the danger and anxiety to which his folly had exposed her; his sense too of the faithful and wise manner in which she had delivered himself from the toils of a guileful and presumptuous man. There was an evident stroke of justice in the awarding to Esther the wealth of the man who had promised to the king the wealth of the Jews as the price of their blood. Justice never sleeps.
III GRATITUDE IS THE SIGN OF A TRUE HEART. Some easily forget benefits received. A change of position or a lapse of time will often cause the remembrance of past favours to fade. But Esther never forgot what she owed to Mordecai, and now she told the king "what he was to her;" how much he had been and still was to her! The very simplicity of these words gives them a peculiar depth and tenderness of meaning. The queen"s gratitude to Mordecai was shown
1. In explaining her own indebtedness to him.
2. In describing him as the real instrument of securing the exposure ofHaman and the present felicity.
3. In winning for him favour and promotion.
4. In setting him, as her manager, over the house of Haman. She could not do too much for the man who had done so much for her. The gratitude which lives unfadingly in the heart, and is ever prompt to show itself in action, is a beautiful feature of character. What gratitude is due to God l How should we remember and esteem him who "loved us and gave himself for us!" "What shall we render unto the Lord for all his benefits?". (Psa_116:12-14)
IV HOW SWEET THE FREEDOM WHICH PERMITS A TRUE HEART TO POUR ITS CONFIDENCES INTO THE EAR OF AFFECTION! Till now Esther feared the king, and dared not give him her confidence. She bad secrets in her breast which oppressed her, but which she could not divulge. But the removal of Haman, the enemy and obstacle, brought her near to the king, and she felt free to tell him all that was in her heart. The benefit and happiness of the marriage tie are sadly marred by the possession of secrets on either side, or by the want of a free, full, and loving confidence. The charm of friendship too is in proportion to the freedom it gives to the opening of the heart. There is no enemy on the part of our God and King to shut his heart against us. All enemies have been destroyed in Jesus Christ. It is because we will not, if we have not the freedom of intercourse with God which belong to children glorious liberty of the sons of God.
V THE PROMOTION OF THE WISE AND GOOD TO POWER IS A BLESSING TO THE WORLD. The king gave the seal which he had taken from Haman to Mordecai. Henceforth the sagacious and capable Jew was to occupy the place of grand vizier, or chief friend and counsellor. Here again justice notched a conspicuous mark. The humble and heroic man for whom Haman had erected a gallows was put in the wicked favourite"s place made second to the king. From that time the monarch and his empire had some real ground of prosperity and peace. Mordecai"s influence grew and extended until it became a paramount power and blessing in all the hundred and twenty and seven provinces. Happy the monarch and nation that are under the guidance of a wisdom that is simple-hearted, clear-sighted, experienced, and godly. How many examples have we in the history of the world of the benefit conferred on nations by the promotion of the wise and good to offices of power, and of the misery and ruin effected by the promotion of the wicked!
VI THE BENEFITS RECEIVED BY A TRUE HEART WILL ENLARGE ITS SYMPATHIES FOR OTHERS WHO ARE IN SUFFERING AND NEED. There is a joy over obtained good which is utterly selfish. It is self-absorbed, and has no consideration for the effect it may have on others. It may be natural enough, yet nothing is more hateful. The true godly soul will long to share its own joys with those whom it loves. Beyond that, its own sense of joy will quicken its sympathy with all the distressed, and its desire to bring the light of its joy into the regions of darkness and death. Hence Esther was not content with her own happiness. She could not feel happy until she had emancipated her people from the doom that threatened them. Her own deliverance from the enemy stimulated her to work out that of Israel. So long as the edict against the Jews was in force, the purpose for which she had ventured all was unaccomplished, It is only when our Lord shall have redeemed all his people and brought them to everlasting honour that he shall "see the travail of his soul and be satisfied". D. (Isa_53:11)
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, 5, 7, 15 On that day did the king Ahasuerus give the…
Est_8:1-2
On that day did the king Ahasuerus give the house of Haman the Jews enemy unto Esther the queen.
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Right use of wealth
I. We see how, in the providence of God, the wealth which worldly men would use in opposition to the interests of Gods cause and people may be wrested from them, and made available for the advancement of these interests. The conclusion which we draw from all this is, that the best and happiest arrangement which a man can make with respect to the good things which have been bestowed upon him is that in his lifetime he seek to be personally the dispenser of good to others. If he lives and acts in this spirit, then he will have the less anxiety as to the disposal of what he may be able to leave behind him.
II. The peculiar providence which we see exercised in the case of Mordecai teaches us that men may be well content to wait, while they are in the way of well-doing, until they receive their recompense. Worth and faithfulness and humility, after they have been long neglected, are brought into the light, and are honoured in proportion to the neglect which they formerly experienced.
III. from Esthers love for her people we take a lesson. Then should not this be an example to those among us, who themselves have had their souls gladdened by the grace of God, to be mindful of others who have not been visited so graciously?
