King Ahasuerus granted Queen Esther the estate of Haman, the Jews' enemy, after Haman's execution, compensating Esther for the peril she faced. Mordecai was brought before the king, recognized as Esther's cousin, and was given Haman's former position and authority, with control over Haman's confiscated property. This act signified a reversal of fortunes, where the wealth of the executed Haman was transferred to Esther and Mordecai, ensuring their elevated status and safety.

1. ESTHER 8 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
The King’s Edict in Behalf of the Jews
1 That same day King Xerxes gave Queen Esther
the estate of Haman, the enemy of the Jews. And
Mordecai came into the presence of the king, for
Esther had told how he was related to her.
BAR ES, "Give the house of Haman - Confiscation of goods accompanied
public execution in Persia as in other Oriental countries.
CLARKE, "The king - give the house of Haman - As Haman was found
guilty of treasonable practices against the peace and prosperity of the king
and his empire, his life was forfeited and his goods confiscated. And as
Mordecai had been the means of preserving the king’s life, and was the
principal object of Haman’s malice, it was but just to confer his property
upon him, as well as his dignity and office, as Mordecai was found deserving
of the former, and fit to discharge the duties of the latter.
GILL, "On that day did the King, Ahasuerus, give the house of Haman, the
Jews' enemy, unto Esther the queen,.... That, and all the goods in it, and
estate belonging to it; which being confiscated to the king, he gave to Esther,
who would have been the sufferer, had his scheme taken place; so the
Targum adds,"and the men of his house, and all his treasures, and all his
riches:"
and Mordecai came before the king; was introduced into his presence,
became one of his privy counsellors, one of those that saw the king's face,
and sat first in the kingdom, Est_1:14
for Esther had told what he was unto her; what relation he stood in to her;
her uncle, according to the Vulgate Latin version, and so Aben Ezra and
Josephus, but wrongly, for she was his uncle's daughter; so that they were

2. brother's children, or own cousins, see Est_2:7.
HE RY 1-2, "It was but lately that we had Esther and Mordecai in tears
and in fears, but fasting and praying; now let us see how to them there arose
light in darkness. Here is, 1. Esther enriched. Haman was hanged as a
traitor, therefore his estate was forfeited to the crown, and the king gave it
all to Esther, in recompence for the fright that wicked man had put her into
and the vexation he had created her, Est_8:1. His houses and lands, good
sand chattels, and all the money he had heaped up which he was prime-
minister of state (which, we may suppose, was no little), are given to Esther;
they are all her own, added to the allowance she already had. Thus is the
wealth of the sinner laid up for the just, and the innocent divides the silver,
Pro_13:22; Job_27:17, Job_27:18. What Haman would have done mischief
with Esther will do good with; and estates are to be valued as they are used.
2. Mordecai advanced. His pompous procession, this morning, through the
streets of the city, was but a sudden flash or blaze of honour; but here we
have the more durable and gainful preferments to which he was raised,
which yet the other happily made way for. (1.) He is now owned as the
queen's cousin, which till now, though Esther had been four years queen,
for aught that appears, the king did not know. So humble, so modest, a man
was Mordecai, and so far from being ambitious of a place at court, that he
concealed his relation to the queen and her obligations to him as her
guardian, and never made us of her interest for any advantage of his own.
Who but Mordecai could have taken so little notice of so great an honour?
But now he was brought before the king, introduced, as we say, to kiss his
hand; for now, at length, Esther had told what he was to her, not only near
a-kin to her, but the best friend she had in the world, who took care of her
when she was an orphan, and one whom she still respected as a father. Now
the king finds himself, for his wife's sake, more obliged than he thought he
had been to delight in doing honour to Mordecai. How great were the merits
of that man to whom both king and queen did in effect owe their lives! Being
brought before the king, to him no doubt he bowed, and did reverence,
though he would not to Haman an Amalekite. (2.) The king makes his lord
privy-seal in the room of Haman. All the trust he had reposed in Haman,
and all the power he had given him, are here transferred to Mordecai; for
the ring which he had taken from Haman he gave to Mordecai, and made
this trusty humble man as much his favourite, his confidant, and his agent,
as ever that proud perfidious wretch was; a happy change he made of his
bosom-friends, and so, no doubt, he and his people soon found it. (3.) The
queen makes him here steward, for the management of Haman's estate, and
for getting and keeping possession of it: She set Mordecai over the house of
Haman. See the vanity of laying up treasure upon earth; he that heapeth up
riches knoweth not who shall gather them (Psa_39:6), not only whether he
shall be a wise man or a fool (Ecc_2:19), but whether he shall be a friend or
an enemy. With what little pleasure, nay, with what constant vexation,
would Haman have looked upon his estate if he could have foreseen that
Mordecai, the man he hated above all men in the world, should have rule
over all that wherein he had laboured, and thought that he showed himself
wise! It is our interest, therefore, to make sure those riches which will not
be left behind, but will go with us to another world.

3. JAMISO , "Est_8:1-6. Mordecai advanced.
On that day did the king Ahasuerus give the house of Haman ... unto
Esther — His property was confiscated, and everything belonging to him, as
some compensation for the peril to which she had been exposed.
Mordecai came before the king — that is, was introduced at court and
appointed one of the seven counsellors. Esther displayed great prudence
and address in acknowledging Mordecai’s relation to her at the moment
most fitted to be of eminent service to him.
K&D, "By the execution of Haman, his property was confiscated, and the
king decreed that the house of the Jews' enemy should be given to Esther.
The “house of Haman” undoubtedly means the house with all that pertained
to it. “And Mordochai came before the king, for Esther had told him what he
was to her,” viz., her kinsman and foster-father, Est_2:7. This information
effected Mordochai's appearance before the king, i.e., his reception into the
number of the high dignitaries who beheld the face of the king, i.e., were
allowed personal access to him; comp. Est_1:10, Est_1:14; Est_7:9.
BENSON, ". Did the king give the house of Haman unto Esther — That is,
he bestowed upon her the whole estate belonging to his family, his lands, his
goods, his servants, his cattle, with all the money he had treasured up. All
this is included here in his house, which, being justly forfeited to the king, is
no less justly bestowed by him upon the queen, to compensate, in some
degree, the danger to which Haman had exposed her. And Mordecai came
before the king — Was by the queen’s desire admitted into the king’s
presence and family, and probably made one of the seven princes. For
Esther had told what he was unto her — How nearly he was related to her,
which till this time she had wisely concealed.
TRAPP, "Esther 8:1 On that day did the king Ahasuerus give the house of
Haman the Jews’ enemy unto Esther the queen. And Mordecai came before
the king; for Esther had told what he [was] unto her.
Ver. 1. On that day] This was a festival and a good day, as Esther 8:17, albo
lapillo notandus, for the many signal mercies that thereon came in together,
viz. Esther’s petition granted, Haman hanged, Mordecai advanced, the
proscribed Jews relieved, &c. As crosses seldom come single ( Catenata
piorum crux), but trooping together commonly, and treading upon the heels
of one another, like Job’s messengers, James 1:2; so do blessings from God:
there is oft a continued series, a concatenation; there comes a troop, as she
said, when her son Gad came, Genesis 30:11. God is rich in mercy, Romans
10:12. Neither are we at any time constrained in him, but in our own heart.
Did the king Ahasuerus give] For into the king’s hands was all Haman’s

4. estate forfeited. The Turks have a proverb, He that is greatest in office is but
a statue of glass. Few of their viziers die in their beds, but are cut off at a
short warning, and all they have is confiscated.
The house of Haman] i.e. His goods and chattels, all that glory of his
riches, whereof he had so greatly boasted, Esther 5:11, and which he had
been so many years heaping and hoarding. Nem0 confidat nimium
secundis.
The Jews’ enemy] It is ill being the Church’s enemy: she hath a champion
that will stick to her, Isaiah 37:23, so that her enemies shall all be found
liars unto her, Deuteronomy 33:29. Let them read their destiny in that cup
of trembling, burdensome stone, hearth of fire, mentioned Zechariah 12:2-
3; Zechariah 12:6, and hear the Church’s motto, Nemo me impune lacessit;
no one provokes me with impunity, there cannot be a greater folly than to
be her enemy, for she conquereth even when conquered; as Christ
overcame as well by patience as by power, Victa tamen vinces, eversaque
Troia resurges.
Unto Esther the queen] So making good that of Solomon, Proverbs 13:22.
The wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just. See Job 27:16-17. Thus was
that of the Canaanites for the Israelites, of Nabal for David, of the former
tyrants and persecutors, for Constantine the Great, to whom the good God
(saith Austin, De C. D. 1. v. c. 25) gave so much worldly wealth, quantas
optare nullus auderet, as no man could ever have wished. That Haman was
exceeding rich, appeareth by that large offer of his, Esther 3:9; who can tell
but that he might have as much as Pope John XXII, in whose coffers were
found by his heirs two hundred and fifty tons of gold, as Petrarch reporteth.
And Mordecai came before the king] As his continual attendant and
special favourite, his cousin and counsellor; perhaps one of the seven
mentioned Esther 1:14. He that hitherto sat as a servant before the king’s
gate is now grown so great a man all upon the sudden. It is the Lord that
thus raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the
dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of
glory, 1 Samuel 2:8. Promotion cometh neither from the east, west, nor
south (where the warm sunshine is), but God is the judge, he putteth down
one, and setteth up another, Psalms 75:6-7. He advanced Jovinian and
Valentinian, men of low birth, to the empire. In the year of grace 518
Justinus was first a swine herd, then a herdsman, then a carpenter, then a
soldier, and lastly an emperor. Cromwell, a smith’s son of Putney or
thereabouts (whose mother married after to a sheerman), what a great man
grew he here to be in King Henry VIII’s time? Virtue exalteth the meanest,
when villany tumbleth down the noblest.

5. For Esther had told what he was unto her] viz. Her first cousin and foster
father, her friend that was as her own soul, as Moses phraseth it,
Deuteronomy 13:6, and preferreth him before brother, son, daughter, wife.
His relation to Esther was as a stirrup to help him into the saddle of highest
preferment.
WHEDON, "1. On that day — The very day of Haman’s execution.
Give the house of Haman — By “the house of Haman” we are to
understand not merely his residence, but all his property, including
servants, attendants, and the various paraphernalia that pertained to a
Persian noble. The confiscation of the property of one publicly executed
followed as a matter of course. This was a universal custom in the East. And
to whom could the goods of the Jews’ enemy be more appropriately
transferred than unto Esther the queen? As yet the king did not know her
relationship to Mordecai, but we naturally suppose that upon his giving her
the house of Haman she made known to him that Mordecai was her cousin,
and doubtless received his consent to consign her gift to his charge. See next
verse.
Mordecai came before the king — He was summoned by the king himself,
who at once resolved to advance him to Haman’s place in his court.
Mordecai’s loyalty and past service were fresh in the king’s mind, and now
when he learns his relationship to Esther, he feels that no better man can be
found to stand in Haman’s place.
COFFMAN, "Verse 1
THE PRACTICAL REVERSAL OF THAT IRREVOCABLE DECREE
This chapter deals with the danger that yet remained. Yes, Haman was
dead, but that decree which he had devised was still in force, backed up by
the power of that "Law of the Medes and Persians that altereth not." This
meant that all the Jews in the Persian empire were still subject to general
slaughter and the confiscation of their property on the thirteenth of Adar.
Something had to be done about that.
CONSEQUENCES OF HAMAN'S EXECUTION
"On that day did the king Ahasuerus give the house of Haman unto Esther
the queen. And Mordecai came before the king;for Esther had told what he
was unto her. And the king took off his ring, which he had taken from
Haman, and gave it to Mordecaiø And Esther set Mordecai over the house of
Haman."
"The house of Haman" (Esther 8:1). "Confiscation of goods and properties
of the condemned accompanied executions in Persia, as in other Oriental

6. countries."[1] The house of Haman included not merely the castle and its
furnishings but also the host of servants, retainers, and attendants that
went along with it.
The king gave this vast estate to Esther; and she might well have desired to
give it to Mordecai; but what she did was even better. She placed him in
absolute control over it, thus providing him with a residence and dignity
that were appropriate to his new office as Prime Minister.
Summarizing the consequences in evidence here: (1) Haman's vast
properties were conferred upon Esther; (2) Mordecai was given the
management and control of them; (3) Ahasuerus bestowed the office of
Prime Minister upon Mordecai when he gave him the ring that had been
worn by Haman. (4) The ring gave Mordecai the power to seal documents
and to convey with them the authority of law.
"It was perfectly natural for the king to confer this great authority upon
Mordecai. The king had already delighted to honor him for exposing the
plot against the king's life."[2] Also, he had learned that Mordecai was the
foster father of the queen.
CONSTABLE, "Verse 1-2
1. The rewarding of Esther and Mordecai8:1-2
Haman"s "house" ( Esther 8:1) was his estate. Esther received the estate,
probably to compensate her for her suffering. The king gave Mordecai
Haman"s place as second in authority (cf. Joseph, Genesis 41:42; Nehemiah
, Nehemiah 1:11 to Nehemiah 2:8; and Daniel , Daniel 5:7; Daniel 5:29;
Daniel 6:3).
Verses 1-19
C. The Jews" Deliverance8:1-9:19
Even though Haman was now dead, the Jews were not yet safe. This
section of the text records what Esther and Mordecai did to ensure the
preservation of the Jews who then lived throughout the vast Persian
Empire. The death of Haman is not the major climax of the book.
PARKER, "Is the matter then at an end here? No. Haman"s policy must be
all reversed.
"On that day did the king Ahasuerus give the house of Haman the Jews"
enemy unto Esther the queen" ( Esther 8:1).
Esther had another request to make—"She fell down at his feet, and
besought him with tears." Then it was all over! What did she beseech the

7. king to do?
"To put away the mischief of Haman the Agagite, and his device that he
had devised against the Jews. Then the king held out the golden sceptre
toward Esther. So Esther arose and stood before the king. And said, If it
please the king, and if I have found favour in his sight, and the thing seem
right before the king, and I be pleasing in his eyes [Oh this eloquent tongue!
She knew it was all settled before it began], let it be written to reverse the
letters devised by Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he
wrote to destroy the Jews which are in all the king"s provinces: for how can
I endure to see the evil that shall come unto my people? or how can I endure
to see the destruction of my kindred?" ( Esther 8:3-6).
Pathos will do more than logic. Would God all preachers knew that one
simple, practical, eternal lesson! Tears conquer. It was all done. Ahasuerus
made gracious reply; the king"s scribes were called at the time to write
letters of reversal all over the empire—
"To the lieutenants, and the deputies and rulers of the provinces which
are from India unto Ethiopia, an hundred twenty and seven provinces, unto
every province according to the writing thereof, and unto every people after
their language, and to the Jews according to their writing, and according to
their language "( Esther 8:9).
It was the beginning of a gospel: Go ye into the provinces, and tell every
Jew that he shall live. It was a great speech. There is a greater still made by
the Jew whom we call the Son of. God, and worship as God the Son: "Go ye
into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature," the gospel of
pardon, acceptance, adoption, restoration, assured and immortal sonship.
LANGE, "It seems almost self-evident after what occurred in chap7 that
now, next to Esther, Mordecai should also come to great distinction.
Whether, however, they would be able fully to reverse the fate that
threatened the Jews, remained uncertain in view of the difficulty of the
situation. Even after Mordecai had taken his own protective measures, up to
the very hour when success was assured, uncertainty continued. In chap8 it
is to be shown first what authority he received and what measures of policy
he adopted.
Esther 8:1-8. First, Mordecai’s authority. On the very day in which Haman
fell the king presented the queen with his house. Justly enough the Targums
understand by the term “house,” also the people in it, and the entire
possessions belonging thereto. It was usual for Persian kings to possess
themselves of the property of those who had been punished with death
(Josephus, Antiq.XI:1, 3; 4, 6). Mordecai came before the king,i.e. he was
made one of the officers who saw the face of the king (comp. Esther 1:10;
Esther 1:4; Esther 7:9). He owed his position, not merely to his merit, as
having himself been of service to the king, and now meriting the title

8. benefactor of the king (Herod. VIII:85), but because of his relation to Esther
( Esther 2:7). Indeed the king took off his ring ( Esther 8:2, ‫ר‬ַ‫ָפ‬‫ּי‬ַ‫ו‬, as in Esther
3:10), his seal-ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it unto Mordecai.—
‫ן‬ ִ‫מ‬ ‫ִיר‬‫ב‬ֱ‫ע‬ ֶ‫,ה‬ as in Jonah 3:6; he made him prime minister ( Genesis 41:42; 1
Maccabees 6:15; comp. Esther 3:10).[FN1] In addition Esther placed him over the
house of Haman, i.e. left to him the honorable and lucrative management of the
large estate thus reverting to her, in fact made him her governor of the house.
Both henceforth enjoyed a brilliant position; but they were not misled thereby into
evil. The remarks with reference to the present prosperity of Esther and Mordecai
are evidently made with regard to what followed. They did not take their ease at
the expense of the needed care over their people; these were not forgotten. On
the contrary they believed it incumbent upon them to do all in their power to make
their people happy and prosperous. The mourning of Esther was still great; it did
not cease until full deliverance came to them.
PULPIT, "HAMAN'S HOUSE GIVEN TO ESTHER, AND THE KING'S
SIGNET MADE OVER.TO MORDECAI (Esther 8:1, Esther 8:2). Two
consequences followed immediately on Haman's execution. His property
escheating to the crown, Ahasuerus made the whole of it over to Esther,
either simply as a sign of favour, or in compensation of the alarm and
suffering which Haman had caused her. Further, Haman's office being
vacant, and Mordecai's close relationship to Esther having become known
to the king, he transferred to Mordecai the confidence which he had been
wont to repose in Haman, and gave him the custody of the royal signet.
Under these circumstances Esther placed Mordecai in charge of the house
which had been Haman's, as a suitable abode for a minister.
Esther 8:1
On that day did the king … give the house of Haman. When a criminal was
executed, everything that belonged to him became the property of the
crown, and was disposed of according to the king's pleasure. It pleased
Ahasuerus to make over to Esther the house of Haman, with, no doubt, all
its content, attendants, furniture, and treasure. The Jews' enemy. This now
becomes Haman's ordinary designation (see Esther 9:10, Esther 9:24).
Traditional practices have in many places kept up his memory as one of the
most hated adversaries of the nation. And Mordecai came before the king.
Mordecai became a high official—one of those in constant attendance on the
king. For Esther had told what he was to her. i.e. had revealed his
relationship, had told that he was her cousin. Mordecai having been
recognised as a "king's benefactor" (Esther 6:3-11), and Esther having been
forced to confess herself a Jewess in order to save her nation (Esther 7:3,
Esther 7:4), there was no object in any further concealment.
BI 1-2, "On that day did the king Ahasuerus give the house of Haman the Jews’ enemy
unto Esther the queen.
Right use of wealth
I. We see how, in the providence of God, the wealth which worldly men would use in

9. opposition to the interests of God’s cause and people may be wrested from them, and
made available for the advancement of these interests. The conclusion which we draw
from all this is, that the best and happiest arrangement which a man can make with
respect to the good things which have been bestowed upon him is that in his lifetime he
seek to be personally the dispenser of good to others. If he lives and acts in this spirit,
then he will have the less anxiety as to the disposal of what he may be able to leave
behind him.
II. The peculiar providence which we see exercised in the case of Mordecai teaches us
that men may be well content to wait, while they are in the way of well-doing, until they
receive their recompense. Worth and faithfulness and humility, after they have been
long neglected, are brought into the light, and are honoured in proportion to the neglect
which they formerly experienced.
III. from Esther’s love for her people we take a lesson. Then should not this be an
example to those among us, who themselves have had their souls gladdened by the grace
of God, to be mindful of others who have not been visited so graciously?
IV. The lesson which is to be drawn from the conduct of the king as it is here exhibited.
If one man, for example, has injured another, and knows it, but is too proud to
acknowledge it, then he is destitute of the true spirit of Christianity. If a man is engaged
in a wrong course of action, and is sensible of it, but will put his soul in peril rather than
yield to the remonstrances of his friends, then his pride will certainly prove the ruin of
his soul. There is, perhaps, more real heroism in confessing and correcting errors and
weaknesses than there is in boldly contending for truth, when we are conscious that we
have it on our side. Many voices will cheer us onward in the defence of principles which
we defend at some risk. The courage that suffers in a good cause will always get
applause. But when I have done wrong, and make confession of the wrong, the men of
the world do not sympathise. (A. B. Davidson, D. D.)
And the king took off his ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it
unto Mordecai.
The end in peace
But success to faithfulness, even in the narrowest sphere and with the feeblest powers, is
uniform and certain, and, as an example, blessed and wholesome. This is the great
principle which Mordecai illustrates.
1. In his case we first see this fidelity for a period exceedingly tried and hopeless.
2. We see this faithfulness in duty brought to extreme danger. Not only was
Mordecai unrewarded, but he was condemned to an appointed destruction.
3. We see this fidelity in duty completely rescued and delivered.
4. We see this fidelity in duty proportionably exalted.
5. We see this fidelity in duty abundantly rewarded in outward, earthly things.
6. We see this fidelity in duty not only rewarded in itself, and in the person and
condition of the man who is distinguished by it, but crowned with eminent
usefulness to others. (S. H. Tyng, D. D.)

10. 2 The king took off his signet ring, which he had
reclaimed from Haman, and presented it to
Mordecai. And Esther appointed him over
Haman’s estate.
BAR ES, "His ring - i. e. the royal signet by which the decrees of the government
were signed.
Over the house of Haman - Not only the building and the furniture, but the
household - the vast train of attendants of all kinds that was attached to the residence of
a Persian noble.
CLARKE, "The king took off his ring - In the ring was the seal of the king. Giving
the ring to Mordecai was tantamount to giving him the seal of the kingdom, and
constituting him the same as lord chancellor among us.
GILL, "And the king took off his ring, which he had taken from Haman, and
gave it unto Mordecai,.... which, with the Persians, was a token of the strongest
affection and strictest friendship (z); the Targum calls it his signatory ring, that with
which he signed laws, edicts, letters, patents, &c. and so hereby made him keeper of the
seals:
and Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman; appointed him her steward
of the estate of Haman, the king had given her.
JAMISO , "the king took off his ring, ... and gave it unto Mordecai — By
that act transferring to him all the power and authority which the ring symbolized, and
promoting him to the high dignity which Haman had formerly filled.
Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman — as her steward or factor, to
manage that large and opulent estate which had been assigned to her.
K&D, "Est_8:2
And the king took off his seal-ring which he had taken from Haman (comp. Est_3:10),
and gave it to Mordochai. ‫ן‬ ִ‫מ‬ ‫יר‬ ִ‫ב‬ ֱ‫ע‬ ֶ‫,ה‬ to cause to go from some one, i.e., to take away. By
this act Mordochai was advanced to the post of first minister of the king; comp. Gen_
41:42, 1 Macc. 6:15. The king's seal gave the force of law to royal edicts, the seal taking

11. the place of the signature. See rem. on Est_8:8 and Est_3:10.
BENSON, "Esther 8:2. The king took off his ring — That ring which he had
formerly given to Haman, but had resumed, he now gives to Mordecai, in
token of his favour, and with it that power whereof this ring was a sign,
making him, as Haman had been, the keeper of his signet. And Esther set
Mordecai over the house of Haman — Not over his family, for that was
destroyed, but over his lands and goods, given her by the king: of which she
made Mordecai her steward, to manage that great estate for her, as he
thought fit. With what little pleasure, nay, with what constant vexation,
would Haman have looked upon his estate, if he could have foreseen that
Mordecai, the man he hated above all men in the world, should have rule
over all that wherein he had laboured, and thought he showed himself so
wise! See, then, the vanity of laying up treasure on earth; he that heapeth up
riches knoweth not who shall gather them, Psalms 39:6; not only whether
he shall be a wise man or a fool, (Ecclesiastes 2:19,) but whether he shall be
a friend or an enemy. It is our interest, therefore, to make sure of those
riches which will not be left behind, but will go with us to another world.
Reader, attend to this, and lay not up for thy posterity, any more than for
thyself treasures on earth.
ELLICOTT, "(2) Took off his ring . . . and gave it unto Mordecai.—
Constituting him thereby his Vizier, who would thus authenticate a royal
decree, and by having, as it were, carte blanche given him for the time,
would for that time save his master all further trouble. Mordecai’s position
had now become what Daniel’s had been to Darius, that nobler servant to a
worthier lord (see Daniel 6:2, 38). He was the queen’s cousin, and he had on
one occasion been the means of saving the king’s life, and therefore starts
under distinctly favourable auspices.
TRAPP, "Esther 8:2 And the king took off his ring, which he had taken
from Haman, and gave it unto Mordecai. And Esther set Mordecai over the
house of Haman.
Ver. 2. And the king took off his ring] As a sign of intimate friendship, and
a bond of strictest league of love. That this was usual among the Persians, is
testified by Alexander. {ab Alexandro, Lib. i. c. 26.} Of Alexander the Great
it is told, that when he died he left his ring to his dearest friend Perdiccas,
but his dominions, τω κρατιστω, to the worthiest. This set up competitors,
and bred much trouble. Ahasuerus knew that a worthier than Mordecai he
could not easily find, and therefore besides that momentary honour he had
newly done him, Esther 6:10, he now not only by this ring admitteth him
into nearest friendship, but, as some think, advanceth him to be keeper of
the seal, and lord chancellor of all the empire.
Which he had taken from Haman] And so degraded and exauthorated him
before his execution: this is usual.

12. And gave it unto Mordecai] Acknowledging thereby his error in promoting
so unworthy a man before; whom having punished for his deserts, he here
pitcheth upon a better. En Imperatorem valde terribilem nec minus
clementem, Behold the very emperor terrible and very little mercy, as
Frederick, the elector of Saxony, said of Charles V. Let Ahasuerus be what
he wishes, Almighty God is in this text set forth as bountiful to his people,
and terrible to his enemies. See Psalms 34:15-16.
And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman] As her chief steward,
to see that everything went right, and were put to the best. Haman’s sons
lived some months after this, but were outed of all. An inheritance may be
gotten hastily at the beginning, but the end thereof shall not be blessed,
Proverbs 20:21. He that by usury and unjust gain increaseth his substance,
he shall gather it for him that will pity the poor, Proverbs 23:8. God will
provide him both an executor and an overseer, as here he did Haman.
WHEDON, "2. Took off his ring — See note on Esther 3:10.
Which he had taken from Haman — When Haman was led forth to
execution he was, of course, stripped of all seals and emblems of his office
and authority, and all such insignia returned to the king.
Gave it unto Mordecai — Thus transferring to a Jew the authority and
emoluments lately enjoyed by the Agagite. It was no strange thing for
eastern kings thus to honour foreigners.
And Esther set Mordecai — She felt she could make no better disposal of
her present than to give it to the keeping and use of her venerated relative
and friend.
PULPIT, "Esther 8:2
And the king took off his ring. The king's signet would, as a matter of
course, be taken from Haman before his execution and restored to
Ahasuerus, who now once more wore it himself. Business, however, was
irksome to him, and, having resolved to make Mordecai minister in
Haman's room, he very soon took the signet off again, and made it over to
the new vizier. And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman. It would
not have been seemly for Esther to give away what she had received as a gift
from the king. She was therefore unable to make Mordecai a present of the
house. But she did what was equivalent—she set him over it, made him
practically its master. Thus he was provided with a residence suitable to his
new dignity.

