Mordecai Honored: King Rewards Loyal Subject

ESTHER 6 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
Mordecai Honored
1 That night the king could not sleep; so he
ordered the book of the chronicles, the record of
his reign, to be brought in and read to him.
CLARKE, "On that night could not the king sleep - The Targum says the king
had a dream, which was as follows: - “And the king saw one in the similitude of a man
who spoke these words to him: Haman desireth to slay thee, and to make himself king in
thy stead. Behold, he will come unto thee early in the morning, to ask from thee the man
who rescued thee from death, that he may slay him: but say thou unto Haman, What
shall be done for the man whose honor the king studieth? And thou wilt find that he will
ask nothing less from thee than the royal vestments, the regal crown, and the horse on
which the king is wont to ride.”
The records of the chronicles - It may be well asked, Why should the king, in such
a perturbed state of mind, wish such a dry detail, as chronicles afford, to be read to him?
But the truth is, as chronicles were composed among the Persians, he could not have
brought before him any work more instructive, and more entertaining; because they
were all written in verse, and were generally the work of the most eminent poets in the
empire. They are written in this way to the present time; and the famous epic poem of
the finest Persian poet, Ferdusi, the Homer of India, is nothing else than a collection of
chronicles brought down from the creation to the reign of Mohammed Ghezny, in the
beginning of the tenth century. After thirty years’ labor, he finished this poem, which
contained one hundred and twenty thousand lines, and presented it to the Sultan
Mahmoud, who had promised to give him a dinar (eight shillings and sixpence) for every
line. The poem was finished a.d. 984; and was formed out of compositions of a similar
nature made by former poets. This chronological poem is written in all the harmony,
strength, and elegance of the most beautiful and harmonious language in the universe;
and what adds greatly to its worth is, that it has few Arabic words, with which the
beautiful Persian tongue was loaded, and in my opinion corrupted, after the conquest of
the major part of Asia by the Mohammedans. The pedants of Hindoostan, whether they
speak or write, in prose or in verse, affect this commixture of Arabic words; which,
though they subjugate them to Persian rules, are producing a ruggedness in a language,
which in Ferdusi, flows deep and strong like a river of oil over every kind of channel.
Such, I suppose, was the chronicle that was read to Ahasuerus, when his distractions

prevented his sleep, and his troubled mind required that soothing repose which the
gentle though powerful hand of poetry is alone, in such circumstances, capable of
affording. Even our rough English ancestors had their poetic chronicles; and, among
many, the chronicle of Robert of Gloucester is proof in point. I need not add, that all that
is real in Ossian is of the same complexion.
GILL, "On that night could not the king sleep,.... The night after he had been at
Esther's banquet, which it might be thought would rather have caused sleep; and
therefore Jarchi calls it a miracle; and no doubt it was owing to the overruling
providence of God, and not to anxious thoughts about his neglect of Esther so long, nor
what should be her request to him, nor jealousy of any amorous intrigue with Haman,
nor of any conspiracy of theirs against his life:
and he commanded to bring the book of records of the chronicles; the diaries
or journal, in which memorable facts were recorded; this he did to divert himself, and
pass away time; though here also the providence of God was specially concerned; for
otherwise he might have sent for any of his wives and concubines, or singing men and
women, to have diverted him:
and they were read before the king; until the morning, until it was time to rise, as
appears by what follows.
HE RY, "Now Satan put it into the heart of Haman to contrive Mordecai's death we
read in the foregoing chapter; how God put it into the heart of the king to contrive
Mordecai's honour we are here told. Now, if the king's word will prevail above Haman's
(for, though Haman be a great man, the king in the throne must be above him), much
more will the counsel of God stand, whatever devices there are in men's hearts. It is to
no purpose therefore for Haman to oppose it, when both God and the king will have
Mordecai honoured, and in this juncture too, when his preferment, and Haman's
disappointment, would help to ripen the great affair of the Jewish deliverance for the
effort that Esther was to make towards it the next day. Sometimes delay may prove to
have been good conduct. Stay awhile, and we may have done the sooner. Cunctando
restituit rem - He conquered by delay. Let us trace the steps which Providence took
towards the advancement of Mordecai.
I. On that night could not the king sleep. His sleep fled away (so the word is); and
perhaps, like a shadow, the more carefully he pursued it the further it went from him.
Sometimes we cannot sleep because we fain would sleep. Even after a banquet of wine he
could not sleep when Providence had a design to serve in keeping him waking. We read
of no bodily indisposition he was under, that might break his sleep; but God, whose gift
sleep is, withheld it from him. Those that are ever so much resolved to cast away care
cannot always do it; they find it in their pillows when they neither expect nor welcome it.
He that commanded 127 provinces could not command one hour's sleep. Perhaps the
charms of Esther's conversation the day before gave occasion to his heart to reproach
him for neglecting her, and banishing her from his presence, though she was the wife of
his bosom, for above thirty days; and that might keep him waking. An offended
conscience can find a time to speak when it will be heard.
II. When he could not sleep he called to have the book of records, the Journals of his
reign, read to him, Est_6:1. Surely he did not design that that should lull him asleep; it
would rather fill his head with cares, and drive away sleep. But God put it into his heart

to call for it, rather than for music or songs, which the Persian kings used to be attended
with (Dan_6:18) and which would have been more likely to compose him to rest. When
men do that which is unaccountable we know not what God intends by it. Perhaps he
would have this book of business read to him that he might improve time and be
forming some useful projects. Had it been king David's case, he would have found some
other entertainment for his thoughts; when he could not sleep he would have
remembered God and meditated upon him (Psa_64:6), and, if he would have had any
book read to him, it would have been his Bible; for in that law did he meditate day and
night.
JAMISO , "Est_6:1-14. Ahasuerus rewards Mordecai for former service.
the king ... commanded to bring the book of records of the chronicles — In
Eastern courts, there are scribes or officers whose duty it is to keep a journal of every
occurrence worthy of notice. A book of this kind, abounding with anecdotes, is full of
interest. It has been a custom with Eastern kings, in all ages, frequently to cause the
annals of the kingdom to be read to them. It is resorted to, not merely as a pastime to
while away the tedium of an hour, but as a source of instruction to the monarch, by
reviewing the important incidents of his own life, as well as those of his ancestors. There
was, therefore, nothing uncommon in this Persian monarch calling for the court journal.
But, in his being unable to sleep at that particular juncture, in his ordering the book then
to be read to him, and in his attention having been specially directed to the important
and as yet unrewarded services of Mordecai, the immediate interposition of Providence
is distinctly visible.
K&D, "An unexpected turn of affairs. Est_6:1. On that night between Esther's first
and second banquet, the king's sleep fled, and he commanded to bring the book of
records of the chronicles and to read therefrom. On ‫ּות‬‫נ‬ּ‫ר‬ ְ‫כ‬ִ ַ‫ה‬ ‫ר‬ ֶ‫פ‬ ֶ‫,ס‬ comp. Ezr_4:15. The
title is here more particularly stated than in Est_2:23, where the book is briefly called:
The book of the chronicles. ‫ים‬ ִ‫א‬ ָ‫ר‬ ְ‫ק‬ִ‫נ‬ ‫יוּ‬ ְ‫ה‬ ַ‫,ו‬ and they (the chronicles) were read before the
king. The participle denotes the long continuance of this reading.
BE SO , ". On that night could not the king sleep — How vain are all the
contrivances of foolish man against the wise and omnipotent God, who hath the
hearts and hands of kings and all men perfectly at his disposal, and can by such
trivial accidents (as they are accounted) change their minds, and produce such
terrible effects. He commanded to bring the book of records — His mind being
troubled, he knew not how, nor why, he chooses this for a diversion, God putting
this thought into him, for otherwise he might have diverted himself, as he used to do,
with his wives or concubines, or voices and instruments of music, which were far
more agreeable to his temper. “In these records of the Chronicles, which we now
call journals, (wherein was set down what passed every day,) the manner of the
Persians was to record the names of those who had done the king any signal
services. Accordingly, Josephus informs us, that upon the secretary’s reading these
journals, he took notice of such a person who had great honours and possessions
given him as a reward for a glorious and remarkable action, and of such another
who made his fortune by the bounties of his prince for his fidelity; but, that when he

came to the particular story of the conspiracy of the two eunuchs against the person
of the king, and of the discovery of this treason by Mordecai, the secretary read it
over, and was passing forward to the next; when the king stopped him, and asked
him if the person had had any reward given him for his service; which shows indeed
a singular providence of God, that the secretary should read in that very part of the
book wherein the service of Mordecai was recorded. Why Mordecai was not
rewarded before, it is in vain to inquire. To account for the humour of princes, and
their management of public affairs, is almost impossible. We see daily, even among
us, that men are frequently unmindful of the highest services which are done them,
and take no care to reward them, especially if the person be in himself obscure, and
not supported by a proper recommendation; and therefore we are not to wonder, if
a prince, who buried himself in indolence, and made it a part of his grandeur to live
unacquainted and unconcerned with what passed in his dominions, (which was the
custom of most of the eastern kings,) should overlook the service Mordecai had done
him; or, if he ordered him a reward, that by the artifice of those at court, who were
no well-wishers to the Jews, he should be disappointed of it. There seems, however,
to have been a particular direction of Providence, in having his reward delayed till
this time, when he and all his nation were appointed to destruction; when the
remembrance of his services might be a means to recommend them to the king’s
mercy, and the honours conferred on him a poignant mortification to his proud
adversary.” — Dodd.
COFFMA , "HAMA GETS THE SHOCK OF HIS LIFE;
THE HIGHER THEY ARE THE FARTHER THEY FALL
There is hardly anything in the literature of mankind that presents a more dramatic
contrast of the highest status and the lowest ever attained by a man on one single
day than that which is here revealed in the person of Haman the great Prime
Minister of the Persian Empire under Xerxes.
On the morning of that crucial day, he was at the very pinnacle of his power and
glory, anticipating that within that day he would execute his most hated enemy,
enjoy a banquet along with the king himself in the apartment of the queen of Persia,
supposing, as his advisers had suggested, that he would hang Mordecai and then
"go merrily with the king unto the banquet" (Esther 5:14).
However, during the previous night, God had been at work to frustrate the purpose
of this evil genius of the devil, whose purpose was to destroy the Israel of God from
the face of the earth. Before the sun went down, Haman would be hanged on his
own gallows, his hated enemy Mordecai the Jew would be appointed in his place,
and his posterity of ten sons would be destroyed. Zeresh would see a crucifixion all
right, but not that of Mordecai.
Where in the literature of all nations is there anything else that compares with such
a dramatic reversal of one's status as that which is here recorded? Haman knew
that Mordecai was a Jew, of course; but considering it beneath his dignity to gratify