IV. The lesson which is to be drawn from the conduct of the king as it is here exhibited. If one man, for example, has injured another, and knows it, but is too proud to acknowledge it, then he is destitute of the true spirit of Christianity. If a man is engaged in a wrong course of action, and is sensible of it, but will put his soul in peril rather than yield to the remonstrances of his friends, then his pride will certainly prove the ruin of his soul. There is, perhaps, more real heroism in confessing and correcting errors and weaknesses than there is in boldly contending for truth, when we are conscious that we have it on our side. Many voices will cheer us onward in the defence of principles which we defend at some risk. The courage that suffers in a good cause will always get applause. But when I have done wrong, and make confession of the wrong, the men of the world do not sympathise. (A. B. Davidson, D. D.)
And the king took off his ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it unto Mordecai.
The end in peace
But success to faithfulness, even in the narrowest sphere and with the feeblest powers, is uniform and certain, and, as an example, blessed and wholesome. This is the great principle which Mordecai illustrates.
1. In his case we first see this fidelity for a period exceedingly tried and hopeless.
2. We see this faithfulness in duty brought to extreme danger. Not only was Mordecai unrewarded, but he was condemned to an appointed destruction.
3. We see this fidelity in duty completely rescued and delivered.
4. We see this fidelity in duty proportionably exalted.
5. We see this fidelity in duty abundantly rewarded in outward, earthly things.
6. We see this fidelity in duty not only rewarded in itself, and in the person and condition of the man who is distinguished by it, but crowned with eminent usefulness to others. (S. H. Tyng, D. D.)
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, 3, 5, 7, 9, 15 Est_8:1.] The Targums understand by “house” all the people…
CRITICAL NOTES.]
Est_8:1.] The Targums understand by “house” all the people in it, and the entire property belonging thereto.—Lange. The confiscation of the property of one publicly executed followed as a matter of course. And to whom could the goods of the Jews’ enemy be more appropriately transferred than to Esther the queen?—Whedon. Came before the king] Was made one of his officers.
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Est_8:2. Took off his ring] (See Est_3:10). By this act Mordecai was advanced to the post of first minister of the king. The king’s seal gave the force of law to royal edicts.—Keil. A pleasure-seeking Persian king, like Xerxes, was glad to be relieved of the toil of governing, and willingly committed to one favourite after another the task of issuing and sealing with the royal signet the decrees by which the government was administered.—Rawlinson.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH. Est_8:1-2
SUDDEN BUT WISE CHANGES
In affairs of conscience first thoughts are best. In affairs of prudence second thoughts are best. But even in affairs of conscience deliberation may be necessary, because we do not always know how far conscience may be properly enlightened. We have to see to it that what we think is the voice of conscience be not some other voice. Sudden movement, then, is very often dangerous and misleading. Make haste slowly is a wise exhortation for the management of human affairs. Many a man has taken a hurried step which has proved disastrous, and which no after movements have been able to remedy. Perhaps the English nation may be considered as moving too slowly. Certainly it takes a long time in this country to repair old abuses. But this very slowness may help to give us our national stability. In these two verses we have sudden changes; but they will be seen to be wise in every respect. There is no reason to suppose that Ahasuerus had any cause to repent of the steps which he now took so suddenly. Without any long parliamentary deliberations he made a prime minister, and most important changes in the court, and all tended to increase the national glory.
I. A sensible reversal. “On that day did the king Ahasuerus give the house of Haman the Jews’ enemy unto Esther the queen.” Not only was Esther the king’s favoured queen, but she showed herself a virtuous and sensible woman—one likely to make a wise disposal of the blessings of wealth. Haman only thought of using wealth for selfish purposes. Esther thought of using her temporal advantages for the good of others. That she so thought we judge by her conduct. She did not talk great things only, but did them. How sadly often do we find in this world that the “house” is possessed by the selfish Haman! What a blessing to the community when the “house” becomes the possession of a benevolent and patriotic Esther! Take the house here as emblematical of Haman’s wealth. When the eternal King gives a “house” it becomes us to feel that our responsibility is thereby increased. We must not close the house, but open its doors and its rooms for the benefit of others. Still be careful as to the guests. God has given to each and to all a soul-house. We are to be careful as to the mastership. Let not Satan rule; let Jesus rule, and then there will be light, and gladness, and joy, and honour in the house.
II. A grateful confession. “And Mordecai came before the king; for Esther had told what he was unto her.” The confession was not forced from Esther. She did not utter it by reason of the terrors of the inquisitor; she did not own the relationship because she saw that Mordecai was about to make the declaration; she was impelled to it by a sweet sense of gratitude. Here is one of those omissions in the narrative that we could wish had not been made. A pleasant story was that which Esther had now to tell unto the king. We listen in pleasant fancy as Esther, inspired by gratitude, told the king what Mordecai was unto her. She would tell of the blood relationship, but surely she would tell much more. Certainly she told much more if she told all that Mordecai was unto her. Sometimes the words fail us, when inspired by gratitude, as we try to tell all that a true-hearted one has been to us. Some there are with whom we have no family connection who have been more to us than the nearest relatives. Esther confers honour on Mordecai by declaring all that he had been unto her. We confer honour by grateful confession of the services rendered to us by others. Let us not forget to acknowledge our indebtedness. And shall we not bring honour to Jesus by the confession of what he has been and is to us. Time will not suffice to tell the tale of the Saviour’s doings on our behalf. We have to tell what he is to us in the way of spiritual relationship; we have to tell what he is to us as prophet, priest, and king. The sweet tale will last through eternity.
