Esther 4 commentary

ESTHER 4 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
Mordecai Persuades Esther to Help
1 When Mordecai learned of all that had been
done, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and
ashes, and went out into the city, wailing loudly
and bitterly.
CLARKE, "Mordecai rent his clothes - He gave every demonstration of the most
poignant and oppressive grief. Nor did he hide this from the city; and the Greek says that
he uttered these words aloud: Αιρεται εθνος µηδεν ηδικηκος, A people are going to be
destroyed, who have done no evil!
GILL, "When Mordecai perceived all that was done,.... By the king, at the
instigation of Haman, against the Jews; which he came to the knowledge of, either by
some of the conflicts or by common fame, or on the sight of the edicts which were
published in Shushan; though the Jews think it was made known to him in a
supernatural way, either by Elijah, as the former Targum (x), or by the Holy Ghost, as
the latter:
Mordecai rent his clothes: both behind and before, according to the same Targum;
and this was a custom used in mourning, not only with the Jews, but with the Persians
also, as Herodotus (y) relates:
and put on sackcloth with ashes; upon his head, as the former Targum; which was
usual in mourning, even both; Job_2:12
and went out into the midst of the city; not Elam the province, as Aben Ezra, but
the city Shushan:
and cried with a loud and bitter cry; that all the Jews in the city might be alarmed
by it, and inquire the reason of it, and be affected with it; and a clamorous mournful
noise was used among the Persians, as well as others, on sad occasions (z).

HE RY 1-4, "Here we have an account of the general sorrow that there was among
the Jews upon the publishing of Haman's bloody edict against them. It was a sad time
with the church. 1. Mordecai cried bitterly, rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth, Est_
4:1, Est_4:2. He not only thus vented his grief, but proclaimed it, that all might take
notice of it that he was not ashamed to own himself a friend to the Jews, and a fellow-
sufferer with them, their brother and companion in tribulation, how despicable and how
odious soever they were now represented by Haman's faction. It was nobly done thus
publicly to espouse what he knew to be a righteous cause, and the cause of God, even
when it seemed a desperate and a sinking cause. Mordecai laid the danger to heart more
than any because he knew that Haman's spite was against him primarily, and that it was
for his sake that the rest of the Jews were struck at; and therefore, though he did not
repent of what some would call his obstinacy, for he persisted in it (Est_5:9), yet it
troubled him greatly that his people should suffer for his scruples, which perhaps
occasioned some of them to reflect upon him as too precise. But, being able to appeal to
God that what he did he did from a principle of conscience, he could with comfort
commit his own cause and that of his people to him that judgeth righteously. God will
keep those that are exposed by the tenderness of their consciences. Notice is here taken
of a law that none might enter into the king's gate clothed with sackcloth; though the
arbitrary power of their kings often, as now, set many a mourning, yet none must come
near the king in a mourning dress, because he was not willing to hear the complaints of
such. Nothing but what was gay and pleasant must appear at court, and every thing that
was melancholy must be banished thence; all in king's palaces wear soft clothing (Mat_
11:8), not sackcloth. But thus to keep out the badges of sorrow, unless they could withal
have kept out the causes of sorrow - to forbid sackcloth to enter, unless they could have
forbidden sickness, and trouble, and death to enter - was jest. However this obliged
Mordecai to keep his distance, and only to come before the gate, not to take his place in
the gate. 2. All the Jews in every province laid it much to heart, Est_4:3. They denied
themselves the comfort of their tables (for they fasted and mingled tears with their meat
and drink), and the comfort of their beds at night, for they lay in sackcloth and ashes.
Those who for want of confidence in God, and affection to their own land, has staid in
the land of their captivity, when Cyrus gave them liberty to be gone, now perhaps
repented of their folly, and wished, when it was too late, that they had complied with the
call of God. 3. Esther the queen, upon a general intimation of the trouble Mordecai was
in, was exceedingly grieved, v. 4. Mordecai's grief was hers, such a respect did she still
retain for him; and the Jews' danger was her distress; for, though a queen, she forgot not
her relation to them. Let not the greatest think it below them to grieve for the affliction
of Joseph, though they themselves be anointed with the chief ointments, Amo_6:6.
Esther sent change of raiment to Mordecai, the oil of joy for mourning and the
garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness; but because he would make her sensible
of the greatness of his grief, and consequently of the cause of it, he received it not, but
was as one that refused to be comforted.
JAMISO , "Est_4:1-14. Mordecai and the Jews mourn.
When Mordecai perceived all that was done — Relying on the irrevocable
nature of a Persian monarch’s decree (Dan_6:15), Haman made it known as soon as the
royal sanction had been obtained; and Mordecai was, doubtless, among the first to hear
of it. On his own account, as well as on that of his countrymen, this astounding decree
must have been indescribably distressing. The acts described in this passage are,
according to the Oriental fashion, expressive of the most poignant sorrow; and his

approach to the gate of the palace, under the impulse of irrepressible emotions, was to
make an earnest though vain appeal to the royal mercy. Access, however, to the king’s
presence was, to a person in his disfigured state, impossible: “for none might enter into
the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth.” But he found means of conveying intelligence of
the horrid plot to Queen Esther.
K&D, "Mordochai learnt all that was done, - not only what had been openly
proclaimed, but, as is shown by Est_4:7, also the transaction between the king and
Haman. Then he rent his garments, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the
midst of the city, making loud and bitter lamentation. Comp. on the last words, Gen_
27:34. The combination of ‫ר‬ ֶ‫פ‬ ֵ‫א‬ with ‫ק‬ ַ‫שׂ‬ ‫שׁ‬ ַ ְ‫ל‬ִ‫י‬ is an abbreviation for: put on a hairy
garment and spread ashes upon his head, in sign of deep grief; comp. Dan_9:3; Job_
2:12, and elsewhere.
BE SO , "Esther 4:1. And put on sackcloth with ashes — That is, he put on a
garment of sackcloth or hair, and sprinkled ashes upon his head. And cried with a
loud and bitter cry — To express his deep sense of the mischief coming upon his
people. It was bravely done thus publicly to espouse what he knew to be a righteous
cause, and the cause of God, even then when it seemed to be a sinking and desperate
cause. The latter Targum upon the book of Esther gives us the following account of
Mordecai’s behaviour upon this sad occasion: “He made his complaints in the midst
of the streets, saying, ‘What a heavy decree is this, which the king and Haman have
passed, not against a part of us, but against us all, to root us out of the earth!’
Whereupon all the Jews flocked about him, and, having caused the book of the law
to be brought to the gate of Shushan, he, being covered with sackcloth, read the
words of Deuteronomy 4:30-31, and then exhorted them to fasting, humiliation, and
repentance, after the example of the inevites.”
COFFMA , "Verse 1
THE ISRAEL OF GOD I SACKCLOTH; ASHES; A D TEARS
The last verse of the previous chapter mentioned that the city of Susa was
perplexed. "Although the Jews certainly had enemies in Susa, the majority of the
Persians were Zoroastrians, and were likely to sympathize with the Jews. There
might also have been other national groups in Persia who would have been alarmed
and apprehensive at the king's decision to slaughter all the Jews."[1] Some might
have been fearful that their group might be next. It must have been a major shock to
the Persian capital when the king's decree became known.
The Jews throughout the whole Persian empire at once exhibited their grief, alarm,
mourning and fear, in much the same manner as did Mordecai.
MORDECAI LEAR S ALL THAT WAS DO E
" ow when Mordecai knew all that was done, Mordecai rent his clothes, and put on
sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and cried with a loud

and a bitter cry; and he came even before the king's gate; for none might enter the
king's gate clothed with sackcloth. And in every province, whithersoever the king's
commandment and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and
fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes."
This great mourning prevailed in every province of the vast empire, including
Jerusalem and Judaea of course. Although the name of God is not mentioned in
Esther, this outpouring of grief on the part of the Chosen People was nothing at all
unless it was an appeal for God's intervention to save his people from their
threatened destruction. The sackcloth and ashes were universally recognized as
signs of extreme grief and distress. "Either sackcloth or ashes was a sign of deep
mourning; but both together were indications of the most distressing grief
possible."[2]
"All the Jews throughout Persia broke out into mourning, weeping, and
lamentations, while many of them exhibited their mourning as did Mordecai."[3]
Mordecai's purpose for such a visible demonstration of his mourning was to alert
Esther that something was terribly wrong and to get the truth of the situation and
its seriousness to Esther.
COKE, "Verse 1
Esther 4:1. Mordecai rent his clothes, &c.— The latter Targum, upon the book of
Esther, gives us the following account of Mordecai's behaviour upon this sad
occasion: "He made his complaint in the midst of the streets, saying, What a heavy
decree is this, which the king and Haman have passed, not against a part of us, but
against us all, to root us out of the earth! Whereupon all the Jews flocked about
him, and, having caused the book of the law to be brought to the gate of Shushan,
he, being covered with sackcloth, read the words of Deuteronomy 4:30-31 and then
exhorted them to fasting, humiliation, and repentance, after the example of the
inevites.
ELLICOTT, "(1) Mordecai rent his clothes.—This was a common sign of sorrow
among Eastern nations generally. It will be noticed that the sorrow both of
Mordecai and of the Jews generally (Esther 4:3) is described by external
manifestations solely. There is rending of garments, putting on of sackcloth and
ashes, fasting and weeping and wailing: there is nothing said of prayer and entreaty
to the God of Israel, and strong crying to Him who is able to save. Daniel and Ezra
and ehemiah are all Jews, who, like Mordecai and Esther, have to submit to the
rule of the alien, though, unlike them, they, when the danger threatened, besought,
and not in vain, the help of their God. (See Daniel 6:10; Ezra 8:23; ehemiah 1:4,
&c.)
TRAPP, "Esther 4:1 When Mordecai perceived all that was done, Mordecai rent his
clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and
cried with a loud and a bitter cry;
Ver. 1. When Mordecai perceived all that was done] Mαθων το γινοµενον, saith