his spirit of hatred upon a single individual, he had determined to destroy the whole
Jewish race. Several things the fool did not know. He did not know that the foolish
edict he had maneuvered Xerxes into sending forth would also result in the murder
of the queen. He might have been able to bring that about, however, if he had
refrained from his lust to murder Mordecai at once.
He did not know that Mordecai had saved the king's life, nor that the record was
written in the chronicles of the king, nor that the king had encountered a sleepless
night, nor that the king would be interested in rewarding Mordecai at the very
moment when he would appear for the purpose of asking the king's permission to
hang Mordecai. Speaking of surprises, where was there ever anything that matched
the one that confronted Haman on his way to "go merrily with the king unto the
banquet"?
THE KI G'S DECISIO TO REWARD MORDECAI
"On that night could not the king sleep; and he commanded to bring the book of
records of the chronicles, and they were read before the king. And it was found
written that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king's
chamberlains of those that kept the threshold, who had sought to lay hands on the
king Ahasuerus. And the king said, What honor and dignity hath been bestowed on
Mordecai for this? Then said the king's servants that ministered unto him, There is
nothing done for him."
The king was resolved to reward Mordecai; but even before he had time to
announce his decision, Haman had arrived for the purpose of asking the king's
permission to hang Mordecai! What an inopportune moment for Haman's request!
ELLICOTT, "(1) Could not the king sleep.—Literally, the king's sleep fled away.
Here, in the most striking way in the whole book, the workings of God’s providence
on behalf of His people are shown. “God Himself is here, though His name be
absent.” The king’s sleepless night falls after the day when Haman has resolved to
ask on the morrow for Mordecai’s execution, a foretaste of the richer vengeance he
hopes to wreak on the whole nation of the Jews. It is by a mere chance, one would
say, looking at the matter simply in its human aspect, that the king should call for
the book of the royal chronicles, and not for music. It was by a mere chance too. it
might seem, that the reader should happen to light upon the record of Mordecai’s
services; and yet when all these apparent accidents are wrought up into the
coincidence they make, how completely is the providence visible, the power that will
use men as the instruments of its work, whether they know it, or know it not,
whether they be willing or unwilling, whether the glory of God is to be manifested in
and by and through them, or manifested on them only.
They were read before the king.—Canon Rawlinson remarks that there is reason to
think that the Persian kings were in most cases unable to read.
TRAPP, "Esther 6:1 On that night could not the king sleep, and he commanded to

bring the book of records of the chronicles; and they were read before the king.
Ver. 1. On that night] That very night before Mordecai should have been hanged on
the morrow morning, and so early that Esther could not have begged his life, would
she never so fain. God will appear for his poor people, εν τω καιρω, in the nick and
opportunity of time, 1 Peter 5:6. He will be seen in the mount, he will come as out of
an engine.
Could not the king sleep] Heb. the king’s sleep fled away, and, like a shadow, it fled
away so much the faster as it was more followed. Sleep is best solicited by neglect,
and soonest found when we have forgotten to seek it. They are likeliest for it who,
together with their clothes, can put off their cares, and say as Lord Burleigh did
when he threw off his gown, Lie there, Lord Treasurer. This great Ahasuerus
cannot do at present, for crowns also have their cares, thistles in their arms, and
thorns in their sides. Lo, he that commanded one hundred and twenty-seven
provinces cannot command an hour’s sleep: how should he when as sleep is God’s
gift? Psalms 127:2. And it was he that at this time kept him awake for excellent
ends, and put small thoughts into his heart for great purpose, like as he did into our
Henry VIII, when the bishop of Baion (the French ambassador), coming to consult
with him about a marriage between the lady Mary and the duke of Orleans, cast a
scruple into his mind which rendered him restless, whether Mary were legitimate,
&c. (Life and death of Card. Wolsey, 65). If it were his surfeiting and drunkenness
the day before that hindered Ahasuerus from sleeping, habent enim hoc ebrii, ut
neque dormiant, neque vigilent (Plin.), They have this from drinking so that they
are neither asleep nor awake. God’s goodness appeareth the more, in turning his sin
to the good of the Church. Venenum aliquando pro remedio fuit, saith Seneca, He
can make of a poisonous viper a wholesome treacle; and by an almighty alchemy
draw good out of evil.
And he commanded to bring the book of records] Perhaps some special notes or
commentaries, written for the king’s own use, as M. Aurelius had his τα εις εµαυτον.
Julius Caesar had his commentaries written with his own hand, and for the help of
his own memory, υποµνηµατα. Tamerlane had the like book, wherein he read a
great part of the night before the mortal battle between him and Bajazet (Turk.
Hist.).
Of the chronicles] Perhaps, besides the former book of remembrances, or else the
same, Librum Commentariorum, Chronica, as Tremellius rendereth it, the book of
commentaries, even the chronicles, but the Vulgate and Tygurine make them
different books.
And they were read before the king] Perhaps as a recipe, to bring on sleep, or at
least to deceive the time; and yet it may be too for a better purpose, viz. to better his

knowledge, and to stir up his memory, that dignity might wait upon desert; as it did
in Tamerlane’s time, who kept a catalogue of their names who had best deserved of
him, which he daily perused, oftentimes saying, that day to be lost wherein he had
not done something for them. This Ahasuerus had not yet done for Mordecai, who
therefore haply held with the poet,
Omnia sunt ingrata nihil fecisse benigne est.
But God was not unrighteous to forget his work and labour of love, Hebrews 6:10,
though men were unthankful. Vetus gratia dormit. (Pindar). Per raro grati
reperiuntur (Cicero).
WHEDO , "1. That night, which succeeded the events of the last chapter, settled
with apparently a most ominous cloud upon the future of Mordecai, but it was the
harbinger of a most auspicious day for him. God, who works in the darkness as in
the light, caused sleep to flee from the king, and disposed him to beguile the wakeful
hours, not with music or song, but by having one read to him from the book of
records of the chronicles. His mind was in a mood to ruminate on the events of his
own life, and the State annals (see on Esther 2:23) were called for to assist his
memory. Rawlinson thinks that the Persian kings were, in most cases, unable to
read.
COKE, "Verse 1
Esther 6:1. The book of records of the chronicles— In these diaries, which we now
call journals, wherein was set down what passed every day, the manner of the
Persians was, to record the names of those who had done the king any signal
services. Accordingly, Josephus informs us, that, upon the secretary's reading these
journals, he took notice of such a person who had great honours and possessions
given him as a reward for a glorious and remarkable action, and of such another
who made his fortune by the bounties of his prince for his fidelity; but that, when he
came to the particular history of the conspiracy of the two eunuchs against the
person of the king, and of the discovery of this treason by Mordecai, the secretary
read it over, and was passing forward to the next; when the king stopped him, and
asked whether that person had any reward given him for his service: which shews,
indeed, a singular providence of God, that the secretary should read in that very
part of the book wherein the service of Mor-decai was recorded. Why Mordecai was
not rewarded before, it is in vain to enquire. We see daily, even among us, that great
men are frequently unmindful of the highest services which are done them, and take
no care to reward them, especially if the person be in himself obscure, and not
supported by a proper recommendation; and therefore we are not to wonder, if a
prince who buried himself in indolence, and made it a part of his grandeur to live
unacquainted and unconcerned with what passed in his dominions, (which was the
custom of most eastern kings,) should overlook the service that Mordecai had done
him; or, that if he ordered him a reward, yet by the artifice of those at court, who
were no well-wishers to the Jews, Mordecai might be disappointed of it. There
seems, however, to have been a particular direction of Providence in having his

reward delayed till this time, when he and all his nation were appointed to
destruction, when the remembrance of his services might be a means to recommend
them to the king's mercy, and the honours conferred on him be a poignant
mortification to his proud adversary.
PULPIT, "AHASUERUS, BEI G WAKEFUL DURI G THE IGHT, HAS THE
BOOK OF THE CHRO ICLES READ TO HIM, A D FI DS THAT
MORDECAI HAS RECEIVED O REWARD. HE MAKES HAMA AME A
FITTI G REWARD, A D THE DEPUTES HIM TO CO FER IT O
MORDECAI (Esther 6:1-11). It is among the objects of the writer of Esther to show
how the smallest circumstances of life, those most generally regarded as left to
chance, work together for good to such as deserve well, and for evil to such as
deserve evil. He now notes that the turning-point in Haman's and Mordecai's
fortunes was the apparently trivial circumstance of Ahasuerus on a particular night
being troubled with sleeplessness. This led to his having the book of the chronicles
read to him (verse 1). Another seeming chance caused the reader to include in what
he read the account of Bigthan's and Teresh's conspiracy (verse 2). This brought
Mordecai's name before the king, and induced him to ask the question, "What
honour and dignity hath been done to Mordecai for this?" The question could only
be answered in one way—"There is nothing done for him" (verse 3). Such neglect
being a gross breach of Persian law, and a great dishonour to the king who had
allowed it, Ahasuerus naturally takes the matter up with earnestness. Something
must be done at once to remedy the neglect, some agent must be found to set it right,
and so the king asks, "Who is in the court?" Morning has probably arrived during
the reading, and Haman, impatient to get the king's consent to Mordecai's
execution, has come with the dawn to prefer his request. The king is told that
Haman waits without, and sending for him, anticipates the business that his
minister had intended to lay before him by the sudden question, asked the moment
he has entered, "What shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to
honour?" It was natural that Haman, after the favour shown him on the preceding
day, should imagine himself the person aimed at, and should therefore fix upon the
very highest honour that was within the range of his conceptions (verses 8, 9). He
thus became the suggester of honours for Mordecai which might otherwise not have
occurred to any one. Ahasuerus, full of the idea of his own neglect, and ready to
make any reparation, consents to all that is proposed, and, unaware that there is
any unpleasantness between Haman and Mordecai, bids his minister confer the
honours which he has suggested (verse 10). The royal command cannot be disputed
or evaded, and so Mordecai is escorted through the city by his enemy, who had
expected about that very time to be superintending his impalement (verse 11).
Esther 6:1
The book of records of the chronicles. Compare Esther 2:23, where the title is given
more briefly, as "the book of the chronicles." See also Esther 10:2. The character of
the book has been already explained (see comment on Esther 2:23). They were read.
Either because the king could not read himself, or because the sound of a man's
voice might (it was thought) induce drowsiness.