III. A reasonable token of honour. “And the king took off his ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it unto Mordecai.” It was just and fair that this honour should be conferred upon Mordecai, for he had rendered important services to the king, and was evidently a man that might be safely trusted with the management of most important affairs. But it was not right that Mordecai had been compelled to wait so long before his services were acknowledged. Time is on the side of him who will but wait; but sometimes we have to wait so long that our time is over. We do not now live for centuries, and cannot afford to keep on waiting too long. Many a man has waited only for the grave. The only waiting which cannot end in disappointment is that of quietly and hopefully and earnestly doing the work of the Lord, and looking for the crown of glory that fadeth not away. Then the great Master will give his tokens of approval and of honour. Oh, to be sealed by heaven’s eternal King!
IV. A judicious arrangement. “And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman.” If Esther, having received the gift from the king, was not at liberty to transfer it to Mordecai, the next best thing was to make Mordecai steward of the property. She had received proof of Mordecai’s sagacity, and could therefore securely entrust to him the management of her property. He would turn it to the best possible account, both for individual and collective advantage. Having shown himself wise and faithful in small spheres, it was judicious to raise him now to fill a higher sphere. All his recorded after-course declares that he was not unfaithful to his many important trusts. If we want to rise, let it be by faithful service in that sphere where we find ourselves placed. Woe to the man who seeks to rise by trickery! The crash must come sooner or later. The deception must be found out. The blown bladder will receive a prick, and then there will be the humiliating collapse. Many instances of this in modern times. Better to remain always in obscurity than to rise by false methods, for such rising is sure to end in a most hideous down-fall. A high position is always perilous—perilous in England with its stable institutions, as well as in the Persian empire with all its fickleness. But a high position reached by falsehood and deceit is especially perilous. “He that is down needs fear no fall.” “Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly than to divide the spoil with the proud.” Haman thus had not reached the gallows. We can even suppose that Mordecai was happier at the king’s gate than when ruling in the palace, and over Haman’s house.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Est_8:1-2
We are taught by Mordecai’s example that even pious men sometimes come to the head of affairs, and are safely entrusted with the reins of government; and that God adorns with this glory on earth those whom he will afterwards crown in heaven likewise. They are promoted, however not so much for their own sake as that they may aid and promote the Church and people of God, and may free and console those in affliction.—Feuardent.
Be not solicitous about treasuring up the riches of this world. What you can gain is to-day yours, to-morrow you know not whose it shall be. Should it fall into the hands of your children after you, you know not whether they will be wise men or fools, whether they will be losers or gainers by the possession of it. But you know not whether it may not fall into the hands of your most abhorred enemies. This is often the fate of ill-gotten riches. “The wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just.” With what vexation would Haman have thought of that wealth in which he gloried, if he had foreseen that it was to be possessed by a Jewess. Would he not rather have chosen to live a beggar all his days than leave his wealth to persons whom he so mortally hated?
The queen was enriched beyond her expectations and wishes; yet the wealth bestowed upon her would enable her to perform important services to her beloved nation. The donation of it by the king, to whom it was forfeited, was a testimony of his affection, to which she still must have recourse, with new petitions for her people. Above all, this donation was a remarkable testimony of the kindness and justice of the Divine providence, which put into her hands that immense wealth of the enemy of her nation, by which he would have bribed the king, if a bribe had been necessary, to procure their destruction. The Lord had already not only wrought deliverance for her, but had given her an accession of riches out of the snares that had been laid for her kinsman; and she was thereby encouraged to hope that he would bring to a happy conclusion that great work that occupied her mind.
Her kinsman, too, was highly advanced, both on her account and his own. The king had formerly caused his favour for Mordecai to be proclaimed through the city of Shushan; but now he loaded him with real and substantial honours, which could put him into a proper condition for protecting his nation, exposed to danger for his sake.
It was now the fifth year since the adopted daughter of Mordecai was seated on an imperial throne, and hitherto it was not known that he stood in any relation to the queen, or had showed to her the kindness of a father.
The king must surely at least have condemned his own thoughtlessness in inquiring so little after Esther’s friends. He now discerned, that, besides his unrequited obligations to Mordecai for saving his life, he owed to him likewise the graces and accomplishments of his queen, and almost her life; for he had been to her a second father, without whose kind care none knows what might have befallen her in her tender years.