Josephus, when he had learned or fully informed himself, so that he knew it to be so,
as the Hebrew text hath it (Jadang.). Solicitous he was of the Church’s welfare, and
sat listening, as Eli did once, what would become of the ark, 1 Samuel 3:13. ow
therefore, as ill news is swift of foot, saith Sophocles, αι βλαβαι ποδωκεις, and comes
like ill weather, before it be sent for, Mordecai taketh knowledge of that bloody
decree, though Esther and those about her had not heard of it, Esther 4:4-5. either
sitteth he still at home, as desponding and despairing, or seeketh by sinister
practices to help himself and his people, but applieth himself, first, to God, by
hearty humiliation and prayer; and then to the king, by the intercession of Esther. A
carnal heart would have taken other shifting courses, like as a dog that hath lost his
master will follow after any other for relief.
Mordecai rent his clothes] To show that his very heart was rent with sorrow for
Sion. This custom of rending their clothes in time and in token of greatest grief, was
in use not among the Jews only, but Persians also, and other nations, as is noted by
Herodotus and Curtius.
And put on sackcloth] The coarsest clothing he could get; as holding any clothes too
good for so vile a captive, and showing that but for shame he would have worn none.
So the ine vites sat in sackcloth and ashes, for more humiliation. See Exodus 33:4,
&c.
And ashes] He put on ashes or dust, that is, a dusty garment sprinkled with ashes,
saith Drusius, putting his mouth in the dust, as Lamentations 3:29, acknowledging
himself to be of the earth earthy, and fit fuel for hell fire, on e foco, sed e terra
desumptum pulverem notat (Merlin).
And went out into the midst of the city] That he might be a pattern to others. Si vis
me flere, &c.
And cried with a loud and a bitter cry] More barbarico, after the manner of that
country; but there was more in it than so. It was not his own danger that so much
affected him (how gladly could he have wished, with Ambrose, that God would
please to turn all the adversaries from the Church upon himself, and let them satisfy
their thirst with his blood? Oτι µηδεν αδικησον εθνος αναιρειται, Joseph.) as that so
many innocent people should perish. This made him lift up his voice unto God on
high.
WHEDO , "1. Mordecai rent his clothes — The customary sign of bitter grief. See
2 Samuel 1:11, note. A like sign was also the putting on of sackcloth sad sitting in
ashes, (Job 2:8; Jonah 3:6,) or sprinkling ashes upon the head. Mordecai also, in
expression of his most intense agony, cried with a loud and a bitter cry. Compare

Genesis 27:34. Similar exhibitions of grief were customary with the Persians. When
tidings of Xerxes’ defeat at Salamis reached Shushan all the people “rent their
garments and uttered unbounded shouts and lamentations.” — Herod., 8:99.
CO STABLE, "C. Mordecai"s Reaction4:1-3
We can understand why Mordecai reacted to Haman"s decree so strongly ( Esther
4:1). Undoubtedly he felt personally responsible for this decree (cf. Esther 3:2-5).
However, we should not interpret Mordecai"s actions in Esther 4:1 as a sign of
great faith in God necessarily (cf. Mark 5:38; 1 Thessalonians 4:13). They were
common expressions of personal grief (cf. Ezra 8:21; Ezra 8:23; ehemiah 9:1;
Lamentations 3:40-66).
The absence of any reference to prayer in Esther 4:3 may be significant. Prayer
normally accompanied the other practices mentioned (cf. 2 Kings 19:1-4; Joel 1:14).
Perhaps many of these exiled Jews had gotten so far away from God that they did
not even pray in this crisis hour. However, the basis of this argument is silence, and
arguments based on silence are never strong.
EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE COMME TARY
QUEE ESTHER
Esther 4:1-5;, Esther 7:1-4;, Esther 9:12-13
THE young Jewess who wins the admiration of the Persian king above all the
chosen maidens of his realm, and who then delivers her people in the crisis of
supreme danger at the risk of her own life, is the central figure in the story of the
origin of Purim. It was a just perception of the situation that led to the choice of her
name as the title of the book that records her famous achievements, Esther first
appears as an obscure orphan who has been brought up in the humble home of her
cousin Mordecai. After her guardian has secured her admission to the royal harem-
a doubtful honour we might think, but a very real honour in the eyes of an ancient
Oriental-she receives a year’s training with the use of the fragrant unguents that are
esteemed so highly in a voluptuous Eastern court. We should not expect to see
anything better than the charms of physical beauty after such a process of
development, charms not of the highest type-languid, luscious, sensuous. The new
name bestowed on this finished product of the chief art cultivated in the palace of
Ahasuerus points to nothing higher, for "Esther" (Istar) is the name of a
Babylonian goddess equivalent to the Greek "Aphrodite." And yet our Esther is a
heroine-capable, energetic, brave, and patriotic. The splendour of her career is seen
in this very fact, that she does not succumb to the luxury of her surroundings. The
royal harem among the lily-beds of Shushan is like a palace in the land of the lotus-
eaters, "where it is always afternoon," and its inmates, in their dreamy indolence,
are tempted to forget all obligations and interests beyond the obligation to please the
king and their own interest in securing every comfort wealth can lavish on them. We

do not look for a Boadicea in such a hot-house of narcotics. And when we find there
a strong, unselfish woman such as Esther, conquering almost insuperable
temptations to a life of ease, and choosing a course of terrible danger to herself for
the sake of her oppressed people, we can echo the admiration of the Jews for their
national heroine.
It is a woman, then, who plays the leading part in this drama of Jewish history.
From Eve to Mary, women have repeatedly appeared in the most prominent places
on the pages of Scripture.
The history of Israel finds some of its most powerful situations in the exploits of
Deborah, Jael, and Judith. On the side of evil, Delilah, Athaliah, and Jezebel are not
less conspicuous. There was a freedom enjoyed by the women of Israel that was not
allowed in the more elaborate civilisation of the great empires of the East, and this
developed an independent spirit and a vigour not usually seen in Oriental women.
In the case of Esther these good qualities were able to survive the external restraints
and the internal relaxing atmosphere of her court life. The scene of her story is laid
in the harem. The plots and intrigues of the harem furnish its principal incidents.
Yet if Esther had been a shepherdess from the mountains of Judah, she could not
have proved herself more energetic. But her court life had taught her skill in
diplomacy, for she had to pick her way among the greatest dangers like a person
walking among concealed knives.
The beauty of Esther’s character is this, that she is not spoiled by her great
elevation. To be the one favourite out of all the select maidens of the kingdom, and
to know that she owes her privileged position solely to the king’s fancy for her
personal charms, might have spoilt the grace of a simple Jewess. Haman, we saw,
was ruined by his honours becoming too great for his self control. But in Esther we
do not light on a trace of the silly vanity that became the most marked characteristic
of the grand vizier. It speaks well for Mordecai’s sound training of the orphan girl
that his ward proved to be of stable character where a weaker person would have
been dizzy with selfish elation.
The unchanged simplicity of Esther’s character’ is first apparent in her submissive
obedience to her guardian even after her high position has been attained. Though
she is treated as his Queen by the Great King, she does not forget the kind porter
who has brought her up from childhood. In the old days she had been accustomed to
obey this grave Jew, and she has no idea of throwing off the yoke now that he has no
longer any recognised power over her. The habit of obedience persists in her after
the necessity for it has been removed. This would no have been so remarkable if
Esther had been weak-minded woman, readily subdued and kept in subjection by a
masterful will. But her energy and courage at a momentous crisis entirely forbid
any such estimate of her character. It must have been genuine humility and
unselfishness that prevented her from rebelling against the old home authority when
a heavy injunction was laid upon her. She undertakes the dangerous part of the
champion of a threatened race solely at the instance of Mordecai. He urges the duty
upon her, and she accepts it meekly. She is no rough Amazon. With all her greatness

and power, she is still a simple, unassuming woman.
But when Esther has assented to the demands of Mordecai, she appears in her
people’s cause with the spirit of true patriotism. She scorns to forget her humble
origin in all the splendour of her later advancement. She will own her despised and
hated people before the king, she will plead the cause of the oppressed, though at the
risk of her life. She is aware of the danger of her undertaking, but she says, "If I
perish. I perish." The habit of obedience could not have been strong enough to carry
her through the terrible ordeal if Mordecai’s hard requirement had not been
seconded by the voice of her own conscience. She knows that it is right that she
should undertake this difficult and dangerous work. How naturally might she have
shrunk back with regret for the seclusion and obscurity of the old days when her
safety lay in her insignificance? But she saw that her new privileges involved new
responsibilities. A royal harem is the last place in which we should look for the
recognition of this truth. Esther is to be honoured because even in that palace of idle
luxury she could acknowledge the stern obligation that so many in her position
would never have glanced at. It is always difficult to perceive and act on the
responsibility that certainly accompanies favour and power. This difficulty is one
reason why "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich
man to enter into the kingdom of God." For while unusual prosperity brings
unusual responsibility, simply because it affords unusual opportunities for doing
good, it tends to cultivate pride and selfishness, and the miserable worldly spirit that
is fatal to all high endeavour and all real sacrifice. Our Lord’s great principle,
"Unto whom much is given, of him shall much be required," is clear as a
mathematical axiom when we look at it in the abstract, but nothing is harder than
for people to apply it to their own cases. If it were freely admitted, the ambition that
grasps at the first places would be shamed into silence. If it were generally acted on,
the wide social cleft between the fortunate and the miserable would be speedily
bridged over. The total ignoring, of this tremendous principle by the great majority
of those who enjoy the privileged positions in society is undoubtedly one of the chief
causes of the ominous unrest that is growing more and more disturbing in the less
favoured ranks of life. If this supercilious contempt for an imperative duty
continues, what can be the end but an awful retribution? Was it not the wilful
blindness of the dancers in the Tuileries to the misery of the serfs on the fields that
caused revolutionary France to run red with blood?
Esther was wise in taking the suggestion of her cousin that she had been raised up
for the very purpose of saving her people. Here was a faith, reserved and reticent,
but real and powerful. It was no idle chance that had tossed her on the crest of the
wave while so many of her sisters were weltering in the dark floods beneath. A clear,
high purpose was leading her on to a strange and mighty destiny, and now the
destiny was appearing, sublime and terrible, like some awful mountain peak that
must be climbed unless the soul that has come thus far will turn traitor and fall
back into failure and ignominy. When Esther saw this, she acted on it with the
promptitude of the founder of her nation, who esteemed "the reproach of Christ
greater riches than the treasures of Egypt," but with this difference, that, while
Moses renounced his high rank in Pharaoh’s court in order to identify himself with

