1 : 1 Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus, (this is Ahasuerus which reigned, from India even unto Ethiopia, over an hundred and seven and twenty provinces :) that in those days, when the king Ahasuerus sat on the throne of his kingdom, which was in Shushan the palace, in the third year of his reign, he made a feast unto all his princes and his servants ; the power of Persia and Media, the nobles and princes of the provinces, being before him : when he shewed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the honour of his excellent majesty many days, even an hundred and fourseore days. And when these days were fulfilled, the king made a feast unto all the people that were present in Shushan the palace, both great and small, seven days, in the court of the garden of the king's palace ; there were hangings of white cloth, of green, and of blue, fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble : the couches were of gold and silver, upon a pavement of red, and white, and yellow, and black marble. And they gave them drink in vessels of gold, (the vessels being diverse one from another,) and royal wine in abundance, according to the bounty of the king. And the drinking was according to the law ; none could compel : for so the king had appointed to all the officers of his house, that they should do according to every man's pleasure. Also Vashti the queen made a feast for the women in the royal house which belonged to king Ahasuerus. On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, and Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcas, the seven chamberlains that ministered in the presence of Ahasuerus the king, to bring Vashti the queen before the king with the crown royal, to shew the peoples and the princes her beauty : for she was fair to look on. But the queen Vashti refused to come at the king's commandment by the chamberlains : therefore was the king very wroth, and his anger burned in him. Then the king said to the wise men, which knew the times, (for so was the king's manner toward all that knew law and judgement ; and the next unto him was Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucan, the seven princes of Persia and Media, which saw the king's face, and sat first in the kingdom :) What shall we do unto the queen Vashti according to law, because she hath not done the bidding of the king Ahasuerus by the chamberlains ? And Memucan answered before the king and the princes, Vashti the queen hath not done wrong to the king only, but also to all the princes, and to all the peoples that are in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus. For this deed of the queen shall come abroad unto all women, to make their husbands contemptible in their eyes, when it shall be reported, The king Ahasuerus commanded Vashti the queen to be brought in before him, but she came not. And this day shall the princesses of Persia and Media which have heard of the deed of the queen say the like unto all the king's princes. So shall there arise much contempt and wrath. If it please the king, let there go forth a royal commandment from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes, that it be not altered, that Vashti come no more before king Ahasuerus ; and let the king give her royal estate unto another that is better than she. And when the king's decree which he shall make shall be published throughout all his kingdom, (for it is great,) all the wives shall give to their husbands honour, both to great and small. And the saying pleased the king and the princes ; and the king did according to the word of Memucan : for he sent letters into all the king's provinces, into every province according to the writing thereof, and to every people after their language, that every man should bear rule in his own house, and should publish it according to the language of his people. 2 : 1 After these things, when the wrath of king Ahasuerus was pacified, he remembered Vashti, and what she had done, and what was decreed against her. Then said the king's servants that ministered unto him, Let there be fair young virgins sought for the king : and let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom, that they may gather together all the fair young virgins unto Shushan the palace, to the house of the women, unto the custody of Hegai the king's chamberlain, keeper of the women; and let their things for purification be given them: and let the maiden which pleaseth the king be queen instead of Vashti. And the thing pleased the king; and he did so. There was a certain Jew in Shushan the palace, whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite; who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captives which had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away. And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle's daughter: for she had neither father nor mother, and the maiden was fair and beautiful; and when her father and mother were dead, Mordecai took her for his own daughter. So it came to pass, when the king's commandment and his decree was heard, and when many maidens were gathered together unto Shushan the palace, to the custody of Hegai, that Esther was taken into the king's house, to the custody of Hegai, keeper of the women. And the maiden pleased him, and she obtained kindness of him; and he speedily gave her her things for purification, with her portions, and the seven maidens, which were meet to be given her, out