It would be likewise a powerful recommendation of Mordecai, that he had hitherto lived quietly in a low station, without so much as mentioning his claims to preferment. It appeared plainly that he was more careful to deserve the king’s favour than to enjoy it, and that greatness had no charms but the opportunities it might give him of doing good, or preventing evil. Those are fittest for high stations that are best satisfied with any station in which Providence is pleased to put them.
The king put Mordecai into Haman’s place; and the queen, who now thought it highly expedient to inform the king of Mordecai’s kindness and relation to her, did likewise make him her steward. To her dying day she forgot not the kindness showed to her in the days of her youth, and behaved as the best of daughters to the best of fathers.
Gratitude to benefactors is essential to a virtuous character. If you call a man ungrateful you need say nothing more of him, you have already said everything that is bad; nor will the highest elevation excuse forgetfulness of benefits received in a lower condition. The blessed Jesus, exalted above men and angels, forgets none of the kindnesses showed to him in the persons of his brethren in a low condition upon earth; but what is done to the least of them is rewarded as if it had been done to him-self. We need not envy those women who ministered to him of their substance in the days of his humiliation the glorious rewards bestowed upon them in his state of exaltation. We still have it in our power to feed him when he is hungry, to give him drink when he is thirsty, to clothe him when he is naked; and he will not be unrighteous to forget our works and labours of love to his name. Did Esther in her royal condition retain such a kind remembrance of the friends of her low estate, and shall we doubt of the infinitely superior virtues of him who is the fairest among the children of men, to the operation of whose Spirit we owe everything that is lovely in our temper and conduct?
Esther, on the throne, retained the kindness of her youth, not only to Mordecai, but to all her friends and all her people.—Lawson.
1. In the first place, we see how, in the providence of God, the wealth which worldly men would use in opposition to the interests of God’s cause and people may be wrested from them, and made available for the advancement of these interests. It was painful enough to the proud spirit of Haman to be compelled to conduct Mordecai, whom he hated, through the city in triumph; but it would have been anguish intolerable to him if he had been told that this man was forthwith to be his heir, and to have all his wealth placed at his disposal. So not unfrequently it happens, that the riches which have been accumulated by those who would grudge the expenditure even of a small part for any purpose purely religious, pass into the hands of those who feel their responsibility as stewards of God’s bounties, and who gladly employ his gifts for the promotion of objects by which their fellow-men are really benefited. The conclusion which we draw from all this, and which, without further remark, we leave with you, is, that the best and happiest arrangement which a man can make with respect to the good things which have been bestowed upon him is, that in his lifetime he seek to be personally the dispenser of good to others. If he lives and acts in this spirit, then he will have the less anxiety as to the disposal of what he may be able to leave behind him.
2. In the second place, the peculiar providence which we see exercised in the case of Mordecai teaches us that men may be well content to wait, while they are in the way of well-doing, until they receive their recompense. It was with no view to temporal reward, we most fully believe, that Mordecai assumed the guardianship of his orphan cousin, and brought her up tenderly in the knowledge of the God of her fathers. But if he had any expectation of reward, when he discovered and made known the plot against the life of the king, and such expectation he might have reasonably enough cherished, he had long to wait for the realizing of it. But he waited patiently, and at length his reward came, in greater fulness than his most sanguine hope could have anticipated. Now even in worldly things, although not on the same large scale, we often can mark similar movements of providence. Worth and faithfulness and humility, after they have been long neglected, are brought into the light, and are honoured in proportion to the neglect which they formerly experienced.
But it is not with exclusive, or indeed with special, reference to the administration of providence in this world that we speak at present. History sets before us the examples of many, who were the excellent of the earth, persons of whom the world was not worthy, whose deeds of benevolence, and whose faithful services to the Lord and the men of their generation, were never openly acknowledged during their lifetime. Against reproach and obloquy, and opposition the most crushing, many have had to pursue their way, compelled to hear even their good evil spoken of. But this does not alter the fact, that the reward of all Christ’s faithful servants is certain. It is not for reward that they labour in his service; it is from love to him, and for the glory of God. Yet as Christ himself “looked forward to the joy that was set before him,” so his people are taught by his word and his example to have respect to the recompense of reward. Now as Mordecai had to wait for a season before he obtained what he was well entitled to receive, would it have been a matter of great consequence although he had to wait for a few years longer? If he had received at length, after a very protracted season of delay, what he waited for, while he had still full power left him to enjoy it, would it not have been well? Then may we not say, that although believers in Christ have to wait for their reward until death come to carry them away, or, as we may say, until this their last enemy come to lead them in triumph into the presence of the King, clad in the glorious robe of his righteousness, will it not be well, seeing that then they shall be in condition to enjoy fully and for ever the blessedness of being with him and rejoicing in his smile?—Davidson.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 8
Est_8:1-2. Advantage of change. As Gotthold was examining with delight some double pinks, which at the time were in full blossom, he was told by the gardener that the same plants had in former years borne only single flowers, but that they had been improved and beautified by repeated transplantations, and that in the same manner a change of soil increases the growth and accelerates the bearing of a young tree. This reminded Gotthold that the same happens to men. Many a man who at home would scarcely have borne single flowers, when transplanted by Divine Providence abroad, bears double ones; another, who, if rooted in his native soil, would never have been more than a puny twig, is removed to a foreign clime, and there spreads far and wide his luxuriant boughs, and bears fruit to the delight of all. We may also notice that, as the plant, so the man must have the capacity of bearing fruits and flowers. Esther and Mordecai were fruit-bearing in lowly spheres, and then being placed in high positions they brought forth more fruit Through them light and gladness came to all the Jews.