his people, the Queen of Ahasuerus retained her perilous position and turned it to
good account in her saving mission. Thus there are two ways in which an exalted
person may serve others. He may come down from his high estate like Moses, like
Christ who was rich and for our sakes became poor, or he may take advantage of
his privileged position to use it for the good of his brethren, regarding it as a trust to
be held for those whom he can benefit, like Joseph, who was able in this way to save
his father and his brothers from famine, and like Esther in the present case.
Circumstances will guide the willing to a decision as to which of these courses
should be chosen.
We must not turn from this subject without remembering that Mordecai plied
Esther with other considerations besides the thought of her mysterious destiny. He
warned her that she should not escape if she disowned her people. He expressed his
confidence that if she shrank from her high mission deliverance would "come from
another place," to her eternal shame. Duty is difficult, and there is often a call for
the comparatively lower, because more selfish, considerations that urge to it. The
reluctant horse requires the spur. And yet the noble courage of Esther could not
have come chiefly from fear or any other selfish motive. It must have been a sense of
her high duty and wonderful destiny that inspired her. There is no inspiration like
that of the belief that we are called to a great mission. This is the secret of the
fanatical heroism of the Madhist dervishes. In a more holy warfare it makes heroes
of the weakest.
Having once accepted her dreadful task, Esther proceeded to carry it out with
courage. It was a daring act for her to enter the presence of the king unsummoned.
Who could tell but that the fickle monarch might take offence at the presumption of
his new favourite, as he had done in the case of her predecessor? Her lonely position
might have made the strongest of women quail as she stepped forth from her
seclusion and ventured to approach her lord. Her motive might be shamefully
misconstrued by the low-minded monarch. Would the king hold out the golden
sceptre to her? The chances of life and death hung on the answer to that question.
ehemiah, though a courageous man and a favourite of his royal master, was filled
with apprehension at the prospect of a far less dangerous interview with a much
more reasonable ruler than the half-mad Xerxes. These Oriental autocrats were
shrouded in the terror of divinities. Their absolute power left the lives of all who
approached them at the mercy of their caprice. Ahasuerus had just sanctioned a
senseless, bloodthirsty decree. Very possibly he had murdered Vashti, and that on
the offence of a moment. Esther was in favour, but she belonged to the doomed
people, and she was committing an illegal action deliberately in the face of the king.
She was Fatima risking the wrath of Bluebeard. We know how ehemiah would
have acted at this trying moment. He would have strengthened his heart with one of
those sudden ejaculations of prayer that were always ready to spring to his lips on
any emergency. It is not in accordance with the secular tone of the story of Esther’s
great undertaking that any hint of such an action on her part should have been
given. Therefore we cannot say that she was a woman of no religion, that she was
prayerless, that she launched on this great enterprise entirely relying on her own
strength. We must distinguish between reserve and coldness in regard to religion.

The fire burns while the heart muses. even though the lips are still. At all events, if it
is the intention of the writer to teach that Esther was mysteriously raised up for the
purpose of saving her people, it is a natural inference to conclude that she was
supported in the execution of it by unseen and silent aid. Her name does not appear
in the honour roll of Hebrews 11:1-40. We cannot assert that she acted in the
strength of faith. And yet there is more evidence of faith, even though it is not
professed, in conduct that is true and loyal, brave and unselfish, than we can find in
the loudest profession of a creed without the confirmation of corresponding
conduct. "I will show my faith by my works," says St. James, and he may show it
without once naming it.
It is to be noted, further, that Esther was a woman of resources. She did not trust to
her courage alone to secure her end. It was not enough that she owned her people,
and was willing to plead their cause. She had the definite purpose of saving them to
effect. She was not content to be a martyr to patriotism; a sensible, practical woman,
she did her utmost to be successful in effecting the deliverance of the threatened
Jews. With this end in view, it was necessary for her to proceed warily. Her first
step was gained when she had secured an audience with the king. We may surmise
that her beautiful countenance was lit up with a new, rare radiance when all self-
seeking was banished from her mind and an intense, noble aim fired her soul, and
thus, it may be, her very loftiness of purpose helped to secure its success. Beauty is a
gift, a talent, to be used for good, like any other Divine endowment; the highest
beauty is the splendour of soul that sometimes irradiates the most commonplace
countenance, so that, like Stephen’s, it shines as the face of an angel. Instead of
degrading her beauty with foolish vanity, Esther consecrated it to a noble service,
and thereby it was glorified. This one talent was not lodged with her useless.
The first point was gained in securing the favour of Ahasuerus. But all was not yet
won. It would have been most unwise for Esther to have burst out with her daring
plea for the condemned people in the moment of the king’s surprised welcome. But
she was patient and skilful in managing her delicate business. She knew the king’s
weakness for good living, and she played upon it for her great purpose. Even when
she had got him to a first banquet, she did not venture to bring out her request.
Perhaps her courage failed her at the last moment. Perhaps, like a keen, observant
woman, she perceived that she had not yet wheedled the king round to the condition
in which it would be safe to approach the dangerous topic. So she postponed her
attempt to another day and a second banquet. Then she seized her opportunity.
With great tact, she began by pleading for her own life. Her piteous entreaty
amazed the dense-minded monarch. At the same time the anger of his pride was
roused. Who would dare to touch his favourite queen? It was a well-chosen moment
to bring such a notion into the mind of a king who was changeable as a child. We
may be sure that Esther had been doing her very best to please him throughout the
two banquets. Then she had Haman on the spot. He, too, prime minister of Persia as
he was, had to find that for once in his life he had been outwitted by a woman.
Esther meant to strike while the iron was hot. So the arch-enemy of her people was
there, that the king might carry out the orders to which she was skilfully leading
him on without the delay which would give the party of Haman an opportunity to

turn him the other way. Haman saw it all in a moment. He confessed that the queen
was mistress of the situation by appealing to her for mercy, in the frenzy of his
terror even so far forgetting his place as to fling himself on her couch. That only
aggravated the rage of the jealous king. Haman’s fate was sealed on the spot.,
Esther was completely triumphant.
After this it is painful to see how the woman who had saved her people at the risk of
her own life pushed her advantage to the extremity of a bloodthirsty vengeance. It is
all very well to say that, as the laws of the Medes and Persians could not be altered,
there was no alternative but a defensive slaughter. We may try to shelter Esther
under the customs of the times; we may call to mind the fact that she was acting on
the advice of Mordecai, whom she had been taught to obey from childhood, so that
his was by far the greater weight of responsibility. Still, as we gaze on the portrait of
the strong, brave, unselfish Jewess, we must confess that beneath all the beauty and
nobility of its expression certain hard lines betray the fact that Esther is not a
Madonna, that the heroine of the Jews does not reach the Christian ideal of
womanhood.
PARKER, ""When Mordecai perceived all that was done, Mordecai rent his
clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and
cried with a loud and a bitter cry" ( Esther 4:1).
That is all we can do sometimes. Speech is useless, words are a mockery; the soul is
filled with woe. It is not unmanly, it is not weakness; it is indeed an aspect of human
greatness; it is man seeking after the ineffable, the eternal, the infinite,—crying
where he cannot speak, for a cry is more eloquent than a sentence. All who have
known the bitterness of life have been in this very condition in some degree. When
poverty has been in every room in the house, when affliction is a familiar guest,
when disappointment comes like a crown of thorns upon the head of every day,
what if even strong solid men express themselves in a loud and bitter cry? Mordecai
had, however, something left; he said, I must work through my relative; Esther the
queen must come to my deliverance now, and through me to the deliverance of the
whole people in this foreign land. So he began communications with the queen; the
queen explained and hesitated, pointed out the difficulties, but Mordecai would hear
nothing of difficulty. He made a grand appeal to her:
"Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king"s house, more than all the
Jews. For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time then shall there
enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy
father"s house shall be destroyed" ( Esther 4:13-14).
We have anticipated the speech. How nobly it is argued; how pathetically it is
uttered! The man was shut up to one course. There are times when we are
dependent upon one life: if this fail, God fails. Who does not know something of this
experience, when ingenuity is baffled, when invention can go no farther, and yet
there is just one thing that may be tried, that must be tried? These are the
circumstances which test character; these are the circumstances, too, which test our

friends. We only know our friends when we are in extremity. This is Christ"s own
test of character. He said, "I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat"; in other
words, I was in extremity, and my extremity was your opportunity. This is precisely
the reasoning of Mordecai. The Jews were an hungered, and they pined for the
meat—the bread, the water, of fraternal sympathy. There are times when we must
risk everything upon a last effort. Are there not some of us who have risked
nothing? In crises we know what men are. Mordecai"s religious confidence
triumphed. He was a Jew of the right type; he said enlargement and deliverance
should arise from another quarter: God would not forsake his people; he has
himself punished them, but in all God"s correction there is measure: it is impossible
that Hainan"s murderous policy can succeed. There are times when men leap in
their inspiration; they become majestic through moral conviction, they feel that
things are not handed over to a wicked hand. Though the night be dark, and the
wind be loud and cold, and friends there may seem to be none, yet through that very
darkness deliverance will come, and the world will be wrested from the clutches of
the devil.
Then came the sublime personal appeal—
"And who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"
( Esther 4:14).
ow we may have explanation. "We wondered why thou shouldest have been
chosen to be queen in place of Vashti; others appeared to be more beautiful than
thou, but by some means, not then explicable, thou wast brought to the kingdom:
now the explanation is at hand." God discovers himself by surprises. For a long time
all things proceed monotonously, even wearisomely, and quite suddenly we begin to
put things together, and to shape them, until they become pillars, arches, houses,
sanctuaries; then we say, This was the meaning of it all: the darkness is gone, the
light shineth, and behold God, even invisibleness, is at hand, so that we can lay our
hand upon him, fall down before him, and bless his all-sufficient and reverent name.
This hope nerves the weakest; this hope reveals the depths of the human
constitution. Are there not crises in which we are all placed? What have you your
wealth for? What a trial is prosperity! Why was it given to you? That you might
make every good cause prosper; that you might make every way easy along which
the kingdom of heaven was passing; that there might be no crying in your streets.
Your wealth was given to satisfy the cry of need, to bless the cause of honesty. How
dare you go to bed with all that gold in the coffer? For what was your power given?
not to gratify your ambition, not to make you a name amongst men; but that you
might threaten the enemy, undo heavy burdens, smite the tyrant, and speak
comfortably to every brave man who is working under arduous and trying
circumstances. Who dare bear his power simply as a decoration? For what was your
education given to you? That you might be a light in darkness, a teacher of the
ignorant, a friend to those who have had no such advantages as you have enjoyed.
You were not educated that you might chatter in polysyllables, astound human
ignorance by an information which it could never test; you were educated in the
providence of God that you might help every man to learn the alphabet, to spell the

