kingdom. king's commandment by his chamberlains: therefore was the king very wroth, the hand of the and his anger burned in him. king. 3 Heb., according to of gold, (the vessels being diverse one 2 Heb., wine of the queen Vashti refused to come at the from another,) and royal wine in abundance, according to the state of the king. (8) And the drinking was according to the law; none did compel: for so the king had appointed to all the officers of his house, that they should do according to 4 every man's pleasure. (9) Also Vashti the queen made a feast for the women in 5 Heb, good the royal house which belonged to king Ahasuerus. Or, eunuchs. countenunсе. of (13) Then the king said to the wise men, which knew the times, (for so was the king's manner toward all that knew law and judgment: (14) and the next unto him was Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucan, the seven princes of Persia and Media, which saw the king's face, and which sat the first in the kingdom;) (15) 7 What shall we do unto the queen Vashti according to law, because she hath not performed the commandment of the king 7 Heb., What to do. Ahasuerus by the chamberlains? eunuchs. (10) On the seventh day, when the hearts of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, and Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcas, a Ezra 7. 14. the seven chamberlains that served in the presence of Ahasuerus the king, State.-Literally, hand. (8) Law. Rather ordinance or decree, that is, specially put forth for this occasion. What this means is shown by what follows, namely, that the king had issued special orders to allow all to do as they pleased in the matter of drinking, instead of as usual compelling them to drink. This degrading habit is the more noticeable because the Persians were at first a nation of exceptionally temperate habits. (9) Vashti. According to Gesenius, the name Vashti means beautiful. Among the Persians it was customary that one wife of the sovereign should be supreme over the rest, and her we sometimes find exercising an authority which contrasts strangely with the degraded position of women generally. Such a one was Atossa, the mother of Xerxes. Vashti, too, before her deposition, was evidently the queen par excellence. We find, however, that the name given by the Greek writers to the queen of Xerxes was Amestris, of whose cruelty and dissolute life numerous details are given us by Herodotus and others. There seem good grounds for believing that she was the wife of Xerxes before he became king, which if established would of itself be sufficient to disprove the theory of some who would identify Esther and Amestris. Moreover, Herodotus tells us (vii. 61, 82) that Amestris was the cousin of Xerxes, the daughter of his father's brother; and although we cannot view Esther as of a specially high type of womanhood, still it would be most unjust to identify her with one whose character is presented to us in most unlovely guise. Bishop Wordsworth suggests that Amestris was a wife who had great influence with Xerxes between the fall of Vashti and the rise of Esther. If, however, Amestris was really the chief wife before Xerxes came to the throne, this could hardly be, and the time allowed seems much too scanty, seeing that in it falls the invasion of Greece. Or, lastly, we may with Canon Rawlinson say that Vashti is Amestris (the two names being different reproductions of the Persian, or Vashti being a sort of title) and that the deposition was a temporary one. The women.-There should be no article. (10) Was merry with wine.-The habit of the Persians to indulge in wine to excess may be inferred from verse 8. Chamberlains.-Literally, eunuchs. The names of the men, whatever they may be, are apparently not Persian. The enumeration of all the seven names is suggestive of personal knowledge on the part of the writer. (11) To bring Vashti.-It is evident from the way in which the incident is introduced that had Ahasuerus been sober he would not have asked such a thing. Vashti naturally sends a refusal. Crown royal.-If this were like that worn by a king, it would be a tall cap decked with gems, and with a linen fillet of blue and white; this last was the diadem. (See Trench, New Testament Synonyms, § 23.) (13) Which knew the times.-That is, who were skilled in precedents, and could advise accordingly. For so .-Translate, for so was the king's business laid before (14) Marsena.-It has been suggested that we may possibly recognise here Mardonius, the commander at Marathon; and in Admatha, Artabanus, the uncle of Xerxes. The seven princes.-There were seven leading families in Persia, the heads of which were the king's chief advisers, the "seven counsellors" of Ezra vii. 14. Herodotus (iii. 84) speaks of the seven nobles who rose against the Pseudo-Smerdis as chief in the nation. not away. B.C. 518. companion. of Men's Sovereignty. (21) And the saying 5 pleased the king and the princes; and the king did according to the word of Memucan: (22) for he sent letters into all the king's provinces, into every province according to the writing thereof, and to every people after their language, that every man 6 that it should be published according to the language of every people. CHAPTER II.