Est_8:1-2. Prosperity not suitable for every man. Great skill is required to the governing of a plentiful and prosperous estate, so as it may be safe and comfortable to the owner, and beneficial to others. Every corporal may know how to order some few files, but to marshal many troops in a regiment in a whole body of an army requires the skill of an experienced general. As for prosperity, every man thinks himself wise and able enough to know how to govern it, and himself in it. A happy estate, we imagine, will easily manage itself, without too much care. Give me but sea-room, saith the confident mariner, and let me alone, whatever tempests arise. Surely the great Doctor of the Gentiles had never made this holy boast of his divine skill, “I know how to abound,” if it had been so easy a matter as the world conceives it. Mere ignorance and want of self-experience is guilty of this error.
Mordecai had shown himself possessed of great skill in the management of small affairs, therefore it was fitting that he should be promoted over the house of Haman, and to the principal position in the kingdom of Ahasuerus.
Signet rings. On the little finger of the right hand is worn a seal-ring, which is generally of silver, with a cornelian, or other stone, upon which is engraved the wearer’s name: the name is accompanied by the words, “His servant” (signifying, the servant, or worshipper, of God), and often by other words expressive of the person’s trust in God, etc. The seal-ring is used for signing letters and other writings, and its impression is considered more valid than the sign-manual. (Therefore, giving the ring to another person is the utmost sign of confidence.) A little ink is dabbed upon it with one of the fingers, and it is pressed upon the paper; the person who uses it having first touched his tongue with another finger and moistened the place in the paper which is to be stamped. Almost every person who can afford it has a seal-ring, even though he be a servant.—Biblical Museum.
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.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv3, 15 Est 8:3 - Est 8:8,Est 8:15 - Est 8:17.
Esther
THE NET BROKEN
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Est 8:3 - Est 8:8,Est 8:15 - Est 8:17.
The spirit of this passage may perhaps be best caught by taking the three persons appearing in it, and the One who does not appear, but acts unseen through them all.
I. The heroine of the whole book and of this chapter is Esther, one of the sweetest and noblest of the women of Scripture. The orphan girl who had grown up into beauty under the care of her uncle Mordecai, and was lifted suddenly from sheltered obscurity into the ‘fierce light that beats upon a throne,’ like some flower culled in a shady nook and set in a king’s bosom, was true to her childhood’s protector and to her people, and kept her sweet, brave gentleness unspoiled by the rapid elevation which ruins so many characters. Her Jewish name of Hadassah {‘myrtle’} well befits her, for she is clothed with unostentatious beauty, pure and fragrant as the blossoms that brides twine in their hair. But, withal, she has a true woman’s courage which is always ready to endure any evil and dare any danger at the bidding of her heart. She took her life in her hand when she sought an audience of Ahasuerus uninvited, and she knew that she did. Nothing in literature is nobler than her quiet words, which measure her danger without shrinking, and front it without heroics: ‘If I perish, I perish!’
The danger was not past, though she was queen and beloved; for a despot’s love is a shifting sand-bank, which may yield anchorage to-day, and to-morrow may be washed away. So she counted not her life dear unto herself when, for the second time, as in our passage, she ventured, uninvited, into the king’s presence. The womanly courage that risks life for love’s sake is nobler than the soldier’s that feels the lust of battle maddening him.
Esther’s words to the king are full of tact. She begins with what seems to have been the form of address prescribed by custom, for it is used by her in her former requests {Est 5:8; Est 7:3}. But she adds a variation of the formula, tinged with more personal reference to the king’s feeling towards her, as well as breathing entire submission to his estimate of what was fitting. ‘If the thing seem right before the king,’ appeals to the sense of justice that lay dormant beneath the monarch’s arbitrary will; ‘and I be pleasing in his eyes,’ drew him by the charm of her beauty. She avoided making the king responsible for the plot, and laid it at the door of the dead and discredited Haman. It was his device, and since he had fallen, his policy could be reversed without hurting the king’s dignity. And then with fine tact, as well as with a burst of genuine feeling, she flings all her personal influence into the scale, and seeks to move the king, not by appeals to his justice or royal duty, but to his love for her, which surely could not bear to see her suffer. One may say that it was a low motive to appeal to, to ask the despot to save a people in order to keep one woman from sorrow; and so it was. It was Ahasuerus’s fault that such a reason had more weight with him than nobler ones. It was not Esther’s that she used her power over him to carry her point. She used the weapons that she had, and that she knew would be efficacious. The purpose for which she used them is her justification.