CO STABLE, "Ahasuerus" insomnia6:1-3
The reading of the equivalent of the Congressional Record would have put the king
to sleep under normal circumstances, as it probably had done on many previous
occasions (cf. Malachi 3:16).
"Here is a remarkable instance of the veiled providential control of God over
circumstances of human history. Upon the king"s insomnia, humanly speaking,
were hinged the survival of the chosen nation, the fulfillment of prophecy, the
coming of the Redeemer, and therefore the whole work of redemption. Yet the
outcome was never in doubt; for God was in control, making the most trivial of
events work together for Haman"s defeat and Israel"s preservation." [ ote: The
ew Scofield Reference Bible, p566.]
ormally, this king quickly rewarded people who did him special services.
Herodotus gave two examples of Xerxes doing this. [ ote: Herodotus, 8:85,9:107.]
Consequently, when he discovered that he had overlooked Mordecai"s favor, the
king moved speedily to rectify the oversight.
EXPOSITOR'S DICTIO ARY, "An Ever-watchful Providence
Esther 6:1
"Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown," and it is small wonder that the master of
one hundred and twenty-seven provinces, stretching from Ethiopia to India, should
have often been distracted by the cares of his mighty empire and so have his sleep
driven from him.
I. But we may read these words in another way, and then the simple statement will
convey a pregnant and marvellous truth. Read it in the light of its far-reaching
results and it utters the great truth of Divine Providence. On that sleepless night
hung the very existence of that people "of whom as concerning the flesh Christ
came". That sleepless night was the cause of their preservation from decimation.
Mordecai and Esther derived their moral strength and heroic patriotism from faith
in and devotion to God. In a very real sense the atmosphere of the book breathes of
God.
II. Some write over events like these the word "chance" or "accident," and think
that term covers the whole. What is chance? It is a word we use to hide our
ignorance. There can be no such thing as chance from the standpoint of our religion.
Our Master has taught us, in words we cannot forget, "that even the very hairs of
our head are numbered. So minute is the Divine care and interest in His children.
The teaching of science points to the elimination of chance as a factor in life. We
Christians believe in a Divine and sleepless Providence watching over our world,
our lives, and so we cry with triumphant joy, "All things work together for good to
them that love God". If the choice lies between inexorable, unconscious force and a

supreme, personal, directing God, I, for my part, elect to believe in God, supreme,
all-wise, all-watchful, all-loving.
III. ow, consider how this Divine Providence is seen working. It is seen working by
ordinary, everyday means in which there is no trace of the miraculous, and this
meets the great objection brought in the name of science against our teaching of
Providence. It shows us Providence working by the means and methods of the
everyday occurrences of life. We are apt to look for the working of Divine
Providence in the catastrophes of history, not in its progress: this book shows the
working of the ordinary affairs of life. This is what we mean, therefore, by Divine
Providence—the affairs of men and nations overruled and ordered for a definite,
wise, and benevolent purpose.
—H. Foster Pegg, Church Family, ewspaper, vol. xv, 1908 , p414.
PARKER, " ow we come to what may be termed a mysterious spiritual action. We
read of that action in the sixth chapter, which thus opens:
"On that night could not the king sleep, and he commanded to bring the book of
records of the chronicles; and they were read before the king." ( Esther 6:1).
Why could not the king sleep? Why did the king"s sleep flee away? We may attempt
to trace this to physical causes, and satisfy ourselves with secondary explanations:
the religious mind is not content with such suggestions: the spiritual man has no
difficulty whatever in recognising the action of God in all the events of life, even in
so trivial an instance as the sleeplessness of the king. Did not the king sleep well the
night before? For many a night indeed he may have been sleeping well, but we now
come to a point of time,—"that night,"—that particular, special, memorable
night,—that night sleep seemed to have fled from the earth, and the darkness was
turned into the light of day. Is God working? Is some great visit about to be paid to
a human mind? These are questions which bring with them mystery, whether we
look upon them from a physical or from a spiritual point of view. The exceptional
circumstances of life should always be regarded as having a possibly religious
significance. To speak of them as if they were but part of a great commonplace is to
degrade them, and to lose all the advantage which might accrue from a right
recognition of their import. That night! We have already had occasion to remark
upon the wonders which God accomplishes in the nighttime. God could come by
day; he could come in the early morning; he could hold the sun in the heavens until
he had fought out the battle with man; but it pleases him to come forth under the
cover of the clouds, and to walk as if stealthily in the silence of night, that he may
commune with men with the greatest advantage. The king "could not" sleep. The
words "could not" occur rather significantly in such a connection as this.
Remember the power of the king; the man who could not sleep was "Ahasuerus
which reigned from India even unto Ethiopia, over an hundred and seven and
twenty provinces." Yet this Ahasuerus could not sleep! This is the man who "made
a feast unto all his princes and his servants; the power of Persia and Media, the

nobles and princes of the provinces, being before him: when he showed the riches of
his glorious kingdom and the honour of his excellent majesty many days, even an
hundred and fourscore days." Yet this Prayer of Manasseh , with all his might and
pomp, could not sleep, could not charm his eyelids to slumber, could not lull his
brain into tranquillity. There is a "could not" in the history of all human power.
Truly the king might have slept, for he lived in Shushan the palace; "the beds were
of gold and silver, upon a pavement of red, and blue, and white, and black,
marble;" yet even in such beds no sleep was to be found. How was this? Everything
that could be done to give the king rest was easily within command, and yet on this
memorable night the spirit of sleep could not be wooed. Surely there is something of
mystery in all human life. The kings of Persia were in most cases unable to read, and
therefore readers were employed to read before the king. The records opened at a
curious place. Why did they not open a page before, or a page later, if we may speak
in modern phrase? or why did not the eye alight upon another scroll, instead of this
particular writing? Strange indeed that those who read the records turned to the
place where
"It was found written, that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the
king"s chamberlains, the keepers of the door, who sought to lay hand on the king
Ahasuerus" ( Esther 6:2).
Thus there is a resurrection of good works. Things are done and forgotten, and men
never suppose that they will come up again; yet after many days they are vivified,
and history begins to take up the thread where it was dropped. The plot of the
chamberlains "was known to Mordecai, who told it unto Esther the queen; and
Esther certified the king thereof in Mordecai"s name. And when inquisition was
made of the matter, it was found out; therefore they were both hanged on a tree:
and it was written in the book of the chronicles before the king." ow the king"s
conscience was touched, or his sense of justice; so said Hebrews , "What honour and
dignity hath been done to Mordecai for this? "The result showed that nothing had
been done for him. The king was determined to rectify this matter, for he thought
that by the pacification of conscience sleep might return. When Mordecai was
honoured, Ahasuerus might fall into slumber. Many men are willing to purchase
sleep on high terms. Could the murder but be undone; could the evil deed be but
blotted out; could the stolen money be but safely returned; could the cruel word but
be recalled; in short, could anything be done that sleep might once more come to the
house, and fold all memories and anxieties within its healing robes! It happened that
Haman was at hand at that very moment.
"Haman was come into the outward court of the king"s house, to speak unto the
king to hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him." ( Esther 6:4).
Thus there are two men as well as two women engaged in this plot—the king and
Esther , Haman and Zeresh. At that particular moment they were all thinking about
Mordecai. The king was about to honour him, and Haman was about to murder
him. What a problem is our life! What strange forces contend over the body of every
man! The contention as between the angel and the demoniac spirit over the body of

Moses is no mere image, or if an image it expresses the tragical reality. God would
save us, the devil would destroy us; angels are our ministering servants, yet we have
to fight against principalities, powers, and rulers of darkness: all life is a
tremendous controversy, and the question often arises, On which side will the issue
turn?
ow we shall discover what a man would do for himself were a suitable opportunity
created for the indication of his desires. The king said unto Haman, "What shall be
done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour?" What could Haman
imagine but that he himself was the object of the king"s complacency? Yet Haman
could answer the question without appearing to associate it with his own fortunes.
He could be magnificently generous, and yet be all the while offering incense to his
own vanity without appearing to be doing so. Had the king said, "What shall I do
unto thee, O Haman?" so modest a person as Haman might have been troubled by
the inquiry; but seeing that the inquiry is anonymous Haman is enabled to speak
out of his own inflamed imagination:
"And Haman answered the king, For the man whom the king delighteth to honour,
let the royal apparel be brought which the king useth to wear, and the horse that the
king rideth upon, and the crown royal which is set upon his head: and let this
apparel and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king"s most noble princes,
that they may array the man withal whom the king delighteth to honour, and bring
him on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaim before him, Thus shall
it be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honour" ( Esther 6:7-9).
That is all that Haman would have done! He meant himself to be the hero of the
hour, and this was the little and modest programme which he drew up! He must
have been speaking generously for a rival or a friend, for surely there could be no
taint of selfishness in so large a scheme! Fix upon Haman"s answer as showing what
man would do for himself if he could. We may study ourselves by studying others.
Every human heart should be a looking-glass in which we see ourselves. Haman"s
answer did not displease the king; on the contrary, the king was ready to fall in with
the generous suggestion. But did ever thunderbolt fall more suddenly from heaven
than fell this answer upon the ears of Haman?
"Then the king said to Haman, Make haste, and take the apparel and the horse, as
thou hast said, and do even so to Mordecai the Jew, that sitteth at the king"s gate:
let nothing fail of all that thou hast spoken" ( Esther 6:10).
Is not life a series of surprises? Is not the moment of highest ambition often next the
moment of saddest humiliation? "Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty
spirit before a fall." Haman had been lifted up to heaven by his own vanity: how
awful to drop then into the abyss of shame! But the word of Ahasuerus did not
admit of contention. Eastern kings were not accustomed to be argued with: they
knew nothing of the eloquence of remonstrance. It was as much as Haman"s head
was worth to offer one single word of opposition to the will of the king.