13. 3 Esther again pleaded with the king, falling at his
feet and weeping. She begged him to put an end to
the evil plan of Haman the Agagite, which he had
devised against the Jews.
BAR ES, "Though Haman was dead, his work was not yet undone. The royal decree
had gone forth, and, according to Persian notions, could not be directly recalled or
reversed Est_8:8. Mordecai did not dare, without express permission from the king, to
take any steps even to stay execution. And Esther, being in favor, once more took the
initiative.
GILL, "And Esther spake yet again before the king,.... Went into his presence,
without being called for as before, with a new petition:
and fell down at his feet, and besought him with tears; the more to work upon
his affections, and move him to grant her request; which she might be the more
encouraged to hope for, through the success she already had:
to put away the mischief of Haman the Agagite, and his device that he had
devised against the Jews; to revoke, abolish, and make void a mischievous scheme
Haman had devised against the Jews, to root out the whole nation of them in the Persian
empire.
HE RY 3-5, "Haman, the chief enemy of the Jews, was hanged, Mordecai and
Esther, their chief friends, were sufficiently protected; but many others there were in the
king's dominions that hated the Jews and desired their ruin, and to their rage and malice
all the rest of that people lay exposed; for the edict against them was still in force, and, in
pursuance of it, their enemies would on the day appointed fall upon them, and they
would be deemed as rebels against the king and his government if they should offer to
resist and take up arms in their own defence. For the preventing of this,
I. The queen here makes intercession with much affection and importunity. She came,
a second time, uncalled into the king's presence (Est_8:3), and was as before encouraged
to present her petition, by the king's holding out the golden sceptre to her, Est_8:4. Her
petition is that the king, having put away Haman, would put away the mischief of
Haman and his device against the Jews, that that might not take place now that he was

14. taken off. Many a man's mischief survives him, and the wickedness he devised operates
when he is gone. What men project and write may, after their death, be either very
profitable or very pernicious. It was therefore requisite in this case that, for the defeating
of Haman's plot, they should apply to the king for a further act of grace, that by another
edict he would reverse the letters devised by Haman, and which he wrote (she does not
say which the king consented to and confirmed with his own seal; she leaves it to his
own conscience to say that), by which he took an effectual course to destroy the Jews in
all the king's provinces, Est_8:5. If the king were indeed, as he seemed to be, troubled
that such a decree was made, he could not do less than revoke it; for what is repentance,
but undoing, to the utmost of our power, what we have done amiss? 1. This petition
Esther presents with much affection: She fell down at the king's feet and besought him
with tears (Est_8:3), every tear as precious as any of the pearls with which she was
adorned. It was time to be earnest when the church of God lay at stake. Let none be so
great as to be unwilling to stoop, none so merry as to be unwilling to weep, when thereby
they may do any service to God's church and people. Esther, though safe herself, fell
down, and begged with tears for the deliverance of her people. 2. She expresses it with
great submission, and a profound deference to the king and his wisdom and will (Est_
8:5): If it please the king and if I have found favour in his sightand again, “If the thing
itself seem right and reasonable before the king, and if I that ask it be pleasing in his
eyes, let the decree be reversed.” Even when we have the utmost reason and justice on
our side, and have the clearest cause to plead, yet it becomes us to speak to our superiors
with humility and modesty, and all possible expressions of respect, and not to talk like
demandants when we are supplicants. There is nothing lost be decency and good
breeding. As soft answers turn away wrath, so soft askings obtain favour. 3. She
enforces her petition with a pathetic plea: “For how can I endure to see the evil that
shall come upon my people? Little comfort can I have of my own life if I cannot prevail
for theirs: as good share in the evil myself as see it come upon them; for how can I
endure to see the destruction of my kindred, that are dear to me?” Esther, a queen, owns
her poor kindred, and speaks of them with a very tender concern. Now it was that she
mingled her tears with her words, that she wept and made supplication; we read of no
tears when she begged for her own life, but, now that she was sure of that, she wept for
her people. Tears of pity and tenderness are the most Christ-like. Those that are truly
concerned for the public would rather die in the last ditch than live to see the desolations
of the church of God and the ruin of their country. Tender spirits cannot bear to think of
the destruction of their people and kindred, and therefore dare not omit any opportunity
of giving them relief.
JAMISO , "Esther spake yet again before the king, and fell down at his
feet — The king was then not reclining at table, but sitting on a divan, most probably in
the Persian attitude, leaning back against the cushions, and one foot under him.
besought him with tears to put away the mischief of Haman — that is, to
repeal the sanguinary edict which, at the secret instigation of Haman, had been recently
passed (Est_3:12).
K&D 3-4, "The chief enemy of the Jews was now destroyed; but the edict, written in
the king's name, sealed with the royal seal, and published in all the provinces of the
kingdom, for the destruction of all the Jews on the 13th day of the twelfth month, was
still in force, and having been issued in due legal form, could not, according to the laws
of the Persians and Medes, be revoked. Queen Esther therefore entreated the king to
annul the designs of Haman against the Jews. Est_8:3 and Est_8:4. “Esther spake again

15. before the king, and fell down at his feet, and wept, and besought him to do away with
(‫יר‬ ִ‫ב‬ ֱ‫ע‬ ֶ‫,ה‬ to cause to depart) the mischief of Haman the Agagite, and his device that he
devised against the Jews. And the king held out his golden sceptre towards Esther, and
Esther arose and stood before the king.” This verse gives a summary of the contents of
Esther's speech, which is reported verbally in Est_8:5 and Est_8:6, so that we must
translate the imperfects ‫ן‬ֵ ַ‫ח‬ ְ‫ת‬ ִ ַ‫ו‬ ְ‫ך‬ ְ‫ב‬ ֵ ַ‫ו‬ - ‫ּל‬ ִ ַ‫:ו‬ She spoke before the king, falling at his feet and
beseeching him with weeping, that he would do away with ‫ן‬ ָ‫מ‬ ָ‫ה‬ ‫ת‬ ַ‫ע‬ ָ‫,ר‬ the evil that Haman
had done, and his device against the Jews. The king stretched out his sceptre (comp.
Est_4:11) as a sign that he would graciously grant her petition; whereupon she arose,
stood before the king, and made known her request.
BE SO , "Esther 8:3. Esther spake yet again before the king — Haman, the chief
enemy of the Jews, was hanged, Esther and Mordecai, their chief friends, were
sufficiently protected; but many others there were in the king’s dominions that
hated the Jews, and desired their ruin, and to their rage and malice all the rest of
that people lay exposed. For the edict against them was still in force, in pursuance of
which their enemies, at the day appointed, would fall upon them, and they would be
deemed rebels against the king and his government, if they should offer to resist,
and take up arms in their own defence. To prevent this, the queen makes
intercession with much affection and importunity. And fell down at his feet, and
besought him with many tears — It was time to be earnest, when the church of God
lay at stake. Let none be so great as to be unwilling to stoop, none so joyful as to be
unwilling to weep, when thereby they may do any service to God’s church and
people. Esther, though safe herself, here falls down and begs with tears for the
deliverance of her people. To put away the mischief of Haman — To repeal that
cruel and bloody decree which he had obtained from the king.
ELLICOTT, "(3) Besought him . . . to put away the mischief.—Esther’s work was as
yet only half done. She has seen the condemnation of the foe of her race, and the
exaltation of her kinsman to his office. But the royal edict sent out against the Jews
still remains valid, and being a written decree, sealed with the king’s seal, is
supposed to be beyond the possibility of alteration. It was not, therefore, a case
where Mordecai’s newly-acquired dignity would authorise him to interfere, and
therefore Esther, who, now that the ice is once broken, becomes more courageous,
makes a fresh appeal to the king to do what theoretically was beyond the king’s
power.
TRAPP, "Esther 8:3 And Esther spake yet again before the king, and fell down at
his feet, and besought him with tears to put away the mischief of Haman the
Agagite, and his device that he had devised against the Jews.
Ver. 3. And Esther spake yet again] Having sped so well before, she is encouraged to
speak yet again. Heb. She added to speak before the king, ec his contenta Esther
(Vulg.). She had a further request, and having had so free access, and so good

16. success, she takes the boldness to commence it. We should do so when we come
before God. Prayer should be multiplied like those arrows of deliverance, 2 Kings
13:18, and our suits reinforced while we speak yet again; as Abraham did in his
intercession for Sodom. See, for our encouragement, that fourfold comfortable, yet
again uttered by the Lord, Zechariah 1:17.
And fell down at his feet] This was a more humble posture than yet she had used;
importing her lowly mind and most earnest desire, whereunto she added tears, these
effectual orators ( - am lachrymae pondera vocis habent) that prevail with the
hardest hearts many times, and alter the strongest resolutions. Hereof we have an
instance in our chronicles, which, because it somewhat suiteth with the case in this
text, I will here relate: King Edward III, laying siege to Calais, they desired parley,
and had this final sentence, that six of the chief burgesses should be sent to the king,
bareheaded, barefooted, in their shirts, with halters about their necks, the keys of
the town and castle in their hands, and submit themselves to the king’s will; for the
residue he was content to take to mercy. Those came, and the king commands them
presently to be carried to execution, and would not on any suit be diverted, in
regard, as he said of his oath, till the queen, great with child, fell on her knees before
him, and with tears obtained their pardon, and had them given unto her. escit
Antipater? said Alexander the Great. Knoweth not Antipater that one tear of my
mother Olympias can easily wash off all his accusations of her to me?
To put away the mischief of Haman the Agagite] She doth not say to reverse the
bloody decree of the king of Persia, for this might have irritated that waspish prince,
and made him to have rejected her request as unreasonable, impossible. She
therefore useth a great deal of commendable prudence ("I wisdom dwell with
prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions," Proverbs 8:12), and picks
out her best time, that she may set her words upon the wheels, as Solomon hath it,
Proverbs 25:11, and utter right words that may be forcible, Job 6:25. Such another
was Abigail, the woman of Tekoah, and the matron of Abel.
And his device that he had devised against the Jews] All the blame is laid upon
Haman, who was indeed a man of wicked devices, and had taken counsel, both
crafty and cruel, against God’s people. Him, therefore, she maketh the only author
and actor in this business, not once mentioning the king, who yet had ratified the
decree, but, by his late dealing with Haman, had sufficiently testified his utter
dislike of his own act therein, and cried, Had I wist! ουκ ωµην.
WHEDO , "3. Esther spake yet again — This was evidently on a subsequent day,
and, as appears from the next verse, she again presented herself in the royal
presence unsummoned, trusting to the favour of the king.
Fell down at his feet — Her manner now showed more anxiety and feeling than
when she appeared the first time in the court. Compare Esther 5:1-2.

17. Besought him with tears — Literally, wept and made supplication to him. Before,
she invited him to a private banquet to make her petition; now she makes it known
publicly, and with crying and tears.
The mischief of Haman — The wicked devices of that enemy had not perished with
his death. The decree for the destruction of the Jews remained still.
COFFMA , "Verse 3
ESTHER E TREATS THE KI G TO CA CEL HAMA 'S EDICT
"And Esther spake yet again before the king, and fell down at his feet, and besought
him with tears to put away the mischief of Haman the Agagite, and his device that
he had devised against the Jews. Then the king held out to Esther the golden
sceptre. So Esther arose, and stood before the king. And she said, If it please the
king, and if I have found favor in his sight, and the thing seem right before the king,
and if I be pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to reverse the letters devised by
Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews
that are in all the king's provinces: for how can I endure to see the evil that shall
come upon my people? or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?"
It is of interest that Mordecai does not carry this urgent request to the king. He was
the new First Minister of the empire; but he might have felt that Esther would be
more likely to have a favorable reply from the king. At any rate, Esther did it.
"And the king held out to Esther the golden sceptre" (Esther 8:4). This seems to
imply that Esther had again approached the king unbidden."[3]
"And (if) I be pleasing in his eyes" (Esther 8:5). Esther's appeal was prefaced with
the usual stereotyped phrases used by petitioners; but these words stress Esther's
personal attractiveness to the king. This was indeed a delicate feminine touch.
"Reverse the letters devised by Haman" (Esther 8:5). This was indeed exactly what
should have been done; and this exceedingly intelligent and tactful queen here gave
Ahasuerus a valid reason why he should have done so; but that silly rule about the
"Law of the Medes and Persians that altereth not," prevented the king from taking
such action. ote the tact of Esther here. "She was careful not to put any blame on
the king for Haman's wicked letters."[4]
"Many have accused Esther and her race of cruelty because of their slaughter of
their enemies, but without justification. She implored for the bloody edict of Haman
to be reversed (Esther 8:5); and if she had been heard, no blood at all would have
been shed; but the Gentile mind was not of the kindly sort. Oh no. The king likes to
see blood; he is a sportsman. Blood must flow. You Jews defend yourselves.
Fight!"[5]
CO STABLE, "2. Esther"s request for her people8:3-8

18. Esther again had to argue her case, this time for clemency for the Jews. Her request
involved expense to the king. Esther would not have been sure he would grant it.
Ahasuerus could have spared the life of the queen and Mordecai and let the rest of
their fellow Jews perish. Esther"s commitment to her people, which jeopardized her
own safety, was very selfless and accounts for the high honor the Jews have given
her since these events transpired. Mordecai witnessed her plea ( Esther 8:7).
"The Book of Esther is set in the reign of Xerxes, who was heavily committed to
Zoroastrianism of an orthodox variety and who reversed the practice of religious
tolerance of his predecessors. He destroyed the main idol of Bel Marduk, the temple
of Marduk, Esagila, and many other Mardukian temples." [ ote: Robert J.
Littman, "The Religious Policy of Xerxes and the Book of Esther ," Jewish
Quarterly Review S65:3 (January1975):155.]
In view of the king"s religious intolerance, it took great courage for Esther to
request mercy for the Jews.
"It is very moving to see the extent to which this young girl, who has everything
money can buy, identifies herself with her own kith and kin, and is prepared to risk
everything in an attempt to prevent the disaster that threatens them." [ ote:
Baldwin, p95.]
"At the beginning of this story, Esther and Mordecai were hardly exemplary in the
way they practiced their religious faith; but now we get the impression that things
have changed. Both of them have affirmed their Jewish nationality and both were
the means of calling all the Jews in the empire to prayer and fasting. In one sense,
they spearheaded a Jewish "revival" and made being Jewish a more honorable
thing in the empire." [ ote: Wiersbe, p742.]
The king did not have authority in his government to cancel decrees (cf. Esther
1:19; Daniel 6:17). This awkward policy tended to lend weight to the king"s official
pronouncements (as when the pope speaks ex cathedra for Roman Catholics).
LA GE, "Esther 8:3. And Esther spake yet again before the king, and fell down at
his feet, and besought him with tears.[F 2]—She thus caused him to understand
distinctly that she was by no means satisfied with what had been done. In so far as
Esther had implored him in a general manner to cause to be put away, to neutralize,
to annul (‫ִיר‬‫ב‬ֱ‫ע‬ֶ‫ה‬) the mischief of Haman (which he expected to inflict upon the Jews),
and his device that he had devised against the Jews (comp. Jeremiah 18:11; Ezekiel
38:10), the king showed his willingness to comply, and as in Esther 4:11; Esther 5:2,
he again stretched forth the golden sceptre toward her, so that she could take
courage to arise and stand before him. Still it was necessary to find out the ways and
means how the thing should be begun.
PULPIT, "Esther 8:3-14

19. AT ESTHER'S REQUEST AHASUERUS ALLOWS THE ISSUE OF A SECO D
EDICT, PERMITTI G THE JEWS TO RESIST A Y WHO SHOULD ATTACK
THEM, TO KILL THEM I THEIR OW DEFE CE, A D TO TAKE
POSSESSIO OF THEIR GOODS (Esther 8:3-14). The execution of Haman, the
confiscation of his property, the advancement of Mordecai into his place, though of
favourable omen, as showing the present temper and inclination of Abasuerus, left
the Jews in as great danger as before. In most countries there would neither have
been delay nor difficulty. The edict which went forth on the 13th of isan (Esther
3:12), and which could not be executed till the 13th of Adar, would have been
cancelled, revoked, recalled. But in Persia this could not be done; or at any rate it
could not be done without breaking one of the first principles of Persian law, the
principle that "the writing which is written in the king's name, and sealed with the
king's ring, may no man reverse" (Esther 8:8). It was therefore necessary to devise a
mode whereby the desired escape of the Jews might practically be obtained, and yet
the edict remain unrevoked, and the king's honour be saved. At first Mordecai and
Esther do not appear to have seen this, and Esther asked openly for the reversal of
the decree, only representing it as the writing of Haman, and not the writing of the
king (verse 5). But Ahasuerus pointed out that this could not be done. Anything
short of a reversal, any new decree, he would sanction; but he could do no more—he
could not revoke his own word (verse 8). The course actually followed was then
devised, probably by Mordecai. The old decree was allowed to stand; but a new
decree was issued and signed in the usual way, whereby the Jews were allowed and
encouraged to resist those who should attack them,—to "gather themselves together,
and to stand for their life; to destroy, slay, and cause to perish all the power of the
people of the province that would assault them,"—and were further permitted to
"take the spoil of them for a prey," or, in other words, to seize the property of all
whom they should slay (verse 11). The royal posts carried out this decree (verse 14),
as they had the former one; and it was publicly set forth and proclaimed in every
province, that if the Jews were attacked under the terms of the one, they might
defend themselves and retaliate on their foes under the terms of the other (verse 13).
As the second decree was issued on the 23rd of Sivan, the third month (verse 9), and
the day appointed for the attack was the 13th of Adar, the twelfth, there was ample
time-above eight months—for the Jews to make preparations, to organise
themselves, to collect arms, and to arrange an effective resistance.
Esther 8:3
Esther spake yet again before the king. It might have seemed to be the business of
Mordecai, as the king's chief minister, to advise him in a matter of public policy,
and one in which the interests of so many of his subjects were vitally concerned. But
the new minister did not perhaps feel sure of his influence, or quite know what to
recommend. Esther was therefore again put forward to address the king. Fell down
at his feet. Compare 1 Samuel 25:24; 2 Kings 4:37, etc. And besought him … to put
away the mischief of Haman. i.e. begged him, first of all, in a vague way, to "cause
to pass"—put away, or undo—the mischief of Haman—not suggesting how it was to
be done.

20. BI 3-4, "Besought him with tears to put away the mischief of Haman.
Counteracting evil
It requires earnest and vigorous efforts on the part of the pious to undo the evil wrought
by the wicked, and left by them as a legacy to the world. How much thought and research
have been expended in this way in answering the works of such men as Voltaire and
Paine! The evil cannot be sufficiently deplored, but may it not, in the providence of God,
be overruled and sanctified for good? In nature we have opposing forces at work, which
issue in greater stability and permanence; and somewhat the same result is secured by
the opposition and conflict of minds. By the strain to which the truth is subjected it is
put to the test, and whilst what cannot be maintained falls away, all that is founded on
reliable evidence is retained, and made on every side more perspicuous, as the pressure
of a great need has stimulated the inventive genius of a people to provide appliances to
meet it. So has one infidel book or wicked action occasioned the writing of treatises in
defence of Divine revelation, or the performance of holy and generous deeds, and the evil
of the former has been more than counteracted, and the result proved an absolute boon.
In this direction also we may see the hand of God, and praise Him for His goodness. (T.
McEwan.)
Sin survives the sinner
I. Evil outlives its first contrivers.
1. Haman is dead, but the mischief he devised still hangs over the Jews. A passing
stranger may loosen a stone in an embankment, and go on his way; but a whole
province will bewail his folly. An infidel father trains most carefully an infidel son;
the son becomes an eminent writer and spreads through a whole generation the
poison he imbibed on his father’s knee. An English colonist, filled with pity for the
Caribbaeans, introduces negro slavery into the West Indies—doing evil that good
may come—and for centuries those fair islands are cursed by his device.
2. Evil tends to permanency.
(1) Because of the natural corruption of the heart.
(2) This principle is assisted by the solidarity of our race. What affects one
affects all.
II. Evil yields before holy self-sacrifice. Esther was—
1. Intensely solicitous.
2. Persistent.
3. Boldly self-sacrificing.
4. Successful.
III. Evil crushed but not killed.
IV. Practical lessons.
1. The folly of infallibility.
2. The power of intercession.
3. The awful nature of sin. (W. Burrows, B. A.)

21. MACLAREN, "THE NET BROKEN
Est_8:3-8, Est_8:15-17
The spirit of this passage may perhaps be best caught by taking the three persons
appearing in it, and the One who does not appear, but acts unseen through them all.
I. The heroine of the whole book and of this chapter is Esther, one of the sweetest and
noblest of the women of Scripture. The orphan girl who had grown up into beauty under
the care of her uncle Mordecai, and was lifted suddenly from sheltered obscurity into the
‘fierce light that beats upon a throne,’ like some flower culled in a shady nook and set in
a king’s bosom, was true to her childhood’s protector and to her people, and kept her
sweet, brave gentleness unspoiled by the rapid elevation which ruins so many
characters. Her Jewish name of Hadassah (‘myrtle’) well befits her, for she is clothed
with unostentatious beauty, pure and fragrant as the blossoms that brides twine in their
hair. But, withal, she has a true woman’s courage which is always ready to endure any
evil and dare any danger at the bidding of her heart. She took her life in her hand when
she sought an audience of Ahasuerus uninvited, and she knew that she did. Nothing in
literature is nobler than her quiet words, which measure her danger without shrinking,
and front it without heroics: ‘If I perish, I perish!’
The danger was not past, though she was queen and beloved; for a despot’s love is a
shifting sand-bank, which may yield anchorage to-day, and to-morrow may be washed
away. So she counted not her life dear unto herself when, for the second time, as in our
passage, she ventured, uninvited, into the king’s presence. The womanly courage that
risks life for love’s sake is nobler than the soldier’s that feels the lust of battle maddening
him.
Esther’s words to the king are full of tact. She begins with what seems to have been the
form of address prescribed by custom, for it is used by her in her former requests (Est_
5:8; Est_7:3). But she adds a variation of the formula, tinged with more personal
reference to the king’s feeling towards her, as well as breathing entire submission to his
estimate of what was fitting. ‘If the thing seem right before the king,’ appeals to the sense
of justice that lay dormant beneath the monarch’s arbitrary will; ‘and I be pleasing in his
eyes,’ drew him by the charm of her beauty. She avoided making the king responsible for
the plot, and laid it at the door of the dead and discredited Haman. It was his device, and
since he had fallen, his policy could be reversed without hurting the king’s dignity. And
then with fine tact, as well as with a burst of genuine feeling, she flings all her personal
influence into the scale, and seeks to move the king, not by appeals to his justice or royal
duty, but to his love for her, which surely could not bear to see her suffer. One may say
that it was a low motive to appeal to, to ask the despot to save a people in order to keep
one woman from sorrow; and so it was. It was Ahasuerus’s fault that such a reason had
more weight with him than nobler ones. It was not Esther’s that she used her power over
him to carry her point. She used the weapons that she had, and that she knew would be
efficacious. The purpose for which she used them is her justification.
Esther may well teach her sisters to-day to be brave and gentle, to use their influence
over men for high purposes of public good, to be the inspirers of their husbands, lovers,
brothers, for all noble thinking and doing; to make the cause of the oppressed their own,
to be the apostles of mercy and the hinderers of wrong, to keep true to their early
associations if prosperity comes to them, and to cherish sympathy with their nation so
deep that they cannot ‘endure to see the evil that shall come unto them’ without using all

22. their womanly influence to avert it.
II. Ahasuerus plays a sorry part beside Esther. He knows no law but his own will,
and that is moved, not by conscience or reason, but by ignoble passions and sensual
desires. He tosses his subjects’ lives as trivial gifts to any who ask for them. Haman’s
wife knew that he had only to ‘speak to the king,’ and Mordecai would be hanged;
Haman had no difficulty in securing the royal mandate for the murder of all the Jews.
Sated with the indulgence of low desires, he let all power slip from his idle hands, and
his manhood was rotted away by wallowing in the pigsty of voluptuousness. But he was
tenacious of the semblance of authority, and demanded the appearance of abject
submission from the ‘servants’ who were his masters. He yielded to Esther’s prayer as
lightly as to Haman’s plot. Whether the Jews were wiped out or not mattered nothing to
him, so long as he had no trouble in the affair.
To shift all responsibility off his own shoulders on to somebody else’s was his one aim.
He was as untrue to his duty when he gave his signet to Mordecai, and bade him and
Esther do as they liked, as when he had given it to Haman. And with all this slothful
indifference to his duty, he was sensitive to etiquette, and its cobwebs held him whom
the cords of his royal obligations could not hold. It mattered not to him that the edict
which he allowed Mordecai to promulgate practically lit the flames of civil war. He had
washed his hands of the whole business.
It is a hideous picture of an Eastern despot, and has been said to be unhistorical and
unbelievable. But the world has seen many examples of rulers whom the possession of
unlimited and irresponsible power has corrupted in like fashion. And others than rulers
may take the warning that to live to self is the mother of all sins and crimes; that no man
can safely make his own will and his own passions his guides; that there is no slavery so
abject as that of the man who is tyrannised by his lower nature; that there is a
temptation besetting us all to take the advantages and neglect the duties of our position,
and that to yield to it is sure to end in moral ruin. We are all kings, even if our kingdom
be only our own selves, and we shall rule wisely only if we rule as God’s viceroys, and
think more of duty than of delight.
III. Mordecai is a kind of duplicate of Joseph, and embodies valuable
lessons. Contented acceptance of obscurity and neglect of his services, faithfulness to
his people and his God in the foul atmosphere of such a court, wise reticence, patient
discharge of small duties, undoubting hope when things looked blackest fed by stedfast
faith in God, unchangedness of character and purpose when lifted to supreme dignity,
the use of influence and place, not for himself, but for his people,-all these are traits
which may be imitated in any life. We should be the same men, whether we sit unnoticed
among the lackeys at the gate, or are bearing the brunt of the hatred of powerful foes, or
are clothed ‘in royal apparel of blue and white, and with a great crown of gold.’ These
gauds were nothing to Mordecai, and earthly honours should never turn our heads. He
valued power because it enabled him to save his brethren, and we should cultivate the
same spirit. The political world, with its fierce struggles for personal ends, its often
disregard of the public good, and its use of place and power for ‘making a pile’ or helping
relations up, would be much the better for some infusion of the spirit of Mordecai.
IV. But we must not look only at the visible persons and forces. This book of
Esther does not say much about God, but His presence broods over it all, and is the real
spring that moves the movers that are seen. It is all a lesson of how God works out His
purposes through men that seem to themselves to be working out theirs. The king’s
criminal abandonment to lust and luxury, Haman’s meanly personal pique, Esther’s
beauty, the fall of the favourite, the long past services of Mordecai, even the king’s

23. sleepless night, are all threads in the web, and God is the weaver. The story raises the
whole question of the standing miracle of the co-existence and co-operation of the divine
and the human. Man is free and responsible, God is sovereign and all-pervading. He
‘makes the wrath of man to praise Him, and with the remainder thereof He girdeth
Himself.’ To-day, as then, He is working out His deep designs through men whom He
has raised up, though they have not known Him. Amid the clash of contending interests
and worldly passions His solemn purpose steadily advances to its end, like the
irresistible ocean current, which persists through all storms that agitate the surface, and
draws them into the drift of its silent trend. Ahasuerus, Haman, Esther, Mordecai, are
His instruments, and yet each of them is the doer of his or her deed, and has to answer
to Him for it.
4 Then the king extended the gold scepter to
Esther and she arose and stood before him.
GILL, "Then the king held out the golden sceptre towards Esther,.... As a
token that she had not incurred his displeasure by coming into his presence without
leave, and that she was admitted to speak and make her request; see Est_5:3
so Esther arose and stood before the king; she rose from the ground on which she
lay prostrate, and stood upon her feet, in an humble manner, to make her speech, and
present her petition to the king.
JAMISO , "Then the king held out the golden sceptre toward Esther — in
token that her request was accepted, and that she needed no longer to maintain the
humble attitude of a suppliant.
BE SO , "Verses 4-6
Esther 8:4-6. Then the king held out the golden sceptre — Esther had presumed to
come a second time into the king’s presence without being called: which he did not
take ill, but by this token graciously invited her to approach him, indicating that he
accepted her person. So Esther arose — Having before fallen at his feet; and stood
before the king — As a petitioner for her people; and said, If it please the king, &c.
— She uses various expressions, that she might confirm the king’s favour by such a
full submission to his good pleasure. Even then, when we have ever so much reason
and justice on our side, and have ever so clear a cause to plead, yet it becomes us to