Esther may well teach her sisters to-day to be brave and gentle, to use their influence over men for high purposes of public good, to be the inspirers of their husbands, lovers, brothers, for all noble thinking and doing; to make the cause of the oppressed their own, to be the apostles of mercy and the hinderers of wrong, to keep true to their early associations if prosperity comes to them, and to cherish sympathy with their nation so deep that they cannot ‘endure to see the evil that shall come unto them’ without using all their womanly influence to avert it.
II. Ahasuerus plays a sorry part beside Esther. He knows no law but his own will, and that is moved, not by conscience or reason, but by ignoble passions and sensual desires. He tosses his subjects’ lives as trivial gifts to any who ask for them. Haman’s wife knew that he had only to ‘speak to the king,’ and Mordecai would be hanged; Haman had no difficulty in securing the royal mandate for the murder of all the Jews. Sated with the indulgence of low desires, he let all power slip from his idle hands, and his manhood was rotted away by wallowing in the pigsty of voluptuousness. But he was tenacious of the semblance of authority, and demanded the appearance of abject submission from the ‘servants’ who were his masters. He yielded to Esther’s prayer as lightly as to Haman’s plot. Whether the Jews were wiped out or not mattered nothing to him, so long as he had no trouble in the affair.
To shift all responsibility off his own shoulders on to somebody else’s was his one aim. He was as untrue to his duty when he gave his signet to Mordecai, and bade him and Esther do as they liked, as when he had given it to Haman. And with all this slothful indifference to his duty, he was sensitive to etiquette, and its cobwebs held him whom the cords of his royal obligations could not hold. It mattered not to him that the edict which he allowed Mordecai to promulgate practically lit the flames of civil war. He had washed his hands of the whole business.
It is a hideous picture of an Eastern despot, and has been said to be unhistorical and unbelievable. But the world has seen many examples of rulers whom the possession of unlimited and irresponsible power has corrupted in like fashion. And others than rulers may take the warning that to live to self is the mother of all sins and crimes; that no man can safely make his own will and his own passions his guides; that there is no slavery so abject as that of the man who is tyrannised by his lower nature; that there is a temptation besetting us all to take the advantages and neglect the duties of our position, and that to yield to it is sure to end in moral ruin. We are all kings, even if our kingdom be only our own selves, and we shall rule wisely only if we rule as God’s viceroys, and think more of duty than of delight.
III. Mordecai is a kind of duplicate of Joseph, and embodies valuable lessons. Contented acceptance of obscurity and neglect of his services, faithfulness to his people and his God in the foul atmosphere of such a court, wise reticence, patient discharge of small duties, undoubting hope when things looked blackest fed by stedfast faith in God, unchangedness of character and purpose when lifted to supreme dignity, the use of influence and place, not for himself, but for his people,-all these are traits which may be imitated in any life. We should be the same men, whether we sit unnoticed among the lackeys at the gate, or are bearing the brunt of the hatred of powerful foes, or are clothed ‘in royal apparel of blue and white, and with a great crown of gold.’ These gauds were nothing to Mordecai, and earthly honours should never turn our heads. He valued power because it enabled him to save his brethren, and we should cultivate the same spirit. The political world, with its fierce struggles for personal ends, its often disregard of the public good, and its use of place and power for ‘making a pile’ or helping relations up, would be much the better for some infusion of the spirit of Mordecai.
IV. But we must not look only at the visible persons and forces. This book of Esther does not say much about God, but His presence broods over it all, and is the real spring that moves the movers that are seen. It is all a lesson of how God works out His purposes through men that seem to themselves to be working out theirs. The king’s criminal abandonment to lust and luxury, Haman’s meanly personal pique, Esther’s beauty, the fall of the favourite, the long past services of Mordecai, even the king’s sleepless night, are all threads in the web, and God is the weaver. The story raises the whole question of the standing miracle of the co-existence and co-operation of the divine and the human. Man is free and responsible, God is sovereign and all-pervading. He ‘makes the wrath of man to praise Him, and with the remainder thereof He girdeth Himself.’ To-day, as then, He is working out His deep designs through men whom He has raised up, though they have not known Him. Amid the clash of contending interests and worldly passions His solemn purpose steadily advances to its end, like the irresistible ocean current, which persists through all storms that agitate the surface, and draws them into the drift of its silent trend. Ahasuerus, Haman, Esther, Mordecai, are His instruments, and yet each of them is the doer of his or her deed, and has to answer to Him for it.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The Jews are Saved
The Jews are Saved
1. Did.. of Haman] The property of Haman, after his execution, was confiscated to the use of the king, to be disposed of as he thought fit.
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2. Took off his ring, etc.] The bestowal of the ring implied that Mordecai was appointed to be a minister of State, since the ring was used for giving authority to royal decrees (see Est_8:8): cp. Gen_41:42.
4. Then the king held out] This seems to imply that Esther had approached the king unbidden: see Est_4:11.
7. Behold, I have given, etc.] The king mentions this to show that his denial of her request to reverse the letters of Haman (Est_8:5) was due not to lack of desire, but lack of ability to meet her wishes.