"Then took Hainan the apparel and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and brought
him on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaimed before him, Thus
shall it be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour" ( Esther 6:11).
Truly it would be curious to analyse Hainan"s feelings at this moment! Could he
believe that what he was doing was a reality: was it not rather a hideous nightmare
to be shaken off by some violent effort? Had Haman been doing all this
unconsciously, leading up almost to the coronation of the man whom he hated most?
Again and again we see that we cannot tell what we are doing. Haman went home a
sad-hearted Prayer of Manasseh , and "told Zeresh his wife and all his friends
everything that had befallen him." How he stumbled in the story, how he cried and
whimpered, how his face interpreted his tones, and his whole attitude indicated his
shame! The people understood the whole perfectly; they said:
"If Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews, before whom thou hast begun to fall, thou
shalt not prevail against him, but shalt surely fall before him. And while they were
yet talking with him, came the king"s chamberlains, and hasted to bring Haman
unto the banquet that Esther had prepared" ( Esther 6:13-14).
A banquet without a blessing, a feast without satisfaction, glaring pomp and
circumstances that mocked the eyes that had looked upon their own humiliation.
These are the ironies of life, which plague and perplex the heart and vex the
imagination. Haman would rather have been in the wilderness, crying aloud in
solitude to relieve himself of pain of heart It is cruel to be forced to go to a feast
when the heart is in a mood of sadness. "He that seeketh his life shall lose it." Let all
ambitious men read the story of Haman, and take warning. His story may not be
repeated in its Oriental details, all the flash and colour may be wanting; yet, even
when they have vanished, there remains enough in the tale to remind us that we too
are ambitious, that we too may have ignoble thoughts towards our fellow-men, and
that even we are not above resorting to the foulest practices to get rid of the
Mordecai who stands in our way as a stumbling-block. Will it be regarded as
commonplace or as trite, if here we venture once more to say, Beware of jealousy: it
is cruel as the grave; it poisons every feast, it turns every goblet of wine into a
fountain of poison: check it at its very beginning; better die to live than live to die.
LA GE, "Esther 6:1-5. As in the former chapter the danger for Mordecai rose to
the highest point, and we may expect nothing more than that both opponents, if left
to themselves, should destroy each other on the following morning, even before the
careful Esther has as yet accomplished her mission, we now perceive how timely is
the occurrence of an event in the intervening night, which not only prevents Esther’s
intercession for Mordecai from being too late, but also brings about the beginning of
the downfall of Haman. The author ascribes this occurrence to the troubled sleep of
Ahasuerus. Thus any who merely take a superficial view of things might ascribe it to
chance. But to judge from what we have already seen, it is certainly not opposed to
his view, that the second Targum in all things transpiring takes God into account,
and represents things as if the angel of God’s mercy were well informed of the
lamentations of the daughters of Israel, and at God’s command had disturbed the

sleep of Ahasuerus.
Esther 6:1. On that night could not the king sleep—but not because the issued edict
against the Jews had caused him unrest. In consequence he commanded to bring the
book of records of the Chronicles, in which, according to Esther 2:23, Mordecai’s
deed was inscribed. He caused it to be read, not in order to find out whether the
Jews had really deserved their extermination. This would have been worthy of a
better king, but it is opposed by the facts in Esther 6:10 and Esther 3:15, and also
Esther 7:5. His object was simply to entertain himself with the records of the past.
Still it is remarkable that just that point, treating of Mordecai’s Acts, should have
been read. On any other than a providential view, one would be inclined to think
that he had commanded first of all to read those passages referring to the Jews.
[F 3] The use of the participle ‫ים‬ִ‫א‬ ָ‫ְר‬‫ק‬ִ‫נ‬ ‫ְיוּ‬‫ה‬ִ‫יּ‬ַ‫ו‬ signifies that the reading lasted for some
time, perhaps extended through the night. Hence we may not be astonished that
when the passage referred to came to be read, Haman already waited in the outer
court.
ISBET, "WHAT CAME OF A SLEEPLESS IGHT
‘On that night could not the king sleep.’
Esther 6:1
I. It is hardly affirming too much to say that on the sleepless night of the Persian
king was made to depend our rescue from everlasting death; at least, and
undeniably, the restlessness of the king was one of those instruments through which
God wrought in carrying on His purpose of redeeming our race through a
Descendant of David according to the flesh. Observe, then, how wonderful is God in
that He can accomplish great ends by insignificant means.
II. otice how little there was which could be called supernatural interference, how
simply, without any violence, the Divine Providence effected its purpose.—It was in
no way singular that the king should be restless; no miracle was required to explain
his choosing to hear the records of his empire; everything was just what might
equally have happened had matters been left to themselves, in place of having been
disposed and directed by God.
III. We are mightily encouraged in all the business of prayer by the broken rest of
the Persian king.—Look from Israel delivered from Pharaoh to Israel delivered
from Haman, and we are encouraged to believe that God will not fail even us in our
extremity, seeing that He could save His people through such a simple and
unsuspected process as this.
IV. The agency employed on the king was so natural, so undistinguishable from the
workings of his own mind, that he could never have suspected a Divine interference,
and must have been perfectly at liberty either to do or not to do, as the secret
impulse prescribed. It depends on ourselves, on the exercise of our own will,
whether the suggestions of God’s Spirit be cherished or crushed, whether the
impulses be withstood or obeyed.

Canon Melvill.
Illustration
‘“I think the king is but a man, as I am,” says Shakespeare in his great play of
Henry V, and the attendants who watched King Xerxes tossing would doubtless be
whispering that to one another. They would smile to think that he commanded a
hundred and twenty-seven provinces, yet could not command an hour’s refreshing
sleep. Generally, when an Eastern king was wakeful, he called for music. If he was a
saint like David, God’s statutes were his songs. But to-night nothing would please
this fevered autocrat, but that one of his chamber-boys should read to him. “How do
you know,” a Bedouin was asked, “that there is a God?” “In the same way,” he
replied, “that I know in looking at the sand when a man or beast has crossed the
desert—by His footprints in the world around me.” And so in this story we hear
nothing of God, but we feel that He knoweth what is in the darkness. The book that
was brought was the Annals of the kingdom. The page that lay open bore
Mordecai’s name. For the first time Xerxes heard of the plot upon his life, and how
it had been frustrated by Mordecai. He would reward this Jew in royal fashion—
and with that good resolve he fell asleep.’
PULPIT, "A wakeful and eventful night.
There is something dramatic in this remarkable story. The movement is so regular
and orderly, the plot unfolds itself so effectively, the crisis is reached so opportunely,
that the story might be taken for a consummate work of art. In reality it is a work in
which nature, or rather Providence, is signally conspicuous. This verse introduces
the second part of the narrative. Hitherto Mordecai has been depressed, and Haman
has been exalted. But the tide has now turned. From this point pride is to fall, and
humility is to be raised.
I. A KI G CA OT COMPEL SLEEP. Sleep is one of the best, most precious gifts
of God to man. "He giveth his beloved sleep." The cares of business, of state, of
pastoral life, may sometimes banish slumber, of which it is well said—
"The wretched he forsakes,
Swift upon downy pinions flies from grief,
And lights on lids unsullied with a tear."
It is not every statesman who, like Lord Burleigh, can take off his gown and say, Lie
there, Lord Treasurer; or who, like Lord Liverpool, can draw off the cares of a
kingdom with his stockings. Ruminating upon the affairs of his empire, his
ambitious projects, Ahasuerus could not sleep.
II. A SEEMI GLY SLIGHT I CIDE T MAY I VOLVE GREAT,
MOME TOUS ISSUES. Often may sleep have gone from the king's eyes and
nothing of consequence have followed. But that night was memorable, for that

night's sleeplessness was the occasion of the salvation of Mordecai, and perhaps of
Israel. In the providence of God, as though to rebuke men's self-confidence, little
things are sent on high errands. Solomon speaks of small things which are yet
exceeding great.
III. RECORDS PROVE SERVICEABLE TO KI GS A D TO KI GDOMS.
Books record what men forget. We know, not only from sacred, but also from
profane history, that the Persian kings kept chronicles of all the important
transactions of their reigns. It is believed that these great kings were unable to read
themselves, and that there were educated attendants whose business it was to read
aloud, in the hearing of the monarch, frog, the state records preserved in
manuscript. Thus, on this occasion, the services of Mordecai were, so to speak,
disinterred and brought to light.
IV. A AROUSED CO SCIE CE REPROACHES FOR FORGETFUL ESS
A D I GRATITUDE. How easy it is for the great to overlook benefits they have
received, to take them as matters of course! But the inquiry Ahasuerus made shows
that he was not altogether insensible to the claims which the Jew had upon his
memory and his gratitude. It was late, but not too late, to make some recompense
for a neglected and forgotten service.
V. Thus SELF-I DULGE CE IS AROUSED TO ACT WITH JUSTICE A D
GE EROSITY. The king had slept long enough; it was time to awake and to act.
And this night's vigil prompted him to a day's justice.
Lessons:—
1. Let waking hours of night be spent in profitable thoughts.
2. Let us be convinced of the overruling providence of God.
3. Let us remember that "man's extremity is God's opportunity."
BI, "On that night could not the king sleep.
The power of a sleepless night
A trifling circumstance to record. Ah! how important are little things: the unnoticed
things are the life-blood of the world. In a great palace we think of the marble and the
stone, the cedar and the iron, but who thinks of the mortar and the nails? And yet, in the
architecture, mortar and nails are as important as pillars and columns and beams. Thus
in the architecture of the world, and in the conduct of its moral affairs, trifles are the
mortar and the nails.
I. The first thing I see here is a wonderful lesson in the illimitable plan of providence.
How events ripen to the close! How crime matures itself to its doom! Amazing is the
work of providence. You see two distinct sets of actions progressing at the same
moment. The election of Esther, the choice of a merely capricious king; the elevation to
dignity: the integrity of Mordecai; the ambition of Haman: the desire to crush the Jews;
the yearning desire to save them. All these things are working together. You remember