24. speak to our superiors with humility and modesty, and all possible expressions of
respect. There is nothing lost by decency and good breeding. Let it be written to
reverse the letters devised by Haman — She prudently takes off the hatefulness of
the action from the king, and lays it upon Haman, who had for his own ends
contrived the whole business, and circumvented the king in it. For how can I endure
to see the destruction of my kindred? — My heart will sink under it, and I shall
never be able to survive it. She does not urge the innocence of the Jews, but only
pleads their affinity to her: probably she knew that this plea would have more
weight with the king, even than one grounded on their innocence.
TRAPP, "Esther 8:4 Then the king held out the golden sceptre toward Esther. So
Esther arose, and stood before the king,
Ver. 4. Then the king held out the golden sceptre] It appeareth by this, that she once
more put her life in her hand; hazarding it for her people’s safety (as Arsinoe
interposed her own body between her children and the murderers sent to slay
them), and so performing her promise made to Mordecai, Esther 4:16. God’s
children are all such as will not lie, Isaiah 63:8; if they swear to their hurt, yet they
dare not change, Psalms 15:4, dare not say and unsay, 2 Corinthians 1:18-19. Of
many promises it may be said, as Tertullian doth to the peacock, that they are all in
changeable colours; as often changed as moved. Holy Esther was none such; no
more was that blessed martyr of Jesus Christ, Mr Hawkes, when in the flames
remembering his promise to certain friends (to give them a sign whether the rage of
the pain were tolerable), be reached up his hands burning on a light fire, and
clapped them over his head three times together, to the great astonishment of the
beholders, but especially to them who understood the matter.
So Esther arose, and stood before the king] Experience had bred confidence. They
likewise that humble themselves under the mighty hand of God shall be exalted in
due time, 1 Peter 5:6. And as the lower the ebb the higher will be the tide; so the
lower we descend in humiliation, the higher shall we ascend in exaltation.
WHEDO , "4. Held out the golden sceptre — We understand that the queen first
came and fell weeping before the king, but said nothing until he held out the sceptre.
Then she arose, and stood before him, and made the request of which a mere
summary is given in the preceding verse. The language of her address is given in the
two following verses.
ISBET, "THE BOOK OF ESTHER
‘ ow it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus … that in those days … Esther arose,
and stood before the king, and said, … how can I endure to see the evil that shall
come unto my people? or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?’
Esther 1:1-3; Esther 8:4-6
I. Let us observe the outward stage of these events.—In the books of Ezra and
ehemiah, the Persian court forms, as it were, the background of all the
transactions of the history. Cyrus, Darius, Artaxerxes, figure as the deliverers and

25. protectors of the returning Israelites. The scene of the book of Esther is laid in
Shushan, or Susa, the capital of Persia. There we see Ahasuerus, ‘the great king,’ as
he was called by the Greeks, the same, it is believed, as Xerxes. These Gentile
monarchs, this Asiatic kingdom, are made to occupy this prominent place in the
Bible in order to remind us that beyond the limits of the chosen people, beyond the
limits of Jewry or of Christendom, there are kingdoms and races of men who claim,
as well as we, a share in the compassion and justice of the all-merciful, all-holy God.
II. That which gives to the book of Esther an enduring spiritual value is the noble,
patriotic spirit of the Jewish race in the presence of the Gentiles amongst whom they
sojourned, that passionate love of country and home, that generous pride in the
independence of their race and creed, which kindled the song of Deborah, which
continued to burn in the hearts of her countrymen and countrywomen after the
lapse of a thousand years, and broke forth in the pathetic wail, in the courageous
defiance, of the Jewish maiden, who, unseduced by the splendours, undaunted by
the terrors, of the Persian court, exclaimed, with the heroic determination, if need
be, to sacrifice her life for her country, ‘If I perish, I perish! How can I endure to see
the evil that shall come unto my people?’
—Dean Stanley.
PULPIT, "Esther 8:4
Then the king held out the golden sceptre. Either Esther had again intruded on the
king uninvited, or there was a double use of the golden sceptre.
1. In the pardon of those who so intruded; and,
2. In the ordinary granting of requests. It was perhaps held out on this occasion
simply to express a readiness to do as Esther desired.
5 “If it pleases the king,” she said, “and if he
regards me with favor and thinks it the right
thing to do, and if he is pleased with me, let an
order be written overruling the dispatches that
Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, devised
and wrote to destroy the Jews in all the king’s

26. provinces.
GILL, "And said, if it please the king, and if I have found favour in his sight,
and the thing seem right before the king, and I be pleasing in his eyes,.... This
heap of phrases, which signify much the same thing, are used to work upon the king's
affections, and to show how submissive she was to his will:
let it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman the son of
Hammedatha, the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews which are in
all the king's provinces. She wisely takes no notice of any concern the king had in
them, but suggests as that she looked upon them as forged by Haman, who put the king's
name and seal to them, without his knowledge and consent.
JAMISO , "reverse the letters devised by Haman ... to destroy the Jews —
The whole conduct of Esther in this matter is characterized by great tact, and the variety
of expressions by which she describes her willing submission to her royal husband, the
address with which she rolls the whole infamy of the meditated massacre on Haman,
and the argument she draws from the king’s sanction being surreptitiously obtained,
that the decree should be immediately reversed - all indicate the queen’s wisdom and
skill, and she succeeded in this point also.
K&D, "The introductory formula are in part similar to those used Est_1:19; Est_5:4,
Est_5:8; Est_7:3; but the petition referring to a great and important matter, they are
strengthened by two new phrases: “If the thing is advisable (‫ר‬ ֵ‫שׁ‬ ָⅴ, proper, convenient,
advantageous, a later word occurring again only Ecc_11:6; Ecc_10:10, - in Ecc_2:21;
Ecc_4:4-5, Ecc_4:10 of the same book, ‫ּון‬‫ר‬ ְ‫שׁ‬ ִⅴ) before the king, and if I be pleasing in his
eyes, let it be written (let a writing be used, like Est_3:9), to frustrate (‫יב‬ ִ‫שׁ‬ ָ‫ה‬ ְ‫,ל‬ i.e., to put
out of force) the letters, the device of Haman ... which he wrote to destroy the Jews, who
are in all the provinces of the king.” ‫ן‬ ָ‫מ‬ ָ‫ה‬ ‫ת‬ ֶ‫ב‬ ֶ‫שׁ‬ ֲ‫ח‬ ַ‫,מ‬ the device, the proposal of Haman, is
added to ‫ים‬ ִ‫ר‬ ָ‫פ‬ ְ ַ‫,ה‬ briefly to characterize the contents of the letters. On the matter itself,
comp. Est_3:8. and Est_3:12. “For how shall I endure to see the destruction of my
people?” The verbs ‫י‬ ִ‫ית‬ ִ‫א‬ ִ‫ר‬ְ‫ו‬ ‫ל‬ ַ‫אוּכ‬ are so combined that the second is governed by the first,
‫י‬ ִ‫ית‬ ִ‫א‬ ִ‫ר‬ְ‫ו‬ standing instead of the infinitive; comp. Ew. §285, c. ‫ה‬ፎ ָ‫ר‬ cons. ְ denotes an
interested beholding, whether painful or joyous, of something; comp. Gen_44:34. ‫ת‬ ֶ‫ר‬ ֶ‫ּול‬‫מ‬
in parallelism with ‫ם‬ፎ denotes those who are of like descent, the family, members of a
tribe.

27. ELLICOTT, "(5) To reverse.—Rather, to bring back, to recall. Esther shows
considerable skill in wording her request. She avoids speaking of the king’s letters,
but calls them “the letters, the device of Haman, which he wrote.” It is the king,
however, to whom the injury is done—“to destroy the Jews which are in all the
king’s provinces.”
TRAPP, "Esther 8:5 And said, If it please the king, and if I have found favour in his
sight, and the thing [seem] right before the king, and I [be] pleasing in his eyes, let it
be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman the son of Hammedatha the
Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews which [are] in all the king’s provinces:
Ver. 5. And said, If it please the king] See Esther 5:8. Thus, when we pray to God,
we must take unto us words, and speak in a low language, as broken men. The poor
speaketh supplications, Proverbs 19:28.
And the thing seem right before the king] She taketh not upon her to prescribe, but
is willing to subscribe to the king’s good pleasure. Let us do so to the only wise God.
John 2:8, the mother of Christ doth not too earnestly in words press him to do that
she desired, but only lays open the case, They have no wine, referring all to his
discretion; so ought we in our prayers for temporal things. Socrates taught his
scholars to ask no more of God but this, that he would do them good; but how, and
how much, they should leave that to him, as best understanding what is best and
fittest for us. Those in the Gospel that would needs be at a certainty, and bargain
with the Master of the vineyard for a penny a day, when they had their penny, they
went grumbling away, that it was but a penny, Matthew 20:10-12.
And I be pleasing in his eyes] If my beauty please him, which is the best letter of
recommendation to a prince, as the queen mother of France was wont to say.
Let it be written to reverse the letter] She did not request to rule the whole empire
for three days, as Semiramis once did; nor to set Persepolis on fire, as Alexander the
Great did, at the motion of his concubine; but that the king her husband would
revoke and rescind the letters of Haman’s device, that he would by new letters
correct and over-rule (as the Vulgate Latin hath it) those formerly devised by
Haman, that he would antiquate and abolish the plots and projects of that wicked
man. And albeit this request of hers might seem to some uncivil and overly bold; yet
in a case of such great consequence, wherein the glory of God, the preservation of
his people, and the honour, of the king were so much concerned, she doubteth not to
present and prosecute it. Hinc igitur satis est conspicua Esterae sancta audacia,
therefore this is enough holy boldness in the eyes of Esther, saith an interpreter;
such as was also that of Cranmer in the parliament house, when the Six Articles
were in agitation; and that of George, marquis of Brandenburg, who professed at
the imperial diet at Ausburg, Malle se flexis ibi coram Caesare genibus, speculatori

28. cervicem feriendam statim praebere, that he would rather lose his head presently
there in the presence of the emperor, than to yield his assent to the Popish Interim
(Scultet. Annal.).
WHEDO , "5. And said — We do well to present Esther’s address here, as at
Esther 7:3, in poetical form: —
If to the king it seem good,
And if I have found favour before him,
And the thing seem right before the king,
And I be good in his eyes,
Let it be written to return the letters,
The device of Haman, the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite,
Which he wrote to destroy the Jews,
Who are in all the provinces of the king.
For how can I see the evil that will find my people?
And how can I see the destruction of my kindred?
Perhaps Esther was not sufficiently acquainted with Persian law to know that no
royal decree could be reversed.
LA GE, "Esther 8:5. Esther suggested: If it please the king (comp. Esther 1:19;
Esther 5:4; Esther 5:8; Esther 7:3); and further on feeling the doubtful character of
her proposition, she added: and the thing seem right, advisable to him. ‫ר‬ֵ‫ָשׁ‬‫כּ‬ = to
succeed, to accomplish, and in this sense has reference to seed which has sprouted
well ( Ecclesiastes 11:6, in the Hiphil, Ecclesiastes 10:10); it is a later word of which
elsewhere we only find the noun ‫רוֹן‬ְ‫ִשׁ‬‫בּ‬ ( Ecclesiastes 2:21; Ecclesiastes 4:4;
Ecclesiastes 5:10). Let it be written, or commanded by an edict, as in Esther 3:9, to
reverse the letters (‫יב‬ ִ‫ָשׁ‬‫ה‬ְ‫ל‬, to cause to change from the state of being to non-
existence) devised by Haman.—As is often the case, here the substance of a letter is
indicated by an apposition, ‫ן‬ָ‫מ‬ָ‫ה‬ ‫ֶת‬‫ב‬ ֶ‫ֲשׁ‬‫ח‬ַ‫מ‬ (comp. Esther 3:8 sq. and 12 sqq.). But in
order the more certainly to carry through this doubtful proposal, she adds in Esther
8:6 : For how can I endure to see evil that shall come unto my people? or how can I
endure to see the destruction of my kindred?—With reference to the connection of
‫י‬ִ‫ית‬ִ‫א‬ ָ‫ְר‬‫ו‬ ‫ַל‬‫כ‬‫,אוּ‬ we may indicate that one of the verbs, instead of being in the Infin. (with
ְ‫ל‬) is subordinate to the other as a finite verb (with ְ‫ו‬), comp. Ewald, § 285 c. Still ‫לא‬
‫ַל‬‫כ‬‫אוּ‬ itself means: “I cannot endure, it,” or “I will not be able to stand it” (comp.
Isaiah 1:13), and the term ‫י‬ִ‫יתּ‬ ִ‫ְאָר‬‫ו‬ is equal to “when I shall have seen.” ‫אָה‬ ָ‫ר‬ with ְ‫בּ‬
indicates to look upon some one with interest, be it that of pleasure, as is usual, or of
pain or sorrow, as is the case here; comp. in this relation Genesis 12:1.
PULPIT, "Esther 8:5
If it please the king, etc. The long preface of four clauses, winding up with "If I be
pleasing," is indicative of Esther's doubt how the king will receive her suggestion
that it should be written to reverse the letters (comp. Esther 3:13) devised by
Haman. To ask the king to unsay his own words was impossible. By representing the

29. letters as devised by Haman, and written by Haman, Esther avoids doing so. But she
thereby blinks the truth. In excuse she adds the striking distich contained in the next
verse—"For how could I endure to see the evil that is coming on my people? or how
could I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?"
6 For how can I bear to see disaster fall on my
people? How can I bear to see the destruction of
my family?”
CLARKE, "To see the destruction of my kindred? - She had now informed the
king that she was cousin to Mordecai, and consequently a Jewess; and though her own
life and that of Mordecai were no longer in danger, Haman being dead, yet the decree
that had gone forth was in full force against the Jews; and if not repealed, their
destruction would be inevitable.
GILL, "For how can I endure to see the evil that shall come unto my
people?.... I cannot bear it; it will break my heart; I shall die to see all my people
massacred throughout the realm; the thought of it is shocking and shuddering; to see it,
intolerable: or "how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?" the same thing
in different words, and somewhat more express and explanative. She explains the evil
coming upon her people of the utter destruction of them, not barely an oppression, but
an extermination of them; and she makes use of a word expressive of their relation to
her, as more endearing, being her kindred; she and they being, as it were, of the same
family, and with whom she could not but sympathize in distress.
TRAPP, "Esther 8:6 For how can I endure to see the evil that shall come unto my
people? or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?
Ver. 6. For how can I endure to see the evil, &c.] She had her life already given her
at her petition; but unless she might have her people at her request, who were sold
as well as herself, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish, Esther 7:3-4, her life
would be unto her a joyless, that is, a lifeless life, Mortis enim habet vices quae
trahitur vita gemitibus. It is rather a death than a life that is spent in heaviness and
horror. And this would be Esther’s case if her people should be massacred, as was
designed and decreed; such was her holy sympathy and endeared affection to her

30. countrymen and fellow citizens of heaven, that she could not live to behold such a
sad and bloody spectacle:
Absit ut excisa possim super vivere Troia,
said Anchises to his son Æneas, that would have saved his life in that common
destruction of his country: Far be it from me to outlive Troy. Curtius telleth us, that
Alexander the Great, when he was extremely thirsty, and had water offered to him,
he would not receive it, but put it by with this brave speech, ec solus bibere
sustineo, nec tam exiguum dividere omnibus possum, There is not enough for all my
soldiers to share with me, and to drink it alone I cannot find in my heart, I will
never do it. Compare herewith this speech of Esther, and you will find it far the
better, as being full of those precious graces (whereunto Alexander was a perfect
stranger), humility, prudence, faith, zeal toward God, and ardent love toward his
people. Oh how great is the number of those today (saith Lavater here), qui ne
micam Spiritus Estherae habent, who have not the least parcel of Esther’s spirit, but
are all for themselves, and for their own interests!
Or how can I endure to see] Heb. Quomodo potero et videbo? How can I? and shall
I see? how should I do otherwise than sink at the sight (as she did in the Roman
History, when her son was butchered; and as the Virgin Mary felt a sword at her
heart when she beheld Christ crucified, Luke 2:35). Melancthon said, that good
Oecolampadius died of grief for the Church’s calamities. ehemiah was heart sick
for the breaches of Joseph, ehemiah 2:3, Amos 6:6. Moses wished himself
expunged, and Paul accursed, rather than it should go ill with God’s people.
7 King Xerxes replied to Queen Esther and to
Mordecai the Jew, “Because Haman attacked the
Jews, I have given his estate to Esther, and they
have impaled him on the pole he set up.
GILL, "Then the King Ahasuerus said unto Esther the queen, and to

31. Mordecai the Jew,.... Who was present at the same time, either at the desire of Esther,
or by virtue of his office, being now one of those that saw the king's face, Est_8:1,
behold, I have given Esther the house of Haman; See Gill on Est_8:1,
and him they have hanged upon the gallows; which he had prepared for
Mordecai, Est_7:10
because he laid his hand upon the Jews; intended to do so, and had prepared for
it, and wrote letters, ordering their destruction on such a day. Now as the king had
shown favour to Esther and Mordecai, and had punished Haman for contriving mischief
against them and the Jews, which was publicly known, the people would be fearful of
doing anything against them, lest they should incur the king's displeasure, and therefore
might make themselves easy about this matter; but, however, to give them all the
satisfaction he could, he dire
JAMISO , "Est_8:7-14. Ahasuerus grants to the Jews to defend themselves.
K&D, "The king could not simply revoke the edict issued by Haman in due legal form,
but, ready to perform the request of the queen, he first assures her of his good
intentions, reminding her and Mordochai that he has given the house of Haman to
Esther and hanged Haman, because he laid hand on the Jews (‫לוּ‬ ָ ‫ּו‬‫ת‬ּ‫א‬, him they have
executed); and then grants them permission, as he had formerly done to Haman, to send
letters to the Jews in the king's name, and sealed with the king's seal, and to write ‫ם‬ ֶ‫יכ‬ֵ‫ינ‬ ֵ‫ע‬ ְ
‫ּוב‬ ַⅴ, “as seems good to you,” i.e., to give in writing such orders as might in Esther's and
Mordochai's judgment render the edict of Haman harmless. “For,” he adds, “what is
written in the king's name and sealed with his seal cannot be reversed.” This
confirmatory clause is added by the king with reference to the law in general, not as
speaking of himself objectively as “the king.” ‫יב‬ ִ‫שׁ‬ ָ‫ה‬ ְ‫ל‬ ‫ין‬ ֵ‫א‬ refers to Esther's request: ‫יב‬ ִ‫שׁ‬ ָ‫ה‬ ְ‫ל‬
‫ב‬ ֵ‫ת‬ ָⅴִ‫י‬ (Est_8:5). ‫ּום‬ ְ‫ח‬ַ‫נ‬ְ‫,ו‬ infin. abs. used instead of the perfect.
BE SO , "Esther 8:7. Him they have hanged, because he laid his hand upon the
Jews — That is, intended to destroy them all. By what the king had done to show his
resentment against Haman, they might easily believe he would deny them nothing
for their preservation: as if he had said, You see how ready I have been to grant
your requests, and I do not repent of my favour to you, and am ready to grant your
further desires, as far as the law will permit.
TRAPP, "Verse 7
Esther 8:7 Then the king Ahasuerus said unto Esther the queen and to Mordecai the
Jew, Behold, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and him they have hanged
upon the gallows, because he laid his hand upon the Jews.
Ver. 7. Then the king Ahasuerus said unto Esther, &c.] Here Haman’s letters of

32. Mark are reversed by Ahasuerus, whose answer to Esther is full of gentleness and
sweetness; but yet such as discovereth a mind perplexed, and cast into straits, as
princes eftsoons are by the subtilties and malice of wicked counsellors, Daniel 6:15,
so that they cannot do as they would, unless they will bring all into a combustion;
though usually where the word of a king is there is power, Ecclesiastes 7:4; and the
old lord treasurer, Burleigh, was wont to say, that he knew not what an act of
parliament could not do in England; and King James, in his speech in the Star
chamber, A.D. 1616, said as much.
Behold, I have given Esther the house of Haman] i.e. I have done somewhat toward
the performance of my promise made to Esther, Esther 7:2, and more I am willing
to do, only I must observe good order, and do things with discretion. Behold, I give
you potestatem plenariam et omnimodam, all the power I have, that therewith you
may help yourselves, only my former decree I cannot reverse, but I shall stir up
great garboils in the kingdom. Josephus indeed telleth us, that Ahasuerus did
retract the edict procured by Haman, and further, gave power to the Jews, that if
any withstood the king’s will herein they should kill them, &c. But we are not bound
to believe him in all things; as neither Herodotus, Livy, nor any of the historians
(the sacred always excepted), for Vopiscus, who was one of them, confesseth,
neminem historicorum non aliquid esse mentiturn, that there is none of them that
hath not taken liberty to lie more or less (in Vita Aureliani), and it is manifest that
Josephus’s manner is to recite what he thinks likely to have been done, and what is
fit to be written of such a business. Baronius annales facit non scribit, saith one:
think the same of Josephus, he rather maketh a history, sometimes, than writeth it.
And therefore that is but a sorry excuse that the Papists make for their sacrilegious
forbidding the people to read the Scriptures, when they refer them to Josephus, as
having the history of the Bible more largely and plainly described.
Because he laid his hand upon the Jews] He did it because he designed it. Like as
Balak also arose and fought with Israel, Joshua 24:9, and yet the story saith nothing
so. But that is in Scripture said to be done that is intended or attempted. And this
the heathen also saw by the dim light of nature. Hence that of Seneca, Fecit quisque
quantum voluit. He made anyone as great as he wished. And another saith,
Quae quia non licuit, non facit, illa facit.
Polybius attributeth the death of Antiochus to his sacrilege only in his purpose and
will. This Josephus thinks could not be, sc. that a man having a purpose only to sin
should be punished by God for it. Hence he derideth Polybius for the forecited
censure; but he had no cause so to do, for the heathens herein exceeded the
Pharisees, who held thought free, and Josephus was soured with their leaven.
WHEDO , "7. Behold, I have given — The king, first of all, assures Esther and
Mordecai of his kindly feeling towards the Jews, and points to the proofs of it. He

33. felt, no doubt, that he was to blame for consenting to such a cruel edict, and now
would convince Esther and her cousin that it sprang from no personal feelings of his
own against the Jews.
COFFMA , "Verse 7
U ABLE TO REVERSE THE DECREE; THE KI G DID THE EXT BEST
THI G
"Then the king Ahasuerus said unto Esther the queen and to Mordecai the Jew.
Behold, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and him they have hanged upon
the gallows, because he laid his hand upon the Jews. Write ye also to the Jews, as it
pleaseth you, in the king's name, and seal it with the king's ring; for the writing
which is written in the king's name, and sealed with the king's ring, may no man
reverse."
"I have given Esther the house of Haman, and him they have hanged" (Esther 8:7).
"Ahasuerus, anxious to show Esther that he did indeed love her, here recounted the
favors already bestowed upon her; but he added that no one, not even the king of
Persia, had the right to reverse a decree signed and sealed with the king's ring."[6]
"The king was saying that his refusal to reverse the decree was not due to his lack of
desire, but to his lack of ability."[7]
evertheless, as Cook stated it, "Ahasuerus did, in fact, practically reverse the
wicked decree."[8] This he accomplished by allowing Mordecai to write whatever
letters he pleased to the Jews, giving them full authority to unite, gather together,
arm themselves, and defend themselves against all attacks.
LA GE, "Esther 8:7-8. In order to indicate in advance that his good will abounds
towards Esther and Mordecai, and that he would grant them all that the law would
sanction in favor of the Jews, the king here reminds them of what he had so far done
for Esther and Mordecai. Since, however, he could not directly annul his first
decrees, but could simply make them powerless in effect, he commands them not to
send new orders to the governors—in this manner a suspension or recall of the first
edict could not be accomplished— but to send an edict to the Jews themselves,
commanding them to prepare for their defence. The sentence: For the writing which
is written in the king’s name, and sealed with the king’s ring, may no man reverse,
may have the sense, and so it is generally held, that the simple recall of the first
edicts was not possible.‫יב‬ ִ‫ָשׁ‬‫ה‬ְ‫ל‬ ‫ין‬ֵ‫א‬ may indicate a reflection upon ‫יב‬ ִ‫ָשׁ‬‫ה‬ְ‫ל‬ in Esther’s
petition in Esther 8:5.[F 3] But since these words so nearly correspond to what
precedes: “Let it be written in the name of the king, and seal it with the king’s ring,”
it is clearer and more natural to understand him to say: The new edict to the Jews
will be just as authoritative and irreversible as was the former one to the governors.
This must equally be obeyed with that. Of course the confirmation belongs still to
the words of the king. The phraseology speaks only in an objective sense of the
“king,” because it refers to a general rule. The infin. absol. iph. ‫ְתּוֹם‬‫ח‬ַ‫נ‬ְ‫ו‬ is used
instead of the perfect [by an ellipsis of the substantive verb].