name of God, to make out the gospel of Christ. "Who knoweth whether thou art
come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" If men had understanding of the
times, saw their opportunities, rose to the occasion, in the spirit of Christ, in the
spirit of the cross of Christ, they would make the world feel how true are Christ"s
words: "Ye are the salt of the earth.... Ye are the light of the world.... Ye are a city
set on a hill." Christ Jesus the Son of God always calls men to help others, to deliver
the oppressed, to undo heavy burdens that are too grievous to be borne. In going
forward to such work as that we are obeying Christ"s command when he
said—"Follow me."
LA GE, "The author manifestly desires to show in this chapter how very difficult it
was for Mordecai to make even the one effort to save his people from destruction.
But he was faithful and persistent; taking step after step until the object was
attained. He here entered a conflict which was forced upon him, and which he was
unable to avert. But thereby lie ran the greatest danger both for himself and for
Esther, whom he required to assist. him. Three separate endeavors are recorded by
our author as made on the part of Mordecai in order to involve Esther in this
conflict. The first was preparatory, being designed simply to establish a connection
with her; of the second the only result was the objections raised by Esther; and in
the third she expressed her willingness and her resignation to a possible fate.
Esther 4:1-5. Here is described the first step. The first thing Mordecai did was to
take a leading part in the general sorrow of the Jews. Thereby he attracted the
attention of Esther, and induced her not only to send him other garments than those
of mourning, but also to send a confidential messenger through whom he could
communicate with her. Esther 4:1. “When Mordecai perceived all that was done.—
As is told us in Esther 4:7. Mordecai was even informed as to the sum of money
which Haman expected to obtain by destroying the Jews. Possibly some of Haman’s
intimate friends heard of it and spoke of it in the king’s gate where Mordecai could
hear it. Mordecai rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes, i. e., a garment
of hair cloth, and with the same also put on ashes, by strewing ashes over his person
and clothing (comp. Daniel 9:3; Job 2:12).[F 4]And went out into the midst of the
city.—He did not conceal the fact that he was in deep distress, and cried with a loud
and bitter cry; literally, occurs in Genesis 27:34 with reference to Esau.
PULPIT, "MOUR I G OF MORDECAI, A D OF THE JEWS GE ERALLY,
O HEARI G OF THE DECREE (Esther 4:1-17 1-3). Haman had no doubt kept
his intentions secret until the king's consent to them was not only granted, but
placed beyond his power to recall The Jews first heard of the terrible blow
impending over them by the publication of the edict. Then they became acquainted
with it quickly enough. The edict was for a while the talk of the town. Placarded
openly in some conspicuous and frequented place, every loiterer read it, every gossip
spoke of it, every one whom it threatened could with his own eyes see its exact terms.
Mordecai soon "perceived all that was done" (Esther 4:1)—perused the edict,
understood whence it had originated, was fully aware that he himself and his whole
nation stood in the most awful peril. His first impulse was to rend his garments and
put on sackcloth and ashes; after which he quitted the environs of the palace, and

"went out into the midst of the city," where he gave free vent to his grief and alarm,
"crying with a loud and bitter cry." The signs of mourning were not permitted
within the walls of the royal residence, and Mordecai could come no nearer than the
space before the gate, where he probably sat down in the dust "astonied" (see Ezra
9:4). or was he long alone in his sorrow. In every province—and therefore at Susa,
no less than elsewhere—"there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting,
and weeping, and wailing" (Esther 4:3). The proscribed race made bitter
lamentation—"lay in sackcloth and ashes," humbled itself before God, and waited.
As yet no thought of escape seems to have occurred to any, no resolution to have
been taken. Even Mordecai's thoughtful brain was paralysed, and, like the rest, he
gave himself up to grief.
Esther 4:1
Mordecai rent his clothes. Compare Ezra 9:3, Ezra 9:5 with the comment. The
meaning of the act was well understood by the Persians. Put on sackcloth with
ashes. So Daniel (Daniel 9:3), and the king of ineveh (Jonah 3:6). Either act by
itself was a sign of deep grief; both combined betokened the deepest grief possible.
And went out into the midst of the city. The palace was not to be saddened by
private griefs (see the next verse). Mordecai, therefore, having assumed the outward
signs of extreme sorrow, quitted the palace, and entered the streets of the town.
There, overcome by his feelings, he vented them, as Asiatics are wont to do, in loud
and piercing cries (comp. ehemiah 5:1).
BI, "When Mordecai perceived all that was done, Mordecai rent his clothes, and put on
sackcloth with ashes.
Mordecai’s grief
In the case of Mordecai, the first effect of the proclamation was bitter anguish, for his
conduct had been the flint out of which the spark leaped to kindle this portentous
conflagration. But Mordecai’s grief did not upset his judgment. The genuine sorrow of an
honest soul very seldom has that effect; and this man’s greatness comes out in his
deliberateness. Faith, too, as well as sound judgment, may be discerned under this good
man’s grief. (A. M. Symington, B. A.)
Mordecai in sackcloth
I. Mordecai was exceedingly affected at what the king had commanded (Est_4:1). See
the stirring benevolence of this man, the sweet philanthropy which dwelt in his soul, and
how deeply he felt the common calamity, which resulted from his own conscientious
doings. There is nothing new in the Lord’s people meeting with adversities and troubles
in this life. “Let them that suffer according to the will of God, commit the keeping of
their souls to Him in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator.” “As the sufferings of Christ
abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.”
II. In the depth of his grief, Mordecai “came even before the king’s gate, clothed with
sack cloth” for none might enter into the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth (Est_4:2).
Amusements or diversions are one class of spiritual idols to which many of the sons of

men render homage. The wise man informs us that a scene of unbroken enjoyment is not
the best for the interest of the soul. “It is better to go to the house of mourning,” etc. “for
that is the end of all men, and the living will lay it to heart.” Do as the saints of old did;
we never hear them saying, “I will rejoice in the world”; but “I will rejoice in the Lord,” “I
will rejoice in Thy salvation.” “In the shadow of Thy wings will I rejoice.” “My soul shall
be joyful in my God: for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, He hath
covered me with the robe of righteousness.”
III. Mordecai, though he could not enter within the king’s gate with his signals of
distress, went as near it as he dared to go, with the view of acquainting Esther, by means
of her attendants, with the impending danger. As soon as she heard of his mournful
habit, she sympathised with him, and sent him raiment instead of his sackcloth, that he
might resume his place. We cannot but admire two things which the grace of God had
wrought in this woman—her condescension and gratitude. She was now a queen.
Providence had placed her on the summit of worldly greatness, yet did she not disregard
one of her subjects in distress. She kindly inquired into the cause of his sorrow. Her
gratitude also was lovely. Mordecai had acted the part of a tender father towards her,
when she was cast a parentless child on the wide world. She does not now forget that
tenderness.
IV. Mordecai sent back to Esther tidings of the situation in which he, and she, and their
people were placed (verses 7, 8). Esther was now in a station, high and influential, and
she is here charged to use her influence on the side of right and justice, and against
oppression and tyranny. It is delightful to behold power thus employed! Power is a
mighty weapon, and effects great things either to the injury or benefit of the community.
V. Esther sent again to Mordecai, to tell him that she had not for a considerable period
been invited to the royal presence, and that to go uninvited was certain death.
VI. Notwithstanding what Esther said, Mordecai would by no means have her neglect
the work which he had assigned her (verses 13, 14). We learn a few particulars from
these words.
1. That Mordecai had a strong belief that God would interfere for His people in this
case.
2. That we are not to flinch from our duty by reason of the danger which we incur by
its performance. It is easy to walk in the way while it is smooth and easy, but it must
be walked in also when it is rough and thorny.
3. That the work of the Lord shall prosper, whether we endeavour to promote it or
otherwise. “Deliverance shall arise to the Jews from another place: but thou,” etc.
God is never at a loss for instruments to accomplish His will. If we neglect the
honour, He will make others willing to spend and to be spent in His service.
VII. We come now to Esther’s answer (verses 15, 16). Fasting and prayer were resorted
to on this occasion. Spiritually performed, they never fail of success. United prayer, as in
these cases, and in that of Peter, who was about to be killed by Herod, is omnipotent.
Like Esther, let us work and pray. These duties must ever be associated. To work without
praying is Pharisaism and presumption. To pray without working is insincerity and
hypocrisy. Like Mordecai, let us counsel others to do their duty, heedless of all temporal
consequences, and pray that they may have power from on high for its due
accomplishment. (J. Hughes.)

Anguish keenly felt
At first it would appear that he was so stunned, and almost stupefied, by the news, that
he knew not what to do. He was cast into the uttermost distress. He was like a vessel
struck by a cyclone. He would get to the use of efforts to meet the crisis by and by; but,
for the moment, when the hurricane first burst upon him, he could do nothing but give
way to the violence of the storm. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)
Great sorrow
I. Sorrow cannot be prevented. Sibbes says, “None ever hath been so good or so great as
could raise themselves so high as to be above the reach of troubles.” Thomas Watson
observes, “The present state of life is subject to afflictions, as a seaman’s life is subject to
storms. Man is born to trouble; he is heir-apparent to it; he comes into the world with a
cry and goes out with a groan.”
II. Sorrow cannot be explained. In its general aspect sin is the cause of sorrow. When we
come to particularise we find ourselves at fault. Eternity is the only true and complete
interpreter of time. Heavenly joys only can make plain the meaning of earthly sorrows.
III. Sorrow cannot be hidden. Emotion is as much part of our God-given nature as
intellect. The man who does not feel is a man with the better part of manhood destroyed.
Feeling must sooner or later find an expression. It is better not to hide our sorrows.
Trouble concealed is trouble increased.
IV. Sorrow cannot be confined. It passes from nature to nature; from home to home.
This community of feeling, this susceptibility to sorrow, speaks to us of our brotherhood.
We are members one of another.
V. But sorrow can be mitigated.
1. By believing that the threatened trouble may never come.
2. By believing that God knows how to effect a deliverance.
3. By believing that sorrow may be made productive.
As the waters of the Nile overflow the surrounding country, and open up the soil, end
prepare it for the reception of the rice seed, so the waters of sorrow should overflow and
open up the otherwise barren soil of our nature, and prepare it for the reception of the
seed of all truth in its manifold bearings. “Tribulation worketh patience,” etc. (W.
Burrows, B. A.)
Mordecai’s grief
There is perhaps but little doubt that Mordecai passed hours—they come to nearly all—
when gloom lay heavy upon the soul, when the shock he had felt seemed to render
existence a blank, leaving little of hope before him save that which glittered around the
gateway of death and seemed to whisper, “Abandon effort; accept the inevitable”—
seasons when the fruitlessness of labour, the unreasonableness of man, the malignancy
of human enmity, the worthlessness of human sacrifice, the emptiness of the most
ardent aspirations, and the ineffciency of goodness, leave the soul drifting upon the open
sea of despondency with a torturing sense of loneliness—moments when faith in man,
even faith in the Church, is shaken, inducing the spirit to cast itself upon the Fatherhood