of the king's house: and he removed her and her maidens to the best place of the house of the women. Esther had not shewed her people nor her kindred: for Mordecai had charged her that she should not shew it. And Mordecai walked every day before the court of the women's house, to know how Esther did, and what should become of her. Now when the turn of every maiden was come to go in to king Ahasuerus, after that it had been done to her according to the law for the women, twelve months, (for so were the days of their purifications accomplished, to wit, six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet odours, and with the things for the purifying of the women,) then in this wise came the maiden unto the king, whatsoever she desired was given her to go with her out of the house of the women unto the king's house. In the evening she went, and on the morrow she returned into the second house of the women, to the custody of Shaashgaz, the king's chamberlain, which kept the concubines: she came in unto the king no more, except the king delighted in her, and that she were called by name. Now when the turn of Esther, the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her for his daughter, was come to go in unto the king, she required nothing but what Hegai the king's chamberlain, the keeper of the women, appointed. And Esther obtained favour in the sight of all them that looked upon her. So Esther was taken unto king Ahasuerus into his house royal in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign. And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained grace and favour in his sight more than all the virgins; so that he set the royal crown upon her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti. Then the king made a great feast unto all his princes and his servants, even Esther's feast; and he made a release to the provinces, and gave gifts, according to the bounty of the king. And when the virgins were gathered together the second time, then Mordecai sat in the king's gate. Esther had not yet shewed her kindred nor her people; as Mordecai had charged her: for Esther did the commandment of Mordecai, like as when she was brought up with him. In those days, while Mordecai sat in the king's gate, two of the king's chamberlains, Bigthan and Teresh, of those which kept the door, were wroth, and sought to lay hands on the king Ahasuerus. And the thing was known to Mordecai, who shewed it unto Esther the queen; and Esther told the king thereof in Mordecai's name. And when inquisition was made of the matter, and it was found to be so, they were both hanged on a tree: and it was written in the book of the chronicles before the king. 1:1-9. The great feast at Susa. King Ahasuerus (Xerxes) in the third year of his reign, which was n.c. 484-483, entertained at a great feast in the royal palace of Susa all his princes and his servants, "the power of Persia and Media," together with all the nobles and princes of the provinces (verses 2, 3). The hospitality was extended over a space of one hundred and eighty days (verse 4). At the end of this time there was a further entertainment for seven days, on even a more profuse scale, all the male inhabitants of Susa being feasted in the palace gardens (verses 5-8), while the queen received the women and made them a feast in her own private apartments. The special occasion of the entertainment seems to have been the summons to Susa of all the chief men of the kingdom, and particularly of the satraps, or "princes of provinces," to advise upon the projected expedition against Greece, which Herodotus mentions in his seventh book. Banquets on an enormous scale were not uncommon in Persia; and the profuseness and vainglory of Xerxes would naturally lead him to go to an extreme in this, as in other matters. P. C. 1. This is Ahasuerus. The writer assumes that more than one Ahasuerus is known to his readers, and seeks to make it clear to them which Ahasuerus he is speaking of. First, he notes that the subject of his narrative is a real king, and, therefore, not the Ahasuerus of Daniel (9:1); secondly, that he ruled "from India to Ethiopia," and, therefore, belonged to the later portion of the Persian series, since it was well known that the earlier Persian monarchs were not masters of India. He thus sets aside the Ahasuerus of Ezra 4:6 (Cambyses), and points with sufficient clearness to Xerxes, the son of Darius Hystaspes. From India even unto Ethiopia. The empire of Xerxes is rightly described as lying between these extremes; for though Ethiopia was not regarded as a "province," and is, therefore, absent alike from the Greek and the native lists, yet it paid a tribute (Herod. iii. 97), and, therefore, owned a certain degree of subjection. B. C. The name Xerxes is simply a less correct variant of the name Ahasuerus; and Esther's husband was no other than the Xerxes whose exploits are so familiar to all students of Greek history. The Bible story fits at every point all that we know concerning this Xerxes, and does not fit the reign of any other Persian king. W. J. B.