34. PULPIT, "Esther 8:7, Esther 8:8
Then the king … said unto Esther the queen and unto Mordecai. The king, it would
seem, took time to give his answer; and when he gave it, addressed himself to
Mordecai, his minister, rather than to Esther, his wife. "See now," he said, "I have
done what I could—I have given Esther Haman's house; I have had Haman himself
executed because he put forth his hand against the Jews. What yet remains? I am
asked to save your countrymen by revoking my late edict. That may not be. The
writing which is written in the king's name, and sealed with the king's seal, may no
man reverse. But, short of this, I give you full liberty of action. Write ye also for the
Jews, as it liketh you, in the king's name, and seal it with the king's ring. Surely you
can devise something which will save your people without calling on me to retract
my own words, and at the same time break a great principle of Persian law.
BI 7-14, "Then the king Ahasuerus said unto Esther the queen.
A monarch’s imbecility
Always distrust the man who is the victim of circumstances. Great men make their
circumstances and little men are made by them. Ahasuerus here pleads his
circumstances, and rather than acknowledge an error, plunges the whole empire in
danger of civil war. He throws upon Mordecai the duty of contriving a remedy against
his own mistakes.
I. A weak man’s self-defence. “I have given Esther the house of Haman,” etc. He had
given what cost him nothing. With a maudlin tenderness, like that of a drunken man,
while Esther is inspired with an almost Divine passion of patriotism, he pleads his
affection for her person. A small propitiation for a great wickedness. As if the hero of one
hundred swindles flung a copper to a beggar; as if a cowardly murderer gave a crust to
his victim’s orphan; as if a life-long sinner offered to God the compensation of a Sunday
prayer; so Ahasuerus hopes that Haman’s death will make Esther unmindful of the
wickedness devised against her kindred.
II. A weak man’s “non-possumus.”
III. A weak man’s refusal of responsibility. (W. Burrows, B. A.)
May no man reverse.
The repealable and unrepealable in human conduct
1. There is something in all human action unrepealable. But the only way of making
quite sure that we shall obviate or nullify the consequences of an evil action or an evil
course of conduct (if one may express the thing in a strong solecism) is—not to do
the action; not to follow the course of conduct. Few things are more melancholy and
affecting than the deep concern and trouble of aroused consciences in view of things
deeply regretted, but seen to be beyond recall, and, in a large degree, intractable to
modification and management. It is easy to touch a spring in a piece of complex
machinery where there is force of water or steam pent up and ready to play; but if
you don’t know all the consequences, you had better not touch the spring. We must
not take a morbid view, and afflict ourselves with imaginary fears, and think of this
great machine we call providence as if it were full of lurking mischiefs ready to break

35. out at the slightest touch. We are responsible chiefly, almost exclusively, for this—the
action in itself, the course of conduct in itself. We cannot control the consequences,
and we shall not be accountable for them except in so fax as they are the direct and
proper fruit of the action. If we do what is right, and wise, and for good reasons, we
have nothing to fear. If we do wilfully or carelessly what we know to be wrong, we
have every reason to look for the evil consequences, and every reason to judge that
we are responsible for them as far as personal responsibility goes in such a case.
2. This narrative may teach us farther that in the darkest and most unpromising
circumstances there is nearly always some way of relief and improvement. How
seldom are things so in human life that literally nothing can be done! There is
something unrepealable in all important human action. But there is also much that
may be practically repealed. I think we may say that never, at any one time, in the
history of a nation, never in the life of an individual, are things so dark and bad that
nothing can be done to amend and lighten them. If this were not so, the world would
soon be full of the most pitiable spectacles that could be conceived; communities and
individuals sitting hopelessly amid the gloom of their own failures. But who knows
not, also, that calamities and misfortunes are retrieved, that injuries are redressed,
that mistakes are rectified? As Esther set her single will against the deadly edict, and
drew from it, as far as her people were concerned, its deadliness, so a single will is
often set against a whole system of evil, and by vigorous and persevering assaults it is
brought to an end. (A. Raleigh, D. D.)
The irreversible in human life
The word ones spoken cannot be recalled. The deed once done cannot be undone. The
book once issued begins to exercise an influence which cannot be bottled up again, but
which must go on operative for evermore. The man who in youth sowed “wild oats”
cannot stop the production of the harvest which has sprung from his folly. The hasty-
tempered one, whose words sank into the heart of a friend and stabbed him with
something keener than a poniard, cannot undo the mischief he has wrought. The author
of a vile book may see his folly and lament it, but he cannot catch and confine the
influence it exerted, even supposing every copy were to be recalled. You cannot stop the
ball after it has left the gun. If you shake the dewdrop from a flower you cannot put it
back again. “Don’t write there, sir,” said a newsboy to a young dandy in the waiting-room
of an English railway station, when he saw him take off his ring and begin with the
diamond in it to scratch some words upon the surface of the mirror. “Don’t write there,
sir.” “Why not?” “Because you can’t rub it out.” (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)
And to stand for their life, to destroy, to slay.—
War against evil
There is “not an evil passion or lust against which we are not called upon to do battle,
not a temptation which we are not commanded to resist, not a spiritual adversary which
we are not required to put forth all our energies to overcome. In our “evil day” we are
summoned by our King to “stand for our lives,” and be prepared to war against our
enemies as though the victory lay with ourselves. God helping us, we will do it. (T.
McEwan.)

36. 8 ow write another decree in the king’s name in
behalf of the Jews as seems best to you, and seal it
with the king’s signet ring—for no document
written in the king’s name and sealed with his
ring can be revoked.”
BAR ES, "Write ... as it liketh you ... - (See the Est_1:19 note. Practically,
Ahasuerus reversed the “device” of Haman).
CLARKE, "May no man reverse - Whatever had passed the royal signet could
never be revoked; no succeeding edict could destroy or repeal a preceding one: but one
of a similar nature to the Jews against the Persians, as that to the Persians was against
the Jews, might be enacted, and thus the Jews be enabled legitimately to defend
themselves; and, consequently, placed on an equal footing with their enemies.
GILL, "Write ye also for the Jews as it liketh you,.... Whatever may be thought fit
and proper for their safety and security:
in the king's name, and seal it with the king's ring; as the former letters were:
for the writing which is written in the king's name, and sealed with the
king's ring, may no man reverse; which is a reason both for the writing and sealing
of the present letters in this manner, and why the former could not be reversed; nor does
it appear that they were, but that, in virtue of them, the people had power to rise and kill
the Jews on the day appointed, if they dared, or were so disposed; and these empowered
the Jews to rise in their own defence, and kill all that made any attempts upon them, for
which they had the royal authority; and these letters coming after the other, though they
did not formally reverse them, which might not be done, yet rendered them ineffectual.
HE RY 8-14, "The king here takes a course for the preventing of the mischief that
Haman had designed. 1. The king knew, and informed the queen, that, according to the
constitution of the Persian government, the former edict could not be revoked (Est_
8:8): What is written in the king's name, and sealed with the king's ring, may not,
under any pretence whatsoever, be reversed. This was a fundamental article of their
magna charta, that no law or decree, when once it had passed the royal assent, could be

37. repealed or recalled, no judgment vacated, no attainder reversed, Dan_6:15. This is so
far from bespeaking the wisdom and honour of the Medes and Persians that really it
bespeaks their pride and folly, and consequently their shame. It is ridiculous in itself for
any man, or company of men, to pretend to such an infallibility of wisdom as to foresee
all the consequences of what they decree; and therefore it is unjust, and injurious to
mankind, to claim such a supremacy of power as to make their decrees irrevocable,
whether the consequences prove good or bad. This savours of that old presumption
which ruined us all: We will be as gods. Much more prudent is that proviso of our
constitution, that no law can, by any words or sanctions whatsoever, be made
unrepealable, any more than any estate unalienable. Cujus est instruere, ejus est
destruere - the right to enact implies the right to repeal. It is God's prerogative not to
repent, and to say what can never be altered or unsaid. 2. Yet he found an expedient to
undo the devices of Haman, and defeat his design, by signing and publishing another
decree to authorize the Jews to stand upon their defence, vim vi repellere, et invasorem
occidere - to oppose force to force, and destroy the assailant. This would be their
effectual security. The king shows them that he had done enough already to convince
them that he had a concern for the Jewish nation, for he had ordered his favourite to be
hanged because he laid his hand upon the Jews (Est_8:7), and he therefore would d the
utmost he could to protect them; and he leaves it as fully with Esther and Mordecai to
use his name and power for their deliverance as before he had left it with Haman to use
his name and power for their destruction: “Write for the Jews as it liketh you (Est_8:8),
saving only the honour of our constitution. Let the mischief be put away as effectually as
may be without reversing the letters.” The secretaries of state were ordered to attend to
draw up this edict on the twenty-third day of the third month (Est_8:9), about two
months after the promulgation of the former, but nine months before the time set for its
execution: it was to be drawn up and published in the respective languages of all the
provinces. Shall the subjects of an earthly prince have his decrees in a language they
understand? and shall God's oracles and laws be locked up from his servants in an
unknown tongue? It was to be directed to the proper officers of every province, both to
the justices of peace and to the deputy-lieutenants. It was to be carefully dispersed
throughout all the king's dominions, and true copies sent by expresses to all the
provinces. The purport of this decree was to commission the Jews, upon the day which
was appointed for their destruction, to draw together in a body for their own defence.
And, (1.) To stand for their life, that, whoever assaulted them, it might be at their peril.
(2.) They might not only act defensively, but might destroy, and slay, and cause to
perish, all the power of the people that would assault them, men, women, and children
(Est_8:11), and thus to avenge themselves on their enemies (Est_8:13), and, if they
pleased, to enrich themselves by their enemies, for they were empowered to take the
spoil of them for a prey. Now, [1.] This showed his kindness to the Jews, and sufficiently
provided for their safety; for he latter decree would be looked upon as a tacit revocation
of the former, though not in expression. But, [2.] It shows the absurdity of that branch of
their constitution that none of the king's edicts might be repealed; for it laid the king
here under a necessity of enacting a civil war in his own dominions, between the Jews
and their enemies, so that both sides took up arms by his authority, and yet against his
authority. No better could come of men's pretending to be wise above what is given
them. Great expedition was used in dispersing this decree, the king himself being in pain
lest it should come too late and any mischief should be done to the Jews by virtue of the
former decree before the notice of this arrived. It was therefore by the king's
commandment, as well as Mordecai's, that the messengers were hastened and pressed
on (Est_8:14), and had swift beasts provided them, Est_8:10. It was not a time to trifle
when so many lives were in danger.

38. JAMISO , "Write ... in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s ring —
Hence it is evident that the royal ring had a seal in it, which, being affixed to any
document, authenticated it with the stamp of royal authority.
which ... may no man reverse — This is added as the reason why he could not
comply with the queen’s request for a direct reversal or recall of Haman’s letters;
namely, that the laws of the Medes and Persians, once passed, were irrevocable.
BE SO , "Esther 8:8. Write ye also for the Jews — On their behalf, to the
governors and commanders of the king’s forces, or to whom you please. In the
king’s name, and seal it with the king’s ring — I offer you my authority and seal, to
confirm whatsoever you shall think fit to write. The writing which is written in the
king’s name, &c., may no man reverse — This reason may belong, either, 1st, To the
writing of these present letters; and then the sense is, These letters will be most
effectual, being no less irrevocable than the former, and, coming last, will repeal the
former. Or, 2d, To the former letters, as a reason why he could not grant their
desires in recalling them, because they were irrevocable by the laws of the Medes
and Persians. And this sense, though rejected by many, seems to be the truest,
because here is no mention of reversing Haman’s letters, which Esther had desired,
Esther 8:5, and the king denied, for the reason here alleged; and because the
following letter doth not contain one word about the reversing of the former, nor
doth it take away that power which was given to all rulers to destroy all the Jews,
Esther 3:12-13; but only gives the Jews power and authority to stand up in their
own defence, Esther 8:11, which, all circumstances considered, was sufficient for
their preservation. How much more prudent is our constitution than that of the
Persians, that no law whatever can be so established as to be unrepealable. It is
God’s prerogative not to repent, and to say what can never be altered.
ELLICOTT, "(8) Write ye. . . .—Esther’s device is seen through, and the king
shrinks from taking so decisive a step as the revocation of a decree once issued. Such
a writing “may no man reverse.” Still he will do what he can. It may be possible to
meet the difficulty, and save the Jews, without actual reversal of the decree. The
king then refers to the proofs of his goodwill, as shown by hanging Haman for his
scheme against the Jews, and giving his property to Esther, and bids Esther and
Mordecai “write concerning the Jews according to what seems good in your eyes.”
Give, that is, any orders you please about them, short of repealing the former order.
The result of this permission, whether the idea was suggested by the king, or
occurred to Esther or Mordecai, was that authority was given to the Jews to defend
themselves.
TRAPP, "Esther 8:8 Write ye also for the Jews, as it liketh you, in the king’s name,
and seal [it] with the king’s ring: for the writing which is written in the king’s name,
and sealed with the king’s ring, may no man reverse.
Ver. 8. Write ye also for the Jews] Here was one syngram, or authoritative writing,
crossing another. What could the people think of this, but that crowns have their

39. cares, and it were a wonder if great persons, in the multitude of their distractions,
should not let fall some incongruities. We must not think, saith Lavater here, if
princes or states command things different from one another, that it proceedeth
from lightness of mind; but that they make laws and set forth edicts according to the
state and necessity of the times, and as the public good requireth. In the beginning
of Queen Elizabeth’s reign here (when men’s minds differed concerning religion,
and reformation could not safely be wrought at once) it was by one and the same
proclamation commanded, that no man should speak irreverently of the sacrament
of the altar, and both kinds were permitted in the administration. Religion was
changed without commotion by degrees; after that the Romish superstition had
stood a whole month and more, after the death of Queen Mary, as afore. The
sacrifice of the mass was not abolished till half a year later; nor images cast out of
churches till two months after that. Here, then, let St James’s counsel take place.
"Be swift to hear, slow to speak"; to speak evil of governors when they answer not
our expectations, but seem to command contradictories. There are certain Arcana
imperil, secrets of state, that most men understand not; and must therefore dedicate
them to victory, as the Romans did that lake the depth whereof they could not
fathom nor find out. Besides, we must know that there will be faults so long as there
be men, and faults will slip between the best men’s fingers; as Bishop Jewel was
wont to say. And as we endure with patience a barren year if it happen, and
unseasonable weather; so must we tolerate the imperfections of rulers, and quietly
expect either reformation or alteration.
As it liketh you] Having been so lately deceived in Haman, and by him miscarried to
the ratifying of that bloody edict, he will no more trust his own judgment, but refers
the managing of the Jews’ deliverance (which now he greatly desired) to their
prudence, discretion, and faithfulness. Few kings would have yielded to have
retracted, lest they should thereby seem light and inconstant, and confess themselves
to have been in an error. Hence, right or wrong, their laws must stand; and if any
demand a reason, Sic volo, sic iubeo, So I wish, so I order, must stop his mouth; and
Quod ego volo pro Canone sit, Let my will be your reason and rule, as Constantius
said to the orthodox bishops, refusing to communicate with the Arians. But God,
who tameth the fiercest creatures, had, for his poor people’s sake, brought
Ahasuerus to a better bent; so that rather than contract the stain and sting of such
barbarous cruelty, he will run the hazard of being accounted inconstant; and not
care though a Retraxit Retraction be entered against him; as is usually against the
plaintiff when he cometh into the court where his plea is, and saith he will not
proceed.
In the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s ring] He was well persuaded of their
fidelity, piety, and prudence. Otherwise it had been too great a weakness in this
prince (who had been so lately abused by Haman) to have trusted his whole power
in the hands of strangers. But natural conscience cannot but stoop to the image of
God, wheresoever it meeteth therewith, and have high thoughts of such, as Pharaoh
had of Joseph, ebuchadnezzar of those three worthies, Darius of Daniel, &c.
Surely, when men see in the saints that which is above ordinary, or beyond their

40. expectations, they are afraid of the name of God which is called upon by them,
Deuteronomy 28:10, and will intrust them more than any other whatsoever. It is a
problem in Aristotle, why man is credited more than other creatures? The answer
is, οτι θεους νοµιζει µονον, because he alone reverenceth God, therefore you may
trust him: honesty floweth from piety.
For the writing which is written in the king’s name, &c.] Therefore you must not
take it amiss that I reverse not Haman’s letters; for I also am under a law (whatever
my predecessor Cambyses held to the contrary), neither need you doubt but that
what you write in my name and sign with my seal will be authentic, and pass for a
current countermand, fear it not.
WHEDO , "8. Write ye… as it liketh you — He commits to them the task of
devising some counter measure that will protect their people, and excuses himself
from further action on the ground of the immutability of Persian law. o edict,
however hasty and foolish, can be recalled, but there may be a most fearful conflict
of laws. See note on Esther 1:19.
9 At once the royal secretaries were summoned—
on the twenty-third day of the third month, the
month of Sivan. They wrote out all Mordecai’s
orders to the Jews, and to the satraps, governors
and nobles of the 127 provinces stretching from
India to Cush.[a] These orders were written in the
script of each province and the language of each
people and also to the Jews in their own script and
language.
BAR ES, "Sivan corresponds nearly to our June; it was the second month from the
issue of the first edict Est_3:12.

41. CLARKE, "The month Sivan - This answers to a part of our May and June.
GILL, "Then were the king's scribes called at that time,.... As they were to write
the former letter, Est_3:12,
in the third month, that is the month Sivan, on the three and twentieth day
thereof; which answers to part of May, and part of June. This was two months and ten
days after the writing of the former letters; so long the Jews had been in distress by
reason of them, and was a just rebuke upon them for not returning to their own land
when they might, as well as for other sins:
and it was written according to all that Mordecai commanded to the Jews.
Mordecai dictated to the scribes, and ordered what they should write; and which were
sent to the Jews in the first place, partly to ease them of their present distress, and partly
that they might prepare against that time for their defence, for which they had sufficient
time, it being now more than nine months to it:
and to the lieutenants, and the deputies, and the rulers of the provinces,
which are from India unto Ethiopia, an hundred twenty and seven
provinces. The letters were directed to the same magistrates in the several provinces as
the former, giving orders to them, that, notwithstanding them, they were to suffer the
Jews to defend themselves, and not punish them for what should be done by them in
self-defence; see Est_1:1,
unto every province according to the writing thereof, and unto every people
after their language, and to the Jews according to their writing, and
according to their language; some provinces spoke the Persian language, and used
the character of it, others Chaldee, others Syriac, &c. and wrote in the usual characters,
as the Jews did in Hebrew, and in the characters of that language; and now these letters
were written in the language and character of the people of the several provinces they
were sent to, that they might be easily read and
K&D, "These letters were prepared in the same manner as those of Haman (Est_
3:12-15), on the 23rd day of the third month, the month Sivan, and sent into all the
provinces. “And it was written according to all that Mordochai commanded.” They were
sent to the Jews and to the satraps, etc., of the whole wide realm from India to Ethiopia
(see Est_1:1), while those of Haman had been issued only to the satraps, etc. The rest
coincides with Est_3:12. ‫ּב‬ ְ‫כ‬ִ ַ‫,ו‬ and he (Mordochai) wrote. To show the speed with which
the letters were despatched, (messengers) “on horseback, on coursers, government
coursers, the sons of the stud,” is added to ‫ים‬ ִ‫צ‬ ָ‫ר‬ ָ‫ה‬ ‫ד‬ַ‫י‬ ְ . ‫שׁ‬ ֶ‫כ‬ ֶ‫ר‬ is a collective, meaning swift
horses, coursers; comp. 1Ki_5:8. ‫ים‬ִ‫נ‬ ָ‫ר‬ ְ ְ‫שׁ‬ ַ‫ח‬ ֲ‫א‬ (Est_8:11 and Est_8:14) answers to the Old-
Persian kschatrana, from kschatra, government, king, and means government, royal, or
court studs. So Haug in Ewald's bibl. Jahrb. v. p. 154. The older explanation, mules, on
the other hand, is founded on the modern Persian estar, which, to judge from the
Sanscrit açvatara, must in ancient Persian have been açpatara. ‫ים‬ ִ‫כ‬ ָ ַ‫,ר‬ ᅋπ. λεγ. from ְ‫ך‬ ָ ַ‫,ר‬

42. answering to the Syriac re
makaa', herd, especially a herd of horses, and to the Arabic
:TransOther}ramaka, stud, is explained by Bertheau as a superlative form for the animal
who excels the rest of the herd of stud in activity, perhaps the breeding stallion, while
others understand it of the stud in general. The contents of the edict follow in Est_8:11
and Est_8:12 : “that the king allows the Jews in every city to assemble and to stand for
their life (i.e., to fight for their lives, comp. Dan_12:1), to destroy, to slay, and to cause to
perish all the power (‫ל‬ִ‫י‬ ַ‫,ח‬ military power) of the people and province that should assault
them, children and women, and to plunder their property, upon a certain day,” etc. The
appointed time is thus stated as in Est_3:13. The Jews were thus authorized to attack
and destroy all enemies who should assault them on the day appointed for their
extermination. Est_8:13 coincides with Est_3:14, with this difference, that the Jews are
to be ready on this day to avenge themselves on their enemies. Est_8:14 also is similar to
Est_3:15, except that the expression is strengthened by an addition to ‫ים‬ ִ‫צ‬ ָ‫ר‬ ָ‫ה‬ as in Est_
8:10, and by that of ‫ים‬ ִ‫חוּפ‬ ְ , urged on, to ‫ים‬ ִ‫ל‬ ֲ‫ה‬ ַ‫ב‬ ְ‫,מ‬ hastened, to point out the utmost
despatch possible.
BE SO , "Esther 8:9. On the three and twentieth day thereof — Which was above
two months after the former decree. All which time God suffered the Jews to lie
under the terror of this dreadful day, that they might be more thoroughly humbled
for, and purged from, those many and great sins under which they lay, that they
might be convinced of their great sin and folly, in neglecting the many offers and
opportunities they had had of returning to their native country, and to the free and
public exercise of the true religion, which could be had nowhere but in Jerusalem,
by which means they, being now dispersed in the several parts of this vast dominion,
must be a very easy prey to their enemies, whereas their brethren in Judea were in a
better capacity to preserve themselves; that their most malicious and inveterate
enemies might have an opportunity of discovering themselves to their ruin, as the
event showed; and for the greater illustration of God’s glorious power, and wisdom,
and goodness, in giving his people such an admirable and unexpected deliverance.
And God so ordered things, that this letter should be sent in due time, before it was
too late; for there were yet near nine months to come before that appointed day.
And it was written unto the Jews — That they might understand their liberty, and
be encouraged to use it for their own defence. And to the rulers of the provinces —
That they should publish and disperse it into all parts, that both themselves and
others might take notice of the king’s pleasure, and kindness to the Jews.
TRAPP, "Esther 8:9 Then were the king’s scribes called at that time in the third
month, that [is], the month Sivan, on the three and twentieth [day] thereof; and it
was written according to all that Mordecai commanded unto the Jews, and to the
lieutenants, and the deputies and rulers of the provinces which [are] from India
unto Ethiopia, an hundred twenty and seven provinces, unto every province
according to the writing thereof, and unto every people after their language, and to
the Jews according to their writing, and according to their language.

43. Ver. 9. Then were the king’s scribes called] This verse is noted to be the longest in
all the Bible. It was Robert Stevens, the printer (I think), that first distinguished the
chapters by verses; and this he hath done not so well in some places as were to be
wished. These scribes were as ready at Mordecai’s call as before they had been at
Haman’s, Esther 3:12, neither cared they much what they wrote, so that they might
be sure it was the king’s pleasure they should do it. As for their religion, it may seem
to be the same with that of Gallio, the proconsul, Acts 18:17, a mere irreligion, their
motto, Mihi placet quicquid Regi placet, Whatsoever pleaseth the king shall please
me; and if their hearts could be ripped up, there would be found written therein,
The god of this present world.
At that time] As soon as the word was out of the king’s mouth; delay might have
bred danger. Habent aulae suum cito, cito. Courtiers are quick of despatch, as they
carefully observe their mollissima fandi tempera, so when once they have got a
grant they lose no time, they know that opportunities are headlong, and once lost
irrecoverable. Hannibal, when he could have taken Rome, would not; when he
would, could not. Vincere scis Hannibal victoria uti nescis, said one to him
(Plutarch). Mordecai made use of the present, the nick of time. Esther could tell
him, by experience, that a well chosen season is the greatest advantage of an action,
which, as it is seldom found in haste, so it is too often lost in delay. It is not for
Mordecai to drive off any longer, the whole Church was in heaviness, and needed
comfort; and some might be slain ere notice came to the contrary. Ad opera brevis
hora ferendam est (Ovid. Metam. 1. 4).
In the third month] Two months and more the poor Jews lay under the sentence of
death, in a forlorn condition. God loves to help such as are forsaken from their
hopes, to help at a dead lift, to comfort the abject, 2 Corinthians 7:6. Though Jacob
be a worm, yet God will not crush him, but cherish him. And "I will re store health
unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord; because they called
thee an outcast, saying, This is Zion whom no man seeketh after," Jeremiah 30:17.
The seasonableness of God’s mercies doth much commend them. These poor
wretches cried, and the Lord heard them, and saved them out of all their troubles,
Psalms 34:6.
This is the month Sivan] That is, May, when all things are in their prime and pride,
and the earth checkered and entrailed with variety, of flowers, and God is seen to be
Magnus in minimis, great in the smallest creatures. Then did the Sun of
righteousness arise to these afflicted exiles, with healing in his wings, Malachi 4:2
like as the sunbeams did to the dry and cold earth, calling out the herbs and flowers,
and healing those deformities that winter had brought upon it.
On the three and twentieth day thereof] The precise time is thus noted, not only to
set forth the certainty and truth of the history, but also to let us see what was the

44. present state of the Church, and what is God’s usual dispensation and dealing with
his people. For two months and more they were in a very low, and as it might seem,
a lost condition. ow they have eight months’ opertunity to breath and prepare
themselves to their just and lawful defence yet they are not without various
difficulties and discouragements, until God had given them a full and final victory
over their enemies. The saints’ prosperity here, like checker-work, is interwoven
with fears and crosses. They must not look for a perpetual serenity till they come to
heaven. I shall die in my nest, said Job; I shall never be moved, saith David. How
apt are the holiest to be proud and secure, to settle upon their lees, unless God pour
them from vessel to vessel! This the wise God well knoweth, and therefore exerciseth
them with interchanges. See the circle that he goeth in with his Davids, Psalms 30:5-
10, and reckon upon this, that if our sorrows be long, they are light, if sharper, the
shorter; as thunder, the more violent, the less permanent.
Flebile principium melior fortuna sequetur.
Tears first followed by better fortune.
And it was written according to all that Moredecai commanded] Had he not been a
man of singular parts he had not been fit for such a service. It could not otherwise
be, but that many eyes were upon him, and some evil eyes, that would more
curiously pry into his proceedings than Laban once did into Jacob’s stuff. It
behoved him, therefore, to look to his behaviour, and to weigh well his words in
dictating such a ticklish edict as this to the king’s secretaries. But God, who had
called him to this high employment, did likewise gift him for it. He was with his
mouth (as once with Moses, Exodus 4:11), and taught him what he should say.
There is no mouth into which God cannot put fit words: and how oft doth he choose
the weak and unwise to confound the learned and mighty, as he did Balaam’s ass to
convince his master!
Unto the Jews] To them first, because they were in their deepest dumps, and stood
in need of comfort. Go, tell my disciples and Peter; let him know with the first that I
am risen, for he is in greatest heaviness.
And to the lieutenants, and the deputies, &c.] That they might know that the king’s
mind was altered, and that the Jews were now to be favoured and furthered in their
just and necessary defence. The equity of this edict, so opposite to the former, they
were not to dispute but to despatch. To argue or debate the business were
presumption, proud curiosity; to search the reason thereof, to detract or disobey,
high offence, equal to rebellion.
Unto every province according to the writing thereof] In their several characters,

45. and manner of writing. The China and Japan writing is from the right hand to the
left, but with the lines down the leaf, not crossing, &c.
And unto every people after their language] The whole earth was once of one
language, lip, and speech, Genesis 11:1. This was the Hebrew tongue, called the
Jews’ language here, and more plainly, Isaiah 36:11 (though some fond men have
given the seniority to other languages, many ages younger than the Hebrew). Ever
since the building of Babel languages were confounded, and thereby a great labour
laid upon the sons of men. The Hebrew doctors say, that thenceforth for one tongue
there were seventy-two languages. Others think there were as many tongues as
several kindreds and families; and these have multiplied also since that time
exceedingly. It was Mordecai’s care here, that all nations under the Persian
dominion might have the king’s edict in their various dialects, that so none might
plead ignorance. It should be the magistrate’s care that their people have the law of
God, the Holy Scriptures, in a known language, since the ignorance thereof is
destructive to the soul. This the pope denieth to those misled and muzzled souls, that
are fast locked up in his dark dungeon; and giveth this bald reason, e sacra verba
vilescerent, lest those holy words should be undervalued, and become too cheap.
This is good Turkism; the Mahometans read their Koran (which is their Bible) in
the Arabic (which is their learned) tongue, lest, if translated, it should be profaned
by the vulgar.
WHEDO , "9. The third month… Sivan — Corresponding with our June: about
two months after Haman’s letters had been sent.
It was written according to all that Mordecai commanded — How signally has
Mordecai risen to the power so recently wielded against himself and his kindred.
Compare the language of Esther 3:12.
Deputies — Prefects or governors.
COFFMA , "Verse 9
A COU TER-EDICT WAS SE T FORTH BY MORDECAI
"Then were the king's scribes called at Then were the king's scribes called at that
time, in the third month, which is the month Sivan, on the three and twentieth day
thereof, and it was written according to all that Mordecai commanded unto the
Jews, and to the satraps, and the governors and princes of the provinces which are
from India unto Ethiopia, a hundred twenty and seven provinces, unto every
province according to the writing thereof, and unto every people after their
language, and to the Jews according to their writing, and according to their
language. And he wrote in the name of king Ahasuerus, and sealed it with the king's
ring, and sent letters by posts on horseback, riding on swift steeds that were used in
the king's service, bred of the stud: wherein the king granted the Jews that were in
every city to gather themselves together, and to stand for their life, to destroy, to
slay, and to cause to perish, all the power of the people and province that would