of God, as the storm drives the wearied bird to its home in the rocks. But since faith still
lives, and can only live, in the performance of present duty—which alone has the power
of maintaining piety in the soul—he soon discovers that continued reliance upon God is
urging him to labour for the realisation of the results he covets. (J. S. Van Dyke, D. D.)
2 But he went only as far as the king’s gate,
because no one clothed in sackcloth was allowed
to enter it.
BAR ES, "None might enter into the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth -
This law is not elsewhere mentioned; but its principle - that nothing of evil omen is to be
obtruded on the monarch - has been recognized throughout the East in all ages.
CLARKE, "Before the king’s gate - He could not enter into the gate, of the place
where the officers waited, because he was in the habit of a mourner; for this would have
been contrary to law.
GILL, "And came even before the king's gate,.... Or court, that Esther might if
possible be made acquainted with this dreadful calamity coming upon her people:
for none might enter into the king's gate clothed with sackcloth: or appear in
such a dress at court, where nothing was admitted to damp the pleasures of it.
K&D, "Est_4:2
And came even before the king's gate, i.e., according to Est_4:6, the open space before
the entrance to the royal palace; for none might enter wearing mourning. ‫ּוא‬‫ב‬ ָ‫ל‬ ‫ין‬ ֵ‫,א‬ there
is no entering, i.e., none may enter; comp. Ewald, §321, c.
BE SO , "Esther 4:2. And came even before the king’s gate — That his cry might
come to the ears of Esther: for none might enter into the king’s gate clothed with
sackcloth — He durst not take his place in the gate, nor sit there as he had hitherto
done, because none that were in mourning might come thither, lest it should give the

king any occasion of grief and trouble. But what availed to keep out the badges of
sorrow, unless they could have kept out the causes of sorrow too? To forbid
sackcloth to enter, unless they could likewise forbid sickness, and trouble, and
death?
TRAPP, "Esther 4:2 And came even before the king’s gate: for none [might] enter
into the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth.
Ver. 2. And came even before the king’s gate] Which should have been always open
to poor petitioners (as the gate of the Roman Aedilis was), but was now shut against
such mourners as Mordecai. A night cap was an ill sight at Court; jolly spirits
cannot endure sadness; so great enemies they are to it, that they banish all
seriousness; like as the icopolites so hated the braying of an ass, that for that cause
they would not abide to hear the sound of a trumpet.
For none might enter into the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth] Behold, they that
wear softs are in king’s houses, Matthew 11:8, and those that are altogether set upon
the merry pin. Jannes and Jambres, those magicians, are gracious with Pharaoh
when Moses and Aaron are frowned upon. Baal’s prophets are fed at Jezebel’s table
when Elias is almost pined in the desert. The dancing damsel trippeth on the toe,
Wρχησατο, Matthew 14:6, and triumpheth in Herod’s hall, when the rough coated
Baptist lieth in cold irons; and Christ’s company there is neither cared for, nor
called for, unless it be to show tricks, and do miracles for a pastime, Luke 23:8. The
kings and courtiers of Persia must see no sad sight, lest their mirth should be
marred, and themselves surprised with heaviness and horror. But if mourners might
not be suffered to come to court, why did those proud princes so seclude up
themselves, and not appear abroad for the relief of the poor oppressed? How much
better the modern kings of Persia, whom I have seen, saith a certain traveller, to
alight from their horses, to do justice to a poor body! How much better the Great
Turk, who, whensoever he goeth forth by land, doth always ride on horseback, upon
the Friday especially, which is their Sabbath, when he goeth to the temple. At which
times they that go along by his stirrup have charge to take all petitions that are
preferred to his Majesty, and many poor men, who dare not presume by reason of
their ragged apparel to approach near, stand afar off with fire upon their heads,
holding up their petitions in their hands; the which the Grand Signor seeing, who
never despiseth, but rather encourageth the poor, sends immediately to take the
petitions, and being returned home into his seraglio, harem and reads them all, and
then gives order for redress as he thinks fit. By reason of which complaints, the king
ofttimes taketh occasion suddenly to punish his greatest officers, either with death
or loss of place, which maketh the bashaws and other great officers that they care
not how seldom the Grand Signor stirs abroad in public, for fear lest in that manner
their bribery and injustice should come to his ears. It is probable that Haman had
got this also to be decreed, that none should enter into the king’s gate clothed in
sackcloth; lest passion might be moved thereby in any of the courtiers, or that be a
means to make a complaint to the king of his cruelty.
EXPOSITOR'S DICTIO ARY, " ot Afraid of Sackcloth

Esther 4:2; 2 Corinthians 3:12
In the book of Esther 4:2, we read, " one might enter into the king"s gate clothed
with sackcloth". St. Paul in his Second Epistle to the Corinthians3:12 says, "Seeing
then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech". In the first text we
read of a refusal to face the facts of life, the hard and painful facts—" one might
enter into the king"s gate clothed in sackcloth". In the second we read of an
unflinching sincerity of vision, and of a sincerity which does not flinch because it is
armed by a great hope—"Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great
plainness of speech".
There are three ways in which we may deal with the harder things of life. First of
all, we may take the way of the Eastern King and resolve not to see them, to bar the
door against them, to act as if they did not exist. There is a second way. We may face
them without the Christian hope. There is a third way. We may face them with the
Christian hope, and that is the true and only wisdom. Let us dwell for a moment on
those three ways or methods.
I. We may close the eyes and ears, and say that we will not look upon the things that
affright and affront us. " one might enter the king"s gate clothed in sackcloth." We
know what that leads to, that life lived in an unreal world, in a world of
imagination. We know what it has done in history through all the ages. We may
close the doors and curtain the windows and hide, as it were, our faces from misery,
but it is in vain. The flaring lights flicker, the storm outside begins to mutter and to
break, and the inexorable call comes, and we have to open our eyes and look out on
the woe and the wrong and the torture of this world, on all the wretchedness that is
rising against us to sweep us from our place. In other words, even the king cannot
keep his gate against the dark ministers of pain that insist upon an entrance, and
will force it at last.
II. We may look willingly or unwillingly at the facts of life without any hope in
Christ. I will not speak of those, and there are many, who look upon the agony of
the world simply to find in it the opportunity of new sensation. I wish to speak
rather of the hopeless, earnest, despairing outlook on the miseries of life. There are
those like the poet whose hearts become as
A nerve o"er which do creep
The else unfelt oppressions of the world.
They meditate upon sin and grief and death, upon the vast sum of human woe, upon
their little and slow means for diminishing it, till the heart spends itself in fierce and
hopeless throbs. The thought beats upon the brain like as on an anvil. Yet all
becomes at last so commonplace and so sad and so far beyond remedy. The waves of
mournful thought cannot be stemmed, but they flow in vain. The end is at best a
quiet misery.

III. We come to the one wise way of facing the problems and the agonies of life
without flinching and without fear. We may face them so as possessors of the
Christian hope, and in no other way—"Seeing then we have such hope, we use great
plainness of speech".
St. Paul has been speaking of the comparative dimness of the Mosaic ministry. That
ministry had passages of glory, but the glory was transitory and faded away. It was
shone down by the everlasting splendour of the new ministry of Christ. In Christ the
veil was taken away, and taken away for ever. There was a veil on the face of Moses:
there is no veil on the face of Jesus. It is as if the eyes that sought each other with
such desire burned the screen that parted them. Song of Solomon , said the Apostle,
since we live in light, we speak in light. We declare every truth of the Gospel, we
make every claim for our ministry. The future glory will make all our words good.
We are not afraid to look on the hostile elements of life and call them by their true
names. We need no disguise, no euphemism, no softening. We use great boldness of
speech, and are not afraid. Christianity, be it remembered, is the only religion that
has fairly measured itself with sin and grief and death. It has undertaken at last to
subdue them completely. It recognizes the sternness of the battle; it confesses that
the foes are terrible foes. It has no hope save in the might of Christ Who is
conquering and to conquer, but in Him it reposes an unshaken and absolute and
inviolable trust.
" one might enter the king"s gate clothed in sackcloth," but Christ our King offers
His welcome and His heart to those who are clothed in sackcloth, who are weary
and heavy-laden. The heart is heavy—
To think that each new week will yield
ew struggles in new battlefield.
But if He is with us in the fight, everything will be changed. Said St. Paul once, "I
will abide and winter with you". He has promised to be with us to the end of the
world, and He will winter with us through the dark, cold years until the winter
ends, until we pass from the turmoil of this world to the peace of that.
—W. Robertson icoll, The Lamp of Sacrifice, p37.
The Transfigured Sackcloth
Esther 4:2
Christianity is sometimes scouted as "the religion of sorrow," and many amongst us
are ready to avow that the Persian forbidding the sackcloth is more to their taste
than the Egyptian or the Christian dragging the corpse through the banquet: but we
confidently contend that the recognition by Christ of the morbid phases of human
life is altogether wise and gracious.

I. We consider, first, the recognition by revelation of sin. Sackcloth is the outward
and visible sign of sin, guilt and misery. How men shut their eyes to this most
terrible reality—coolly ignoring, skilfully veiling, emphatically denying it! What is
popularly called sin these philosophers call error, accident, inexperience, indecision,
misdirection, imperfection, disharmony; but they will not allow the presence in the
human heart of a malign force, which asserts itself against God, and against the
order of His universe. The sackcloth must not mar our shallow happiness,
nevertheless sin thrusts itself upon our attention. The greatest thinkers in all ages
have been constrained to recognize its presence and power. The creeds of all nations
declare the fact that men everywhere feel the bitter working and intolerable burden
of conscience. Sin was the burden of the life of Christ because it is the burden of our
life. Christ has done more than insist on the reality. The odiousness, the
ominousness of sin. He has laid bare its principle and essence—not in the spirit of a
barren cynicism does Christ lay bare the ghastly wound of our nature but as a noble
physician who can purge the mortal virus which destroys us.
II. We consider the recognition by revelation of sorrow. Sackcloth is the raiment of
sorrow, and as such it was interdicted by the Persian monarch. We still follow the
same insane course, minimizing, despising, masking, denying, suffering.
evertheless suffering is a stern fact that will not long permit us to sleep. A man
may carry many hallucinations with him to the grave, but a belief in the unreality of
pain is hardly likely to be one of them. Reason as we may, suppress the disagreeable
truths of life as we may, suffering will find us out, and pierce us to the heart. Christ
gives us the noblest example of suffering. He himself was preeminently a man of
sorrows; He exhausted all forms of suffering, touching life at every point, at every
point He bled, and in Him we learn how to sustain our burden and to triumph
throughout all tragedy.
III. We consider the recognition by revelation of death. We have again adroit ways
of shutting the gate upon their sackcloth which is the sign of death. Walt Whitman
tells us "That nothing can happen more beautiful than death". And he has
expressed the humanist view of mortality in a hymn which his admirers regard as
the high-water mark of modern poetry. But will this rhapsody bear thinking about?
Is death "delicate," "lovely and soothing," "delicious," coming to us with
"serenades". Do we go forth to meet death "with dances and chants of fullest
welcome?" It is vain to hide the direct fact of all under metaphors and rhetorical
artifice. Without evasion or euphony Christ recognizes the sombre mystery. He
shows us that death as we know it is an unnatural thing, that it is the fruit of
disobedience, and by giving us purity and peace He gives us eternal life.
—W. L. Watkinson, The Transfigured Sackcloth, p3.
BI, "Clothed with sackcloth.
The transfigured sackcloth
The sign of affliction was thus excluded from the Persian court that royalty might not be