—Any later king is out of the question. Being thus brought back to Xerxes, whose name is the Greek form of Ahasuerus, it only remains to compare the dates of the Book of Esther with the history of his reign, the leading events of which are, his accession in B.C. 486 (December 23d), his expedition to Greece in his sixth year, B.C. 480, and his death at the end of his twenty-first year, B.C. 465 (December 17th). Now the great feast of Ahasuerus, at which Vashti refused to appear, was in the third year of his reign, B.C. 483, the very year in which Xerxes held a great assembly to arrange the Grecian war, and his marriage with Esther was in his seventh year, B.C. 479, the year after the expedition to Greece, when Xerxes might naturally seek in his harem some consolation for his repulse. But Amestris, who was the daughter of Otanes, the uncle of Xerxes, had been his wife long before the expedition to Greece, in which her sons were old enough to accompany him, and the eldest of them, Darius, married at the very time of his father's marriage to Esther. For all these reasons Esther cannot be Amestris; and, considering the polygamy of the Persian kings, it is not surprising that Herodotus should mention only two of the wives of Xerxes, and the Book of Esther two others. The affairs of Xerxes after his flight from Greece are only noticed by the Greek historians as they affect the Hellenic race. P. S.—The synchronisms, remarked by Eichhorn, strongly confirm this view. In the third year of his reign, Ahasuerus summons a divan of all the great officers of the kingdom at Susa, whom he entertains and banquets one hundred and eighty days. In his third year, Xerxes, at a great assembly, deliberates and takes measures for the subjugation of Greece. In his seventh year (B.C. 479) Ahasuerus marries Esther. In his seventh year Xerxes returns, discomfited, to Susa, and abandons himself to the pleasures of his harem. The imbecile facility with which Xerxes, according to Herodotus, first gave up to his seductive mistress, Artaynta, a splendid robe, the present of his queen; and then, having made a rash promise at a banquet, yielded up the wife of his brother Masistes (the mother of his mistress) to the barbarous vengeance of his queen; so precisely resembles the conduct of Ahasuerus, that it is impossible not to suspect we are reading of the same person in the Grecian and Hebrew annalist. Milman. 3. Shushan. The great Persian, or, rather, Elamitic, city of Susa—"Shushan" in the Hebrew—was a city of a high antiquity, which for many centuries had been the capital of an important state, and had held a position little inferior to that of Nineveh or Babylon. It was situated between the Choaspes and Euleus rivers, in a fertile plain, within sight of the Bakhtiyari Mountains, about eighty miles east of the Tigris. The tract about it was clothed for a great part of the year with an abundant vegetation. In Susiana, "after the winter rains, which last from December till March, the entire surface of the ground puts on a livery of green, diversified with numerous brilliant flowers, and a rich pasturage is everywhere afforded to the flocks and herds of the inhabitants. The heat, though considerable, is not oppressive. In the distance can be seen the snow-clad range of the Bakhtiyari Mountains, rising to an elevation of from eight thousand to ten thousand feet above the level of the sea, in a continuous undulating line void of peaks or of any prominent features, while the breeze which blows from them is almost always cool and refreshing." Susa was a city of a considerable size. Its ruins at the present day consist of "four spacious artificial platforms, distinctly separated from each other." The most elevated of these is toward the west, and is washed by the Shapur. It attains a height of one hundred and nineteen feet above the river, and is believed to represent the ancient acropolis or citadel. To the north of this is a square mass of ruins, about a thousand feet each way, which was certainly the site of the royal palace in Persian times. Southeast of these two mounds, and much exceeding in size both of them put together, is the third or "great central platform," which attains an elevation of about seventy feet, and covers an area of sixty acres. These three together formed the Upper City, and appear to have been known as Shushan-ha-birah, "Susa the fortress," or "Susa the palace." Further eastward, and at a lower level, are various irregular groups of ruins, and one extensive platform of comparatively slight elevation, which constituted the Lower town, and was inhabited probably by the poorer classes of the population. There are considerable remains, even at the present day, of the ancient Persian palace. Its main feature was a great pillared hall, closely resembling, both in dimensions and ornamentation, the famous "Hall of Xerxes" at Persepolis, whereof it was perhaps the model. A central phalanx of thirty-six columns, arranged in six rows of six each, supported probably a solid roof, and formed a "throne room" or "hall of audience," two hundred feet each way, "the largest interior of the ancient world, with the single exception of the great hall of Karnak, which covered 58,300 square feet, while this only extended to 40,000." G. R. 3. In the third year of his reign he made a feast. In this year (n.c. 483) Xerxes, according to Herodotus, assembled the governors of provinces at Susa, in connection with his contemplated expedition against Greece. Councils were held, speeches were made, and at last formal orders were issued to the satraps to prepare their several contingents. The governors would be guests at his table during their stay. Persia and Media.