8. Write ye also] The letters written by Haman and sealed with the king's ring could not be reversed as Esther had requested (Est_8:5), but she and Mordecai could be empowered, as Haman had previously been (Est_3:11-12), to write such letters as they might think expedient to enable the Jews to stand on their defence.
9. The third month] i.e. May-June. Rather more than two months had elapsed since Haman's letters had been despatched (Est_3:12).
10. Riders on mules, etc.] RV 'riding on swift steeds that were used in the king's service, bred of the stud.'
15. In royal apparel] not the same as that described in Est_6:8, but a dress befitting the high office to which he had been appointed. His present magnificence was in striking contrast to his previous distress and humiliation (Est_4:1).
A great crown of gold] i.e. a circlet, indicative of high, though not royal, rank. In the Heb. a different word is used to describe the royal crown worn by the king and queen (Est_1:11; Est_2:17).
7. Became Jews] i.e. proselytes.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv9, 12 third month
third month
i.e. June.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 1. Mordecai’s exaltation (Est 8:1-2)
MORDECAI’S EXALTATION AND THE SECOND PROCLAMATION
CHAPTER 8
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1. Mordecai’s exaltation (Est 8:1-2)
2. Esther’s second petition (Est 8:3-8)
3. The second proclamation (Est 8:9-14)
4. The joy of the Jews (Est 8:15-17)
Est 8:1-2. Esther the Queen receives from the king the possessions of Haman, the enemy of the Jews. Then she revealed what Mordecai was to her, her uncle and foster-father. The king had taken the signet-ring of authority from the hand of Haman. The same ring Mordecai received. Esther honoured her uncle by placing him over the house of Haman.
Est 8:3-6. But while Mordecai had become the prime-minister of Persia, Haman the Agagite had been executed, and all his property given to the queen, the horrible decree still stood; the first proclamation was still in force. Something had to be done to complete the deliverance of her people. Her life and Mordecai’s life had been spared, but what about her beloved people? It is true the fateful day was still in the future, but the evil decreed and not yet recalled had to be met in some way. Once more she enters into the presence of the king. Once more the king holds out the golden sceptre, from which we learn that his decree was still in force and that, therefore, Esther once more risked her life. But she knew he loved her. Knowing this she cast herself at his feet and besought him with tears to put away the mischief of Haman, and his devices he had devised against the Jews. Her pleading and her tears were not in vain. Her petition is that the letters of Haman, demanding the destruction of her people, should be reversed. “For how can I endure to see the evil that will come upon my people? or how can I endure the destruction of my kindred?” The king answers her. But the former decree cannot be revoked; it must stand. Laws made by Persian kings could not be altered or changed. (See Dan 6:15.) A revocation of the edict is impossible and the former proclamation therefore stands. This Persian custom had for its foundation the idea that a “decree” must be looked upon in the light of an emanation from the king as a person with divine authority. But inasmuch as Mordecai had now the signet-ring, which authorized him to issue decrees in the name of the king, he could do anything he pleased and write to the Jews in the name of the king and this second proclamation would also be irrevocable.
Est 8:7-14. Then followed a great activity. The scribes were called and Mordecai dictated the message. It was addressed to the governors and princes of the whole empire from India to Ethiopia and written in many languages. He wrote in the name of the king and sealed it with his ring. The letters were dispatched by posts on horseback, riding on swift steeds that were used in the king’s service. The proclamation contained the following good news: “The king grants the Jews in every city to gather themselves together, and to stand for their life, to destroy, to slay, and to cause to perish, all the power of the people and province that would assault them, their little ones and women, and to take the spoil of them for a prey, upon one day in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, that is upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar.” The proclamation of death stood, but alongside of it there was given a proclamation of life. They needed not to die. Their enemies were given into their hands. Acting upon this second proclamation, believing its contents, they learned that while the first decree stood and could not be revoked, the second decree set them free from death and gave them liberty.
Est 8:15-17. How things had changed under God’s merciful dealings with His people! When that first decree was issued Mordecai sat in sackcloth and ashes and all the Jews wept and wailed. But now when the second decree was announced Mordecai went forth from the presence of the king in royal apparel of blue, white and purple, the Persian colours. (They illustrate the ancient Persian view about the world. White the colour of light, blue, the sky, and purple was brought in connection with the sun.) On his head he had a great crown of gold. There was great joy in the city of Shushan. The Jews had light, and gladness, and joy, and glory. Throughout the vast kingdom there was nothing but joy. Furthermore many people became Jews.
Typical Application
In Mordecai’s exaltation as given in this chapter, in Haman’s possession handed over to the queen and her uncle, in the authority which both received, we have a fine foreshadowing of what will take place when the final Haman is overthrown. That will be when the times of the Gentiles are passed and the King, our Lord, has come back. Then Israel will get her great blessings, promised long ago by a covenant-keeping God.