discomposed. This disposition to place an interdict on disagreeable and painful things
still survives. Men of all ranks and conditions hide from themselves the dark facts of life.
Revelation, however, lends no sanction to this habit. We wish to show the entire
reasonableness of revelation in its frank recognition of the dark facts of existence.
I. we consider first the recognition by revelation of sin. Sackcloth is the outward and
visible sign of sin, guilt, and misery. What is popularly called sin, certain philosophers
call error, accident, inexperience, imperfection, disharmony, but they will not allow the
presence in the human heart of a malign force which asserts itself against God and
against the order of His universe. Intellectual masters like Emerson and Renan ignore
conscience; they refuse to acknowledge the selfishness, baseness, and cruelty of society.
Men generally are willing to dupe themselves touching the fact and power of sin. We do
not unshrinkingly acquaint ourselves with the malady of the spirit as we should with any
malady hinting itself in the flesh. The sackcloth must not mar our shallow happiness. In
the vision of beautiful things we forget the troubles of conscience as the first sinners hid
themselves amid the leaves and flowers of paradise; in fashion and splendour we forget
our guilty sorrow, as mediaeval mourners sometimes concealed the cerements with
raiment of purple and gold; in the noises of the world we become oblivious of the
interior discords, as soldiers forget their wounds amid the stir and trumpets of the
battle. Nevertheless sin thrusts itself upon our attention. The creeds of all nations
declare the fact that men everywhere feel the bitter working and intolerable burden of
conscience. The sense of sin has persisted through changing generations. The sackcloth
is ours, and it eats our spirits like fire. More than any other teacher, Christ emphasised
the actuality and awfulness of sin; more than any other He has intensified the world’s
consciousness of sin. He never sought to relieve us of the sackcloth by asserting our
comparative innocence; He never attempted to work into that melancholy robe one
thread of colour, to relieve it with one solitary spangle of rhetoric. He laid bare its
principle and essence. The South Sea Islanders have a singular tradition to account for
the existence of the dew. The legend states that in the beginning the earth touched the
sky, that being the golden age when all was beautiful and glad; then some dreadful
tragedy occurred, the primal unity was broken up, the earth and sky were torn asunder
as we see them now, and the dew-drops of the morning are the tears that nature sheds
over the sad divorce. This wild fable is a metaphor of the truth, the beginning of all evil
lies in the alienation of the spirit of man from God, in the divorce of earth from heaven;
here is the final reason why the face of humanity is wet with tears. Instead of shutting
out the signs of woe, Christ arrayed Himself in the sackcloth, becoming sin for us who
knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. We have
redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins; He establishes us in a true
relation to the holy God; He restores in us the image of God; He fills us with the peace of
God. Not in the spirit of barren cynicism does Christ lay bare the ghastly wound of our
nature, but as a noble physician who can purge the mortal virus that destroys` us. We go
to Him in sackcloth, but we leave His presence in purity’s robe of snow, in the heavenly
blue of the holiness of truth.
II. We consider the recognition by revelation of sorrow. Sackcloth is the raiment of
sorrow, and as such it was interdicted by the Persian monarch. We still follow the same
insane course, minimising, denying suffering. Society sometimes attempts this.
Literature sometimes follows the same cue. Goethe made it one of the rules of his life to
avoid everything that could suggest painful ideas. Art has yielded to the same
temptation. Most of us are inclined to the sorry trick of gliding over painful things.
When the physician prescribed blisters to Marie Bashkirtseff to check her consumptive
tendency, the vain, cynical girl wrote: “I will put on as many blisters as they like. I shall

be able to hide the mark by bodices trimmed with flowers and lace and tulle, and a
thousand other things that are worn, without being required; it may even look pretty.
Ah! I am comforted.” The real secret of the power of many of the fashions and diversions
of the world is found in the fact that they hide disagreeable things, and render men
oblivious for awhile of the mystery and weight of an unintelligible world. There is no
screen to shut off permanently the spectacle of suffering. When Marie Antoinette passed
to her bridal in Paris, the halt, the lame, and the blind were sedulously kept out of her
way, lest their appearance should mar the joyousness of her reception; but ere long the
poor queen had a very close view of misery’s children, and she drank to the dregs the cup
of life’s bitterness. Reason as we may, suffering will find us out, and pierce us to the
heart. We will not have the philosophy that ignores suffering; witness the popularity of
Schopenhaur. We resent the art that ignores sorrow. The most popular picture in the
world to-day is the “Angelus” of Millet. We will not have the literature that ignores
suffering. Classic religions had little or nothing to do with the sorrows of the million; the
gods reigned on Mount Olympus, taking little note of the grief of mortals. Christianity
boldly recognises the sad element in human nature. Christ makes clear to us the origin of
suffering. He shows that its genesis is in the error of the human will; but if suffering
originate in the error of the human will, it ceases at once if the erring will be brought into
correspondence with the primitive order of the universe. Christ has power to establish
this harmony. Dealing with sin, He dries up the stream of sorrow at its fountain. By the
authority of that word that speaks the forgiveness of our sin, He wipes away all tears
from the face of such as obey Him. Christ gives us the noblest example of suffering. So
far from shutting His gate on the sackcloth, once more He adopted it, and showed how it
might become a robe of glory. Poison is said to be extracted from the rattlesnake for
medicinal purposes; but infinitely more wonderful is the fact that the suffering which
comes out of sin counterworks sin, and brings to pass the transfiguration of the sufferer.
It is a clumsy mistake to call Christianity a religion of sorrow—it is a religion for sorrow.
III. We consider the recognition by revelation of death. We have, again, adroit ways of
shutting the gate upon that sackcloth which is the sign of death. Some would have us
believe that through the scientific and philosophic developments of later centuries the
sombre way of viewing death has become obsolete. The fact, however, still remains, that
death is the crowning evil, the absolute bankruptcy, the final defeat, the endless exile. If
we are foolish enough to shut the gate on the thought of death, by no stratagem can we
shut the gate upon death itself. Christ displays the fact, the power, the terror of death
without reserve or softening. He shows that death is unnatural, that it is the fruit of
disobedience, and by giving us purity and peace He gives us eternal life. He
demonstrates immortality by raising us from the death of sin to the life of righteousness.
Here is the supreme proof of immortality: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that
believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall
he do, because I go unto the Father.” The moral works are the greater works. If Christ
has raised us from the death of sin, why should we think it a thing incredible that God
should raise the dead? If He has wrought the greater, He will not fail with the less. Christ
bringing life and immortality to light has brought about the great change in the point of
view from which we regard death, the point of view which is full of consolation and
hope. Once more, by boldly adopting the sackcloth Christ has changed it into a robe of
light. We cannot escape the evils of life. Wearing wreaths of roses, our heads will still
ache. “The king sighs as often as the peasant”; this proverb anticipates the fact that those
who participate in the richest civilisation that will ever flower will sigh as men sigh now.
Esther “sent raiment to clothe Mordecai, and to take his sackcloth from him, but he
received it not.” In vain men offer us robes of beauty, chiding us for wearing the robes of

night; we must give place to all the sad thoughts of our mortality until we find a salvation
that goes to the root of our suffering, that dries up the fount of our tears. Christianity
gives such large recognition to the pathetic element of life, because it divines the secret
of our mighty misfortune, and brings with it the sovereign antidote. The critics declare
Rubens had an absolute delight in representing pain, and they refer us to his picture of
the “Brazen Serpent.” The writhing, gasping crowd is everything, and the supreme
instrument of cure, the brazen serpent itself, is small and obscure, no conspicuous
feature whatever of the picture. Revelation brings out broadly and impressively the
darkness of the world, the malady of life, the terror of death, only that it may evermore
make conspicuous the uplifted Cross, which, once seen, is death to every vice, a
consolation in every sorrow, a victory over every fear. (W. L. Watkinson.)
Sorrow may be transfigured
Science tells how the bird-music has arisen out of the bird’s cry of distress in the
morning of time; how originally the music of field and forest was nothing more than an
exclamation caused by the bird’s bodily pain and fear, and how through the ages the
primal note of anguish has been evolved and differentiated until it has risen into the
ecstasy of the lark, melted into the silver note of the dove, swelled into the rapture of the
nightingale, unfolded into the vast and varied music of the sky and the summer. So
Christ shows that out of the personal sorrow which now rends the believer’s heart, he
shall arise in moral and infinite perfection; that out of the cry of anguish wrung from us
by the present distress shall spring the supreme music of the future. (W. L. Watkinson.)
Esther 4:2
For none might enter into the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth.
Death must be encountered
Since the last enemy must be encountered by the greatest as well as the least of our race,
is it not far better to be prepared for meeting him, than to banish him from our
thoughts? (G. Lawson.)
Death a visitor that cannot be stopped at the gate
And is Death included in this prohibition? Have you given orders to your porters and
guards to stop this visitor at the gate, and to say to him, “Hitherto shalt thou come, but
no further”? Or will they be able to persuade him, and his train of ghastly attendants,
gout, fever, consumption, and other diseases, to lay aside their sable dress, together with
their darts and spears and scorpions? (T. McCrie.)
We cannot keep trouble from our hearts by banishing the signs of mourning
from our dwellings
It is the height of folly, therefore, for us to try to surround ourselves with the appearance
of security, and make believe that no change can come upon us. That is to do like the

ostrich, which buries its head in the sand, and thinks itself safe from its pursuers
because it can no longer see them. Trouble, sorrow, trial, death are inevitable, and the
wise course is to prepare to meet them. We cannot shut our homes against these things;
but we can open them to Christ, and when He enters He says, “My grace is sufficient for
thee; My strength is made perfect in weakness.” (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)
3 In every province to which the edict and order
of the king came, there was great mourning
among the Jews, with fasting, weeping and
wailing. Many lay in sackcloth and ashes.
CLARKE, "Fasting, and weeping, and wailing - How astonishing, that in all this
there is not the slightest intimation given of praying to God!
GILL, "And in every province whithersoever the king's commandment and
his decree came,.... For destroying the Jews on such a day, in every place where they
were to be found:
there was great mourning among the Jews, and weeping, and wailing; which
continued all day:
and many lay in sackcloth and ashes: all night; made use of no other bed to lie on,
nor clothes to cover them with.
K&D, "Est_4:3
Also in every province whither the king's decree arrived, there arose a great mourning
among the Jews. ‫ר‬ ֶ‫שׁ‬ ֲ‫א‬ ‫ּום‬‫ק‬ ְ‫מ‬ is an adverbial accusat. loci in apposition to ‫ה‬ָ‫ינ‬ ִ‫ד‬ ְ‫ל־מ‬ ָ‫כ‬ ְ : in every
place to which the word of the king and his decree reached, i.e., arrived. “Sackcloth and
ashes were spread for many,” i.e., many sat in hairy garments upon the earth, where
ashes had been spread; comp. Isa_58:5. The meaning is: All the Jews broke out into
mourning, weeping, and lamentation, while many manifested their grief in the manner
above described.