“My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” And “all things work together for good to
them that love God.” Calmly and surely proceeds the Divine plan, and, unaware of the
Divine idea, proceeds the infernal plan. See how triumphantly Haman looks at the letters
of persecution signed with the signet of the king: and see how he gloats as the morning
sun shines over the black gallows-tree, and never for a moment suspects it to be his own.
The poor blind fool checkmated by himself! ingeniously rearing his own scaffold, and
twisting the rope for his own neck. You will perhaps say to me, And the answer perhaps
only pushes the inquiry farther back. “Why did He allow Haman to be near the court at
all?” The answer must be, that God and providence are not the capricious and
intermeddling agencies you have sometimes supposed: they prosecute their own path,
and Satan and sin prosecute their path too. On they hasten, every step hastens to
judgment; every movement winds the entangling coil of circumstances more
irretrievably around them.
II. How, from the wide sweep of immense providences we descend to trifles! How the
scheme of providence includes and encloses the small details of human affairs! I will
extract three other lessons—
1. How remote, and yet how distinct and minute, are the operations of God’s
providence! Here was a circumstance connected with the history of the Church, with
the preservation of God’s people, and with the conservation of Divine truth, and the
advent of the Messiah. How small a place is Shushan and the whole of Media and
Ahasuerus!
2. See the perfect compatibility, nay, unity, of prayer with the plans of providence.
The prayers of Mordecai, the mournings of the Jews, they are the operating causes
round the sleepless couch. The prayer so troubled the couch, that the king could not
sleep.
3. May I not apply it yet once more, and ask you the meaning of some sleepless
nights, some troubled days? (E. P. Hood.)
Ahasuerus’ sleepless night-the Divine government
1. Who is the sleepless monarch on this night?
2. What was the book he read that night?
3. What was the discovery he made that night?
4. What was the result of the discovery that night?
Two things, at least, came out from the king’s sleeplessness this night.
(1) The preservation and exaltation of Mordecai.
(2) The frustration of enormous wickedness, and the salvation of the whole
Jewish people.
Truly, this was a memorable night, From this subject we may learn a few lessons in
connection with God’s government of the world.
I. He often works out his purpose through the free workings of depraved minds,
unconscious of his influence. The brethren of Joseph, prompted by evil passions, sell
him to the Ishmaelites, and he is borne a slave into Egypt. They are free in their wicked
counsels and deed; but, unconsciously to themselves, all the while they are carrying out

the purposes of Heaven. The same with Vespasian and Titus in their destruction of
Jerusalem. Though a spirit most fiendish moved and directed these bloodthirsty and
ambitious pagans, yet they wrought out almost with letter minuteness the long-
threatened judgment of Heaven. As nature moves on to the magnificence of summer, as
well through cloudy skies and thunderstorms as sunshine and serenity, so providence
advances its purposes, as well through such a mind as that of Ahasuerus as that of Peter,
or of Paul.
II. He always overrules the conduct of sinners foe the overthrow of their own plans. The
very destruction which Haman and his accomplices plotted for Mordecai and the whole
Jewish people came upon themselves. On the lofty gallows that Haman had raised for
another, he was hanged himself. Thus it ever is. The men of Babel build a tower in order
to be kept in close social combination; but that structure leads to their confusion and
separation. The Egyptians rush into the Red Sea in order to wreak vengeance on the
fleeing Israelites; but the channel in which they sought to bury their enemies became
their own grave. It is the very nature of sin to confound itself. Its struggles for pleasure
will lead to misery; for honour, will lead to degradation. Sin always conducts the sinner
to a result never sought, never intended. What sinner aims, as an intelligent purpose, at
the blasting of all his hopes, the loss of all his friendships, the everlasting ruin of his
soul? Yet to these every sin he commits is conducting him. Like Haman, every sinner is
building his own gallows. Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
III. He sometimes works out his purposes by means apparently most insignificant.
(Homilist.)
The sleepless night
I. How God operates to mighty ends through inconsiderable agencies. We are apt to
measure God by standards established between man and man. The Divine greatness is
regarded as that of some very eminent king: what would be inconsistent with the dignity
of the potentate is regarded as inconsistent with the dignity of God; and what seems to
us to contribute to that dignity is carried up to the heavenly courts, or supposed exist
there in the highest perfection. But we should gain a grander and juster idea of our
Maker by considering in what He differs from men, than by ascribing to Him, only in an
infinite degree, what is found amongst ourselves. It is not by putting unbounded
resources at the disposal of God and representing Him as working through stupendous
instrumentality that we frame the highest notions of Him as a sovereign and ruler. There
is something sublimer and more over-whelming in those sayings of Scripture, “Out of
the mouth of babes and sucklings hast Thou ordained strength,” “God hath chosen the
foolish things of the world to confound the wise, the weak things of the world to
confound the things that are mighty,” than in the most magnificent and gorgeous
descriptions of dominion and strength. Christianity, for example, diffused through the
instrumentality of twelve legions of angels would have been immeasurably inferior, as a
trophy of Omnipotence, to Christianity diffused through the instrumentality of twelve
fishermen. When I survey the heavens, with their glorious troop of stars, and am told
that the Almighty employs them to His own majestic ends, I seem to feel as though they
were worthy of being employed by the Creator. But show me a tiny insect, just floating in
the breeze, and tell me that, by and through that insect, God will carry forward the
largest and most stupendous of His purposes, and I am indeed filled with amazement.
And is there anything strained or incorrect in associating with an insect the redemption
of the world? Nay, not so. In saving the race whence Messiah was to spring, God worked

through the disturbed sleep of the Persian monarch, and the buzz of an inconsiderable
insect might have sufficed to break that monarch’s repose. When God interfered on
behalf of His people groaning under the bondage of Pharaoh, it was with miracle and
prodigy, with a mighty hand and a stretched-out arm; but I fall before Him as yet more
amazing in wisdom and power, when I find the bloody purpose of Haman defeated
through such instrumentality as this: “The king could not sleep,” etc.
II. The setting under a right point of view of the utility of prayer. It is often objected
against prayer that it seeks for miracles and expects God to interrupt at our call the
established course of things. It may be that when the Jews betook themselves to prayer,
that they looked for visible and miraculous interference, as in other emergencies when
God bared His arm in defence of His people. Although I thoroughly believe that were a
case to arise in which nothing short of a miracle would meet the circumstances of a
servant of God, the miracle would not be withheld; yet I am satisfied that it is not
required that there should be miracles in order to our prayers being granted, neither
does the granting them suppose that God is variable or changes in His purposes. There
was no miracle in His causing Ahasuerus to pass a sleepless night: a little heat in the
atmosphere, or the buzzing of an insect, might have produced the result; and
philosophy, with all its sagacity, could not have detected any interruption of the known
laws of nature. Neither were God’s purposes variable, though it may have actually
depended on the importunity of prayer, whether or not the people should be delivered.
God’s purpose may have been that He would break the king’s sleep if prayer reached a
certain intenseness; that He would not break it if it came below that intenseness; and
surely this would accord equally with two propositions—
1. That the Divine purposes are fixed and immutable.
2. That notwithstanding this fixedness and immutability, they may be affected by
human petitions, and therefore leave room for importunate prayer. Comparatively I
should not be encouraged, were I told that what disquieted the monarch was the
standing of a spectre by his bedside in an unearthly form, which in unearthly accents
upbraided him for leaving Mordecai unrequited. But when I observe that the king’s
rest was disturbed without anything supernatural; that all which God had to do in
order to arrange a great deliverance for His people was to cause a sleepless night, but
so to cause it, that no one could discern His interference, then indeed I learn that I
may not be asking what the world counts miracle, though I ask what transcends all
power but Divine. There is something encouraging in this to all who feel their
insignificance. If the registered deliverances, vouchsafed to the Church, were all
deliverances which had been effected through miracles, we might question whether
they formed any precedent on which creatures like ourselves could justly rest hope.
We dare not think that for us armed squadrons will be seen in the heavens, or the
earth be convulsed, or the waters turned into blood. But look from Israel delivered
from Pharaoh to Israel delivered from Haman, and we are encouraged to believe that
God will not fail even us in our extremity, seeing that He could save the people
through such a simple and unsuspected process as this: “On that night could not the
king sleep, and he commanded to bring the book of the records of the chronicles.”
(H. Melvill, B. D.)
The sleepless night
There may have been three or four reasons for this restlessness.

1. The care of his kingdom.
2. The revolving of ambitious schemes.
3. His raging passions. His passions often showed themselves in a ridiculous way.
When he came back from his Grecian expedition he was so mad at the river
Hellespont for breaking up his bridge of boats, that he ordered his servants to whip
that river with three hundred lashes.
4. A troubled conscience. There is nothing like an aroused conscience to keep a man
awake when he wants to sleep. There was a ruler who one morning was found with
his sword cutting a nest of swallows to pieces. Somebody came up and said, “Why do
you cut that nest of swallows to pieces?” “Why,” he replied, “those swallows keep
saying that I murdered my father.” The fact was, that the man had committed the
crime, and his conscience, by Divine ventriloquism, was speaking out of that birds’
nest. No, Ahasuerus could not sleep. The more he tried to sleep, the wider he got
awake. All around about his pillow the past came. There, in the darkness, stood
Vashti, wan and wasted in banishment. There stood the princes whom he had
despoiled by his evil example. There were the representatives of the homes he had
blasted by his infamous demand that the brightest be sent to his palace; broken-
hearted parents crying, “Give me back my child, thou vulturous soul!” The outrages
of the past flitting along the wall’, swinging from the tassels, crouching in the corner,
groaning under the pillow, setting their heels on his consuming brain, and crying,
“Get up! This is the verge of hell! No sleep! No sleep!” (T. De Witt Talmage.)
The sleepless night
How many different causes or occasions there may be of the sleepless night! Some
cannot sleep in the remembrance of recent sin. Some are kept waking by great sorrow.
Some by brain excitement. Some in very weariness of overwork. (A. Raleigh, D. D.)
Sleep a necessity
Without it human life would soon come to an end. It would burn rapidly away. (A.
Raleigh, D. D.)
Men sleep or wake as God wills
Kings have no specific to secure healthful rest; rather they are apt to miss the best
specific, hard work and a good conscience. (A. M. Symington, B. A.)
Resource in sleeplessness-
A good book is a better resource in sleeplessness than drugs. (A. M. Symington, B. A.)
Divine providence
I. Note the minute universality of God’s supervision and control. The notion of many is