Like it was in Mordecai’s and Esther’s day, the riches of the Gentiles will be given unto them. “Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the wealth of the Gentiles shall come unto thee” (Isa 60:5). Israel restored will then be the head of the nations and no longer the tail. As many people became Jews as recorded in the last verse of this chapter, so in that coming day, ten men out of all languages of the nations shall take hold of the skirt of a Jew and say, “we will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you” (Zec 8:23). “And many nations shall be joined unto the LORD in that day” (Zec 2:11). All this blessing for the Jews in Persia was brought about by the heroic deed of Esther, who passed through a great struggle, who risked her life that her people might be saved. And the promised blessings and glory can only come to the people Israel through Him who gave His life, the true King and Shepherd of Israel, the Lord Jesus Christ.
In gospel application the second decree or proclamation is of much interest. It typifies and illustrates the good news. As we saw, the first decree illustrates the sentence of death passed upon the whole race on account of sin. The second decree does not cancel the first, but declares that which liberates from death, sets free and gives power. And that is the good news as it is given in the cross of Christ. Death is met by death; the death of the Son of God in the sinner’s place, bearing the curse, sets free from the law of sin and death. Thus the sinner’s doom is fully met in the death of Christ. “This second decree has been nailed to the cross of Christ, it has been revealed in His sacrificial death, written with His blood, sealed by His bowed head, uttered by His expiring cry. It has a twofold effect. First, the sinner who avails himself of it, who believes, is saved. It arrays all the forces of righteousness on his side and enables him to find his surest protection in that which but for the work of Christ must have condemned him. Then it puts him in a position to rise up against his enemies by whom as a captive he was enslaved and to lead his captivity captive. From the condemnation of the law and from the cruel dominion of sin believing sinners are equally delivered by the proclamation of the gospel in the cross of Christ, as the Jews had righteous power given to them over their enemies.
But faith was necessary for the Jews. They had to believe the second proclamation as they believed the first. Woe unto the Jews when that thirteenth day of the month Adar came and they acted not upon the second decree. Then the first decree would have been carried out upon their heads and they would have suffered death. So must the sinner believe the first decree--that death is sentence as a sinner; then he must believe the second decree “Christ died for the sins of the ungodly”--there is life in a look to the crucified One. And as the Jews had light, gladness, joy, and glory because they believed, even so he who believes the good news has salvation, peace, joy and glory.
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, 7 Mordecai Advanced
Mordecai Advanced
v. 1. On that day did the King Ahasuerus give the house of Haman, the Jews’ enemy, unto Esther, the queen; his property having been confiscated, the king gave it to Esther as a kind of compensation for the peril which she had suffered. And Mordecai came before the king; for Esther had told what he was unto her; on the strength of his relationship to the queen he was made one of the officers belonging to the inner circle surrounding the king.
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v. 2. And the king took off his ring, his seal-ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it unto Mordecai, thereby promoting him to the position and the dignity which Haman had formerly held. And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman, as her steward, to manage the big estate which had been given to her by the king.
v. 3. And Esther spake yet again before the king and fell down at his feet, in an attitude of the most humble pleading, and besought him with tears, imploring him as she wept, to put away the mischief of Haman the Agagite, and his device that he had devised against the Jews, for the murderous decree was still in force, having not been repealed.
v. 4. Then the king held out the golden scepter toward Esther, to indicate that he was ready to grant her request. So Esther arose and stood before the king, in order to discuss ways and means of undoing the mischief wrought by Haman’s scheme,
v. 5. and said, If it please the king, and if I have found favor in his sight, and the thing seem right before the king, her prudence, as usual, causing her to be most modest in presenting her request, and I be pleasing in his eyes, her appeal to his regard for her coming last, let it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman, the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews which are in all the king’s provinces; for unless the decree would be repealed, the enemies of the Jews would still be able to effect their destruction;
v. 6. for how can I endure to see the evil that shall come unto my people? Or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred? Her words state, in the most emphatic manner, that she would never be able to stand it, to live through such a calamity. That is the proper attitude for a Christian to take, a real live, personal interest in the welfare of those of the household of faith, a true grieving with those that weep.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10, 13, 15 See how you translated this man's name in Esther…
Haman
See how you translated this man's name in Esther 3:1.
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signet ring
This ring had the king's name or mark on it. When he put a wax seal on important papers, he would press the mark onto the seal. If a paper had this mark on its seal, people would know that what was written on the paper was written with the king's authority and had to be obeyed. See how you translated this in Esther 3:10. (See: Translate Unknowns)
gave it to Mordecai
By giving his signet ring to Mordecai, the king gave Mordecai the authority to write important papers that people would have to obey.
Haman's estate
This refers to the things that had belonged to Haman and that the king had given to Esther.
translationWords
Ahasuerus
Esther
Jew
Mordecai
servant
king
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, 5, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 17 8:1 Just as Haman had promised the wealth of…
8:1 Just as Haman had promised the wealth of the Jews to those who would kill them (3:13), Xerxes gave the property of Haman, the enemy of the Jews, to Queen Esther.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.