BI, "And in every province . . . there was great mourning among the Jews.
A sentence of death
If a sentence of death pronounced by an earthly sovereign produced such grief, such
anxiety, such cries of deliverance, what impression ought to be made on the minds of
sinners by that sentence which is passed against them in the court of heaven?—
“Judgment is come upon all men to condemnation.” We are still under that sentence of
condemnation if we are not in Christ Jesus. Surely we believe neither law nor gospel, if
we can enjoy peace in our own minds, without the humble hope of mercy through our
Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. (G. Lawson.)
BE SO , "Esther 4:3. And many lay in sackcloth and ashes — All day long they
fasted, and wept, and lamented; and in the night many lay, not in their beds, but in
sack or haircloth strewed with ashes.
TRAPP, "Esther 4:3 And in every province, whithersoever the king’s
commandment and his decree came, [there was] great mourning among the Jews,
and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.
Ver. 3. And in every province] Heb. In every province, and province, &c., not only
in Shushan, which, say the Hebrews, was called Elam Hammedina, but throughout
the king’s dominions.
Whithersoever the king’s commandment and his decree] The latter was irrevocable,
and therefore more dreadful.
There was great mourning among the Jews] ot murmuring or mutinying, or
meditating revenge against the king and Haman. ot casting away their confidence
in God, or committing all to fate and blind fortune. ot crying out of religion, as
unhappy, to the professors, ( ω τληµων αρετη, said he in the story. Oh miserable
virtue! Oh practice of no profit! &c., Brutus apud Dion). ot taking up arms or
betaking themselves to flight; (how should poor galley slaves at this day flee out of
the middle of Turkey?) prayers and tears were the weapons of these condemned
captives and prisoners. It troubled them exceedingly (as well it might), that through
fearfulness and negligence they had not, before this, gone back to their own country,
with Zerubbabel or some other, when they had good leave to have gone with their
brethren; and God himself cried out unto them, "Ho, ho, come forth," &c.,
Zechariah 2:6. "Arise, depart; this is not your rest: because it is polluted, it shall
destroy you, even with a sore destruction," Micah 2:10. This was now a bodkin at
their hearts; like as it shall be one day to those in hell, to think, we might have been
delivered.
And fasting] The word signifieth an abstinence from food and sustenance, either a
toto, totally, as 2 Samuel 12:16, or at least a tanto eta tali, partially, as Daniel 10:2-3.
Hence, it is called a day of restraint, ηστεια, Joel 2:15. Hence, Zechariah 8:19, they

separated themselves, viz. from work, food, and delights, for the furtherance of their
repentance, and the enforcing of their prayers. Preces nobis ieiuniis alendum, et
quasi saginandum, saith one, our prayers must be pampered and grain fed with
fasting. A practice in use, not among Jews and Christians only, but among Egyptian
priests, Persian magi, and Indian wizards of old, and Turks to this day when they
are in any great fear of pressure.
And weeping, and wailing] This was the way to get in with God, though they might
not come crying to the court. Oh the divine rhetoric and omnipotent efficacy of
penitent tears! Psalms 6:8, Weeping hath a voice. Christ turned to the weeping
women, when going to his cross, and comforted them. He showed great respects to
Mary Magdalene, that weeping vine; she had the first sight of the revived Phoenix
(though so bleared that she could scarce discern him), and held him fast by those
feet which she had once washed with her tears, and wherewith he had lately trod
upon the lion and adder, Psalms 91:13.
And many lay in sackcloth and ashes] As many as were more deeply affected with
their sins, and the sad consequents thereof. David lay on the bare ground,
χαµαικοιτης, 2 Samuel 12:16; these, and those Joel 1:13, lodged in sackcloth and
ashes, that they might watch as well as fast. See how they go linked together, Mark
13:33. See Esther 4:16.
LA GE, "Esther 4:3. Many other Jews also mourned. The sorrow was general.
Despite the elevation of Esther her people now had everywhere only distress and
grief, instead of honor and joy. It seems as if the author would here describe how
the Jews were treated contrary to what one would naturally expect after the
elevation of Esther. He would here, doubtless, also give prominence to the
remarkable mode which Mordecai adopted to secure the attention of Esther.
Further in Esther 4:3 he would show us how pressing was the need of every possible
endeavor for their preservation. And in every province, whithersoever the king’s
commandment and his decree came, etc.—‫ְקוֹם‬‫מ‬ is the Accusative of place found in
stat. constr. before ‫ר‬ֶ‫שׁ‬ֲ‫,א‬ as in Esther 8:17; Ecclesiastes 11:3; comp. Leviticus 4:24
‫ר‬ֶ‫שּׁ‬ֲ‫א‬ ‫ְקוֹם‬‫מ‬ִ‫בּ‬. And many lay in sackcloth and ashes.—While all gave vent to their
distress and tears, many manifested their sorrow by putting on sackcloth and sitting
in ashes (comp. Isaiah 58:5).
4 When Esther’s eunuchs and female attendants
came and told her about Mordecai, she was in
great distress. She sent clothes for him to put on

instead of his sackcloth, but he would not accept
them.
BAR ES, "Esther’s maids ... told it her - Esther’s nationality and her
relationship to Mordecai were probably by this time known to her attendants, though
still concealed from the king. See Est_7:4.
CLARKE, "Sent raiment - She supposed that he must have been spoiled of his
raiment by some means; and therefore sent him clothing.
GILL, "So Esther's maids and her chamberlains came and told it her,.... Her
maids of honour and eunuchs that attended her, which they might tell her merely as a
piece of news, there being something shocking in it to tender minds; or perhaps nothing
more than that Mordecai was in sackcloth; and they might have observed, by some
incident or another, that there was some connection between Mordecai and Esther, and
that she had a peculiar respect for him:
then was the queen exceedingly grieved; even though she might not know the
whole of the matter; but perceiving whatever it was it greatly affected Mordecai, with
whom she sympathized:
and she sent raiment to clothe Mordecai, and to take away his sackcloth
from him; that so he might appear at court, and she get better intelligence of the cause
of all this:
but he received it not; refusing to be comforted, or appear cheerful under such
melancholy circumstances.
JAMISO , "Then was the queen ... grieved; and ... sent raiment to ...
Mordecai — Her object in doing so was either to qualify him for resuming his former
office, or else, perhaps, of fitting him to come near enough to the palace to inform her of
the cause of such sudden and extreme distress.
K&D, "The matter was made known to Esther by her maids and eunuchs, i.e., by her
attendants. The Chethiv ‫ה‬ָ‫ינ‬ ֶ‫ּוא‬‫ב‬ ְ does not elsewhere occur after ‫ו‬ consecutive, hence the
substitution of the Keri ‫ה‬ָ‫ּואנ‬‫ב‬ ָ . The object of ‫ידוּ‬ִ ַ‫:י‬ what they told her, is evidently, from
what follows, the circumstance of Mordochai's appearance in deep mourning before the
gate of the palace. On receiving this information the queen fell into convulsive grief

(‫ל‬ ַ‫ח‬ ְ‫ל‬ ַ‫תח‬ ִ , an intensive form of ‫,חוּל‬ to be seized with painful grief), and sent to Mordochai
raiment to put on instead of his sackcloth, evidently for the purpose of enabling him to
enter the palace and give her the particulars of what had happened. But Mordochai did
not accept the raiment.
BI, "Then was the queen exceedingly grieved; and she sent raiment.
Sorrow net superficially removed
Esther, in her elevation, and in her separation from her friends, was far from forgetting
them. She was deeply afflicted when she heard of the mourning habit and sore affliction
of Mordecai. She was vexed that he should appear at the king’s gate in a dress in which
he could not enter it, and therefore sent to him change of raiment. But she knew not the
sources of his distress. Grief so firmly rooted, and so well founded, could not be removed
without a removal of its cause. (G. Lawson.)
BE SO , "Esther 4:4. So Esther’s maids came and told it her — amely, that
Mordecai appeared before the king’s gate in sackcloth. Then was the queen
exceedingly grieved — Imagining some mischief had befallen him, and not yet
knowing what it was; and she sent raiment to clothe Mordecai — That so he might
be capable of returning to his former place, if not of coming to acquaint her with the
cause of his sorrow. But he received it not — Which, no doubt, very much increased
her grief and surprise.
COFFMA , "Verse 4
ESTHER THE QUEE GETS A FULL REPORT FROM MORDECAI
"And Esther's maidens and her chamberlains came and tom it her; and the queen
was exceedingly grieved; and she sent raiment to clothe Mordecai, and to take his
sackcloth from off him; but he received it not. Then called Esther for Hathach, one
of the king's chamberlains, whom he had appointed, to attend upon her, and
charged him to go to Mordecai, to know what this was, and why it was. So Hathach
went forth to Mordecai in the broad place of the city, which was before the king's
gate, And Mordecai told him all that had happened to him, and the exact sum of the
money, that Haman had promised to pay to the king's treasuries for the Jews, to
destroy them. Also he gave him the copy of the writing of the decree that was given
out in Shushan to destroy them, and to show it unto Esther, and to declare it unto
her, and to charge her that she should go in unto the king, to make supplication
unto him, and to make request before him, for her people."
"Esther sent raiment to clothe Mordecai ... but he received it not" (Esther 4:4).
"Mordecai's refusal to accept the clothing was evidence to Esther that his actions
were not caused by personal sorrow, but by an unusually dire public caalamity."[4]
"The exact sum of money that Haman agreed to pay" (Esther 4:7). Throughout the
Book of Esther, it is evident that Mordecai had access to any information that he