-(1) After these things, when the wrath of king Ahasuerus was appeased, he remembered Vashti, and women, so that they shall despise theirs Heb., that it pass should bear rule in his own house, and husbands in their eyes, when it shall be reported, The king Ahasuerus commanded Vashti the queen to be brought in before him, but she came not. (18) Likewise shall the ladies of Persia and Media say this day unto all the king's princes, which have heard of the deed of the to her what she had done, and what was decreed queen. Thus shall there arise too much contempt and wrath. (19) 1 If it please the king, let there go a royal commandment 2 from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes, that it be not altered, That Vashti come no more before king Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal estate unto another that is better than she. (20) And when the king's decree. which he shall make shall be published throughout all his empire, (for it is unto the the maiden which pleaseth the king be 3 great,) all the wives shall give to their husbands honour, both to great and small. 5 Heb., was good in against her. (2) Then said the king's servants that ministered unto him, Let there be fair young virgins sought for the king: the eyes of the (3) and let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom, that they may gather together all the fair young virgins unto Shushan the palace, to the house of the women, 7unto the custody of Hege the king's chamberlain, keeper of the women; and let their things for purification be given them: (4) and let 6 Heb., that one should publish it language of his hand. 8 Or, Hegai, ver. 8. (16) Answered before the king.-Memucan, like a true courtier, gives palatable advice to his master, by counsel which is the true echo of the king's angry question. Done wrong.-Literally, dealt unfairly. (18) Translate, and this day shall the princesses of Persia and Media, which heard the affair of the queen, say. Contempt and wrath.-Presumably, contemptuous defiance on the part of the wives, and anger on the part of the husbands. (19) That it be not altered.-Literally, that it pass not away. The order having been committed to writing was, in theory at any rate, immutable. The best illustration is the well-known case of Daniel; see also below (chap. viii. 8). Probably a strong-willed monarch would interpret this inviolability rather freely. (22) He sent letters.-The Persian Empire was the first to possess a postal system (see esp. Herod. vii. 98). The Greek word for "compel," in Matt. v. 41, xxvii. 32, is simply a corruption of the Persian word for the impressment of men and horses for the royal service. That every man should...-The following words are, literally, be ruling in his own house, and speaking according to the language of his own people. The former clause may probably be taken as a proof of the existence of an undue amount of female influence generally in Persia; the second clause is more doubtful. The English Version does distinct violence to the Hebrew, perhaps because the literal rendering yielded a somewhat peculiar sense. Taking the words exactly as they stand, they can only mean that in a house where queen instead of Vashti. And the thing pleased the king; and he did so. (5) Now in Shushan the palace there two or more languages are used, from the presence of foreign wives, the husband is to take care that his own language is not supplanted by any of theirs. This is intelligible enough, but is perhaps rather irrelevant to what goes before. II. (1) After these things.-We have seen that the great feast at Susa was in the year 483 B.C., and that in the spring of 481 B.C. Xerxes set out for Greece. At some unspecified time, then, between these limits the proposal now started is to be placed. The marriage of Esther, however (verse 16), did not come about till after the return from Greece, the king's long absence explaining the otherwise curious delay, and moreover, even in this interval, he was entangled in more than one illicit connection. (3) The house of the women.-The harem, then as now, a prominent feature in the establishment of an Eastern king. Hege.-Called Hegai in verse 8; a eunuch whose special charge seems to have been the virgins, while another, named Shaashgaz (verse 14), had the custody of the concubines. The whole verse shows, as conclusively as anything could do, in how degrading an aspect Eastern women were, as a whole, viewed. It was reserved for Christianity to indicate the true position of woman, not man's plaything, but the help meet for him, able to aid him in his spiritual and intellectual progress, yielding him intelligent obedience, not slavery. (5) Mordecai.-Canon Rawlinson is disposed to identify Mordecai with Matacas, who was the most powerful of the eunuchs in the reign of Xerxes. It Chron. 36. B.C. cir. 515. 103 1 Heb., nourished. Esther Preferred by Hegai. was a certain Jew, whose name was a 2 Kin. 24. 