46. assault them, their little ones and women, and to take the spoil of them for a prey,
upon one day in all the provinces of king Ahasuerus, namely, upon the thirteenth
day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar. A copy of the writing, that the
decree should be given out in every province, was published unto all the peoples,
and that the Jews should be ready against that day to avenge themselves on their
enemies. So the posts that rode upon swift steeds that were used in the king's service
went out, being hastened and pressed on by the king's commandment; and the
decree was given out in Shushan the palace."
"In the third month, which is the month Sivan" (Esther 8:9). "The name Sivan is
another Babylonian name, the third month being sacred to the moon god. It
corresponded to our May-June."[9] "The date was June 25,474 B.C., a little over
two months after the first decree was issued,"[10] thus allowing over eight months
for the Jews to prepare their defenses.
"To destroy, to slay, and to cause to perish" (Esther 8:11). This decree followed very
closely the language of the edict of Haman (Esther 3:13) in order to nullify it to the
fullest extent possible. "The exact treatment intended for the Jews was to be meted
out for their enemies."[11] "The irrevocability of Haman's decree made it necessary
for Mordecai to duplicate in reverse all of its provisions, thus inevitably giving the
impression of a very harsh decree. When the day came, it stressed that the Jews did
not plunder their enemies."[12]
The Jews were authorized to take the property of their attackers, but when the time
came they waived that right.
"All the power of the people and province" (Esther 8:11). "This is a reference to the
military forces."[13]
CO STABLE, "Verses 9-14
3. The royal decree8:9-14
The first decree, to destroy the Jews, had gone out on April17 , 474 B.C. ( Esther
3:12). [ ote: R. A. Parker and W. H. Dubberstein, Babylonian Chronology626 B.C-
A.D75 , p31.] Ahasuerus published this second one, allowing the Jews to defend
themselves, on June25 , 474 B.C. The Jews had over eight months to prepare for the
day their enemies might attack them, which was March7 , 473 B.C.
The king gave the Jews permission even to take the lives of the enemy "which might
attack them, ... [their] children and women" ( Esther 8:11). The children and
women in view seem to be those of the Jews (cf. Esther 3:13), not the enemies of the
Jews. [ ote: Gordis, pp49-53.] This extreme measure enabled the Jews to defend
themselves completely. It neutralized the enemy"s former advantage (cf. Esther
3:13).
"It has often been observed that this [fourteenth verse] provides a remarkably
cogent illustration of missionary work today. God"s death sentence hangs over a

47. sinful humanity, but He has also commanded us to hasten the message of salvation
to every land (cf. Proverbs 24:11). Only by a knowledge of, and a response to, the
second decree of saving grace through the Lord Jesus Christ can the terrible effects
of the first decree of universal condemnation for sin be averted." [ ote: Whitcomb,
p107.]
"If a group of pagan scribes and messengers, without modern means of
transportation and communication, could take Mordecai"s decree to an entire
empire, how much more should Christian workers be able to take Christ"s Gospel
to a lost world!" [ ote: Wiersbe, p745.]
LA GE, "Esther 8:9-14. These contain the measures of Mordecai.[F 4] In the same
manner as did Haman ( Esther 3:12-15) on the 13 th of the first month, so Mordecai
wrote to and “commanded the Jews and the rulers of the provinces,” on the 23 d of
the third month, i. e. Sivan. This was fully two months later, although Haman’s fall
must have occurred soon after the edict of extermination was published. o doubt
Mordecai thought it expedient first to establish himself in his new position before
taking such steps and proposing such measures. He wrote to the Jews, but so that
the governors became acquainted with the nature of this order, and were obliged to
forward it in their extensive provinces to every single Jewish community (comp.
Esther 1:1).
The subject of ‫ֹב‬ ‫ְתּ‬‫כ‬ִ‫יּ‬ַ‫ו‬ in Esther 8:10 is the one transmitting or originating the writing,
i. e. Mordecai. In order to speedily make known the edict so as to free the Jews from
their anxiety, and avert the evil in time, he dispatched the messengers with the
greatest speed. ‫ִים‬‫צ‬ ָ‫,ר‬ i.e. couriers, ‫ִים‬‫ס‬‫ַסּוּ‬‫בּ‬, i.e. on horses, by posts on horseback, and
riders on mules, and young dromedaries.—‫ֶשׁ‬‫ב‬ ֶ‫,ר‬ in distinction from ‫,סוּם‬ is the
saddle-horse (dromedary), the race-horse ( 1 Kings 5:8), and is here used in a
collective sense. ‫ִים‬‫נ‬ ָ‫ר‬ְ‫תּ‬ ְ‫ֵשׁ‬‫ח‬ֲ‫א‬ ( Esther 8:10-14) are not “asses,” according to the modern
Persian estar, which in the Sanscrit = acvatara, and hence may have been acpatara
in old Persian; but they were princely, royal horses, hence belonging to the court,
from kshatra, “royal,” king, according to Haug, in Ewald’s Bibl. Jahrb. V, p154.
‫ְך‬ָ‫מּ‬ ַ‫=ר‬ the Syriac ramco, “herd,” particularly a herd of horses, with which we may
also compare the word ramakat, “stud,” in the Arabic.
PULPIT, "Esther 8:9
Then were the king's scribes called. The king had said enough. Mordecai saw a
means of reconciling the king's scruple with the safety—or if not with the absolute
safety, yet with the escape and triumph—of his people. The Jews should be allowed
to stand on their defence, should be encouraged to do so, when the time came should
be supported in their resistance by the whole power of the government (Esther 9:3).
A new decree must issue at once giving the requisite permission, and copies must be
at once distributed, that there might be no mistake or misunderstanding. So the
"king's scribes" were summoned and set to work. In the third month, the month
Sivan. This is another Babylonian name. The month was sacred to the moon-god,
Sin, and its name may be connected with his. It corresponded with the latter part of

48. our May and the early part of June. To the lieutenants, and the deputies and rulers.
Compare Esther 3:12, where the same three classes of rulers are mentioned. An
hundred twenty and seven. See the comment on Esther 1:1. And to the Jews. Copies
of the former edict had not been sent especially to the Jews. They had been left to
learn their danger indirectly from the people among whom they dwelt; but
Mordecai took care that they should be informed directly of their right of defence.
10 Mordecai wrote in the name of King Xerxes,
sealed the dispatches with the king’s signet ring,
and sent them by mounted couriers, who rode fast
horses especially bred for the king.
BAR ES, "Riders on mules, camels and young dromedaries - Most moderns
translate “riders upon coursers and mules, the offspring of mares;” but the words
translated “mules” and “mares,” are of very doubtful signification, since they scarcely
occur elsewhere. The real meaning of the clause must remain doubtful; perhaps the true
translation is, “riders upon coursers of the king’s stud, offspring of high-bred steeds.” So
Est_8:14.
CLARKE, "On mules, camels, and young dromedaries - What these beasts
were is difficult to say. The word ‫רכש‬ rechesh, which we translate mules, signifies a swift
chariot horse.
The strange word ‫אחשתרנים‬ achashteranim is probably a Persian word, but perhaps
incurably corrupted. The most likely derivation is that of Bochart, from the Persian
akhash, huge, large, rough, and aster, a mule; large mules.
The words ‫הרמכים‬ ‫בני‬ beney harammachim, the sons of mares, which we translate
dromedaries, are supposed to signify mules, produced between the he ass and the mare,
to distinguish them from those produced between the stallion and the ass, But there is
really so much confusion about these matters, and so little consent among learned men
as to the signification of these words, and even the true knowledge of them is of such
little importance, that we may well rest contented with such names as our modern
translations have given us. They were, no doubt, the swiftest and hardiest beasts that the

49. city or country could produce.
GILL, "And he wrote in the King Ahasuerus' name, and sealed it with the
king's ring,.... Which gave the letters authority, and made them irreversible, and for
this Mordecai had the king's order, Est_8:8
and sent letters by post; by runners or couriers:
on horseback; that rode on horses that were racers, that ran swiftly:
and riders on mules, camels, and young dromedaries; which were all different
creatures, and swift ones, according to our version, especially the latter; see Jer_2:23
which were a kind of camels, but swifter, and would go more than one hundred miles a
day (a); and, as Diodorus Siculus says (b), not less than 1500 furlongs or about two
hundred miles: though it may be only one sort are meant, namely, "mules", for the next
word, "ahashteranim", in the Persian language signifies mules (c), and so Aben Ezra
interprets it, and likewise Kimchi and Ben Melech; and the last words may be rendered
"sons of mares", so David de Pomis; that is, such mules as are gendered by he asses and
mares: and so the same writer observes, that the word in the Arabic language signifies
"mares"; and such mules that come from them he says are stronger than those that come
from she asses; so that the whole may be rendered to this sense, "riders on mules",
(which in the Persian language are called "ahashteranim",) namely, such as are "sons of
mares"; and which according to Aelianus (d) and Pliny (e) are the swiftest; though the
Persians had camels swifter than are common elsewhere, called "revatrie", the "goer",
which trot as fast as an horse can gallop (f).
JAMISO , "sent ... by posts ... and riders on ... camels, and young
dromedaries — The business being very urgent, the swiftest kind of camel would be
employed, and so the word in the original denotes the wind-camel. Young dromedaries
also are used to carry expresses, being remarkable for the nimbleness and ease of their
movements. Animals of this description could convey the new rescript of Ahasuerus over
the length and breadth of the Persian empire in time to relieve the unhappy Jews from
the ban under which they lay.
BE SO , "Esther 8:10. And he wrote in King Ahasuerus’s name — Josephus has
given us a true copy, as he says, of this decree; or, as he terms it, of the letters which
Artaxerxes sent to all nations which lie between India and Ethiopia; wherein he
represents the abuse which favourites are wont to make of their power and credit
with their prince, by insulting their inferiors, by flying in the face of those who
raised them, and, to gratify their resentments, calumniating the innocent, and
putting honest men in danger of their lives, &c. And sent letters by posts, and riders
on mules, &c. — Which were not employed in the sending of the former letters; but
these, coming later, required more care and speed, that the Jews might be eased
from their present fears, and have time to provide for their own defence.
ELLICOTT, "(10) Posts.—The posts. Literally, the runners. (See ote on Esther
1:22.)

50. Riders on mules.—Rather, on horses of great speed; the “swift beast “of Micah 1:13.
Camels, and young dromedaries.—The words thus translated occur only here, and
there is much doubt as to the meaning. It may suffice to mention two renderings :—
(1) “Mules, the offspring of royal mares “—so Gesenius; or (2) we may connect the
former word with the Persian word meaning royal—so Canon Rawlinson, who
translates the whole clause, riders upon coursers of the king’s stud, offspring of
high-bred steeds.”
TRAPP, "Esther 8:10 And he wrote in the king Ahasuerus’ name, and sealed [it]
with the king’s ring, and sent letters by posts on horseback, [and] riders on mules,
camels, [and] young dromedaries:
Ver. 10. And he wrote in the king Ahasuerus’s name] For he knew that "where the
word of a king is, there is power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou?"
Ecclesiastes 8:4; see Daniel 5:19. Mordecai, as he was careful not to abuse his
authority, so he spareth not to improve it to the utmost for the Church’s good. We
may also lawfully and comfortably improve the benefits and privileges granted us
by princes and other benefactors. Constantine’s donation and Peter’s patrimony is
much boasted of by that antichrist of Rome. A mere fiction, as various learned men
of their own side have proved (Cusanus, Ficinus, Volater, Otho Frising). But if it
were never so true, what power had Constantine to give away and alienate such a
considerable part of the empire (might he not well have been therefore called
Pupillus, as he was in scorn by some heathen historians for his bounty to poor
Christians)? or with what conscience could the bishop of Rome have accepted of
such a gift, and left it to his successors. But it was neither so nor so. ot
Constantine, but Pepin, enlarged the pope’s territories; as not Peter, but Phocas, is
the right craggy rock upon which is founded the pope’s supremacy.
And sealed it with the king’s ring] See Esther 3:12, and observe what a strange turn
of things here was all on the sudden. Merlin from this clause gathereth, that the king
perused and approved whatsoever the scribes wrote by the appointment of
Mordecai, he saw it, and signed it.
And sent letters by posts] See Esther 3:15. That was a witty speech of him, who said
of secretaries that pretend much to Scripture: they were like posts, that bring truth
in their letters and lies in their mouths. And of another, that they do angariare,
make posts of the Holy Scriptures; compelling them to go two miles, which of
themselves would go but one.
And riders on mules] Which are counted swifter than horses, and yet a horse is so
swift a creature, that the Argives consecrated a horse to the sun, as the swiftest beast
to the swiftest planet, Equitantes in equis angariis riding on the public couriers

51. horse (Tremel.), O ταχιστος τω ταχυτατω.
Camels] These were large strong beasts, that could endure long and hard travel. It is
said of them, that they do drink, in praesens et in posterum, for the present and the
future, and can hold out travelling three days together without food.
And young dromedaries] These were also swift beasts, Jeremiah 2:23, and therefore
it is by antiphrasis that among us a slow person is called a dromedary, Ut lucus a
non lucendo, bellum quasi minime bellum.
WHEDO , "10. Posts on horseback — See notes on Esther 1:22; Esther 3:13.
Riders on mules — Rather, on swift coursers. See note on 1 Kings 4:28. The word is
here a collective.
Camels — The word ‫אחשׁתרנים‬ is of Persian origin, and means royal, or pertaining to
the government. The most probable meaning is royal steeds. The word occurs only
here and in Esther 8:14.
Young dromedaries — Hebrews sons of the rammachim. The word ‫רמכים‬ is found
only here, and is of doubtful meaning. According to Gesenius and Furst, it means
mares. But, as it has the masculine termination, others understand it to mean
stallions. Rawlinson gives it the more general sense of highbred steeds. Perhaps the
best version of all the words would be, riders of the swift coursers, the royal steeds,
offspring of the thoroughbreds.
COKE, "Esther 8:10. And he wrote in the king Ahasuerus' name, &c.— Josephus
has given us a true copy, as he says, of this decree, or, as he terms it, of the letters
which Artaxerxes sent to all the nations which lie between India and Ethiopia;
wherein he represents the abuse which favourites are wont to make of their power
and credit with their prince, by insulting their inferiors, flying in the face of those
who raised them, and, to gratify their resentments, calumniating the innocent, and
putting honest men in danger of their lives, &c. It is observable, that this decree
allows the Jews to defend themselves, and therefore may, in some measure, account
for the slaughter which they made of their enemies, as related in the next chapter;
and, no doubt, the great sum which Haman had offered to gratify his revenge
against the Jewish nation, was an additional provocation to them to slay every one
who came to annoy them. But it should be remembered, that in this they acted by
virtue of a royal edict, which authorized them to stand upon their own defence; that
they were not the first aggressors, but only opposed those who openly assaulted
them, and were for putting in execution an unjust and cruel decree against them;
and as the Amalekites, who might be dispersed throughout the Persian dominions,
were the known and inveterate enemies of the Jews, and, following now the fortune
of Haman, might be forward enough to execute the decree which he had procured
against them, it is reasonably presumed that most of those whom the Jews destroyed

52. in their necessary defence, both at Shushan and in the provinces, were of that
devoted nation, and that by this their slaughter the prophesies against Amalek were
remarkably accomplished. See Bishop Patrick.
PULPIT, "Esther 8:10
He wrote in the king's name. As Haman had done (Esther 2:12). And riders on
mules, camels, and young dromedaries. There is no "and" before "riders" in the
original, and the clause is clearly exegetical of the preceding, either "mules," nor
"camels," nor "young dromedaries" are mentioned in it, and the best translation
would seem to be—"the riders on coursers of the royal stud, the offspring of
thoroughbreds." It is noticeable that both Herodotus (8:98) and Xenophon
('Cyrop.,' Esther 8:6, § 17) speak of horses as alone employed in carrying the
Persian despatches.
11 The king’s edict granted the Jews in every city
the right to assemble and protect themselves; to
destroy, kill and annihilate the armed men of any
nationality or province who might attack them
and their women and children,[b] and to plunder
the property of their enemies.
BAR ES, "This fresh decree allowed the Jews to stand on their defense, and to kill
all who attacked them. It has been pronounced incredible that any king would thus have
sanctioned civil war in all the great cities of his empire; but some even of the more
skeptical critics allow that “Xerxes” might not improbably have done so.
CLARKE, "To destroy, to slay, and to cause to perish - The same words as in
Haman’s decree: therefore the Jews had as much authority to slay their enemies, as their
enemies had to slay them.
Little ones and women - This was the ordinary custom, to destroy the whole family

53. of those convicted of great crimes; and whether this was right or wrong, it was the
custom of the people, and according to the laws. Besides, as this edict was to give the
Jews the same power against their enemies as they had by the former decree against
them, and the women and children were there included; consequently they must be
included here.
GILL, "Wherein the king granted the Jews which were in every city to
gather themselves together,.... In some part of the city they should choose, and
remain in a body, being sufficiently armed:
and to stand for their life; to defend themselves, and fight for their life, should any
attack them, or attempt to take it away; in such case they might act offensively:
so as to destroy, to slay, and to cause to perish, all the power of the people
and province that would assault them; every army of them, or as many as should
join in a body to attack them, any mighty or powerful mob; and not men only:
but both little ones and women, and to take the spoil of them for a prey; the
same words are used, and the same power is given them as were to their enemies, Est_
3:13, not that they made use of it to the utmost extremity, it is certain they did not in one
point, in taking the spoil, Est_9:10, and, since they spared that, it is highly probable they
spared women and children.
JAMISO 11-13, "the king granted the Jews ... to stand for their life ... to
slay ... all ... that would assault them — The fixed and unalterable character
claimed for Persian edicts often placed the king in a very awkward dilemma; for,
however bitterly he might regret things done in a moment of haste and thoughtlessness,
it was beyond even his power to prevent the consequences. This was the reason on
account of which the king was laid under a necessity not to reverse, but to issue a
contradictory edict; according to which it was enacted that if, pursuant to the first
decree, the Jews were assaulted, they might, by virtue of the second, defend themselves
and even slay their enemies. However strange and even ridiculous this mode of
procedure may appear, it was the only one which, from the peculiarities of court
etiquette in Persia, could be adopted. Instances occur in sacred (Dan_6:14), no less than
profane, history. Many passages of the Bible attest the truth of this, particularly the well-
known incident of Daniel’s being cast into the den of lions, in conformity with the rash
decree of Darius, though, as it afterwards appeared, contrary to the personal desire of
that monarch. That the law of Persia has undergone no change in this respect, and the
power of the monarch not less immutable, appear from many anecdotes related in the
books of modern travelers through that country.
BE SO , "Esther 8:11. To stand for their life — To fight for the defence of their
lives, against all that should seek to destroy them. To cause to perish the power of
the people, &c. — Either governors or governed, without any exception either of
age, dignity, or sex. Both little ones and women — Which is here added, to strike the
greater terror into their enemies; and according to the laws and customs of that
kingdom, whereby children were punished for their parents’ offences: yet we read

54. nothing, in the execution of this decree, of the slaughter of women or children; nor is
it probable they would kill their innocent children, who were so indulgent to their
families as not to meddle with the spoil.
ELLICOTT, "(11) To stand for their life.—It will be noticed that, so far at any rate
as the edict authorises, the Jews are not permitted to take the initiative, but merely
to stand on the defensive. As it was, it was risking civil war in all the cities of the
empire, though the results were considerably lessened by numbers of people taking
the hint obviously presented by the second edict. “Many of the people of the land
became Jews, for the fear of the Jews came upon them.”
Take the spoil of them.—We find that when the storm actually came, the Jews
declined to take advantage of this part of the edict.
TRAPP, "Esther 8:11 Wherein the king granted the Jews which [were] in every city
to gather themselves together, and to stand for their life, to destroy, to slay, and to
cause to perish, all the power of the people and province that would assault them,
[both] little ones and women, and [to take] the spoil of them for a prey,
Ver. 11. Wherein the king granted the Jews] The slaughter, therefore, that they
made of their enemies was not unlawful; because, 1. They were armed with
authority. 2. In their own necessary defence.
To gather themselves together] Which till now they might not do, lest it should seem
a riot or rebellion. Conquerors use to disarm and disperse those whom they have
vanquished, ut sit
Una salus victis, nullam spirare salutem,
that they may not make headway and shake off the yoke.
And to stand for their life] Life is a precious mercy, such as all creatures make much
of, from the highest angel to the lowest worm. See the sweetness of it, 1 Kings 20:32,
Jeremiah 39:18; Jeremiah 45:5; Ecclesiastes 9:4;, Job 2:4. Quis vitam non vult?
Who does not wish life? saith Austin. Joseph is yet alive, saith Jacob, Genesis 45:26.
This was more joy to him than all his honour. A man is bound to sacrifice all he
hath to the service of his life, and to die in the defence of it; to kill another rather
than to be killed by another. If it be the defence of a man’s own life which the king
himself attempteth, violently and iniuriously, to take away, in such a case ordinarily
it shall be lawful for a subject to defend himself, although the death of the prince
follow thereupon, saith Suarez. In the defence of himself and his friends, it may be
lawful for a private person to lay hands upon his lawful prince that setteth upon
him without cause, saith another casuist. Only such an act as this must not proceed
out of hatred or desire of revenge, but out of right self-love and pure necessity;

55. adhibita magna inculpatae tutelae moderatione, as the lawyers call it, using great
moderation of harmless defence.
To destroy, and to slay, and to cause to perish] Mordecai maketh use of the selfsame
terms that Haman had done, Esther 3:13, that all men might know that his
commission was altogether as large as the
others, and that they would vim vi repellere, force to repell force, stand upon their
guard, slay all such as should seek their lives, and fight stoutly, pro aris et soris. for
the altars and their limbs. This, saith Cicero, is:
Lex non scripta sed nata; ad quam non docti, sed facti; non iustituti, sed imbuti
sumus, &c., Law is not written but born, at someone, not taught, but done, not
established but absorbed, that which uncorrupted nature teacheth every man (Cic.
pro Milone).
Both little ones and women] This seemeth spoken in terrorem, in fear that the
enemy might forbear to meddle, if not for their own sakes, yet for their wives and
children, whom many hold more dear to
themselves than their own lives. But the text may be better read thus: To destroy, to
slay, and to cause to perish all the power of the people and province that would
assault them, their little ones and women.
And to take the spoil of them for a prey] This also would work much with those that
had estates to lose: for money is the monarch of this present world; and many had
as leave part with their blood as
their goods.
WHEDO , "11. The king granted the Jews… to stand for their life — But would
not the Jews have defended themselves without any such order from the king? They
could expect nothing but death at the worst, and every human instinct would have
prompted them to have fought with all energy for their lives and their families.
True; but without special grant from the king they would not have been allowed to
arm and prepare themselves for self-defence at all. Any movement looking to a
general preparation to stand on the defensive would have been watched by the
rulers of the provinces, and crushed at its very inception as an act of treason. A
spasmodic defence with empty hands would have accomplished nothing; but the
king’s decree gave the Jews authority to arm themselves with the sword. Esther 9:5.
Observe, the Jews were not authorized by this second edict to take the offensive, and
destroy whom they would, but only to defend themselves when any would assault
them. There would be no slaughter at all if their enemies did not first attack the

56. Jews. This again obviates the objection often urged against the credibility of this
history, that no king would have authorized such a civil war throughout all his
dominions. The probability was, that when the Jews were thus permitted to arm
themselves and stand on the defensive, there would be no conflict at all. But the
result showed that so bitter was the hatred of the heathen towards the Jews, that in
many parts of the empire they endeavoured, in spite of all the danger, to destroy the
Jewish population. The result was the slaughter of seventy-five thousand men,
(Esther 9:16,) besides those that fell in Shushan. All arguments based on an
assumption of what ordinary rulers would have done or would not have done are
futile and foolish when dealing with such a king as Xerxes.
Little ones and women — These would hardly be expected to assault the Jews, but
Mordecai would make his letters as broad and comprehensive as those of Haman.
Compare Esther 3:13. This clause authorized the Jews to carry their vengeance to
the wives and children of those who assaulted them, for their enemies would not
spare the Jewish wife and child.
LA GE, "Esther 8:11. Mordecai wrote that the king granted the Jews which were
in every city to gather themselves together, and to stand for their life,i.e. to defend
themselves (comp. Daniel 12:1), to destroy, to slay, and to cause to perish all the
power, which like an army would raise itself against them (‫ִל‬‫י‬ַ‫ח‬), of the people and
province that would assault them, both little ones and women, and to take the spoil
of them for a prey.—This too was to take place on the day already designated in
Esther 3:13, viz. the thirteenth day of the twelfth month. The reduplication of the
expression “to destroy,” etc., refers to Esther 3:13. The same should be granted the
Jews which, according to Haman’s edict, was allowed the heathen. The Jews were
permitted to apply the jus talionis. The case then stood that the governors and other
authorities were by no means obligated to assist in the preparation for the
destruction of the Jews, nor yet to obstruct or hinder the resistance which the Jews
would offer to their assailants, as might seem to be implied in the first edict. For
then the second edict, which was equally authoritative, would have been little
respected; but they could leave the case to the people, whether they would attack the
Jews and risk a conflict, and they need not afterward punish such Jews as had slain
their enemies. But still more. It was permitted the Jews to assemble and prepare and
arm for their common defence in advance, so that they might act as one man against
all the assaults and reverses, which in case of their standing disunited would surely
have befallen them. ‫ֵל‬‫ה‬ָ‫קּ‬ִ‫ה‬ְ‫ל‬ (to collect), placed in advance here, was especially
important (comp. its prominence in Esther 9:2; Esther 9:15-16; Esther 9:18).
Without this the Jews would not have possessed more than the simple right of self-
defence, which, under any circumstances, they would have availed themselves of.
Besides, even in the Persian empire the larger portion of the inhabitants seem to
have possessed humanity enough to feel the disreputableness of an attack upon the
Jews for the purpose of rapine, and they were little inclined to participate therein.
On Esther 8:13 comp. Esther 3:14 b, and on Esther 8:14, Esther 3:15.
PULPIT, "Esther 8:11

57. Wherein the king granted. Rather, "that the king granted." Mordecai sent
"letters," which said "that the king granted to the Jews to gather themselves
together," etc. To gather themselves together. Union is strength. If all the Jews of a
province were allowed to collect and band themselves together, they would at once
be a formidable body. Scattered in the various towns and villages, they might easily
have been overpowered. To stand for their life. The Jews have sometimes been
spoken of as the aggressors on the actual 13th of Adar, but there is no evidence to
support this view. The edict clearly only allowed them to stand on the defensive. Of
course, when fighting once began, both sides did their worst. In repelling attack the
Jews had the same liberty to destroy, to slay, and to cause to perish as their
adversaries (Esther 3:13). Little ones. Rather, "families." Take the spoil of them for
a prey. i.e. "seize their property." The earlier edict had given the same permission to
the Jews' enemies (Esther 3:13).
12 The day appointed for the Jews to do this in all
the provinces of King Xerxes was the thirteenth
day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar.
GILL, "Upon one day, in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, namely, upon
the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar. The day
appointed and fixed in the former letters for the destruction of the Jews, Est_3:13.
BE SO , "Verses 12-14
Esther 8:12-14. Upon one day, &c. — Which day was chosen and appointed by
Haman for their destruction. That the Jews should be ready against that day —
Should be furnished with arms, and all things necessary for their defence. Being
hastened by the king’s commandment — By his particular and express command to
that purpose.
TRAPP, "Esther 8:12 Upon one day in all the provinces of king Ahasuerus,
[namely], upon the thirteenth [day] of the twelfth month, which [is] the month Adar.
Ver. 12. Upon one day in all the provinces, &c.] That once fatal day, but henceforth

58. (the brunt once past) festival. That long-looked-for day, wherein the enemy hoped to
revel in the Church’s ruins; to frame comedies out of her tragedies; to wash their
feet in her blood, yea, to ride their horses up to the saddle skirts therein, as
Farnesius, the pope’s champion, threatened to do in Germany, and Minerius in
France, and the Papists here in England, at the death of Queen Elizabeth, and again
upon the good success of the gunpowder plot, that great crack and black day, as
they called it. For the speeding and furthering whereof, they had a devilish ditty,
consisting of a seven-fold psalmody, which secretly they passed from hand to hand
with tunes set to be sung for the cheering up of their wicked hearts with an
expectation (as they called it) of their day of Jubilee. This is one passage therein,
Confirm your hearts with hope, for the day of your redemption is not far off. The
year of visitation draweth to an end, and jubilation is at hand, &c. (Spec. Bell. Sacr.
xx. 2). The psalter is hard to be had, for they are taken up by the Papists, as other
books be that discover their shame. But do what they can, shame shall be the
promotion of fools (as it was of Haman), but the wise (as Mordecai) shall inherit
glory, Proverbs 3:35.
13 A copy of the text of the edict was to be issued
as law in every province and made known to the
people of every nationality so that the Jews would
be ready on that day to avenge themselves on
their enemies.
GILL, "The copy of the writing, for a commandment to be given in every
province, was published to all people,.... A copy of the letters sent to the governors
of provinces; the sum and substance of them was published by an herald, or fixed in
public places, that all might know the contents thereof; and take care not to assault the
Jews, as it would be to their peril:
and that the Jews should be ready against that day to avenge themselves on
their enemies; Abendana thinks this is to be restrained to those that were of the seed
of Amalek, who were their principal enemies; but no doubt it includes all that should rise
up against them.