that providence is concerned only with great matters. But those who so believe forget
that perfection in anything cannot be secured without attention to details, and that great
issues often hinge on apparently very trifling affairs. A sleepless night is in itself no very
important thing. Again, it is a matter of little moment what a man shall do to fill in the
hours of sleepless ness and keep himself from ennui; but if Xerxes had adopted any
other plan than that which he followed, or if the attendant had chosen to read from any
other section of the chronicles of the kingdom than that which he selected, there would
have been nothing to recall Mordecai’s services to the king’s remembrance. Once more:
if Haman had not come to the court at the time he did, and been introduced into the
presence at the precise moment when the mind of the king was pondering the question
what honour should be conferred on Mordecai, then the first word might have been his,
and so the fiat might have gone out for the consigning of Mordecai to the gallows, even
at the moment when the monarch was thinking about doing him honour. Now, this
history is not exceptional in any respect. It certainly is not exceptional in this particular.
You see the same supervision of the most apparently trifling things by God in the
biography of Joseph, and there are many striking illustrations of it in secular history. A
change of wind from west to east is not s great matter, and yet on such a change as that,
at a particular hour of a particular day, the history of Great Britain turned; for thereby
the fleet of William of Orange was wafted to Torbay, while that of James II. was by the
same means prevented from putting out to sea to intercept its progress.
II. But note that we have here no interference with the operation of the laws of nature,
and no infringement of the liberty of moral agents. We have no record of any miracle in
this case. There is nothing supernatural in a man’s having a sleepless night, or in his
fixing on a certain part of his chronicles to read, or in the coming in of another person
upon him at a particular juncture; and no single one of the actors in the case was
working under compulsion—each one knew at the moment that he was following his
own bent. But it was not less the work of God, or less glorifying to God. Now this non-
miraculous providence, if I may so call it, is a greater and grander and more glorious
achievement of God’s than it would have been if the same results had been accomplished
through the direct forth putting of His own omnipotence. Now, if what I have advanced
on this important matter be true, it may cast some light on the way in which God
answers His people’s prayers. There are those who affirm that to ask God to confer on us
a physical blessing is to ask Him to work a miracle in our behalf. Even if I believed that, I
would still ask Him for what I need, because He has commanded me to do so, and I
would trustfully leave the method of His answer in His own hands. But I do not believe
that to ask a physical blessing from God is to ask Him to work a miracle in our behalf,
and such a history as this of Esther confirms me in that non-belief. Then, finally, here, if
what I have advanced in this connection be correct, it may tend to reconcile us to the
minor inconveniences that come upon us in life. What an amount of fretting we do over
little things! We go off our sleep, or we miss a train, or we have to wait for some tedious
hours at a railroad station, or we approach the harbour in a fog and have to lie outside
for a long while, so near our homes and yet so far from them, or a friend disappoints us
and our plans are deranged. Yet why should we be impatient if it be true that even these
little things are taken cognisance of by God, and woven by Him for His glory and our
good into the fabric of our lives? If we could but pause a moment and say within
ourselves, “This is all in the plan of God concerning us,” we should at once have self-
control. Lessons—
1. Think how valuable God’s commonest gifts are. Keep your conscience clean, that
nothing of guilt may put thorns into your pillow. Take no ambitious schemes with
you to your couch, lest you should be constrained to lie awake in the attempt to work

them out. Finish each day’s business in its own day, that there may be no nervous
anxiety in your mind about the morrow. Watch over your table, and take nothing
there that will make you restless. Think more of this common blessing of sleep, and
see in that one of the richest tokens of the Divine goodness which is not to be trifled
with, but to be valued and enjoyed.
2. And this leads me, by a very natural transition, to ask whether you have ever
reviewed your obligations to God for all that He has done for you? Xerxes utilised his
sleepless hours in discovering wherein he had failed to meet his obligations to his
benefactors. But what a benefactor you have had in God! He gave His only Son for
your salvation. Xerxes’ indebtedness to Mordecai was nothing in comparison to your
obligation to Jehovah. Now let me ask, What have you done to Him for that? (W. M.
Taylor, D. D.)
Sleeplessness providentially used
There is no reason assigned for this. The king was not afflicted with illness, he was not
suddenly seized with any disease to cause this wakefulness, nor was it occasioned by any
intelligence of a distressing character, such as that formidable enemies had made their
appearance before Shushan, or that grievous misfortunes had happened to any one dear
to him. No; but the matter was entirely of the Lord. God has employed sleep for weighty
purposes, in various ages of the world. It was while Adam was in “deep sleep” that “one
of his ribs was taken,” and made a living being and an help meet for him. It was while
Jacob was asleep that he was favoured with that wonderful vision, in which he beheld a
ladder set upon the earth, whose top reached to heaven—a striking representation of
God’s providential care for His people, and likewise of that Redeemer who is the way to
the Father—a way in which whosoever walketh the angels of glory continually afford him
their friendly ministrations. It was when Joseph was asleep that he was directed from
heaven to take Mary for his wife, because that which had been conceived in her was of
the Holy Ghost. But here God carries His purposes into execution by means of the
absence of sleep. He is never at a loss to bring His designs to pass. (J. Hughes.)
Watches of the night
Had Ahasuerus been a pious man, and acquainted with the Word of God, he would have
filled up She watches of the night with religious meditations, or called for the book of the
law of the Lord, in which he would have found both instruction and entertainment. (T.
McCrie, D. D.)
Historical records
Nor was the custom wholly confined to the East. The “Chronicles of the Cid,” William of
Malmesbury’s “Chronicles of the Kings of England,” the six old English Chronicles, viz.,
Asser’s Life of Alfred, and Chronicles of Eldred, Ethelred, Nennius, Geoffrey of
Monmouth, and of Richard, and “The Chronicles of the Crusaders,” of Robert of
Gloucester, and Ossian, and the famous Spanish and English ballads, are a part and
parcel of the history and literature of our own day. (W. A. Scott, D. D.)

A sleepless king
In one of the dungeons of the fortress of Glatz lay a Prussian nobleman. King Frederick
William III. had confined him there for treason. He had been long a prisoner, and there
was no hope that he would ever be released. His only company was a Bible—the book he
hated, and never read. But suffering and solitude wore upon his spirit, and he did read at
last—till there rose in his soul some sense of a just God, who punishes those that forsake
Him. He had forsaken Him—and now he repented of it. One night, by the dim light of his
dungeon lamp, he was turning the leaves of the Bible for consolation, when his eyes fell
on Psa_50:15, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt
glorify Me.” Then, for the first time since childhood, the proud man knelt and prayed,
and the peace of God came into his heart and dwelt there. That same night King
Frederick in his palace, like King Ahasuerus, could not sleep. Worn out, he begged the
Lord to give him one hour of rest from pain; and his prayer was granted. He awoke
refreshed and grateful, and said to his wife, “Who in all my kingdom has wronged me
most? I will forgive him.” Said Queen Louise, “It is the Count M—in the prison of Glatz.”
“Send orders to release him at once,” commanded the king. And in a few days the
prisoner was a free man, glorifying God for both spiritual and temporal deliverance.
All records before God’s eye continually
When Ahasuerus read in the book of the records of the chronicles, and there found how
Mordecai had discovered a plot of treason against his person, he did not lay the book
aside, and slightly pass by such a piece of service, but inquires what honour and what
dignity had been done to Mordecai. It seems if the king had thought on, or read of him
sooner, he had rewarded him sooner: but God hath ever in His eye all the records and
chronicles of His people’s actions; He reads their journals every day. (J.Spencer.)
2 It was found recorded there that Mordecai had
exposed Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s
officers who guarded the doorway, who had
conspired to assassinate King Xerxes.
GILL, "And it was found written,.... Upon reading, and in which there was also a
peculiar hand of Providence, directing to the reading of that part of them in which the

affair of Mordecai was registered: and if what the latter Targum says is true, it was the
more remarkable, that when Shimshai the scribe, who was ordered to bring the book
and read, and who, according to the former Targum, was Haman's son, seeing what was
recorded of Mordecai, turned over the leaves of the book, being unwilling to read it; but
the leaves rolled back again, and he was obliged to read it:
that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king's
chamberlains, the keepers of the door, who sought to lay hand on the King
Ahasuerus; see Est_2:21, and it was usual in such diaries to record the names of
persons, who, by any actions, had deserved well of the king, that they might be rewarded
as there was an opportunity for it; and such, in the Persian language, were called
Orosangae, as Herodotus relates (o).
HE RY, " The servant that read to him either lighted first on that article which
concerned Mordecai, or, reading long, came to it at length. Among other things it was
found written that Mordecai had discovered a plot against the life of the king which
prevented the execution of it, Est_6:2. Mordecai was not in such favour at court that the
reader should designedly pitch upon that place; but Providence directed him to it; nay, if
we may believe the Jews' tradition (as bishop Patrick relates it), opening the book at this
place he turned over the leaves, and would have read another part of the book, but the
leaves flew back again to the same place where he opened it; so that he was forced to
read that paragraph. How Mordecai's good service was recorded we read Est_2:23, and
here it is found upon record.
IV. The king enquired what honour and dignity had been done to Mordecai for this,
suspecting that this good service had gone unrewarded, and, like Pharaoh's butler,
remembering it as his fault this day, Gen_41:9. Note, The law of gratitude is a law of
nature. We ought particularly to be grateful to our inferiors, and not to think all their
services such debts to us but that they make us indebted to them. Two rules of gratitude
may be gathered from the king's enquiry here: - 1. Better honour than nothing. If we
cannot, or need not, make recompence to those who have been kind to us, yet let us do
them honour by acknowledging their kindnesses and owning our obligations to them. 2.
Better late than never. If we have long neglected to make grateful returns for good offices
done us, let us at length bethink ourselves of our debts.
K&D, "Est_6:2
And it was found written therein among other matters, that Mordochai had given
information concerning the two courtiers who were plotting against the king's life. This
is the conspiracy related Est_2:21-23. The name Bigthana is in Est_2:21 written Bigthan.
TRAPP, "Esther 6:2 And it was found written, that Mordecai had told of Bigthana
and Teresh, two of the king’s chamberlains, the keepers of the door, who sought to
lay hand on the king Ahasuerus.
Ver. 2. And it was found written] It was God who directed the reader to that very
place; like as he did the eunuch to Isaiah 53:7-8, where, reading of the meekness of
Jesus Christ, he was transformed into the same image; as was likewise Johannes
Isaac, a Jew, converted by reading the same chapter. Hoc ego ingenue profiteor,
saith he, caput illud ad fidem Christi me adduxisse: This I confess ingenuously, that

lighting upon that chapter, I was brought thereby to the faith of Christ. Austin
thought he heard a voice, saying, Tolle, lege, take up the Bible and read; accordingly
he took it up, and opening it, fell upon that text in Romans 13:14, which was the
main means of his conversion.
That Mordecai had told of Bigthana, &c.] See Esther 2:21-23.
3 “What honor and recognition has Mordecai
received for this?” the king asked.
“ othing has been done for him,” his attendants
answered.
BAR ES, "It was a settled principle of the Persian government that “Royal
Benefactors” were to receive an adequate reward. The names of such persons were
placed on a special roll, and care was taken that they should be properly recompensed,
though they sometimes waited for months or years before they were rewarded.
CLARKE, "What honor and dignity hath been done to Mordecai - It is
certain he found nothing in the record; and had any thing been done, that was the most
likely place to find it.
GILL, "And the king said, what honour and dignity hath been done to
Mordecai for this?.... He judged it an action worthy of regard, and what ought to be
rewarded, as it was the saving of his life; but had forgot whether any royal favour had
been shown to the person for it:
then said the king's servants that ministered unto him; the lords of his
bedchamber then in waiting:
there is nothing done for him; not on that account, nothing more than what he had;
he had an office at court before, but was not advanced to anything higher on this
account.