** The position of Media, as second only to Persia under the Achaemenian princes, is clearly apparent both in the native monuments and in the accounts of the Greeks. Medes held many of the highest offices both under Darius and under Xerxes. B. C. The feast made in his third year synchronizes with the great assembly which Herodotus says Xerxes held to consider his plans for conquering Greece. As long as Xerxes was busy and self-conscious with that greatest military expedition of history, he probably did not miss Vashti very much. But three years later, after his defeat at Salamis, in September of his sixth year, and his sudden return home without any millions of soldiers following him, he was less self-sufficient, and "remembered Vashti." He consoled himself for the disasters that had befallen him by his magnificent plans for securing a new queen. W. J. B. The Persian court under the later Achaemenian monarchs was organized on a scale of extraordinary splendor and magnificence. Cyrus and Cambyses had been comparatively simple in their habits; even Darius, the son of Hystaspes, had not launched out into much extravagance; but from the time of Xerxes, the son of this Darius, to the close of the empire, a profusion and prodigality prevailed scarcely equalled either before or since in any other Oriental monarchy. The centre and culminating point of the magnificence was, of course, the person of the king. Glorious in his apparel, clothed in robes of richest silk, purple or crimson in hue, and adorned with embroidery in gold, wearing the kidaris, or tall, stiff cap, encircled with the diadem—a fillet or band, blue, spotted with white—the great king was the cynosure of all eyes, the centre of attraction, the principal luminary around which all the minor lights of the court revolved. We are shown him in the Persepolitan sculptures seated upon his throne, with his feet resting upon a footstool, and with his sceptre in his right hand, receiving those who prostrate themselves before him, or again advancing in procession, followed by the parasol-bearer and other attendants, passing through the royal apartments on his way to the throne room or the banquet chamber. Other officers of the court were the steward of the household; the groom or master of the horse; the chief eunuch or keeper of the women; the king's "eyes" and "ears," or persons whose business it was to keep him informed on all matters of importance; his scribes, or secretaries, who wrote his letters and his edicts; his messengers, who went his errands; his "ushers," who introduced strangers to him; his "tasters," who tried the various dishes set before him, lest they should be poisoned; his cupbearers, who handed him his wine and tasted it; his chamberlains, who assisted him to bed; and his musicians, who entertained him with singing and instruments of music. Besides these the court comprised, among its inferior officers, various classes of guards, and also doorkeepers, huntsmen, grooms, cooks, and other domestic servants in great abundance, together with a vast multitude of visitors and guests—prices, nobles, captives of high rank, foreign refugees, ambassadors, travellers. We are assured that the Persian king fed daily within the precincts of his palace as many as fifteen thousand persons. G. R. 4. For six months Xerxes kept “open house,” and, with the ostentation which was one of his chief characteristics, displayed his wealth and luxury in prodigal hospitality to thousands of the officers of government, who doubtless came and went as they had occasion. Alcott. The feast of Ahasuerus was a wonderful scene. There is nothing morally great about it. There never can be about mere feasting, and splendor, and eating and drinking, and outward show. Neither, so far as we can see, is there anything morally wrong in this, at least when kept in due moderation. It was kept in moderation in this instance. There is the most prodigal abundance, and yet there is a royal wisdom in the dispensation of it. For we read that “the drinking was according to the law,” and that law means “no compulsion.” If we embody the principle of moderation in our life, and walk by faith, and not by sight, then, and only then, we surmount the poor pageant in which outwardly we are moving figures; then, and only then, we cast anchor within the veil, and lay up treasure where it can never be lost. Raleigh. 5. An especial closing banquet is now given to all the men who are dwelling or visiting in the royal town. Literally it is a drinking, the word being the same as in 1:3. 7. The remaining expression describes the free abundance of this costly drink, as worthy of so rich and magnificent a king. “With a liberal hand,” or “in right royal fashion,” would be a correct interpretation. Alcott. 10-22. The disgrace of Vashti. On the seventh day of the feast “to all in Shushan” (verse 5), the king having excited himself with drink, sent a message to Vashti, requiring her to make her appearance in the banquet of the men, since he desired to exhibit her beauty to the assembled guests, as “she was fair to look on” (verse 11). Such a proceeding was a gross breach of Persian etiquette, and a cruel outrage upon one whom he above all men was bound to protect. Vashti, therefore, declined to obey (verse 12). Preferring the risk of death to dishonor, she braved the anger of her despotic lord, and sent him back a message by his chamberlains that she would not come. To an absolute monarch such a rebuff, in the face of his whole court and of some hundreds or thousands of assembled guests, must have been exasperating in the extreme. “Therefore was the king