59. ELLICOTT, "Verse 13
(13) To avenge themselves on their enemies.—The Hebrew word used here “does not
necessarily signify a violent emotion of a resentful spirit, but a steady resolve to
defend the right; it is used of the Almighty Himself, rescuing the oppressed,
defending the right, and punishing the assailant and the oppressor” (Wordsworth).
TRAPP, "Esther 8:13 The copy of the writing for a commandment to be given in
every province [was] published unto all people, and that the Jews should be ready
against that day to avenge themselves on their enemies.
Ver. 13. The copy of the writing] Transcripts of the original were everywhere
published and proclaimed, as the contrary edict had been before, Esther 3:14. This
must needs amuse and amaze the people, but who durst say to their monarch, What
doest thou? Is it safe to take a lion by the beard, or a bear by the tooth?
That the Jews should be ready against that day] God sometimes taketh notice (in his
vindictive justice), as of the offending member, 1:6-7, Luke 16:24, so of the place
where, 1 Kings 21:19 (Henry III of France was stabbed to death in that very
chamber where he had contrived the Massacre of Paris), and of the time when,
mischief should have been acted, to prevent and punish it, as Exodus 15:9-10.
Ladislaus, king of Bohemia and Hungary, having conspired with other Popish
princes to root out the true Christians in Bohemia, on such a day, on his marriage
day, was immediately before, in the midst of his great, preparations, visited with a
pestilent sore in his groin, whereof within thirty-six hours he died (Mr Clark’s
Examples). Henry II, king of France, the selfsame day that he had purposed to
persecute the Church, and burn certain of his guard whom he had in prison for
religion (at whose execution be had promised to have been himself in person), in the
midst of his triumph, at a tourney, was wounded so sore in the head with a spear, by
one of his own subjects, that ere long he died (Acts & Mon. 1784). The duke of Guise
threatened to destroy utterly the town of Orleans, but was himself slain that very
evening. The constable of France made a vow, that as soon as he had taken St
Quintons he would set upon Geneva; but sped as ill as Julian the apostate did, when
going against the Persians, he swore that upon his return he would offer the blood of
Christians. But the Galilean (as he called Christ in scorn) took an order with him
ere that day came; the carpenter’s son had made ready his coffin; as was foretold
him by a Christian, in answer to that bitter jeer.
To avenge themselves on their enemies] This was no private revenge, but licensed by
the chief magistrates, intrusted by God with the administration of his kingdom upon
earth, by the exercise of vindictive and remunerative justice, Romans 13:4. And
here, Bonis nocet qui malis parcit. He wrongeth the good that punisheth not the bad.
True it is, that private revenge is utterly unlawful unless it be in a man’s own
necessary defence, where the case is so sudden that a man cannot call in the help of
the magistrate, but must either kill or be killed. Otherwise that of Lactantius
holdeth true, on minus mali est iniuriam referre quam inferre. It is no lesser evil to

60. pay back a wrong than to inflict it. And that of Seneca, immune verbum est ultio,
revenge is a cruel word, manhood some call it, but it is rather doghood. The manlier
any man is the milder and more merciful, as David, 2 Samuel 1:12, and Julius
Caesar, who when he had Pompey’s head presented to him, wept and said, on mihi
placet vindicta sed victoria, I seek not revenge, but victory. The Jews here sought
not revenge, but safety. If they had been sold for bondmen, they had borne it in
silence and sufferance, the language of the lamb, dumb before the shearer, Esther
7:4.
14 The couriers, riding the royal horses, went out,
spurred on by the king’s command, and the edict
was issued in the citadel of Susa.
BAR ES, "Being hastened - Between Sivan, the third month (June), when the
posts went out, and Adar, the twelfth month (March), when the struggle was to take
place, the interval would be one of more than 8 months; but all haste was made, with the
object of their being no misunderstanding.
CLARKE, "The decree was given at Shushan - The contrary effect which it was
to produce considered, this decree was in every respect like the former. See Est_3:8-15.
GILL, "So the posts that rode upon mules and camels went out,.... Or on the
mules, which in the Persian language were called "ahashteranim"; See Gill on Est_8:10,
being hastened and pressed on by the king's commandment; who gave them a
special order to make what haste they could, that the Jews might have time to prepare
for their defence, and their enemies be the more intimidated:
and the decree was given at Shushan the palace; the king's counsellors agreeing
to it, and perhaps signing it, as they did the former; see Est_3:15.
ELLICOTT, "(14) Mules and camels.—See above on Esther 8:10.
Being hastened.—Why this haste, seeing there yet remained nearly nine months
(wanting ten days) before the first edict would come into play? There may probably

61. have been fears lest the first edict, which indicated a distinct animus of the Court
against the Jews, might have been interpreted freely, according to the spirit of it,
and the date anticipated by eager partisans.
TRAPP, "Verse 14
Esther 8:14 [So] the posts that rode upon mules [and] camels went out, being
hastened and pressed on by the king’s commandment. And the decree was given at
Shushan the palace.
Ver. 14. So the posts that rode upon mules and camels went out] Thus God provided
that his poor afflicted should be speedily comforted, and assured that their prayers
were accepted; when this good news came flying toward them, as on the wings of the
wind, over the mountains of Bether, all lets and impediments. Thy words were
heard, and I am come for thy words, saith the angel to Daniel, Daniel 10:12; yea, as
these posts were hastened and pressed on by the king’s commandment, so was the
angel Gabriel caused to fly swiftly, Daniel 9:21, or as the Hebrew hath it, with
weariness of flight, to bring the prophet an answer to his prayers. Who would not
then pray to such a God as maketh his angels spirits, his ministers a flame of fire, to
convey seasonable relief to his poor suppliants?
being hastened] Heb. Frighted and head-longed, by a solicitous celerity, hasting and
hurrying for life, as we say; being driven on to a despatch with utmost expedition,
they threw themselves onward their way, as the second word here used importeth.
And the decree was given at Shushan the palace] So had the former decree against
the Jews been, Esther 3:15; the post also hastened, as now. There is no doubt but
many disaffected persons would jeer at this last decree, as extorted from the king by
the queen’s importunity; and would persuade themselves and others that the king
was of the same mind as before, to have the Jews rooted out; only to give his wife
content he had set forth this counter edict, which they would not take notice of.
Thus those that are ripe for ruin harden their own hearts, and hasten their own
destruction.
WHEDO , "Verse 14
14. That rode upon mules and camels — Rather, riders of the swift coursers, the
royal steeds. See note on Esther 8:10.
Being hastened — Though there were eight months yet before the month of Adar, it
was important that this counter decree should be published throughout the empire
as speedily as possible. Thus the enemies would be duly admonished not to attempt
any assault, and the Jews would have time to prepare themselves for self-defence.
PULPIT, "The posts that rode upon mules and camels. Rather, "that rode on
coursers of the stud royal" (see the comment on Esther 8:10). The verse repeats

62. Esther 3:15, with small additions. It appears that the later posts were urged to haste
still more strongly than the earlier ones—not that time really pressed, but from
superabundant caution—that there might be an opportunity for further
communications between the provinces and the court, if doubt was anywhere
entertained as to the king's intentions.
The Triumph of the Jews
15 When Mordecai left the king’s presence, he
was wearing royal garments of blue and white, a
large crown of gold and a purple robe of fine
linen. And the city of Susa held a joyous
celebration.
BAR ES, "See the Est_1:6 note. The “crown” was not a crown like the king’s, but a
mere golden band or coronet.
A garment - Or, “an inner robe.” The tunic or inner robe of the king was of purple,
striped with white.
CLARKE, "Blue and white - Probably stripe interchanged with stripe; or blue
faced and bordered with white fur.
A great crown of gold - A large turban, ornamented with gold, jewels, etc.
Fine linen and purple - See on Gen_41:42 (note). The ‫בץ‬ buts, here mentioned, is
most probably the same with the byssus of the ancients; supposed to be the beautiful tuft
or beard, growing out of the side of the pinna longa, a very large species of muscle,
found on the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea, of which there are a pair of gloves in the
British Museum. This byssus I have described elsewhere.
Shushan - was glad - Haman was too proud to be popular; few lamented his fall.
GILL, "And Mordecai went out from the presence of the king,.... And walked or
rode about in the city to show himself to his friends:

63. in royal apparel of blue and white; such as the Persian kings wore, and were not
allowed to any other, as Xenophon writes (g):
and with a great crown of gold; a coronet, such as princes and nobles wear; the
latter Targum calls it a great golden chain, and such the eastern kings used to give to
their favourites; see Dan_5:29,
and with a garment of fine linen and purple; this must be an inner garment, since
it is distinct from the royal robe before mentioned; though as the word signifies a wrap,
or roll, it may design a turban, which was a roll of linen wrapped about the head; and
such was the Persian diadem, according to Curtius (h), which was of a purple colour,
mixed with white; and so the Septuagint version is, "and a diadem of fine linen, of a
purple colour"; and if so, the crown of gold was not worn on his head, nor is it likely it
should be allowed, but was carried before him; see Gill on Est_6:8,
and the city of Shushan rejoiced, and was glad; not only the Jews in it, but the
native inhabitants of it, that had any sense of humanity, expressed their joy at the sight
of Mordecai thus arrayed; that so good a man was advanced at court, and so bad a man
as Haman was displaced and put to death; see Pro_29:2.
HE RY 15-17, "It was but a few days ago that we had Mordecai in sackcloth and all
the Jews in sorrow; but here is a blessed change, Mordecai in purple and all the Jews in
joy. See Psa_30:5, Psa_30:11, Psa_30:12. 1. Mordecai in purple, Est_8:15. Having
obtained an order for the relief of all the Jews, he was easy, he parted with his mourning
weeds, and put on the royal apparel, which either belonged to his place or which the
king appointed him as a favourite. His robes were rich, blue and white, of fine linen and
purple; so was his coronet: it was of gold. These are things not worth taking notice of,
but as they were marks of the king's favour, and that the fruit of God's favour to his
church. It is well with a land when the ensigns of dignity are made the ornaments of
serious piety. The city Shushan was sensible of its advantage in the preferment of
Mordecai, and therefore rejoiced and was glad, not only pleased in general with the
advancement of virtue, but promising itself, in particular, better times, now that so good
a man was entrusted with power. Haman was hanged; and, when the wicked perish,
there is shouting, Pro_11:10. Mordecai was preferred; and, when the righteous are in
authority, the people rejoice. 2. The Jews in joy, Est_8:16, Est_8:17. The Jews, who
awhile ago were under a dark cloud, dejected and disgraced, now had light and
gladness, joy and honour, a feast and a good lay. If they had not been threatened and in
distress they would not have had occasion for this extraordinary joy. Thus are God's
people sometimes made to sow in tears that they may reap in so much the more joy. The
suddenness and strangeness of the turn of affairs in their favour added much to their
joy. They were like those that dream; then was their mouth filled with laughter, Psa_
126:1, Psa_126:2. One good effect of this deliverance was that many of the people of the
land, that were considerate, sober, and well inclined, became Jews, were proselyted to
the Jewish religion, renounced idolatry, and worshipped the true God only. Haman
thought to extirpate the Jews, but it proves, in the issue, that their numbers are greatly
increased and many added to the church. Observe, When the Jews had joy and gladness
then many of the people of the land became Jews. The holy cheerfulness of those that
profess religion is a great ornament to their profession, and will invite and encourage
others to be religious. The reason here given why so many became Jews at this time is
because the fear of the Jews fell upon them. When they observed how wonderfully divine

64. Providence had owned them and wrought for them in this critical juncture, (1.) They
thought them great, and considered those happy that were among them; and therefore
they came over to them, as was foretold, Zec_8:23. We will go with you, for we have
heard, we have seen, that God is with you, the shield of your help, and the sword of
your excellency, Deu_33:29. When the church prospers, and is smiled upon, many will
come into it that will be shy of it when it is in trouble. (2.) They thought them
formidable, and considered those miserable that were against them. They plainly saw in
Haman's fate that, if any offered injury to the Jews, it was at their peril; and therefore,
for their own security, they joined themselves to them. It is folly to think of contending
with the God of Israel, and therefore it is wisdom to think of submitting to him.
JAMISO , "Est_8:15-17. Mordecai’s honors, and the Jews’ joy.
Mordecai went out ... in royal apparel — He was invested with the khelaat of
official honor. A dress of blue and white was held in great estimation among the
Persians; so that Mordecai, whom the king delighted to honor, was in fact arrayed in the
royal dress and insignia. The variety and the kind of insignia worn by a favorite at once
makes known to the people the particular dignity to which he has been raised.
K&D, "The joy experienced throughout the kingdom at these measures. Est_8:15.
After transacting with the king this measure so favourable to the Jews, Mordochai went
out from the king in a garment of deep blue and white material (comp. Est_1:6), and
with a great crown of gold, and a mantle of byssus and purple. ְ‫יך‬ ִ‫ר‬ ְ‫כ‬ ַ , ᅋπ. λεγ., in the
Aramaean ‫א‬ ָ‫יכ‬ ִ‫ר‬ ְ‫כ‬ ַ , a wide mantle or covering. The meaning is not, as Bertheau remarks,
that he left the king in the garment which had been, according to Est_6:8., presented to
him, nor that he left him with fresh tokens of his favour, clothed in a garment, crown,
and mantle just bestowed on him, but that he left him in a magnificent state garment,
and otherwise festally apparelled, that he might thus show, even by his external
appearance, the happiness of his heart. Of these remarks, the first and last are quite
correct; the second, however, can by no means be so, because it affords no answer to the
question how Mordochai had obtained crown and mantle during his stay with the king
and in the royal palace. The garments in which Mordochai left the king are evidently the
state garments of the first minister, which Mordochai received at his installation to his
office, and, as such, no fresh token of royal favour, but only his actual induction in his
new dignity, and a sign of this induction to all who saw him issue from the palace so
adorned. “The city of Susa rejoiced and was glad,” i.e., rejoiced for gladness. The city,
i.e., its inhabitants on the whole.
BE SO , "Esther 8:15. With a great crown of gold — Which the chief of the
Persian princes were permitted to wear, but with sufficient distinction from the
king’s crown. For it must be observed, that the word royal is not added here, as in
chap. Esther 6:8, nor is the horse mentioned, as there, because no extraordinary
honours are here spoken of, but only that honour, and that habit, which
immediately belonged to the keeper of the royal signet. — Houb. The city of
Shushan rejoiced — ot only Jews, but the greatest number of the citizens, who by
the law of nature abhorred bloody counsels, and had a complacency in acts of

65. mercy.
ELLICOTT, "(15) Blue and white.—See ote on Esther 1:6.
Crown.—This is a different word from that previously used of a “royal crown”
(Esther 6:8).
Garment.—The inner robe or tunic. That of the king was of purple striped with
white.
Linen.—White linen.
The city of Shushan rejoiced.—The tide of royal favour had changed, and the
people of Shushan were evidently not very different from the mass of the populace
of the present day, who shout with the winning side. othing succeeds like success,
and the mobile vulgus of Susa cheered Mordecai as doubtless they would have
hooted had they seen him led to execution. The crowds who welcomed our Lord into
Jerusalem on His triumphal entry soon let their enthusiasm die away—“ Hosanna!”
now; tomorrow, “Crucify!”
TRAPP, "Esther 8:15 And Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal
apparel of blue and white, and with a great crown of gold, and with a garment of
fine linen and purple: and the city of Shushan rejoiced and was glad.
Ver. 15. And Mordecai went out from the presence of the king] Whither he went is
not set down. It is probable he either went to Haman’s house, the oversight whereof
was committed to him by Esther, or that he went to some other parts of the city,
upon the public employment, whereof now he had his hands full; and, therefore, all
his faculties were in motion, and every motion seemed a well guided action, as one
saith well of Queen Elizabeth, when she first came to the crown.
In royal apparel] Suitable to his new condition. This he might lawfully do, no doubt,
as did Joseph, Daniel, Solomon. Generally those that are in king’s houses are
clothed in softs, and go gorgeously. There is indeed a blame worthy excess herein,
Zephaniah 1:8, Isaiah 3:18. Alcisthenes’s costly cloak, prized at one hundred and
twenty talents; Demetrius, king of Macedonia’s, robe of state, which none of his
successors would wear, propter invidiosam impendii magnificentiam on account of
their hatred of its expensive magnificance. (Athenaeus); Herod’s cloth of silver,
which, by refraction of the sunbeams upon it, gave such a splendour, that the foolish
people for that, and for his speech, cried him up for a god. Good Mordecai thought
never a whit the better of himself for his gay clothing; neither did his heart rise with
his clothes, as the boat doth with the water that carrieth it. He affecteth not this
change, but rather accepteth it; he endureth it rather than desireth it. Sheep’s russet
{A coarse homespun woollen cloth of a reddish-brown, grey or neutral colour,
formerly used for the dress of peasants and country-folk} would please him every
whit as well as cloth of tissue, but that the king will have it so; and being now the

66. second man in the kingdom, he must go accordingly, lest he should be slighted, as
Agesilaus, king of Sparta, was by the Persians for his overly plain habit. Vestis
virum facit, a man is esteemed as he is arrayed: cultusque concessus atque
magnificus, comely and costly attire addeth authority, as Quintilian long since
observed.
And with a great crown of gold] We read not that Haman had any such. It may be
the king had bestowed it upon Mordecai as a special favour, for having saved his
life, Esther 2:19-21. Sure it is that he gave it to him for a better cause than
Alexander the Great did his crown of one hundred and eighty pounds, provided by
him at a great supper, and promised to him that should drink most. Mordecai had
his temporal crown upon far better terms, and yet looked for a more weighty one in
heaven, 2 Corinthians 4:17, even such a weight of glory, as that if the body were not
by the power of God upheld, it were impossible it should bear it.
And with a garment of fine linen] Or of silk, which was anciently sold for its weight
in gold, as Pliny testifieth. This rich glutton is taxed for the too frequent use of it,
Luke 16:19. It was his every day’s wear, as the Greek word importeth (
ενεδιδυσκετο. Verb, frequentativum).
And purple] This was also much worn by great ones of old. Dives was daily clothed
with it, and was so far from cloking his pride, that he proclaimed it in his cloak.
This purple colour was made, saith Lavater here, of the juice or blood of a certain
shell-fish. ow, they say, there is no right purple. Perhaps, when the four
monarchies ceased, purple ceased with them.
And the city of Shushan rejoiced and was glad] At one time they were in perplexity,
Esther 3:5, now in jollity. "Then said they among the heathen, The Lord hath done
great things for them." The joyful Jews there by way of antiphony answer, "The
Lord hath indeed done great things for us; whereof we are glad," Psalms 126:2-3.
Tremellius, after Eben Ezra, rendereth it, And the city of Shushan shone ( lucebat);
the lily was now most lovely and lightsome. The word signifieth properly hinnivit,
neighed as a horse; which he doeth not but when he is well pleased. The whole city
was well apaid, but the poor Jews were overjoyed; so that their mouth was filled
with laughter and their tongue with singing; this is the import of the metaphor here
used.
WHEDO , "15. Mordecai went out from… the king — This verse relates back to
Esther 8:1-2. Mordecai had been summoned into the royal presence, and there
promoted to the high office made vacant by the fall of Haman.
Having been invested with the insignia of office, and clothed with authority as chief
minister, he went forth to attend to the duties of his new position.

67. Royal apparel of blue and white — State garments, such as became the grand vizier;
royal robes of royal colours. Compare note on Esther 1:6.
A great crown of gold — The word here rendered crown is ‫,עשׂרה‬ atarah, a coronet.
Only a very exalted prince or courtier could go thus adorned. When Mordecai was
honoured for his loyal service to the king, the horse on which he rode was decked
with a royal crown. ote on Esther 6:7 . ow Mordecai himself is made to wear a
coronet.
A garment of fine linen — Or, a mantle of byssus.
Shushan rejoiced — As it had been previously “perplexed” and saddened. See
Esther 3:15, note. It was now felt by the great majority of the people that a most
wicked and pernicious edict was virtually frustrated.
COFFMA , "THE GREAT REJOICI G OF THE JEWS EVERYWHERE
"And Mordecai went forth from the presence of the king in royal apparel of blue
and white, and with a great crown of gold, and with a robe of fine linen and purple:
and the city of Shushan shouted and was glad. The Jews had light and gladness, and
joy and honor. And in every province, and in every city, whithersoever the king's
commandment and his decree came, the Jews had gladness and joy, a feast and a
good day. And many from among the peoples of the land became Jews; for the fear
of the Jews was fallen upon them."
"Mordecai went forth ... with a great crown of gold" (Esther 8:15). "The Hebrew
has two different words for crown, namely, [~kether] which referred to the type of
crown worn by the monarch, and [~'atarah], a crown of an inferior kind frequently
worn by nobles."[14] Mordecai's crown was the latter. His great authority,
symbolized here by his apparel and the crown, was, however, one of the primary
reasons for the Jews' rejoicing.
"The Jews ... had a feast and a good day" (Esther 8:16). "This celebration was in
anticipation of the feast of Purim, which was first celebrated eight months later
(Esther 9:17-19)."[15]
"And many among the peoples of the land became Jews" (Esther 8:17). "Such a
providential outworking of events in favor of the Jews convinced many of the power
of God, and caused them to become proselytes."[16] Some scholars have interpreted
this acceptance of Judaism as merely a political maneuver, not based upon any
sincere belief in God; but Keil wrote that, "This might have been true of some of the
inhabitants of Shushan, but the majority certainly acted from more honorable
motives."[17]
COKE, "Verse 15
Esther 8:15. And with a great crown of gold— The word royal is not added here, as

68. in the 8th verse of the sixth chapter; nor is the horse mentioned, as there, because no
extraordinary honours are here spoken of, but only that honour and that habit
which immediately belonged to the keeper of the royal signet. Houbigant.
REFLECTIO S.—Just execution having been performed on the person of the
wicked Haman, we have here,
1. The disposal of his estate, which, as forfeited, the king bestows on the queen. The
ten thousand talents which were offered as the price of blood, become the property
of those whose lives were marked out for a prey.
2. Mordecai is highly advanced. Though the queen had before concealed her
kindred, she thinks it a proper season now to own her relation and obligations to
Mordecai, whose good services had already so highly recommended him to the king;
but this more especially engaged the royal favour to him. He is immediately
introduced; and, as a token of the warmest regard, the king presents him with the
ring from his finger, and thus he becomes, in the king's favour and in dignity, the
worthy successor of the wicked Haman. To his trust also the queen commits the
management of the forfeited estate: thus completely were the tables changed; the
wickedness of the wicked was upon him, and the wealth of the sinner laid up for the
just. ote; (1.) This world is a changing scene, kings' favours are precarious, and
riches make themselves wings and fly away. Let it admonish us to secure his favour
whose regards are unchangeable to the good, and those riches which are abiding,
even eternal in the heavens. (2.) God's providence often in this world displays the
justice of his government.
3. Esther again appears before the king; though uncalled, yet confident of his
regards, the golden sceptre bids her be comforted, and she humbly presents her
petition. With tears she pleads the danger of her kindred and people, and the
insupportable grief of seeing them massacred; with deep submission represents the
case to the king, and hopes that the bloody edict may be reversed, which Haman, by
misrepresentations, had obtained. ote; (1.) Though we have justice on our side, yet
as inferiors it becomes us to use entreaty. (2.) Some men's mischief survives them:
they murder even after death, by the pernicious writings and sentiments that they
have propagated. (3.) Our advancement must never make us forget our poor
relations, or be unconcerned for their distresses.
4. The king kindly receives her request, and instantly prepares to counteract the
mischief of the former decree. ote; When we have done wrong, we cannot too soon
endeavour to prevent, to the utmost of our power, the mischievous consequences
that might ensue.
5. When the Lord pleases to work, how soon can he give beauty for ashes, the oil of
joy for mourning, and the garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness! We have,
(1.) Mordecai in royal apparel, robed in purple and fine linen, with a coronet of gold
upon his head: a great distinction this; but poor, compared with the brighter robes

69. with which the King of glory shall array his redeemed when he shall put on their
heads a crown of glory that fadeth not away.
(2.) On his advancement a general joy was diffused around: the city promised
themselves prosperity under his wise and just administration: the Jews with
gladness heard the unexpected tidings of deliverance; and whilst with exultation
they rejoiced, the people around them, now perceiving the court-favour towards
them, paid them all honour and respect. ote; [1.] A happy change of
administration, from bad men and bad measures, is a truly national joy. [2.] The
anguish and sorrow that a christian sometimes feels, only serves to heighten his joy
when the Lord turns and refreshes him, and brings him from the depths of the earth
again.
(3.) A great accession of converts was made to the Jewish church on this occasion.
The evident finger of God seen in their deliverance, their present happy and
prosperous estate, and the fear of the power with which they were invested, wrought
upon multitudes, who, to avoid their resentment, or to obtain court-favour, or
perhaps from better motives of divine conviction, became proselytes. ote; When
the church is in prosperity professors are numerous, but the faithful are proved in
adversity.
CO STABLE, "Verses 15-17
4. The joy of the Jews8:15-17
"Crown" ( Esther 8:15) should be "turban." Mordecai"s clothing reflected his
important position in the government.
Evidently, Mordecai read the second decree at a public meeting in Susa. Contrast
the Jews" reaction here with their response to the first decree ( Esther 3:15). God
had blown away the dark cloud that had hung over their heads.
"The Jews killed only those who attacked them; they killed only the men ( Esther
9:6; Esther 9:12; Esther 9:15); and they didn"t lay hands on the loot, although they
had the right to do so ( Esther 8:10; Esther 8:15-16)." [ ote: Ibid, p744.]
"And the fact that these people were even willing to attack when they knew the Jews
would protect themselves is proof that anti-Semitism was very strong throughout
the empire." [ ote: Ibid, p745.]
"Holiday" ( Esther 8:17) is literally "a good day" (cf. Esther 9:19; Esther 9:22). It
refers to a religious festival. [ ote: Moore, Esther , p81.] This was not the Feast of
Purim but a celebration in anticipation of it. Many Gentiles became proselytes to
Judaism as a result of God"s obvious blessing on His people ( Esther 8:17). This is
the only mention in the Old Testament that Gentiles "became Jews." They became
religious Jews, not racial Jews. This testimony to the fact that Gentiles recognized
God"s blessing on the Jews would have been a great encouragement to the Jews in
the postexilic period (cf. Exodus 19:5-6).