requested; and this mention of that ten thousand talents of silver Haman agreed to
pay the king indicates, that regardless of the king's seeming refusal of it, that it
became finally a binding part of the agreement. "The most natural interpretation of
this is that the king's acceptance of the blood money was part of the transaction."[5]
"The copy" (Esther 4:8). "A copy is the way this reads in the Hebrew, which is
correct. Mordecai had made a copy in order to send it to Esther."[6]
"To declare it unto her" (Esther 4:8). This means that Hathach was probably
intended to read it to the queen; she might not have known the Persian language.
"Charge her ... to make request, for her people" (Esther 4:8). This means that
Hathach, at least, and probably all of Esther's maidens and servants knew that she
was a Jewess. Even if she had not told it to them, they would soon have known it
through her concern for and interest in Mordecai. The king, however, probably did
not learn of it until Esther told him.
TRAPP, "Esther 4:4 So Esther’s maids and her chamberlains came and told [it] her.
Then was the queen exceedingly grieved; and she sent raiment to clothe Mordecai,
and to take away his sackcloth from him: but he received [it] not.
Ver. 4. So Esther’s maids came and told it her] She herself (say interpreters) was
kept in a closer place than they, not having the liberty of going abroad, as others
had; because the Persians that were of highest quality used so to keep in their wives;
and if they went forth at any time, they were carried in a close chariot, so as that
none could see them.
Then was the queen exceedingly grieved] Dolens exhorruit. So Tremellius. The
Hebrew is, She grieved herself, scil. for Mordecai’s heaviness; as our Saviour, when
he heard of the death of his friend Lazarus, groaned in spirit, and troubled himself,
John 11:33. And here we see that of Plautus disproved,
Mulier nulla cordicitus dolet ex animo,
that is, o woman can grieve heartily for anything. Holy Esther is here sick at heart
of grief, as the word importeth; and yet (as one saith of the Lady Jane Grey) she
made grief itself amiable; her night clothes becoming her as well as her day
dressings, by reason of her gracious deportment.
And she sent raiment to clothe Mordecai] That he might be fit to come unto her, and
make known the cause of his grief, for she yet knew nothing of the public calamity.
And although she was so highly advanced above Mordecai, yet she condoleth with
him, and honoureth him as much as ever. This was true friendship. Ego aliter amare
non didici, said Basil, to one that disliked him for stooping so low to an old friend.

And to take away his sackcloth, &c.] To change his saccum in sericum, sackcloth
into satin, &c. See Esther 4:2.
But he received it not] Such was the greatness of his grief which he could not
dissemble; such was his care of community, that he could not mind his own private
concerns while it went ill with the public. Such also was his patient continuance in
well doing, Romans 2:7, that he would not give over asking of God till he had
received, seeking till he had found, knocking till the gate of grace was open. His
clothes were good enough, unless his condition were more comfortable.
WHEDO , "4. Told it her — Told her of the grief of Mordecai and the Jews, but
they seem not to have told her its cause.
Grieved — She was grieved to learn of her cousin’s miserable appearance and bitter
mourning.
She sent raiment — Hoping to remove his sorrow, and to take away his reproach,
for his sackcloth exposed him to the derision of the courtiers.
He received it not — His sorrow was too deep to be thus removed.
CO STABLE, "A. Mordecai"s Instruction4:4-17
Mordecai"s mourning may have been the only thing that disturbed Esther. She may
have known nothing about the decree. On the other hand, she may have known of
both, and concluded that since the king did not know that she was a Jewess, she
would be safe ( Esther 4:13). However, Mordecai implied that Hathach knew she
was a Jewess ( Esther 4:13, cf. Esther 4:9), and probably others did as well.
Several students of Esther have pointed out that Mordecai does not come across in
this book as a very "spiritual" person. [ ote: E.g, Martin, p707.] In Esther 4:14, for
example, he made no direct reference to God that would certainly have been natural
(cf. ehemiah"s frequent prayers). evertheless, he did believe that God would
preserve His people and punish their enemies ( Genesis 12:3). He also concluded
that if Esther remained silent she would die. Mordecai saw God"s hand behind the
human agent of her threatened destruction, who was probably the king (cf. Genesis
50:20).
Mordecai"s question in Esther 4:14 is the main basis for the view that the doctrine
of providence is the key to understanding the Book of Esther.
"The book implies that even when God"s people are far from him and disobedient,
they are still the object of his concern and love, and that he is working out his
purposes through them ..." [ ote: Huey, p794.]

Mordecai perceived Esther"s moment of destiny.
"Mordecai is not postulating that deliverance will arise for the Jews from some
mysterious, unexpressed source. Rather, by affirming that Esther is the only
possible source of deliverance for the Jews, he is attempting to motivate her to act."
[ ote: Bush, p397.]
"The promises of God, the justice of God, and the providence of God shine
brilliantly through the entire crisis, so that the mere omission of His name obscures
nothing of His identity, attributes, and purposes for His chosen people and for the
entire world of mankind." [ ote: Whitcomb, p79.]
"Without explicitly spelling out in detail how he came to his convictions, Mordecai
reveals that he believes in God, in God"s guidance of individual lives, and in God"s
ordering of the world"s political events, irrespective of whether those who seem to
have the power acknowledge him or not." [ ote: Baldwin, p80.]
"Though God chooses to use people, He is by no means dependent on them. Many
believers act as though they are indispensable to the Lord"s purposes, and if they
refuse to do His bidding God"s work will grind to a halt. Mordecai"s challenge to
Esther must be heard and heeded. Our sovereign God will accomplish all His
objectives with or without us. He calls us not out of His need for us but for our need
to find fulfillment in serving Him." [ ote: Merrill, in The Old . . ., p370.]
Evidently there was a fairly large population of Jews in Susa ( Esther 4:16; cf.
Esther 9:15). Again there is no mention of prayer, though some of the Jews may
have prayed because they faced serious danger. [ ote: Baldwin, pp81-85 , gave a
helpful discussion of fasting.]
"Like all human beings, Esther was not without flaw; but certainly our heroine
should be judged more by the brave act she performs than by the natural fears she
had to fight against. The rash man acts without fear; the brave Prayer of Manasseh
, in spite of it." [ ote: Moore, Esther , p53.]
Esther"s words, "If I perish, I perish," ( Esther 4:16) seem more like words of
courageous determination [ ote: David J. A. Clines, Ezra ,, ehemiah ,, Esther ,
p303; Bush, p400.] than an expression of resignation to the inevitable (cf. Genesis
43:14). [ ote: Paton, p226.]
"Just as Esther"s fast and Jesus" humiliation (tapeinosis, Philippians 2:8)
commenced on the same date, so too Esther"s three-day period of fasting parallels
the three-day period of Jesus" death." [ ote: Michael G. Wechsler, "Shadow and
Fulfillment in the Book of Esther ," Bibliotheca Sacra154:615 (July-
September1997):281.]
If the Jews did indeed fast for three days, as Esther requested, they would not have

been able to celebrate the Passover, which their Law commanded ( Exodus 12), since
their fasting would have begun on the eve of Passover. [ ote: David J. A. Clines,
The Esther Scroll: The Story of the Story, pp36-37.]
LA GE, "Esther 4:4. The first object that Mordecai gained by his public grief was
that he drew the attention of Esther’s women-servants and eunuchs, i. e., such as
were assigned her for her exclusive service (comp. Esther 2:9), and they gave notice
to the queen. Though they had not as yet discovered the nationality of Esther, still
they became aware of Esther’s relation to Mordecai, who on his part was very
diligent in his inquiries concerning her. Hence they delayed not to inform the queen
of all that they know of him. Following the Kethib we should read ‫ָה‬‫נ‬‫י‬ֶ‫בוֹא‬ְ‫ַתּ‬‫ו‬. As this
prolonged form of the word does not usually occur after a Vav. cons., the Keri has
the form ‫ָה‬‫נ‬‫בוֹא‬ָ‫ַתּ‬‫ו‬. The object of ‫ִידוּ‬‫גּ‬ָ‫י‬ is found in what follows: the present appearance
of Mordecai in mourning garments was not the cause (comp. Esther 4:5); but this
was enough to give her considerable anxiety. ‫ַל‬‫ח‬ְ‫ל‬ַ‫ה‬ְ‫ת‬ִ‫ַתּ‬‫ו‬, a passive intensive from ‫,חוּל‬
they were seized as with pains of delivery. She sent clothes to her guardian, that he
might put them on, doubtless, that thereby he might again stand in the gate of the
king, and so relate to her the cause of his grief. But he refused them, not only
because he would wear no other than garments of mourning, but because he desired
a private opportunity to communicate with her.
PULPIT, "Esther 4:4-17
GRIEF OF ESTHER. HER COMMU ICATIO S WITH MORDECAI. SHE
CO SE TS TO RISK MAKI G A APPEAL TO THE KI G (Esther 4:4-17).
Esther, in the seclusion of the harem, knew nothing of what the king and Haman
had determined on. o one in the palace suspected how vitally she was concerned in
the matter, since none knew that she was a Jewess, and state affairs are not
commonly discussed between an Oriental monarch and a young wife. It was known,
however, that she took an interest in Mordecai; and when that official was seen
outside the palace gate in his mourning garb, it was reported to the queen. ot being
aware why he grieved, but thinking that perhaps it was some light matter which he
took too much to heart, she sent him a change of raiment, and requested him to put
off his sackcloth. But Mordecai, without assigning any reason, refused (verse 4).
Esther upon this caused inquiry to be made of Mordecai concerning the reason of
his mourning, and in this way became acquainted with what had happened (verses
5-9). At the same time she found herself called on by Mordecai to incur a great
danger, since he requested her to go at once to the king, and to intercede with him
for her people (verse 8). In reply, the queen pointed out the extreme risk which she
would run in entering the royal presence uninvited, and the little chance that there
was of her receiving a summons, since she had not had one for thirty .days (verse
11). Mordecai, however, was inexorable. He reminded Esther that she herself was
threatened by the decree, and was not more likely to escape than any other Jew or
Jewess; declared his belief that, if she withheld her aid, deliverance would arise
from some other quarter; warned her that neglect of duty was apt to provoke a
heavy retribution, and suggested that she might have been raised to her queenly
dignity for the express purpose of her being thus able to save her nation (verses 13,

Esther 4 commentary

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (19)

Similar to Esther 4 commentary

Similar to Esther 4 commentary (20)

More from GLENN PEASE

More from GLENN PEASE (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Esther 4 commentary