very wroth, and his anger burned in him.” But he so far restrained himself as to refer the matter to the judgment of others, and ask the “seven princes” the question, “What is to be done according to law unto Queen Vashti, for not performing the commandment of the king?” (verse 15.) The advice of the princes, uttered by one of their body (verses 16-20), and assented to by the remainder (verse 21), was, that Vashti should be degraded from the position of queen, and her place given to another. This sentence was supported by specious arguments based upon expediency, and ignoring entirely the outrageous character of the king’s command, which was of course the real, and sole, justification of Vashti’s disobedience. It was treated as a simple question of the wife’s duty to obey her husband, and the husband’s right to enforce submission. Ahasuerus, as might be expected, received the decision of his obsequious counsellors with great satisfaction, and forthwith sent letters into all the provinces of his vast empire, announcing what had been done, and requiring wives everywhere to submit themselves unreservedly to the absolute rule of their lord (verse 22). P. C. 14. The seven princes which saw the king’s face. According to Herodotus, there were seven families of the first rank in Persia, from which alone the king could take his wives. Their chiefs were entitled to have free access to the monarch’s person. The Behistun inscription, which gives Darius six coadjutors in his conspiracy, confirms the Greek writer. B. C. 16. And Memucan answered. We gather from Memucan’s reply that the Persian law had provided no penalty for the case in hand. He first argues the matter on general grounds of morality (verse 16) and expediency (verses 17, 18), and then proposes the enactment of a new law—a privilegium—assigning Vashti a special punishment for her contempt of the king’s order. The “decree” (verse 20) would not have been necessary had there already existed a law on the point. Memucan throws himself wholly on the king’s side—insinuates no word of blame against his royal master, on whom in justice the whole blame rested; but sets himself to make the worst he can of Vashti’s conduct. P. C.—Memucan’s words are shrewd, bespeaking one wise in human nature, and in the peculiar variety thereof found in an Oriental despot. He first artfully exaggerates the offence of the queen into an evil which it was for the interest of every husband in the empire to have at once checked. He then suggests a decree which would have this effect, and finally describes the beneficial results to be expected from its enactment. 18-19. Persia is placed before Media because it had now assumed the precedence; while in Daniel the order of the names is adapted to the Median viceroy then upon the throne. Alcott. 20. The idea here is that the women will come to regard their husbands as peculiarly valuable and rather precarious possessions, against the alienation of which they need to guard with peculiar care. W. J. B. 22. Besides publishing the decree, Ahasuerus sent letters prescribing certain things—viz.: 1. That every man should bear rule in his own house. 2. That every man should speak his own language in his family, and not that of his wife if it were different. This is the plain meaning of the existing text. P. C. That every man should bear rule in his own house. This decree has been called “absurd” and “quite unnecessary in Persia.” But it may be questioned whether the decree was unnecessary. The undue influence of women in domestic, and even in public, matters is a feature of the ancient Persian monarchy. Herodotus tells us that Atossa “completely ruled” Darius. Xerxes himself was, in his later years, shamefully subject to Amestris. The example of the court would naturally infect the people. The decree therefore would seem to have been not so much an idle and superfluous act as an ineffectual protest against a real and growing evil. Chap. 2:1. After these things. The events here related (verses 1-11) must belong to the time between the great assembly held at Susa in Xerxes’ third year, B.C. 483, and the departure of the monarch on his expedition against Greece in his fifth year, B.C. 481. It is impossible to fix their date more exactly. B. C. 5,6. One of God’s chosen people now comes upon the scene—a man, a Jew—as we should say, “a certain Jew.” The name Mordecai is probably connected with Marduk or Merodach, the Assyrian god. “It may have been given to his son by a Babylonian Jew without thought of heathen derivation and meaning, or out of compliment to some Babylonian friend or master.” 7. Uncle.** An uncle on the father’s side, literally, a friend. Esther’s father, Abihail (verse 15), and Mordecai’s father, Jair, were brothers. Esther was probably twenty years old, and Mordecai could not have been less than thirty or forty, since it appears that he adopted his cousin when she was young. Alcott. 11. Mordecai walked every day before the court of the women’s house.** Mordecai occupied, apparently, a humble place in the royal household. He was probably one of the porters or doorkeepers at the main entrance to the palace. This position separated him from his adopted daughter, and some effort was needed to keep up communication with her. B. C. 15. It was the mark of unusual wisdom and self-restraint, if not of even nobler qualities, that Esther in this supreme hour manifested no self-will concerning her adornments, but left it to those whose judgment was better than her own. Alcott. 