70. LA GE, "Esther 8:15-17. The effect of this new measure was to produce great and
general joy, and to bring great honor to Mordecai. He went forth from the presence
of the king in royal apparel of blue and white (comp. Esther 1:6), and with a great
crown of gold, 5] and with a garment of fine linen and purple 6] (‫יְך‬ ִ‫ְר‬‫כ‬ַ‫תּ‬ἁπ. λεγ., in
Aramaic ‫ָא‬‫כ‬‫י‬ ִ‫ְר‬‫כ‬ַ‫.)תּ‬ He was thus adorned doubtless to show what honor had been
shown him by the king, but more particularly to make it manifest how he had
succeeded in the matter of the Jews, and at the same time to publish his joyous
feelings thereat. Importance attaches here not to the royal garment, which had
already been given him in Esther 6:8 sq, but to the State robes of the first minister
at court, which, it appears, Mordecai had not put on at the time of his elevation (
Esther 8:1-2), but which he put on after his care for his people was removed. Then
the city of Shushan, i.e., its inhabitants one and all, and not the Jews alone, of whom
there is separate mention made in Esther 8:16, rejoiced (‫צהל‬ is not exactly to cry
aloud, comp. Isaiah 24:14) and was glad.—Hence they had deprecated the massacre
awaiting the Jews, and perhaps apprehended with fear the great disorders and
dangers that would ensue. But the Jews, Esther 8:16—i.e., those living in Shushan—
for the others are mentioned in Esther 8:17, had light and joy in contrast to the
darkening of their future fate (‫ה‬ ָ‫,אוֹר‬ found in the fem. in Psalm 39:12; in Isaiah
26:19, pl. ‫ֹת‬ ‫,)אוֹר‬ and gladness, and joy, and honor.
PULPIT, "Esther 8:15-17
MORDECAI'S HO OUR A D THE JEWS' JOY (Esther 8:15-17). Ahasuerus was
not content even now with what he had done for Mordecai. Before his minister
quitted the presence, the king presented him with a crown of gold, and a robe and
vest of honour; and thus arrayed he proceeded into the city of Susa, where the new
edict was already known, and had been received with satisfaction (Esther 8:15). The
Persians, who formed the predominant element in the population of the town,
sympathised with the Jews, and rejoiced in the king's favour towards them; while
the Jews of Susa, having passed from despair to confident hope, were full of
gladness and thankfulness. In the provinces the decree had a still warmer welcome.
Its arrival was celebrated with "a feast" (Esther 8:17) and "a good day." It led also
to many of the heathen becoming proselytes to the Jewish religion—some perhaps
from conviction, but others because they thought it safer to place themselves
manifestly on the Jews' side before the day of the struggle:
Esther 8:15
Royal apparel of blue and white. The Persian monarch himself wore a purple robe
and an inner vest of purple striped with white. The robes of honour which he gave
away were of many different colours, but generally of a single tint throughout (Xen;
'Cyrop.,' 8.3, § 3); but the one given to Mordecai seems to have been blue with white
stripes. These were the colours of the royal diadem (Q. Curt; 'Vit. Alex.,' 3.3). A
great crown of gold. ot a tall crown, like that of the monarch, which is called in
Hebrew kether (Greek κίταρις), but 'atarah, a crown of an inferior kind, frequently
worn by nobles. And with a garment of fine linen and purple. The "fine linen" was

71. of course white. The real meaning of the word thakrik, translated "garment," is
doubtful. Gesenius understands an outer garment' 'the long and flowing robe of an
Oriental monarch;" in which case the "apparel" previously mentioned must be the
inner vest. Others, as Patrick, make the thakrik to be the inner, and the "apparel"
(l'bush) the outer garment. The Septuagint, however, translates thakrik by διάδηµα,
and its conjunction with the "crown" favours this rendering. The diadem proper of
a Persian monarch was a band or fillet encircling the lower part of his crown, and
was of blue, spotted or striped with white. Ahasuerus seems to have allowed
Mordecai to wear a diadem of white and purple. The city of Shushan rejoiced. As
the Susanchites had been "perplexed" at the first edict (Esther 3:15), so were they
"rejoiced" at the second. Such of them as were Persians would naturally sympathise
with the Jews. Even the others may have disliked Haman's edict, and have been glad
to see it, practically, reversed.
BI 15-17, "The Jews had light, and gladness, and Joy, and honour.
Proper use of power
Now let us pause for a little, and take from this passage one or two of the important
lessons which it suggests.
1. In the first place, the conduct of Mordecai under the strange revolution which had
been wrought in his condition and prospects is full of practical instruction to us. The
lesson is this, that advancement in worldly honour and prosperity should be turned
to account, by being made conducive to the promotion of the interests of the Church
of Christ and to the good of His people. It reflects high honour upon Mordecai, that
the first act of authority which he performed in the exalted position to which he had
been raised was one which secured the enlargement of the Church and the safety of
his brethren. In other hands the king’s signet had been more frequently employed to
give effect to decrees of violence and cruelty; but no sooner does it pass into his
hands than it is used in behalf of the oppressed. Worldly honour and dignity in his
case were invested with a value which does not intrinsically belong to them, and
which never can belong to them, except when they are made subservient to such
ends as he sought to promote by means of them. Now we say that all who have been
blessed with wealth and influence may well look to this example and learn from it.
The natural selfishness of the human heart prompts men to overlook the miseries of
others, when they have gathered about them all that is needful for their own comfort.
If they can but obtain the luxuries which gratify the senses, they care not what
amount of woe and wretchedness may be experienced by those who live almost at
their door. They waste not a thought upon the sad condition of the victims of
spiritual darkness. We would remind them, therefore, that there is a luxury, the
sweetest and best which wealth can purchase, and which lies fully within their
reach—the luxury of doing good.
2. In the second place, the account given in the text of the feelings of the Jews when
the edict was issued for their deliverance, suggests some profitable reflections to us.
It caused them light, and gladness, and joy; and the day of its publication was a day
of feasting to them, and a good day. But our thoughts are directed by the description
to a still higher theme. “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that
bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good; that
publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth.” All mere temporal
deliverances sink into insignificance when contrasted with this which the prophet

72. celebrates. The sentence of doom under which we all naturally lie, as transgressors of
God’s covenant, has been followed by a message of pardon and life through Jesus
Christ to all who will accept God’s gracious offer. Surely, then, we are warranted to
ask, What has been the effect of this message upon you who have so often heard it?
Now, according to the views of some, where spiritual joy and gladness are awanting,
spiritual life must be awanting also. But to this “opinion we cannot give our assent.
Various causes there may be for the obscuration of the light of Divine joy in the soul,
while there is no good reason for supposing that the soul is still dead in sin. No one
who has had experience of the conflicts of the life of faith, and of the power of
temptation, will require any formal reasoning in proof of the fact that there may be
spiritual life without joy, or at least with not a little darkness and disquietude. Yet, it
is unquestionably the duty of all Christ’s followers to rejoice in His salvation.
3. In the third place, we may take a lesson from what is said in the text respecting the
readiness which was shown by multitudes to join themselves to the Jews, when the
king’s edict in their favour was published. It may be believed that in some instances
those of the people of the land who professed the Jewish religion were influenced by
right motives, and forsook their heathenism because they felt that Jehovah, the God
of the Jews, was the true God. Zechariah had foretold such event (Zec_8:23). It is
very manifest, from the language used in the text, that such was not the generally
prevalent feeling. “Many became Jews, for the fear of the Jews fell upon them.” The
sunshine of the royal favour was now resting upon the seed of Abraham. They were a
numerous body of themselves; and now, when they had liberty of action, by their
wealth they could bring over to their side those who would protect them. It was good
policy, therefore, to profess to be friendly toward them. And so not the fear of God,
but the fear of the Jews, moved many to renounce heathenism, and acknowledge
submission to the law of Moses. The Church was in one of her prosperous periods,
and hence there were strong inducements to the worldly-minded to enrol themselves
among her members. Now this is no isolated case. Such things have often occurred,
although by no means tending to the advancement of vital religion. For example, it
must have often struck the reflective readers of history, as a subject rather of painful
than of pleasant contemplation, that the progress of the Reformation in many
countries should have been so intimately connected with and dependent upon the
belief and practice of the ruling powers. The flowing and ebbing of the tide of
religious profession might be calculated too surely from the prevailing sentiments of
the court. Thus, for instance, how sudden were the changes which the aspect of the
Church in England presented during the reigns of three successive sovereigns. In the
brief time of the Sixth Edward, when his counsellors were Protestant, and Popery
was disallowed, how fast did the principles of Protestantism spread through the
kingdom! Then Popery became rampant again, and the majority were glad to seem to
be upon its side. And no less remarkable was the revival of Protestantism during the
reign of Mary’s successor, Elizabeth. The nation appeared to be born in a day; and
again multitudes who had joined in the celebration of the Mass cried, “Away with it!”
and became the friends and promoters of the purer faith. And thus, from regard to
character, and with a view to maintain respectability and to forward worldly
interests, very many join themselves to the Church of Christ without being
influenced at all by the love of Christ. Now, if we examine all the circumstances
carefully, we shall perceive that we have as little reason to take comfort to ourselves
from the external state of religion among us as the Jews had from the apparent
respect which was shown for their religion in the days of Mordecai, or as the
conflicting parties had which alternately sunk or prevailed in many countries at the

73. period of the Reformation. The worldly and selfish element—the fear of man, and not
the fear of God—has ever been too prevalent in moulding religious profession; the
fires of persecution being sometimes employed to compel, and the attractions of self-
interest at other times to draw men to confess with the mouth what they did not
believe in their heart. And thus it is that the numerical force of Christianity, if I may
so speak, is so different a thing from the vital power of it. A profession of
Christianity, with some show of reverence for its ordinances, will not carry you to
heaven. It will not even abide the trouble of a sifting-time on earth, if such time
should overtake you. It will not give you solid comfort when you come, as soon you
must come, to pass through the dark valley of the shadow of death. Nothing will avail
but the faith which rests on Christ, and which, being the substance of things hoped
for and the evidence of things not seen, makes the possession of heaven sure, by the
present foretaste of it with which it feasts the soul. (A. B. Davidson, D. D.)
Light and gladness
I. The golly of claiming human infallibility. Think of what the king had here to do. His
law “might no man reverse.” To save the doomed Jews the king was reduced to the
absurd necessity, as Matthew Henry pithily puts it, “of enacting a civil war in his own
dominions between the Jews and their enemies, so that both sides took up arms by his
authority and yet against his authority.” What is not claimed by our sovereigns or
legislators is claimed, in matters of religion, by the Roman Pontiff. As a general belief it
may be held by Roman Catholics. But in what one law has this personal infallibility been
exercised? In the end it must be a manifest failure in religion, as it has been in politics.
II. Into all the languages of persia was the new decree translated. Thus with man’s law.
Thus too it should be with God’s law. Happy day for any nation when in its own language
it comes into possession of the Bible, the good news from God.
III. The promptitude in the communication of good news. Wonderful the promptitude
that marks the postal service of to-day! It may bring its burden to some, but it is a
ministry of consolation to the many. It brings the distant nigh. It revives with oil of love
the lamp of life.
IV. The temporal salvation of the jews was but a faint shadow of the good things to come
in the great spiritual salvation wrought by our Lord Jesus Christ. (G. F. Coster.)
The story of a great deliverance
Some of the most striking illustrations of Divine truth are afforded to us in the incidents
of history. It might be too much to say that the Book of Esther is an allegory, but I
believe that its spiritual purpose is, that it should furnish us with a most striking
illustration of that greater deliverance which God hath wrought for the sons of men
through Jesus Christ.
I. Now the first thing to be noticed in this story is, the secret of Israel’s danger. It arose
from the fact that Israel had an enemy at court—“that wicked Haman,” who was, in the
first place, moved by bitter hatred against the person of Mordecai, but who extended his
antipathy to the whole nation to which the object of his hatred belonged. Observe,
however, that the strength of the enemy’s position rested upon a more valid basis than
his own personal hatred. In urging this case against them, he was able to appeal to the

74. laws of the king’s realm, and that “it was not for the king’s profit to suffer them.” We
need to point out where the analogy fails, as well as where it becomes instructive. There
is no kind of moral resemblance between the Christian’s God, and this half-barbarous
monarch, Ahasuerus. This man was a capricious and licentious Oriental tyrant, utterly
selfish; while righteousness and mercy are blended in wondrous harmony with the
attributes of Him whom we acknowledge as King of kings, and who holds our lives and
our destinies in His hands. Once again, these Jews were harmless folk, and the charge
brought against them, though plausible, was destitute of any such foundation in fact as
could have justified severe measures against them. We may despise the moral character
of this Oriental despot, and yet the attitude which he, as a king, assumed towards the
Jews may well serve to illustrate the attitude which the King of kings is constrained to
assume towards those who disobey His laws. Further, though the Jewish people were
innocent of any moral or serious political offence, yet at the same time, the fact that they
had laws and institutions of their own and that these laws and institutions were diverse
from those of other nations, and in particular did not wholly accord with the laws of the
Medes and the Persians, placed them in a position of apparent sedition against the
ruling power. Here, then, first we have a striking illustration of the relations between the
King of kings and Lord of lords, and His rebel creature man. In virtue of the sovereign
position which He occupies in His universe, He cannot tolerate anything like deviation
from those eternal statutes of righteousness which He Himself has laid down for His
creatures; and, on the other hand, it cannot be denied that the sinner does break the
King’s laws, and set His authority at defiance. We also have a determined and malignant
foe, “the accuser of the brethren,” who first lays himself out to induce us to sin against
these eternal edicts, and to form habits of life which are altogether at variance with the
Divine mind, and who then turns round upon his victims and next accuses us to the
Divine Being as persons whose very existence in the universe is a source of danger,
moral disorder, and general peril to the stability of the kingdom over which the King of
kings holds sway. He presses upon the notice of the Supreme Ruler the fact that it is not
for His profit to allow us to go on as we are doing. Between the case of Haman against
the Jews, however, and Satan’s ease against us, there is this wide difference—that the
charge brought by the enemy of the Jews was morally a plausible pretext, a trumped-up
accusation; whereas in the case of the sinner the charge is only too true. If there is one
single person whose heart has not been surrendered to God, and whose will is not yet
wholly yielded to Him, then of such an one the accusation is true, terribly true, “It is not
for the King’s profit to suffer him.” Let me ask you, then, Have you yielded yourself to
God? For observe that if God were to allow men to go on from age to age, defying and
disregarding His Divine will and law, He would be permitting His own rule to be
overthrown, and would be virtually abdicating the throne of the universe, and giving all
over to general anarchy and disorder. Nay, God can never lay aside His claims, and
therefore it is not for the King’s profit to suffer those who reject or ignore Him. “Has it
been for the King’s profit that thou hast lived?” If you were eliminated from human
society to-day, would it be a gain instead of a loss to the world in which you have lived?
You may reply, “I have affections as well as other people. There are many whom I love,
and who love me, and whose hearts would bleed if I were taken away; how, then, could
the world be anything but a loser by my removal?” Stay, let me ask you, What is the
character of your influence and the effect of your example upon those very persons
whose affections you have won? Are you doing them harm or good? What fruit does your
life bear from day to day? Father, might it not be better for your sons’ spiritual and
eternal well-being if you were taken away from them? Mother, might it not be better for
your daughters, better for your household, if your baneful influence were removed? And
you, young man! who are the ringleader of a little band of friends, let me ask, Whither

75. are you leading those young companions of yours? Is your fatal influence dragging them
down to ever-deepening depths of moral degradation and sin? Ah! if that be thy case, if
thy very friendship is a source of danger to those who are its objects, surely it is not for
the King’s profit to suffer you. Well, you say, or some one says, “Why does He suffer me,
then?” Ah, here is a point to which we can find nothing to answer in the analogy. Let St.
Paul explain why God suffers you, “Despisest thou the riches of His goodness, and
forbearance, and long-suffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to
repentance?” Such is the secret of our danger; and now, turning again to our illustration,
let us observe the sequel. There goes forth as the result of all this, a terrible edict against
these unfortunate Jews, no less than an edict of utter destruction. Just let us picture to
ourselves what effects must have been produced wherever the proclamation came.
Yonder comes the royal herald into a large provincial town; he blows his trumpet and
proceeds at once to nail up his proclamation at the gate of the city, or in the crowded
marketplace. The news spreads like wildfire, and soon it reaches the Jewish quarter of a
city. See the terrified inhabitants rushing about from house to house, and at last
collecting in a crowd around the fatal parchment, eager to know the worst. One in a clear
voice begins to read the dreadful paragraphs amidst a silence still as death. As he
proceeds, strong men begin to weep like children, mothers clasp their children to their
hearts in an agony of despair, till by and by, as with one voice, all break forth into a cry of
lamentation; they rend their garments and grovel in the dust, utterly overwhelmed by a
misfortune so unlooked-for and so inevitable. It is easy to account for their
consternation, but it is much more difficult to explain the stolid equanimity with which
sinners listen to the terrible threats against them of a proclamation more appalling than
that which caused such terror to Israel of old. The dread and righteous decree which
must expel the sinner from the Divine presence, and consign him to the darkness of
death, may not be carried into effect at once; no more was the decree of Ahasuerus; but,
remember, the command has gone forth, the sword of judgment is drawn, and under
that most dread edict the sinner is condemned already. “The wages of sin is death.” Oh,
if there was weeping and wailing throughout the provinces of Persia when that ancient
proclamation was read, no less is there horror and fear in the heart of the sinner when,
his conscience being roused, he at last becomes aware of his actual state, and of his
terrible danger. Too many, indeed, are so absorbed with the passing nothings of this
world, that they endeavour to evade all serious thought, and to forget the real perils of
their present condition. But, thank God, it is not so with all. See that terrified jailer of
Philippi. Why does he exclaim with such undisguised trepidation, “Sirs, what must I do
to be saved?” Surely it was because in his own conscience he had discovered the
proclamation. Remember that nothing is gained by shutting our eyes to facts.
II. The secret of Israel’s safety; for saved, eventually, they were in spite of the foe and the
terrible edict of the king. How were they saved? As their danger was due to the presence
of an enemy at court, so their safety was due to the fact that they also had a faithful
friend at court.
1. Let us consider their deliverer; and the first thing that strikes us about her is the
fact that she was connected by a double relationship with each of the parties
concerned. On the one hand she was related to the doomed race; she was one of
them—a Jewess, bone of their bone, and flesh of their flesh; while, on the other hand,
she was also closely related to the monarch. She was his wife. Thus she stands, then,
between the two—the monarch and the condemned race—and so in her own person
effects a reconciliation.
2. Notice, again, that the motive which inspired her to risk her life was love for her
people. One angry word, one look, and she and her people were alike lost; but for

76. love of them she was content to risk her all!
3. She stood before King Ahasuerus, not for herself, but as the representative of her
people. She approaches him, not in her royal dignity as queen, but as identified with
her kindred. For us, too, there is a secret of safety, and blessed are they who are
acquainted with it. Let us proceed to consider how this safety has been secured. We,
too, have a Friend at Court, and, like Esther, He is possessed of a certain double
relationship. On the one hand, He is bound to humanity, for He Himself is man.
Voluntarily He took our nature upon Him, “He was made flesh, and tabernacled
amongst us.” He has identified Himself for ever with mankind; but, on the other
hand, He is no less closely bound to the everlasting Father than to us. He is one with
the Father from all eternity, the Son of His love, the express image of His Person.
Further, observe that it was as the representative of His people that the Lord Jesus
Christ undertook to perform the work that had to be done before man could be
saved. Queen Esther took her life in her hand and presented herself before the king,
in order to save; but our Deliverer has done much more than that—He has not
risked, but given His life for the doomed race. Now observe, further, when Queen
Esther entered into the presence of King Ahasuerus, we read that she found favour,
or grace in his sight; but this favour was shown her on her own account, and not
because she was a Jewess. Ahasuerus would scarcely, under the circumstances, have
been disposed to listen to such a plea, even when advanced by his wife. What does
she do? First she wins the king’s favour for herself, and then she is in a position, so to
speak, to transfer that favour to those whom she represents. Even so was it with our
Great Deliverer when He entered within the veil, with His own blood having
perfected the work of filial obedience which He had undertaken on our behalf. He
was then most of all the Beloved Son in whom the Father was well pleased, but the
special favour with which He was then rewarded by the Divine Father was won on
our behalf that it might be transferred to us. When the grace of Ahasuerus reached
Esther, it reached through her the Jew; and even so when the grace of the Father
reaches the Beloved Son as Representative of the human family, it reaches us also
through Him. Thus indeed “the grace of God hath appeared, bringing salvation to all
men.” You will notice that this grace thus assumes a definite form in a second
proclamation made this time in favour of the Jews, whom the former proclamation
had given over to death. This second proclamation, observe, does not override or
conflict with the first. The law could not be abrogate.d, and yet its fatal operation had
to be prevented, its condemning force was to be rendered nugatory. Here again we
need to call attention to points of difference as well as points of agreement. The
Gospel dispensation was not designed to abrogate but to fulfil the law. The law of
God must remain unalterable, not in virtue of an arbitrary decree of Omnipotence,
but because it is founded on moral principles of eternal obligation; it is only because
Christ is “the end of the law to every one that believeth,” that is to say, produces
consequences greater and better even than the law was designed to effect, that the
dread penalties of the law can be escaped under the new dispensation. Now let us
observe more closely the nature of this second proclamation, for we shall find the
illustration very suggestive. The first proclamation puts the whole of the Jews into
the hands of their enemies, and arrays against them all representatives of the king’s
authority and of legal justice throughout the land. The second proclamation, on the
other hand, has the opposite effect, for it puts the law on the side of the Israelites; it
gives them the right to defend themselves. Thus it is that the story of this marvellous
deliverance shadows forth ours with strange fidelity. For us, too, there has been
issued from the throne of the Eternal Being a second proclamation. It has been

77. nailed to the Cross of Calvary, it has been revealed in the broken body of the Son of
God. First, it puts the sinner who avails himself of it right with his God; it arrays all
the forces of justice on his side, and enables him find his surest protection in that
which but for the work of Christ must have condemned him; and further, it puts him
in a position to rise up against the tyrant sins by which he was previously enslaved,
and to lead his captivity captive. From the condemnation of the law and from the
cruel dominion of sin the believing sinner is equally delivered by the proclamation
made from Calvary. The eternal justice of God, which apart from the Cross of Christ
must have righteously demanded our punishment, now secures our safety; and we
find now that “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins,
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Many see that God is merciful to forgive
us our sin; but how much stronger is our confidence when we see even His eternal
justice, that attribute of His from which we needs must have most to fear, arrayed on
our side! And here again I think we may notice, without pressing the illustration
unduly, that this second proclamation demanded a certain believing response from
the Jews before it could be of any practical utility to them. The favour of the king
towards the race was conveyed by the proclamation; but unless the Jews had
sufficient faith in the king’s word to act upon it, and to arm themselves and issue
forth against their enemies, they might still have fallen an easy prey. The
proclamation from Calvary is described by St. Paul as “the grace of God which
bringeth salvation to every man,” but it is not every one that ventures forth upon it,
claims justification, and, as it were, takes his spiritual enemies by the throat because
that proclamation has delivered them into his hands. Alas I how many are there still
who receive the grace of God in vain! But to return to our story, let us follow the
second proclamation in its journey forth from the court of King Ahasuerus. In hot
haste the heralds speed on their way, for the business is urgent, and the tidings
spread from city to city, until they reach the uttermost parts of the great king’s
dominions. Let us watch this royal messenger as he enters that same provincial town
that we were visiting in our thoughts when I was describing the promulgation of that
first terrible edict. See, he rides up the street in great haste, he blows his trumpet,
and the people begin to gather in a crowd. What is going to happen now? Another
proclamation! What is it all about? Some poor trembling Jews venture into the
throng in deadly terror, lest it should prove but some fresh aggravation of their woes.
“Oh, it’s about these Jews again! What more about them? Are they to be given up to
us at once instead of our having to wait three or four days longer?” It is in three or
four different languages, amongst others in Hebrew, and signed with the king’s seal
See, there is one of the doomed race. His eyes fall upon the Hebrew; eagerly he
begins to read, the colour comes and goes. “God of my fathers!” I fancy I hear him
exclaim, “what is this?” Another glance to make sure that his eyes don’t deceive him,
and then away he hies to the Jewish quarter of the town. “Deliverance!” he cries, “we
are delivered, we are saved, God has saved us!” The Jews rush out of their houses,
the whole multitude throng to the market-place. Eagerly they listen as one reads
aloud; and as sentence after sentence falls from the lips of the reader, sobs of joy and
gladness are heard. Ah, that was a day long to be remembered by all. What tears of
joy were shed, what songs of rejoicing were raised, what feasts they held! But what
shall we say of the joy of the ransomed sinner when the proclamation of life reaches
his liberated heart? He has heard the sentence of doom from Sinai, tie has felt his
impotence to resist his terrible foes, and has wrung his hands in despair as the iron
has entered into his soul. “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the
body of this death?” It may be that his misery is so great that he can scarcely attend
to his ordinary business, or even find an appetite for his necessary food; and if so,

78. why should we wonder at it? Are you surprised, then, at his joy when first he reads
the second proclamation, and discovers that it is really intended for him? Do you
blame him for being excited? I’ll answer for it, these Jews were excited enough. How
could they help it? And how can he? The Jews, we read, had light and gladness, and
joy and honour; and such are the blessed privileges still of him who hears the gospel
“report,” and believes it. The Sun of Righteousness has arisen upon him with healing
in His wings—joy within, and gladness without; and honour, for are we not children
of the Most High, “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer
with Him, that we may also be glorified together”? Honour! Yes, for all things are
ours, and we are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s. Well, now, that second proclamation
has been made to us; the voice from Calvary has been spoken. On the Cross, favour
has been secured for a guilty world. Have you received the report? But do you say, “I
don’t realise it; I am afraid it can’t be for me, because I don’t feel happy; I don’t feel
as if I were free from condemnation; I don’t feel that I am saved”? Did these Jews of
eld know that they were delivered because they felt happy? Or did they feel happy
because they knew that they were delivered? Which? Thy happiness is the, effect, not
the cause of thy safety. If thou wouldst be happy read the proclamation. Answer all
thy inward misgivings by telling thy troubled heart that the good news is for thee.
When we really believe a thing, we cease to look for evidence of our believing it in the
effect produced in our own experience. Let me put it thus: Suppose we were to visit
that Persian city shortly after the proclamation, and find there an aged Israelite of a
sorrowful countenance. “Well, sir,” we remark, “this, is a day of good tidings: it
occurs to us that a more cheerful look might be more in keeping with the occasion.”
“Ah, sirs,” he replies, “this is a sad, sad time with me. I can get no comfort.” “Why
not, my good friend? Haven’t you heard all about the king’s decree, and how you
Jews are to stand up against your enemies; and don’t you know that the king’s
officers are all going to defend you, and that you are safe?” “Ah!” he replies, with a
mournful shake of his head, “that may be all very true, but—but—I don’t realise it!”
“But what has your realising got to do with it: do tell us, is it true or false? If it is
true, your realisings won’t make it any truer; and if it be false, your realisings won’t
make it true; which is it?” “Oh, no doubt it’s perfectly true; but still, how can you
expect me to be happy when I don’t realise it?” Really, if we could have found such a
man, don’t you think we should have felt something like irrepressible impatience
with him? (W. H. M. H. Aitken, M. A.)
Many became Jews, for the fear of the Jews were upon them.
Reasons for uniting with a Church
The true reasons why one should unite himself with a particular Church are because,
first of all, he is already united to Christ; because, next, the organisation and activities of
that special Church commend themselves to him as most in harmony with the principles
of the New Testament; and because, finally, he is most edified and sustained by its
ordinances and ministry. But to allow fashionable or worldly motives to intervene and
become the determining elements is to secularise the Church by making it an anteroom
of the world and so subordinating it to the world. One should be in that Church where he
sees most of Christ; where he gets most from Christ; and where he can do most for
Christ. The Church that is composed of such members will be blessed, and will be made
a blessing, not to its own adherents, only, but to all around. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.).