15: 2 before the court of the women's house, Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of 5to know how Esther did, and what Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite ; should become of her. (6) a who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captivity which had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away. (7) And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle's daughter: for she had neither father nor mother, and the maid was fair and beautiful; whom Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for his own daughter. 2 Heb., fair of form, tenance. (12) Now when every maid's turn was come to go in to king Ahasuerus, after that she had been twelve months, according to the manner of the women, (for so were the days of their purifications accomplished, to wit, six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet. odours, and with other things for the purifying of the women;) (13) then thus came every maiden unto the king; whatsoever she desired was given her to go with her out of the house of the women unto the king's house. (14) In the evening she went, and on the morrow she returned into the second house of the women, to the custody of Shaashgaz, the king's chamberlain, which kept the concubines: she came in unto the king no more, except the king delighted in her, and that she were called by name. (15) Now when the turn of Esther, the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mor to her, and seven maidens, which were 4 Heb., he changed decai, who had taken her for his daughter, meet to be given her, out of the king's house: and he preferred her and her maids unto the best place of the house of the women. (10) Esther had not shewed her people nor her kindred: for Mordecai had charged her that she should not shew it. (1) And Mordecai walked every day her. 5 Heb., to know the may be assumed that Mordecai was a eunuch, by the way in which he was allowed access to the royal harem (verses 11, 22). The name Mordecai occurs in Ezra ii. 2; Neh. vii. 7, as one of those who returned to Judea with Zerubbabel. The son of Jair. It is probable that the names here given are those of the actual father, grandfather, and great-grandfather of Mordecai; though some have thought that they are merely some of the more famous ancestors, Shimei being assumed to be the assailant of David, and Kish the father of Saul. The character of Mordecai strikes us at the outset as that of an ambitious, worldly man; who, though numbers of his tribe had returned to the land of their fathers, preferred to remain behind on the alien soil. The heroic lament of the exiles by Babel's streams, who would not sing the Lord's song in a strange land, who looked with horror at the thought that Jerusalem should be forgottensuch were not Mordecai's thoughts, far from it: why endure hardships, when there is a chance of his adopted daughter's beauty catching the eye of the sensual king, when through her he may vanquish his rival, and become that king's chief minister ? (6) Who had been ..-The antecedent is obviously Kish, though as far as the mere grammar goes it might have been Mordecai. Jeconiah.-That is, Jehoiachin. (See 2 Kings xxiv. 12-16.) was come to go in unto the king, she required nothing but what Hegai the king's chamberlain, the keeper of the women, appointed. And Esther obtained favour in the sight of all them that looked upon her. (16) So Esther was taken unto king Ahasuerus into his house royal in the Nebuchadnezzar had carried away.This was in 598 B.C., 117 years before this time, so that the four generations are readily accounted for. (7) Hadassah. This is evidently formed from the Hebrew hadas, the myrtle: Esther is generally assumed to be a Persian name, meaning a star. Unless we assume that this latter name was given afterwards, and is here used by anticipation, we have here an early case of the common Jewish practice of using two names, a Hebrew and a Gentile one-e.g., Saul, Paul; John, Mark; Joses, Justus, &c. Uncle.-Abihail (see verse 15). (9) Obtained kindness of him.-This is the same phrase as that which is rendered "obtained favour in his sight" in verse 17. (10) Esther had not shewed . . .-From the hope on Mordecai's part that she might pass for a native Persian, and that her Jewish birth should be no hindrance to her advancement. The king does not learn his wife's nation till some time afterwards (chap. vii. 4). (11) Mordecai walked -Apparently he was one of the royal doorkeepers. (See chaps. ii. 21, v. 13.) (12) Manner.-Translate, law or ordinance, as in chap. i. 8, 15. (16) The month Tebeth.-This extended from the new moon in January to that in February; the name occurs only here. The fifth Egyptian month, lasting from December 20 to January 20, was called Tybi. The 2 Heb., before him. tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, 1 or, kindness. B.C. cir. 514. B.C. cir. 510. Haman Promoted by the King. Teresh, of those which kept the door, were wroth, and sought to lay hand on the king Ahasuerus. (22) And the thing was known to Mordecai, who told it unto Esther the queen; and Esther certified the king thereof in Mordecai's name. (23) And when inquisition was made of the matter, it was found out; therefore they were both hanged on a tree: and it was written in the book of the chronicles before the king. CHAPTER III.