HE RY, "The servants informed him that nothing had been done to Mordecai for
that eminent service; in the king's gate he sat before, and there he still sat. Note, 1. It is
common for great men to take little notice of their inferiors. The king knew not whether
Mordecai was preferred or no till his servants informed him. High spirits take a pride in
being careless and unconcerned about those that are below them and ignorant of their
state. The great God takes cognizance of the meanest of his servants, knows what dignity
is done them and what disgrace. 2. Humility, modesty, and self-denial, though in God's
account of great price, yet commonly hinder men's preferment in the world. Mordecai
rises no higher than the king's gate, while proud ambitious Haman gets the king's ear
and heart; but, though the aspiring rise fast, the humble stand fast. Honour makes
proud men giddy, but upholds the humble in spirit, Pro_29:23. 3. Honour and dignity
are rated high in the king's books. He does not ask, What reward has been given
Mordecai? what money? what estate? but only, What honour? - a poor thing, and which,
if he had not wherewith to support it, would be but a burden. 4. The greatest merits and
the best services are often overlooked and go unrewarded among men. Little honour is
done to those who best deserve it, and fittest for it, and would do most good with it. See
Ecc_9:14-16. The acquisition of wealth and honour is usually a perfect lottery, in which
those that venture least commonly carry off the best prize. Nay, 5. Good services are
sometimes so far from being a man's preferment that they will not be his protection.
Mordecai is at this time, by the king's edict, doomed to destruction, with all the Jews,
though it is owned that he deserved dignity. Those that faithfully serve God need not fear
being thus ill paid.
K&D, "Est_6:3
On this occasion the king asked: What honour and greatness hath been done to
Mordochai for this? ‫ה‬ֶ‫ל־ז‬ ַ‫,ע‬ for giving this information. And the king's servants answered:
Nothing has been shown him. ‫ם‬ ִ‫ע‬ ‫ה‬ ָ‫שׂ‬ ָ‫,ע‬ to show any one something, e.g., favour; comp.
2Sa_2:6; 2Sa_3:8, and elsewhere. ‫ה‬ ָ‫דוּל‬ְ, greatness, i.e., promotion to honour.
BE SO , "Esther 6:3-4. There is nothing done for him — He hath had no
recompense for this great and good service. The king said, Who is in the court — It
is likely it was now morning, when the courtiers used to be in waiting; and the king
is so impatient to have Mordecai honoured, that he sends to know who was come,
that was fit to be employed in the business. ow Haman was come — Early in the
morning, because his malice would not suffer him to sleep; and he was impatient till
he had executed his revenge; and was resolved to watch for the very first
opportunity of speaking to the king, before he was engaged in other matters. Into
the outward court — Where he waited; because it was dangerous to come into the
inner court without special license, Esther 4:11. So that the king and his minister
were equally impatient about this poor Jew Mordecai, the former to have him
honoured, and the latter to have him hanged!
ELLICOTT, "(3) What honour and dignity hath been done.—The names of those
who were thought worthy of being accounted “royal benefactors” were enrolled on

a special list, and they were supposed to be suitably rewarded, though not
necessarily at the time. The reward however was. in theory at any rate, a thing to
which the “benefactor” had a distinct claim, and an almost legal right.
TRAPP, "Esther 6:3 And the king said, What honour and dignity hath been done to
Mordecai for this? Then said the king’s servants that ministered unto him, There is
nothing done for him.
Ver. 3. And the king said, What honour and dignity hath been done to Mordecai for
this?] Lyra saith that he had waited six years for reward and had none. In princes’
courts men are sure to meet with two evils, Aναβολη and Mεταβολη, not so in
heaven. The butler forgat Joseph. Solomon speaketh of a poor wise man, who by his
wisdom delivered the city, yet no man remembered that same poor man, Ecclesiastes
9:15. This is merces mundi, the world’s wages. Mordecai had saved the king’s life,
and yet is unrewarded. The kings of Persia used to be very bountiful to those that
had well deserved them, or of the commonwealth; calling such Orosangae, and
setting down both their names and their acts in the Chronicles, as Herodotus
testifieth. Among the rest he mentioned one Phylacus, Qui inter bene de rege
meritos ascriptus est, et multo tractu soli donatus, who was put upon record for his
good service to the king, and rewarded with a great deal of land given him. Others
had great store of gold and silver, and a gallant house, as Democedes Crotoniates,
the physician who cured Darius, had at Susis. It is well known out of Xenophon,
what rich gifts Cyrus gave to his friends and followers, chains of gold, armlets,
bridles embossed with gold, Persian stools, called Dorophoricae, &c. Herodotus
telleth us, that this Ahasuerus, alias Xerxes, gave Megabyzus, for his good service at
Babylon, a golden mill weighing six talents. Plutarch writeth, that he gave
Themistocles over two hundred talents, and three cities besides, viz. Magnesia,
Lampsacus, and Myuntis, to find him food, and for clothing and furniture two
more, viz. Percos and Palaescepsis. How came it then to pass that good Mordecai
was so forgotten? Surely it was a great fault in this ungrateful king, but God’s holy
hand was in it, that Mordecai should not have a present recompense, but that it
should be deferred till a fitter opportunity, when God might be more glorified in the
preservation of his people and destruction of their enemies. Let us not therefore be
weary of well doing; for (however men deal by us) we shall be sure to reap in due
season if we faint not, Galatians 6:9. God best seeth when a mercy will be most sweet
and seasonable. When his people are low enough, and the enemy high enough, then
usually it appeareth that there is a God that judgeth in the earth, and a rich reward
for the righteous. Men may neither remunerate nor remember the good turns we
have done them; but there is a book of remembrance written before tbe Lord for all
them that fear him, and that think upon his name, Malachi 3:16. See my treatise on
that text, called, The Righteous Man’s Recompense, annexed to my Comment upon
the Small Prophets.
Then said the king’s servants] The eunuchs or gentlemen of the bedchamber:
ingenuous men they were, and not disaffected to Mordecai, whom yet they could not
but know to be a great eyesore to Prince Haman. Si iuvenes isti vulgari invidentiae
morbo laborasscnt, saith Lavater. If these young men had been sick of that common

disease of envy, they would have extenuated his good service, and have said,
Mordecai is a despised Jew, a stranger, a captive. If he revealed the conspiracy, he
did but his duty, and provided thereby well for his own safety. Is it not reward
enough that he lives, and at court, where he hath a place, an office, &c.? Courtiers,
we know, love not to have others come over their heads, but think all lost which
themselves acquire not, as Seneca saith Sejanus did, Quicquid non acquiritur
damnum est. Whatever he did not own, was consumed. We know how it was in the
courts of Pharaoh, Saul, Herod. That is a rare commendation that is given by
Xenophon of Cyrus’s courtiers, that though a man should seek or choose blindfold,
he could not miss of a good man, Eνθα καν µυων βαλη τις ουκ αν αµαρτοι ανδρος
αγαθου (Xen. Cyrop. 1. 8). David’s court might very well be such, Psalms 101:1-8,
and Queen Elizabeth’s, and George’s, prince of Anhalt, of whom Melancthon
writeth, that his chamber was Ecclesia, Academia, Curia, a church, a university,
and a court; Palaestra pietatis et literarum, as Tremellius saith of Cranmer’s family,
a school of piety and learning.
There is nothing done for him] And yet the Apocryphal additions, Esther 12:5,6, say
otherwise.
WHEDO , "3. What honour… to Mordecai — We have a life-picture here. We
seem to see the excited monarch start up and raise this question, as if some great
duty had been forgotten. “It was a settled principle of the Persian government that
‘royal benefactors’ were to receive adequate reward. The names of such persons
were placed on a special roll, (Herod., 8:85,) and great care was taken that they
should be properly recompensed. See Herod., 3:140; 5:11; 8:85; Thucyd., 1:138;
Xen., ‘Hel.,’ iii; 1:6. It is a mistake, however, to suppose (Davidson) that they were
always rewarded at once. Themistocles was inscribed on the list in B.C. 480, but did
not obtain a reward until B.C. 465. Other benefactors waited for months, (Herod.,
Esther 5:11,) or perhaps years, (ib., 9:107,) before they were recompensed.
Sometimes a benefactor seems to have received no reward at all. (Ib., 3:138.”) —
Rawlinson.
PULPIT, "The king said, What honour and dignity hath been done to Mordecai for
this? The discoverer of a conspiracy against the life of the king would in any
country have been regarded as entitled to some reward. In Persia, where "royal
benefactors" formed a distinct class, and had their names inscribed on a special list
(Herod; 8.85), it was especially incumbent on the monarch to see that every such
person received a return proportioned to the value of his service. Ahasuerus seems
to have supposed that some honour or dignity must have been conferred upon
Mordecai, though he could not recollect what it was; and it is difficult to understand
how the omission to reward him had occurred, unless there was a prejudice against
him among the high court officials, who may have known that he was a Jew, though
his fellow-servants did not (Esther 3:4).

4 The king said, “Who is in the court?” ow
Haman had just entered the outer court of the
palace to speak to the king about impaling
Mordecai on the pole he had set up for him.
CLARKE, "Who is in the court? - This accords with the dream mentioned by the
Targum; and given above.
Now Haman was come - This must have been very early in the morning. Haman’s
pride and revenge were both on the tenters to be gratified.
GILL, "And the king said, who is in the court?.... Being in haste to confer some
honour on Mordecai for what he had done:
now Haman was come into the outward court of the king's house; though it
was early in the morning, being eager to get to the speech of the king before he was
engaged in any business, to obtain a grant from him:
to hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him; of which he
made no doubt of having, and therefore had prepared for it.
HE RY, "It is now morning, and people begin to stir.
I. Haman is so impatient to get Mordecai hanged that he comes early to court, to be
ready at the king's levee, before any other business is brought before him, to get a
warrant for his execution (Est_6:4), which he makes sure that he shall have at the first
word. The king would gratify him in a greater thing than that; and he could tell the king
that he was so confident of the justice of his request, and the king's favour to him in it,
that he had got the gallows ready: one word from the king would complete his
satisfaction.
JAMISO , "Now Haman was come into the outward court — This was early
in the morning. It is the invariable custom for kings in Eastern countries to transact
business before the sun is hot, often in the open air, and so Haman was in all probability
come officially to attend on his master.