16. Four years after the disgrace of Vashti, probably in January, B.C. 479. Xerxes had recently returned from the Grecian expedition defeated and disgraced. He was glad to dismiss warlike matters from his thoughts, and to console himself for his failure by the pleasures of the seraglio. 19-23. Mordecai’s discovery of a plot against Ahasuerus’ life. Some time after Esther had been made queen, there was a second collection of virgins at Susa (verse 19), under circumstances which are not related, and which were probably of small importance. At this time (verse 21) Mordecai, still serving in his humble office at the palace gate, from which he had not been advanced since Esther had told no one that he was her relation (verse 20), happened to detect a conspiracy against the king’s life which had been formed by two of the palace eunuchs, Bigthan and Teresh, whom Ahasuerus had somehow offended (verse 21). Being still in the habit of holding communication with Esther, Mordecai was able to make her acquainted with the facts, of which she then informed the king, telling him how she had obtained her knowledge (verse 22). There was nothing surprising or suspicious in a eunuch of the palace having had speech with the queen, especially when he had intelligence of such importance to impart to her. On inquiry, the king found that Mordecai’s information was correct; the conspiracy was laid bare, and the conspirators put to death (verse 23)—the facts being, as was sure to be the case, entered in the court chronicle, a daily record of the life of the court and of the circumstances that befell the king. It was to have been expected that Mordecai would have been rewarded for his zeal; but somehow or other it happened that his services were overlooked—he was neither promoted from his humble office, nor did he receive any gift (chap. 6:3). This was quite contrary to ordinary Persian practice. P. C. 21. Sought to lay hand on the king.** Conspiracies inside the palace were ordinary occurrences in Persia. Xerxes was ultimately murdered by Artabanus, the captain of the guard, and Aspamitras, a chamberlain and eunuch. B. C. 19. Gate of the king.** The gate of an Oriental palace is not a mere entrance, but is ordinarily flanked at least by recesses for guards, sometimes by towers containing rooms below and overhead. It was often a place for holding courts, and even for royal audience. Hence Sublime Porte (gate), which originally meant the chief entrance of the Sultan's palace, has come to denote the government of the Turkish Empire. Alcott. 20. Esther's silence accounts for Mordecai's low estate; Mordecai's command (see verse 10) accounts for Esther's silence. The royal dignity did not change Esther's heart. She was still the dutiful child she had been so many years. Mordecai had forbidden her to tell her kindred; he had not removed his prohibition, so she had kept silence. P. C.—That mind is truly great and noble that is not changed with the highest prosperity; and such was the disposition of Queen Esther, whom even the splendor of royalty could not induce to disregard her kinsman and friend, or to depart from a dutiful observance of his directions. 21-23. Mordecai overhears the whispering of these wicked conspirators, and reveals it to Esther. She, as glad of such an opportunity to commend unto Ahasuerus the loyalty of him whom she durst but secretly honor, reveals it to the king. The circumstances are examined; the plot is discovered; the traitors executed; the service recorded in the Persian annals. Bp. H. Mordecai sets before us the example of a faithful subject, in counteracting the treasonable designs of these men; he showed this loyalty toward a heathen sovereign and one under whom he lived as a captive, true religion and loyalty being inseparable; and herein he exemplified the injunction of the Lord by the prophet Jeremiah, "Seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives" (Jer. 29:7). Mordecai discreetly communicated his discovery not to indifferent persons, but to the queen: Esther, in laying it before the king, dutifully remembered Mordecai, and commended him to the royal favor by mentioning him as the author of her information. Bp. Andrews. 23. It was written in the book of the chronicles before the king.** Mordecai was thus registered in the public annals as the author of this service done to the crown: the circumstance of his name being so recorded became afterward the occasion of his advancement, and of great events treated of in the sequel of this book. Pyle. 1 : 1 Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus, (this is Ahasuerus which reigned, from India even unto Ethiopia, over an hundred and seven and twenty provinces :) that in those days, when the king Ahasuerus sat on the throne of his kingdom, which was in Shushan the palace, in the third year of his reign, he made a feast unto all his princes and his servants ; the power of Persia and Media, the nobles and princes of the provinces, being before him : when he shewed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the honour of his excellent majesty many days, even an hundred and fourseore days. And when these days were fulfilled, the king made a feast unto all the people that were present in Shushan the palace, both great and small, seven days, in the court of the garden of the king's palace ; there were hangings of white cloth, of green, and of blue, fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble : the couches were of gold and silver, upon a pavement of red, and white, and yellow, and black marble. And they gave them drink in vessels of gold, (the vessels being diverse one from another,) and royal wine in abundance, according to the bounty of the king. And the drinking was according to the law ; none could compel : for so the king had appointed to all the officers of his house, that they should do according to every man's pleasure. Also Vashti the queen made a feast for the women in the royal house which belonged to king Ahasuerus. On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, and Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcas, the seven chamberlains that ministered in the presence of Ahasuerus the king, to bring Vashti the queen before the king with the crown royal, to shew the peoples and the princes her beauty : for she was fair to look on. But the queen Vashti refused to come at the king's commandment by the chamberlains : therefore was the king very wroth, and his anger burned in him. Then the king said to the wise men, which knew the times, (for so was the king's manner toward all that knew law and judgement ; and the next unto him was Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucan, the seven princes of Persia and Media, which saw the king's face, and sat first in the kingdom :) What shall we do unto the queen Vashti according to law, because she hath not done the bidding of the king Ahasuerus by the chamberlains ? And Memucan answered before the king and the princes, Vashti the queen hath not done wrong to the king only, but also to all the princes, and to all the peoples that are in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus. For this deed of the queen shall come abroad unto all women, to make their husbands contemptible in their eyes, when it shall be reported, The king Ahasuerus commanded Vashti the queen to be brought in before him, but she came not. And this day shall the princesses of Persia and Media which have heard of the deed of the queen say the like unto all the king's princes. So shall there arise much contempt and wrath. If it please the king, let there go forth a royal commandment from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes, that it be not altered, that Vashti come no more before king Ahasuerus ; and let the king give her royal estate unto another that is better than she. And when the king's decree which he shall make shall be published throughout all his kingdom, (for it is great,) all the wives shall give to their husbands honour, both to great and small. And the saying pleased the king and the princes ; and the king did according to the word of Memucan : for he sent letters into all the king's provinces, into every province according to the writing thereof, and to every people after their language, that every man should bear rule in his own house, and should publish it according to the language of his people. 2 : 1 After these things, when the wrath of king Ahasuerus was pacified, he remembered Vashti, and what she had done, and what was decreed against her. Then said the king's servants that ministered unto him, Let there be fair young virgins sought for the king : and let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom, that they may gather together all the fair young virgins unto Shushan the palace, to the house of the women, unto the custody of Hegai the king's chamberlain, keeper of the women; and let their things for purification be given them: and let the maiden which pleaseth the king be queen instead of Vashti. And the thing pleased the king; and he did so. There was a certain Jew in Shushan the palace, whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite; who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captives which had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away. And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle's daughter: for she had neither father nor mother, and the maiden was fair and beautiful; and when her father and mother were dead, Mordecai took her for his own daughter. So it came to pass, when the king's commandment and his decree was heard, and when many maidens were gathered together unto Shushan the palace, to the custody of Hegai, that Esther was taken into the king's house, to the custody of Hegai, keeper of the women. And the maiden pleased him, and she obtained kindness of him; and he speedily gave her her things for purification, with her portions, and the seven maidens, which were meet to be given her, out of the king's house: and he removed her and her maidens to the best place of the house of the women. Esther had not shewed her people nor her kindred: for Mordecai had charged her that she should not shew it. And Mordecai walked every day before the court of the women's house, to know how Esther did, and what should become of her. Now when the turn of every maiden was come to go in to king Ahasuerus, after that it had been done to her according to the law for the women, twelve months, (for so were the days of their purifications accomplished, to wit, six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet odours, and with the things for the purifying of the women,) then in this wise came the maiden unto the king, whatsoever she desired was given her to go with her out of the house of the women unto the king's house. In the evening she went, and on the morrow she returned into the second house