-(1)After these things did king Ahasuerus promote Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all the princes that were with him. (2) And (19) And when the virgins were gathered together the second time, then Mordecai sat in the king's gate. (20) Esther had not yet shewed her kindred nor her people; as Mordecai had charged her: 4 or, Bigthana, ch. all the king's servants, that were in the for Esther did the commandment of Mordecai, like as when she was brought up with him. 6.2. time referred to in the verse will be the January or February of the year 478 B.C., and must have been very shortly after Xerxes' return to Susa from the West. The long delay in replacing Vashti is simply to be explained by the long absence of Xerxes in Greece. (18) Release.-Literally, rest. The word only occurs here it may refer either to a release from tribute or from military service, probably the former. Either, however, would have been consistent with Persian usage. (See Herod. iii. 67, vi. 59.) (19) And when the virgins. . . -Here begins a fresh incident in the history, whose date we cannot fix precisely, save that it falls between the marriage of Esther and the twelfth year of Ahasuerus (chap. iii. 7). The king "loved Esther above all the women," but how the word "love" is degraded in this connection is seen by the fact that after she had been his wife certainly less (possibly much less) than five years, there takes place a second gathering of virgins (there is no article in the Hebrew), like the one previously mentioned (chap. ii. 2). We should treat verse 20 as parenthetical, and join verse 21 closely to verse 19. Then Mordecai sat.-Translate, and Mordecai was sitting. (20) Esther had not yet . .-Perhaps this verse is added to meet the supposition that the king wished to replace Esther through finding out her nation. (21) In those days.-Here the thread of verse 19 is taken up," then I say, in those days دو Bigthan.-Called Bigtha in chap. i. 10; Bigthana in chap. vi. 2. Sought to lay hand on the king. It is noticeable that Xerxes was ultimately murdered by Artabanus, captain of the guard, and Mithridates, a chamberlain. (22) And Esther certified the king thereof.Doubtless by this means an increased influence was gained over the capricious mind of the king, an influence which before long served Esther in good stead. king's gate, bowed, and reverenced Haman: for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence. (3) Then the king's servants, which were in the king's gate, said unto Mordecai, Why trans (23) Hanged on a tree.-Were crucified; a common punishment among the Persians, especially on rebels (Herod. iii. 120, 125, 159, &c.). The dead body of Leonidas was crucified by Xerxes' orders after the desperate stand at Thermopyla. Book of the chronicles.-A sleepless night of Xerxes accidentally brought this matter, after it had been forgotten, before the king's mind. Herodotus often refers to these Persian Chronicles (vii. 100; viii. 85, 90). (1) Haman III. the Agagite.-Nothing appears His to be known of Haman save from this book. name, as well as that of his father and his sons, is Persian; and it is thus difficult to see the meaning of the name Agagite, which has generally been assumed to imply descent from Agag, king of the Amalekites, with whom the name Agag may have been dynastic (Num. xxiv. 7; 1 Sam. xv. 8). Thus Josephus (Ant. xi. 6. 5) and the Chaldee Targum call him an Amalekite. But apart from the difficulty of the name being Persian, it is hard to see how, after the wholesale destruction of Amalek recorded in 1 Sam. xv., any members should have been left of the kingly family, maintaining a distinct tribal name for so many centuries. In one of the Greek Apocryphal additions to Esther (after chap. ix. 24) Haman is called a Macedonian. (2) Bowed not.-Perhaps, rather, did not prostrate himself, for such was the ordinary Eastern practice (see Herod. iii. 86, vii. 134, 136, viii. 118). The objection on Mordecai's part was evidently mainly on religious grounds, as giving to a man Divine honours (Josephus l.c.), for it elicits from him the fact that he was a Jew (verse 4), to whom such an act of obeisance would be abhorrent.. Whether Mordecai also rebelled against the ignominious character of the obeisance, we cannot say. Haman's Plot against the Jews. ESTHER, III. He obtains a Decree. gressest thou the king's commandment? | Heb, meet, or, laws are diverse from all people; neither equal. them. 3 keep they the king's laws: therefore it is not for the king's profit to suffer them. (9) If it please the king, let it be written 2 that they may be destroyed: and I will 2 Heb., to destroy pay ten thousand talents of silver to the hands of those that have the charge of the business, to bring it into the king's treasuries. (10) And the king took his ring from his hand, and gave it unto Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the Jews' enemy. (11) And the king said unto Haman, The silver is given to thee, the people