79. 16 For the Jews it was a time of happiness and
joy, gladness and honor.
BAR ES, "And the Jews had light,.... Prosperity, as opposed to the darkness of
adversity in which they had been, see Isa_8:22, or lightsomeness and cheerfulness of
spirit, as explained by the two next words:
and gladness and joy; at the good news of their deliverance, so unexpected by them;
thus light is explained by gladness, Psa_97:11
and honour: among men; from their neighbours, who before were held in contempt, as
a people doomed to destruction.
GILL, "And the Jews had light,.... Prosperity, as opposed to the darkness of
adversity in which they had been, see Isa_8:22, or lightsomeness and cheerfulness of
spirit, as explained by the two next words:
and gladness and joy; at the good news of their deliverance, so unexpected by them;
thus light is explained by gladness, Psa_97:11
and honour: among men; from their neighbours, who before were held in contempt, as
a people doomed to destruction.
K&D, "Est_8:16
The Jews (i.e., in Susa, for those out of the city are not spoken of till Est_8:17) had
light and gladness, and delight and honour.” ‫ה‬ ָ‫ּור‬‫א‬ (this form occurs only here and Psa_
109:12), light, is a figurative expression for prosperity. ‫ר‬ ָ‫ק‬ְ‫,י‬ honour - in the joy
manifested by the inhabitants of Susa at the prevention of the threatened destruction.
BE SO , "Esther 8:16. The Jews had light — Light is often put for gladness, as 2
Samuel 22:29, and Job 18:5-6, because it is pleasant, and disposeth a man to joy.
And gladness, and joy — Here the sacred writer explains the former metaphor, by
two words signifying the same thing, to denote the greatness of the joy. And honour
— Instead of that contempt under which they had lain.

80. TRAPP, "Esther 8:16 The Jews had light, and gladness, and joy, and honour.
Ver. 16. The Jews had light and gladness] "Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant
thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun," Ecclesiastes 11:7. Such as have been long
shut up in a dark dungeon, as Joseph, will surely say so. These Jews had for two
months and more lain buried alive, as it were, in heaviness and horror, they walked
in the very vale of the shadow of death, the darkest side of death; death, in its most
hideous and horrid representations, stared them in the face.
Luctus ubique pavor, et plurima mortis imago (Virg.).
Their motto at the best was that of the city of Geneva out of Job, Post tenebras spero
lucem, after darkness we have some faint hopes of life. But now it was otherwise
with them. Light was risen to these righteous, and joy to these upright in heart.
Iudaeis fuit lux et laetitia (or, as Tremellius rendereth it, illustris laetitia, famous
gladness), gaudium et gloria, unspeakable joy and full of glory, as St Peter phraseth
it, an exuberancy of spiritual joy and inward comfort, fitter to be believed than
possible to be discoursed. For we may not think, that the joy and gladness here
mentioned was no more than that of profane and carnal people, upon the receipt of
some special mercy, or signal deliverance. They rejoice (harlot-like) in the gift, but
not in the giver; they nibble upon the shell, but taste not of the kernel. The joy that
these Jews had was the fruit of fasting and prayer, according to that of our Saviour,
Ask, that your joy may he full; pray, that ye may joy. The fountain of it was the
light of God’s loving countenance; it was φεγγος σωτηριον, as Josephus hath it here,
a salvifical light. The matter of it was the happy change of their late lamentable
condition; and this as a pledge of that light of life eternal, see Psalms 23:5-6, the end
of it was a testification of their hearty thankfulness to God for his inconceivable
loving kindness, a breaking forth into those or the like words of the psalmist,
"Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our
salvation. Selah. He that is our God is the God of salvation; and unto God the Lord
belong the issues from death," Psalms 68:19-20.
And gladness] Habitual joy, solid and substantial. Crede mihi, res severa est,
gaudium verum. Believe me, saith Seneca, true joy is a severe and solid business,
that few men are acquainted with. It is indeed the just man’s jewel, such as the
stranger may not meddle with, Proverbs 14:13, he is flatly forbidden it, Hosea 9:1.
The wicked man’s joy is of another alloy than that of the righteous. The light of a
candle is fed with stinking tallow, but the light of the sun hath influence from
heaven to feed it, and therefore is not so soon blown out. Like as together with
manna there fell a dew, so together with temporal mercies and deliverances there is
a secret influence of God to a spiritual heart, as there was to these good Jews, and
thence their so well-rooted gladness. It was such as did not only wet the mouth, but
warm the heart, smooth the brow, but fill the breast; it was more inward, as the
windows of Solomon’s temple were wider within than without. Whereas, on the

81. contrary, the wicked’s joy is but in the face only, and not in the heart, 2 Corinthians
5:12, it is but the hypocrisy of mirth, like a counterfeit complexion. It is but a cold
armful, φυχρον παραγκυλισµα, as Lycophron said of an ill wife; or, as Lamech’s
second wife’s name was Zillah, that is, the shadow of a wife, so is this the shadow of
gladness, the substance is wanting.
And honour] Heb. weight, account, esteem. The poor Jews, formerly slighted, were
now highly honoured; chari et rari, as Isaiah 43:4, bright and glorious, as the word
signifieth, Job 31:26, precious and ponderous, so that their name was much set by,
as 1 Samuel 18:30. This was the Lord’s own work, for it is he that gives credit, and
fashioneth men’s opinions; he, besides wisdom, gave Solomon honour.
17 In every province and in every city to which
the edict of the king came, there was joy and
gladness among the Jews, with feasting and
celebrating. And many people of other
nationalities became Jews because fear of the Jews
had seized them.
BAR ES, "Became Jews - Joined the nation as proselytes, so casting in their lot
with them.
CLARKE, "Many - became Jews; for - fear - These were a species of converts not
likely to bring much honor to true religion: but the sacred historian states the simple
fact. They did profess Judaism for fear of the Jews, whether they continued steady in
that faith or not.
It is only the Gospel which will not admit of coercion for the propagation and
establishment of its doctrines. It is a spiritual system, and can be propagated only by
spiritual influence. As it proclaims holiness of heart and life, which nothing but the
Spirit of God can produce, so it is the Spirit of God alone that can persuade the
understanding and change the heart. If the kingdom of Christ were of this world, then
would his servants fight. But it is not from hence.

82. GILL, "And in every province, and in every city, whithersoever the king's
commandment and his decree came,.... As they did to every province in the realm,
and to every city in the province, where there were any Jews:
the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast and a good day; they expressed their joy
on this occasion by keeping a festival, which in their language is called a good day; and
such an one is annually kept by them unto this day, on account of their deliverance; of
which see Est_9:27
and many of the people of the land became Jews; or were proselyted, as both the
Targums and Jarchi interpret it; they embraced the Jewish religion, and submitted to
the rites and ceremonies of it; were circumcised, as in the Septuagint version, and so
were proselytes of righteousness; and indeed no other could they be, dwelling in their
own land; many of them very probably were serious in it, observing the wonderful
manner in which the Jews were delivered; wherein manifestly appeared to them the
providence of God, the hand of the Supreme Being, and from hence concluded their God
must be the true God, and they his favourite people, and their religion most correct;
though others might only do it to gain the favour of Esther and Mordecai, who had now
such great power and influence at court:
for the fear of the Jews fell upon them; lest they should be slain by them, in virtue
of this new edict.
K&D, "Est_8:17
And in every province and city ... there was joy and a glad day, a feast day, comp. Est_
9:19, Est_9:22, while Haman's edict had caused grief and lamentation, Est_4:3. “And
many of the people of the land (i.e., of the heathen inhabitants of the Persian empire)
became Jews, for the fear of the Jews fell upon them.” ‫ים‬ ִ‫ד‬ ֲ‫ה‬ַ‫י‬ ְ‫ת‬ ִ‫,מ‬ to confess oneself a Jew,
to become a Jew, a denominative formed from ‫י‬ ִ‫הוּד‬ְ‫,י‬ occurs only here. On the
confirmatory clause, comp. Exo_15:16; Deu_11:25. This conversion of many of the
heathen to Judaism must not be explained only, as by Clericus and Grotius, of a change
of religion on the part of the heathen, ut sibi hoc modo securitatem et reginae favorem
pararent, metuentes potentiam Mardechaei. This may have been the inducement with
some of the inhabitants of Susa. But the majority certainly acted from more honourable
motives, viz., a conviction, forced upon them by the unexpected turn of affairs in favour
of the Jews, of the truth of the Jewish religion; and the power of that faith and trust in
God manifested by the Jews, and so evidently justified by the fall of Haman and the
promotion of Mordochai, contrasted with the vanity and misery of polytheism, to which
even the heathen themselves were not blind. When we consider that the same motives in
subsequent times, when the Jews as a nation were in a state of deepest humiliation,
attracted the more earnest-minded of the heathen to the Jewish religion, and induced
them to become proselytes, the fact here related will not appear surprising.
BE SO , "Esther 8:17. A feast and a good day — That is, a time of feasting,
rejoicing, and thanksgiving. ot only in Shushan, but in all other places where they
resided, they entertained one another at their houses, and feasted together, being

83. full of joy at this unexpected alteration of their affairs. For they doubted not that
this new decree of the king would be observed by his people; and they were resolved
to defend themselves against those that did not observe it, but attempted to destroy
them. And many of the people of the land became Jews — Many of the Persians
became proselytes to the Jewish religion, but that they were circumcised is not
probable. It is likely, however, that they renounced idolatry, and became
worshippers of the true God. Such proselytes there were in all times, especially in
the days of David and Solomon, when the affairs of the Jews were very prosperous.
Haman thought to extirpate the Jews: it proves, in the issue, that their numbers are
greatly increased, and many added to their church. Observe, reader, when the Jews
had joy and gladness, then many of the people of the land became Jews. The holy
cheerfulness of those that profess religion is a great ornament to their profession,
and will invite and encourage others to be religious. Another reason, however, is
here given why so many became Jews at this time; for it is said, the fear of the Jews
fell upon them. When they observed how wonderfully the divine providence had
owned them, and wrought for them, in this critical juncture, they thought them
great, and those happy that were among them, as was foretold Zechariah 8:23, We
will go with you; for we have heard, we have seen, that God is with you. And they
thought them formidable, and those miserable that were against them. They plainly
saw, in Haman’s fate, that if any offered an injury to the Jews, it was at their peril;
and, therefore, for their own security, they joined themselves to them. It is folly to
think of contending with the God of Israel, and therefore it is wisdom to think of
submitting to him.
TRAPP, "Esther 8:17 And in every province, and in every city, whithersoever the
king’s commandment and his decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast
and a good day. And many of the people of the land became Jews; for the fear of the
Jews fell upon them.
Ver. 17. And in every province, and in every city] ot at Shushan only, where it
began, but throughout the whole empire there was a general joy among the Jews.
For albeit the worst was not yet past with them, but the thirteenth of Adar is meant
still by Haman’s abettors to be a bloody day (and this the Jews knew well enough,
and therefore prepared for the encounter, so that they could not be without their
fears and anxieties), yet the joy of the Lord was their strength. "Their hopes and
prayers were like those of David," Psalms 138:8, "The Lord will perfect that which
concerneth us: thy mercy, O Lord, endureth for ever: forsake not the work of thine
own hands."
The Jews had joy and gladness] Gaudium in re, gaudinm in spe; gaudium de
possessione gaudium de promissione; gaudium de praesenti exhibitione, gaudium de
futura expectatione joy in matter, joy in hope, joy about the possession, joy about
promise, joy in outworking of the present, joy about the future providence. (Bern.).
The Persians might revel, but the Jews only rejoiced; {See Trapp on "Esther 8:16"}

84. A feast and a good day] Convivium et hilaria, a compotation and a merry meeting,
such as the saints have here, in their foretastes of eternal life, those sweetmeats of
the feast of a good conscience (so Mr Latimer called the assurance of heaven), which
they have here, before they come to that full feast above. This feast and good day
here mentioned was but a preparation unto that in the following chapter, when the
warfare was accomplished, and all fears removed, and God said, Comfort ye,
comfort ye my people, &c.
And many of the people of the land became Jews] That is, they were proselyted,
professing the Jewish religion, and siding with them; some in sincerity, doubtless,
and some out of sinisterity, and for self-respect, because they saw the king favoured
them, the queen and Mordecai were altogether of them and for them, &c.
Mobile sic sequitur fortunae lumina vulgus (Ovid. Trist. 1. 1).
So the common people quickly follow the light of fortune. So that mixed multitude,
Exodus 12:38, moved with miracles, removed out of Egypt with the Israelites, took
hold of the skirts of these Jews, and said, "We will go with you," Zechariah 8:23. So
in David’s days, while he dealt prudently and prospered, so that he became the head
of the heathen, a people whom he had not known offered him their service, and
strangers feignedly submitted themselves unto him, Psalms 18:43-44. The like they
did in Solomon’s days, as Josephus relateth; as also, that the people then were very
careful how they received such Prosperity Proselytes. So, many strangers followed
the captives returning out of Babylon, under the conduct of Zorobabel; and many
heathens joined themselves to the Christian congregations, under Constantine, the
first Christian emperor. The Huns, well beaten by the Christians, concluded that
their God was the true God, and received the gospel. Thus, whether it be "in
pretence or in truth" (as St Paul hath it), that people come in, God is glorified and
his Church amplified, and the saints therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice,
Philippians 1:18.
For the fear of the Jews fell upon them] So that either for love or fear they
conformed to the Jewish way of worship, or at least they forbare to attempt against
them, whom now they looked upon as heaven’s darlings. Whether Ahasuerus
himself were drawn by the faith and piety of Esther and Mordecai to embrace the
true religion, is not expressed. It is hard for princes drowned in delights to deny
themselves, and to yield the obedience of faith. The poor receive the gospel, Matthew
11:5, the smaller fishes bite soonest; the lamb and the dove were offered up in
sacrifce, not the lion and the eagle; " ot many mighty, not many noble, are called,"
1 Corinthians 1:26. That this king was not converted we know not. However, we
have ground to beleive that Xerxes his son was not, when as, after this, we read that
in his expedition into Greece, he was angry with mountains, winds, rivers, elements,
no otherwise than as if they had been men, causing the sea to be beaten with three
hundred stripes for battering his bridge of boats, and casting a pair of fetters into it,
to make it know to whom it was subject. Let him be what he will, God made use of

85. him for the good of his people, and so overawed the malignant Persians, that they
had (very many of them) no mind to meddle.
WHEDO , "17. Many… became Jews — Divine Providence had so signally
interposed that all thoughtful minds were profoundly impressed, and not a few
became proselytes, and embraced Judaism as the true religion. Some of these
proselytes may, perhaps, have been influenced more by the “fear of Mordecai,”
(Esther 9:3,) than by profound religious convictions; but that a general fear of the
Jews fell upon them is clearly stated. Many might naturally have feared that if they
remained only ostensibly enemies of the Jews, the vengeance of the latter would be
likely to come upon them. And so they thought to secure themselves by professing
Judaism.
LA GE, "Esther 8:17. So also the joy spread to those without, who were so
exceedingly distressed through Haman’s edict ( Esther 9:3). They indulged in feasts,
and in a good, joyous day, i.e., a holiday (comp. Esther 9:19; Esther 9:22). But this
was not all. Many of the people of the land became Jews (‫ים‬ִ‫ֲד‬‫ה‬ַ‫י‬ְ‫ת‬ִ‫מ‬, derived from ‫י‬ִ‫ְהוּד‬‫י‬
, and found only here), because the fear of the Jews, and doubtless also of the
mighty and powerful God of the Jews, ruling over their destiny, and not so much the
fear of Mordecai and Esther, had fallen upon them (comp. Exodus 15:16;
Deuteronomy 11:25).[F 7]
PULPIT, "Esther 8:17
A feast and a good day. The provincial Jews made the whole day on which they
heard the news into a holiday, and not only rejoiced, but feasted. Many of the people
of the land became Jews. Applied for and obtained admission into the Jewish nation
as full proselytes (comp. Ezra 6:21, with the comment). The fear of the Jews fell
upon them. There was about to be in each great city where there were Jews a day of
straggle and bloodshed. The Jews would have authority on their side (Esther 9:3),
and might be expected to be victorious. Persons feared lest, when victorious, they
might revenge themselves on all who had not taken their part, and thought it safer
to become Jews than remain neutral. But it can only have been a small minority of
the population in each city that took this view. There was no sudden great increase
in the numbers of the Jewish nation.
LA GE DOCTRI AL A D ETHICAL

86. On Esther 8:1 sqq1. If in the present case the danger that threatened the Jews had
not been so imminent and the disposition of both Esther and Mordecai so patriotic,
then they might possibly have become proud in view of the wealth and high life and
station that they now enjoyed, or they might have grown indifferent or reserved
with respect to the distress of their countrymen. It is too frequent an occurrence that
upstarts fear to lose caste by paying regard to former relations. Hence they are
quick to forget and neglect their previous friends. There is no question that the
attainment of honor and wealth will bring a blessing only when these become an
incentive to good works, especially in promoting God’s kingdom. There is connected
with their enjoyment sufficient discontent, envy and misery, and also enough
trouble and curses. In general, Christians who have come to power are more timid
in taking care of their friends than worldly people are. Hence the latter can more
safely count on the applause of the great mass of men. But the world will not thank
the former for their timidity, and God will hold them to account.
Feuardent: “We are taught by Mordecai’s example that even pious men sometimes
come to the head of affairs, and are safely entrusted with the reins of government;
and that God adorns with this glory on earth those whom He will afterwards crown
in heaven likewise. They are promoted, however, not so much for their own sake as
that they may aid and promote the church and people of God, and may free and
console those in affliction.”
Starke: “We should have sympathy for oppressed brethren in the faith ( 1 Peter 3:8;
Colossians 3:12; Galatians 6:10). The innocence of the guiltless should be protected (
Sirach 4:9; 1 Samuel 20:32). He who has no pity for the pious and innocent when
they are in danger is not worthy of the name of a Prayer of Manasseh, much less
that of a Christian; for we are members of one body ( 1 Corinthians 12:12).”
2. Although Haman had been removed and Mordecai raised to his present station,
yet the people still stood in jeopardy of their lives. Since the edict issued against
them was irrevocable, their case was still critical. There were not many perhaps who
deemed it possible that any means could be found to avert the threatened calamity.
Mordecai himself may have long been in doubt regarding the way to be pursued out
of the difficulty. And even after it suggested itself to him, it may have seemed
improbable that it should lead to success. All depended on the question whether the
assailants would not be too numerous for the Jews to overpower. This could not be
previously ascertained. It may afford us light to know that he waited two months
after his elevation before he issued the new edict. The period until then was one of
dark foreboding to the Jews. But the pious Jews doubtless knew how to comfort
themselves. “God often delays help, not because He will render none, but in order to
exercise our faith, and to stimulate us the more to call upon Him. Then also the help
granted will make the deliverance more sweet, and transform a great distress into a
great joy” (Berl. Bible).
Mordecai, for his part, doubtless held fast to the thought that one must not despair
of the salvation of God’s people, and that though the danger be ever so great, God is

87. infinitely greater, and that it is man’s duty to do all in his power for himself. With
respect to Esther, it was something extraordinary that she, although by descent
nothing but a poor Jewess, should propose to the great king of the Persians, the
mighty and proud Ahasuerus, that he would revoke in one way or another an edict
whose irrevocable character as a Persian dogma was fixed. Really this was a
demand to divest himself of that higher divine glory (δόξα) which the faith of the
people had surrounded him with. It was to run the risk of unsettling the faith of the
people in himself, and to expose himself to State disturbances. The difficulties
surrounding him may even remind us of the problem that presented itself to Christ,
when Hebrews, in the face of the sentence of condemnation upon the sinner on the
part of justice, still made provision for grace. Esther might have feared that though
her power over Ahasuerus had become great, still he might resent such boldness,
and indignantly turn her away, refuse her request, and, if possible, become still
more embittered against the Jews. Whatever considerations, however, may have
arisen in her heart at the time, still she was doubtlessly incited by the predominant
thought that the higher position one holds, the greater are the responsibilities
connected therewith; that the more influence one wields, the greater must also be
the courage to sustain it, so that one must not hesitate to strive after the highest aims
and to tread the most difficult paths in the line of duty. But this correct view, this
beautiful conviction, could not have been possible unless she had been first in
possession of a pure love for her work. As is the case with men, so it was also with
her, as a woman, that a true and correct conviction depended upon the state of her
heart. If, in the following chapter, she manifests a sharp contrast with the heathen
according to the Jewish Old Testament view, which threatened to cause her to err in
the Christian view, and to bring vengeance and hate into play, yet, on the other
hand, she reveals toward her people a love so strong, so self-sacrificing, and so bold,
that it seems as if she had heard and apprehended the great question: “This I did
for thee; what doest thou for me?” She here shows that mercy which is appropriate
to him who recognizes how great the mercy was that met him.
3. It is a great and precious word which Esther utters in justification of her large
and bold request: “How can I endure to see all the evil which will come upon my
people, and how shall I bear to see the destruction of my friends?” She here openly
expresses the fact that, though she is now greatly elevated, yet she is not able to
sever the bond that unites her to her kindred. But, still more, she asserts that her
life, though embellished with all the glory that Ahasuerus could bestow, has no
value to her if she cannot also know that the lives of her kindred are safe from
harm. All this was so well expressed by her that her word is very appropriate in
pointing for our comfort to that Prince who in reality makes this sentiment His
own—who, though in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God,
but laid aside His glory, and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross.
But it is also appropriate as an exhortation for us, which should impel us in our
circumstances to more and more approach her in this duty. It would be little credit
to us should we prefer only those who are alike spiritually-minded with ourselves,
and should we neglect or ignore those who are related to us according to the body,
and should we look upon the perdition of so many souls with indifference.

88. On Esther 8:7-14. The great excitement which now took place in Shushan,
beginning among the scribes of the king and spreading through all the one hundred
and twenty-seven provinces of the great Persian empire, from India to Ethiopia, by
means of the couriers who rode the best and fleetest horses of the king’s stud, and
which seized all satraps and governors, but particularly all Jewish communities,
may, as a first effect, have provoked much inquiry respecting the meaning of the
message, and then great astonishment at it. It Isaiah, however, hardly possible that
any one already comprehended the significance of the event. What was visible was
seemingly only a shell in which lay secreted a seed capable of infinite developments,
a new universal law, or rather a new and glorious gospel which should henceforth
rule over the world’s history and expand to ever increasing authority. The Jews
were to have the right to arm themselves against the day of attack on the part of the
heathen. This implied that though externally dependent, still among and in
themselves they should have freedom and the right to observe their laws and
religion. This again prophetically indicates that the kingdoms of the world, although
outwardly powerful, should inwardly lay themselves more and more open to the
power of the kingdom of God. The Jews should now be empowered to take their
defence against their enemies into their own hands. Thus it was implied that, in spite
of the restricted sphere to which they were consigned, they still had a right to self-
exertion. This mode of action upon attack only left them in an externally insufficient
position for successful defence. Yet even in this was contained the prophecy that the
people of God are permitted, in an inward and higher sense, themselves to do the
best for victory over their enemies, and this the more since the means of the world’s
empires are here insufficient. Both the right to exist and to be active in the new
sphere which they should enter, though as yet existing in embryo, was never
sanctioned here. And if Judaism even today expects to find in the book of Esther
that which will afford it joy, then we must go still further and apprehend its deeper
and more glorious import for Christianity and the Christian church.
On Esther 8:15-17. Mordecai, after having attained all his requests, went out from
the king clothed in royal garments, adorned with a large golden crown upon his
head. And in all the land and cities, wherever the new law was promulgated, joy and
rejoicing arose among the Jews. A great festival day had come for them. We do not
know in how far their joy was pure. If it only arose because they could now make
the necessary preparations to defend themselves from the attacks of their assailants,
then no one will begrudge them their joy. It was certainly a time of deliverance for
them. It is just such times as these that have made great impressions not only upon
the Jews, but likewise upon the heathen surrounding them. As in the case of the
exodus of the Jews from Egypt ( Exodus 12:38; umbers 10:29), so also here many
of the people of the land joined themselves to the Jews, indeed were converted to
Judaism. Prophecies such as Isaiah 14:1; Isaiah 44:5 began to be in part realized.
Periods of deliverance are chiefly periods of the extension of God’s kingdom. Would
that we might realize this in our times of trouble! Since the time of sorrow must of
necessity have an end and make way for a time of deliverance, we may very
properly rejoice in prospect of the future growth in the church, however threatening
the outlook may be. It is on this account that our Lord exhorts us to raise the head
when all these things are in process of fulfilment.

89. The points most important in our chapter are given in brief terms closely following
each other. There is God’s watchful and energetic care for His instruments for good.
Esther and Mordecai are in advance established in their influential position, so that
they may the more effectually execute His will. Then comes His care for His people,
from whom He averts the threatening danger, and lastly the world is cared for.
Brenz: “What an example is here presented to us of the issue of the greatest dangers
which may threaten God’s people or church. But what is said of the safety of the
universal church, the same holds true of every private individual who is a member
of the church. ‘I pray not for them alone,’ says Christ, ‘but for those who through
their word shall believe in me.’ ”
Starke: “It is a small thing for God to turn the seasons of sorrow of the pious into
hours of joy ( Psalm 30:12; John 16:20). God helps His people ( Luke 1:52) and
causes them to rejoice over their enemies ( Psalm 92:12).”
Footnotes:
F #1 - “A pleasure-seeking Persian king, like Xerxes, was glad to be relieved of the
toil of governing, and willingly committed to one favorite after another the task of
issuing and signing with the royal signet the decrees by which the government was
administered. That the official entrusted with these high powers might be a eunuch,
appears from Diodorus (XVI:50). Rawlinson.—Tr.]
F #2 - From the statement of Esther 8:4 that the king again held out to her the
golden sceptre, “we must understand that Esther had once more intruded on
Ahasuerus unsummoned.” Rawlinson.—Tr.]
F #3 - “The answer of Ahasuerus is a refusal, but one softened as much as possible.
He first dwells on the proofs which he had just given of his friendly feeling towards
the Jews ( Esther 8:7). He then suggests that something may be done to help them
without revoking the decree ( Esther 8:8). Finally, he excuses himself by appealing
to the well-known immutability of Persian law”. Rawlinson.—Tr.]
F #4 - “ The suggestion of Ahasuerus quickened the inventive powers of Esther and
Mordecai. The scribes were at once summoned, and a decree issued, not revoking
the former one, but allowing the Jews to stand on their defence, and to kill all who
attacked them. It has been pronounced incredible that any king would thus have
sanctioned civil war in all the great cities of his empire; but some even of the more
sceptical critics allow that Xerxes might not improbably have done so (De Wette,
Einleitung, p198 a).” Rawlinson.—Tr.]
F #5 - “ ot a crown like the king’s (‫ר‬ֶ‫ֶת‬‫כּ‬), but a mere golden band or coronet
(‫ה‬ ָ‫ר‬ָ‫ֲט‬‫ע‬).” Rawlinson.—Tr.]
F #6 - “The tunic or minor robe of the king was of purple, striped with white

90. (Xenoph. Cyrop. VIII:3, § l3; Plutarch, Alex. § 51; Q. Curt. III:5).” Rawlinson.—
Tr.]
F #7 - “Mordecai’s power might by itself hare caused some fear, but the chief
alarm felt probably was lest the Jews, when the day came for revenging themselves,
should account the large class of indifferent persons among their enemies. Persons
of this class avoided the danger by becoming Jews.” Rawlinson.—Tr.]