K&D, "Est_6:4
To repair this deficiency, and to do honour to the man who had done good service to
the king - as the Persian monarchs were accustomed, comp. Brisson, de reg. Pers. princ.
i. c. 135 - he asked, “who is in the court?” i.e., whether some minister or state functionary
were there with whom he might consult concerning the honour due to Mordochai. Those
who desired an audience with the king were accustomed to appear and wait in the outer
court, until they were summoned into the inner court to present themselves before the
monarch. From this question of the king it appears that it was already morning. And
Haman, it is parenthetically remarked, was come into the outer court to speak to the
king, to hang Mordochai on the tree which he had prepared.
COFFMA , "Verse 4
THE KI G ASKED HAMA 'S SUGGESTIO O HOW TO REWARD THE
MA WHOM THE KI G DELIGHTED TO HO OR
"And the king said, Who is in the court? ow Haman was come into the outward
court of the king's house, to speak unto the king to hang Mordecai on the gallows he
hadprepared for him. And the king's servants said unto him, Behold, Haman
standeth in the court. And the king said, Let him come in. So Haman came in. And
the king said unto him, What shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth
to honor? ow Haman said in his heart, To whom would the king delight to do
honor more than to myself."
As a consequence of Haman's egotism in thinking that his suggestions would be
applied to himself, he really went all out with what he proposed.
ELLICOTT, "(4) Haman was come.—It being at length morning, Haman had come
to the palace in due course, and was waiting in the outer court till the king should
call for him. The king in the inner court ponders what recompense to bestow upon
Mordecai, Haman in the outer court stands ready primed with a request that he
may be hanged.
TRAPP, "Esther 6:4 And the king said, Who [is] in the court? ow Haman was
come into the outward court of the king’s house, to speak unto the king to hang
Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him.
Ver. 4. And the king said, Who is in the court] Josephus saith, that he first asked
what time it was, and understanding that it was morning’s light (for so long he had
heard his servants read, and till then it was not that Mordecai’s matter was
mentioned, Haman being now ready to get a warrant for his execution), he asked,
who is there without? as desirous to proceed by counsel in a business of that
consequence.
ow Haman was come, &c.] He was early up (and at court for a mischief), but never
the nearer, save only to his own utter ruin.

To speak to the king to hang Mordecai] Which till it were done, he could neither
sleep in quiet nor eat with comfort. Little considered he how the gallows groaned for
himself. "The righteous is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked cometh in his
stead," Proverbs 11:8.
Vivit adhuc Christus, regnat, regnabit et usque:
Atque hostes omnes sub ditione premit.
WHEDO , "4. Who is in the court — The king’s soul, after that sleepless night, was
burdened with impatient desire to honour his benefactor. Haman, on the other
hand, was equally impatient to see Mordecai hung upon the lofty stake he had
erected. The king waits in the early morning for his chief prince to come and advise
him how best to honour this loyal Jew, and Haman also is waiting to be called that
he may speak unto the king to hang Mordecai — Mark the wonderful workings of
Providence!
CO STABLE, "Haman"s recommendation6:4-10
"Here the early bird is gotten by the worm." [ ote: Moore, Esther , p64.]
Haman"s pride preceded his fall ( Esther 6:6; cf. Proverbs 16:18). He wanted, as
much as possible, to appear like the king himself, in the honors he recommended for
the person he thought would be himself ( Esther 6:8; cf. Genesis 41:39-45; 1 Samuel
18:4; 1 Kings 1:33). The crown was on the head of the horse, not its rider ( Esther
6:8; cf. Esther 6:9).
It was evidently "a special arrangement of the horse"s hair to form a topknot
between the ears." [ ote: Baldwin, p90. ]
Baldwin based this opinion on sculptured reliefs that archaeologists have discovered
on a stairway at Persepolis. The king knew by now that Mordecai was a Jew (
Esther 6:10). However, the writer did not say Ahasuerus understood that Haman
had aimed his pogrom against the Jews-until Esther revealed that fact ( Esther 7:4).
Of course he may have known it already. It seems incredible that Ahasuerus would
issue such a decree without finding out whom it would eliminate. Perhaps he
planned to make Mordecai an exception and spare his life.
PULPIT, "The king said, Who is in the court? Probably some high officer of state
was required to be always in attendance upon the monarch, to take his orders at any
moment. ow Haman was come. Early morning is a common time for the
transaction of business at an Eastern court. Haman was so anxious to get the
business on which he was bent despatched, that he had come perhaps even before
daybreak, and was waiting in the outer court, to get, if possible, the first audience.
This haste of his to effect Mordecai's destruction led to his being the person deputed

to do him the highest honour.
5 His attendants answered, “Haman is standing in
the court.”
“Bring him in,” the king ordered.
GILL, "And the king's servants said unto him, behold, Haman standeth in
the court,.... In the outward court; for into the inward court none might enter without
being called, for which he was waiting:
and the king said, let him come in; into his bedchamber; and it was of God, no
doubt, that Haman should be on the spot at this very time, when the king was in the
humour to do honour to Mordecai, and by him.
HE RY, "The king is so impatient to have Mordecai honoured that he sends to know
who is in the court that is fit to be employed in it. Word is brought him that Haman is in
the court, Est_6:5. Let him come in, says the king, the fittest man to be made use of both
in directing and in dispensing the king's favour; and the king knew nothing of any
quarrel he had with Mordecai. Haman is brought in immediately, proud of the honour
done him in being admitted into the king's bed-chamber, as it should seem, before he
was up; for let the king but give orders for the dignifying of Mordecai, and he will be
easy in his mind and try to sleep. Now Haman thinks he has the fairest opportunity he
can wish for to solicit against Mordecai; but the king's heart is as full as his, and it is fit
he should speak first.
K&D, "Est_6:5
The attendants inform the king that Haman is in the court; whereupon the king
commands: ‫ּוא‬‫ב‬ָ‫,י‬ let him come in.
BE SO , "Verse 5-6
Esther 6:5-6. The king said, Let him come in — The king thought him the fittest
man he had to be made use of, both in directing and in dispensing his favour,
knowing nothing of any quarrel he had with Mordecai. So Haman came in — Proud
of the honour done him, in being admitted into the king’s bed-chamber, before he

was up; for it is likely the king only wished to give orders for the honouring of
Mordecai, and then he would be easy in his mind, and try to sleep. Haman, however,
thinks of finding the king alone, and unengaged, and that this was the fairest
opportunity he could wish for, to solicit for Mordecai’s execution. And the king —
Whose heart was as full as his, and who, as was fit, spoke first; said unto him, What
shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour? — He names no
one, because he would have the more impartial answer. It is a good property in
kings and other superiors, to delight in bestowing rewards, and not to delight in
punishing. ow Haman thought in his heart — As he had great reason to do,
because of the favour which the king had showed to him above all others; To whom
would the king delight to do honour more than myself? — o one deserves to be
honoured so much as I, nor stands so fair for it. See how men’s pride deceives them!
The deceitfulness of our own hearts appears in nothing so much as in the good
opinion we are wont to have of ourselves, and of our own performances, against
which we should therefore constantly watch and pray. Haman thought the king
loved and valued no one but himself, but he was deceived.
TRAPP, "Esther 6:5 And the king’s servants said unto him, Behold, Haman
standeth in the court. And the king said, Let him come in.
Ver. 5. Behold, Haman standeth in the court] For into the presence he might not
come uncalled. And to be thus called in he held it no small happiness; but was soon
confuted. He came into the room (as men come to a lottery) with his head full of
hopes, but he went thence with his heart full of blanks.
And the king said, Let him come in] See here, saith Merlin, a sweet and special
providence of God in this, that Ahasuerus should take advice about honouring
Mordecai, and not of his servants that attended upon his person, but of Haman then
present (though for another purpose), and concealing the man he means, should
make Haman say what was fit to be done, and then do it accordingly. either the
king nor his servants, likely, would ever have thought of doing Mordecai so great
honour as Haman prescribed. See here, as in a mirror, how the Lord by a secret
providence bringeth about and overruleth the wiles of men, their affairs, times,
counsels, words, and speeches, to the fulfilling of his own will and decree; and this
when they think least of doing God’s will or serving his providence.
6 When Haman entered, the king asked him,
“What should be done for the man the king
delights to honor?”

ow Haman thought to himself, “Who is there
that the king would rather honor than me?”
CLARKE, "The king said unto him - He did not give him time to make his
request; and put a question to him which, at the first view, promised him all that his
heart could wish.
GILL, "So Haman came in,.... But was prevented speaking to the king about the
business he came upon by the following speech of the king:
what shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour? he
mentions not the name of any man, that he might the more freely, and unbiasedly, and
disinterestedly give his advice; nor might the king know of any resentment of Haman to
Mordecai:
(now Haman thought in his heart, to whom would the king delight to do
honour more than to myself?) who had been advanced above all the princes and
nobles of the realm, and was now in such high honour both with the king and queen,
with whom he was to be at a banquet that day; and he might conclude, that by putting
this question to him, he could have in view none but himself: Aben Ezra observes, that
some from hence gather, that this book was written by the spirit of prophecy, because
none could know the thoughts of the heart but God; but though he believes it to be
written by the Holy Ghost, yet, as he observes, Haman might disclose this thought of his
heart to his friends afterwards.
HE RY, " The king asks Haman how he should express his favour to one whom he
had marked for a favourite: What shall be done to the man whom the king delights to
honour? Est_6:6. Note, It is a good property in kings, and other superiors, to delight in
bestowing rewards and not to delight in punishing. Parents and masters should take a
pleasure in commending and encouraging that which is good in those under their
charge.
JAMISO , "What shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to
honour? — In bestowing tokens of their favor, the kings of Persia do not at once, and as
it were by their own will, determine the kind of honor that shall be awarded; but they
turn to the courtier standing next in rank to themselves, and ask him what shall be done
to the individual who has rendered the service specified; and according to the answer

Mordecai Honored: King Rewards Loyal Subject

Mordecai Honored: King Rewards Loyal Subject

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