also, to do with them as it seemeth good to thee. Now it came to pass, when they spake daily unto him, and he hearkened not unto them, that they told Haman, to see whether Mordecai's matters would stand: for he had told them that he was a Jew. (5) And when Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence, then was Haman full of wrath. (6) And he thought scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone; for they had shewed him the 3 Heb., weigh. people of Mordecai: wherefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews that were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even the people of Mordecai. (7) In the first month, that is, the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of king Ahasuerus, they cast Pur, that is, the lot, before Haman from day to day, and from month to month, to the twelfth month, that is, the month Adar. (8) And Haman said unto king Ahasuerus, There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the B.C. 510. 4 Or, oppressor. (12) Then were the king's 5scribes called on the thirteenth day of the first month, and there was written according to all that Haman had commanded unto the king's lieutenants, and to the governors that were over every province, and to the rulers of every people of every province according to the writing thereof, and to every provinces of thy kingdom; and their or, secretaries. people after their language; in the (4) Whether Mordecai's matters would stand. This should be, his words whether his statement that he belonged to a nation who might only pay such reverence to God, would hold good. (7) In the first month . . . the twelfth year. -In the March or April of 474 B.C. Nisan.-The later name of the month, known in the Pentateuch as Abib. In this month the Passover had been first instituted, when God smote the Egyptians with a terrible visitation, the death of the first-born, and bade the destroying angel spare the houses with the blood-besprinkled door-posts. It was in the same month that the Passover received its final fulfilment, when "Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us,' when no mere earthly Egypt was discomfited, but principalities and powers of evil. Pur. This is evidently a Persian word for “lot,” for both here and in chap. ix. 24 the usual Hebrew word is added. It is doubtless connected with the Latin pars, portio, and the English part. The people who cast Pur were seeking for a lucky day, as indicated by the lots, for the purpose in hand. A lot was cast for each day of the month, and for each month in the year, and in some way or other one day and one month were indicated as the most favourable. The notion of lucky and unlucky days seems to have been prevalent in the East in early times, and indeed has, to a certain extent, found credence in the West. The twelfth month.-The lucky month is thus indicated, but not the day. The LXX. adds a clause saying that it was on the fourteenth day, doubtless an interpolation on the strength of verse 13. Adar. The lunar month ending at the new moon in March. It was the twelfth month, so that nearly a year would intervene between the throwing of the lot and the carrying out of the scheme. Thus in God's providence ample time was allowed for redressing matters. (8) A certain people scattered abroad A certain part of the nation had returned with Zerubbabel, but (Ezra ii. 64) these only amounted to 42,360, so that the great majority of the nation had preferred to stay comfortably where they were in the various districts of the Persian Empire. Neither keep they -The charge of disloyalty has been a favourite weapon in the hands of persecutors. Haman was not the first who had brought this charge against the Jews (see Ezra iv. 13, 16). Our Lord's accusers were those who knew no king but Cæsar. The early Christians found to their cost how deadly was the accusation of disloyalty to the Empire. (9) Ten thousand talents of silver. This would be about two and a half millions sterling, being indeed more than two-thirds of the whole annual revenue of the Empire (Herod. iii. 95). Haman may have been a man of excessive wealth (like the Pythius who offered Xerxes four millions of gold darics (Herod. vii. 28), or he probably may have hoped to draw the money from the spoils of the Jews. (11) And the king said . . .-With indifference which seems incredible, but which is quite in accordance with what we otherwise know of Xerxes, the king simply hands over to his minister the whole nation and their possessions to do with as he will. The king perhaps was glad to throw the cares of government on his minister, and, too indolent to form an opinion for himself, was content to believe that the Jews were a worthless, disloyal people. (12) On the thirteenth day of the first month. -From the next verse we see that the thirteenth of Adar was to be the lucky day for Haman's purpose, which may have suggested the thirteenth of Nisan as a suitable day for this preliminary step. Bishop Wordsworth reminds us that this day was the eve of the Passover, so that Haman's plot against the Jews strangely coincides in time with one five hundred |