of the women, to the custody of Shaashgaz, the king's chamberlain, which kept the concubines: she came in unto the king no more, except the king delighted in her, and that she were called by name. Now when the turn of Esther, the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her for his daughter, was come to go in unto the king, she required nothing but what Hegai the king's chamberlain, the keeper of the women, appointed. And Esther obtained favour in the sight of all them that looked upon her. So Esther was taken unto king Ahasuerus into his house royal in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign. And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained grace and favour in his sight more than all the virgins; so that he set the royal crown upon her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti. Then the king made a great feast unto all his princes and his servants, even Esther's feast; and he made a release to the provinces, and gave gifts, according to the bounty of the king. And when the virgins were gathered together the second time, then Mordecai sat in the king's gate. Esther had not yet shewed her kindred nor her people; as Mordecai had charged her: for Esther did the commandment of Mordecai, like as when she was brought up with him. In those days, while Mordecai sat in the king's gate, two of the king's chamberlains, Bigthan and Teresh, of those which kept the door, were wroth, and sought to lay hands on the king Ahasuerus. And the thing was known to Mordecai, who shewed it unto Esther the queen; and Esther told the king thereof in Mordecai's name. And when inquisition was made of the matter, and it was found to be so, they were both hanged on a tree: and it was written in the book of the chronicles before the king. 1:1-9. The great feast at Susa. King Ahasuerus (Xerxes) in the third year of his reign, which was n.c. 484-483, entertained at a great feast in the royal palace of Susa all his princes and his servants, "the power of Persia and Media," together with all the nobles and princes of the provinces (verses 2, 3). The hospitality was extended over a space of one hundred and eighty days (verse 4). At the end of this time there was a further entertainment for seven days, on even a more profuse scale, all the male inhabitants of Susa being feasted in the palace gardens (verses 5-8), while the queen received the women and made them a feast in her own private apartments. The special occasion of the entertainment seems to have been the summons to Susa of all the chief men of the kingdom, and particularly of the satraps, or "princes of provinces," to advise upon the projected expedition against Greece, which Herodotus mentions in his seventh book. Banquets on an enormous scale were not uncommon in Persia; and the profuseness and vainglory of Xerxes would naturally lead him to go to an extreme in this, as in other matters. P. C. 1. This is Ahasuerus. The writer assumes that more than one Ahasuerus is known to his readers, and seeks to make it clear to them which Ahasuerus he is speaking of. First, he notes that the subject of his narrative is a real king, and, therefore, not the Ahasuerus of Daniel (9:1); secondly, that he ruled "from India to Ethiopia," and, therefore, belonged to the later portion of the Persian series, since it was well known that the earlier Persian monarchs were not masters of India. He thus sets aside the Ahasuerus of Ezra 4:6 (Cambyses), and points with sufficient clearness to Xerxes, the son of Darius Hystaspes. From India even unto Ethiopia. The empire of Xerxes is rightly described as lying between these extremes; for though Ethiopia was not regarded as a "province," and is, therefore, absent alike from the Greek and the native lists, yet it paid a tribute (Herod. iii. 97), and, therefore, owned a certain degree of subjection. B. C. The name Xerxes is simply a less correct variant of the name Ahasuerus; and Esther's husband was no other than the Xerxes whose exploits are so familiar to all students of Greek history. The Bible story fits at every point all that we know concerning this Xerxes, and does not fit the reign of any other Persian king. W. J. B.—Any later king is out of the question. Being thus brought back to Xerxes, whose name is the Greek form of Ahasuerus, it only remains to compare the dates of the Book of Esther with the history of his reign, the leading events of which are, his accession in B.C. 486 (December 23d), his expedition to Greece in his sixth year, B.C. 480, and his death at the end of his twenty-first year, B.C. 465 (December 17th). Now the great feast of Ahasuerus, at which Vashti refused to appear, was in the third year of his reign, B.C. 483, the very year in which Xerxes held a great assembly to arrange the Grecian war, and his marriage with Esther was in his seventh year, B.C. 479, the year after the expedition to Greece, when Xerxes might naturally seek in his harem some consolation for his repulse. But Amestris, who was the daughter of Otanes, the uncle of Xerxes, had been his wife long before the expedition to Greece, in which her sons were old enough to accompany him, and the eldest of them, Darius, married at the very time of his father's marriage to Esther. For all these reasons Esther cannot be Amestris; and, considering the polygamy of the Persian kings, it is not surprising that Herodotus should mention only two of the wives of Xerxes, and the Book of Esther two others. The affairs of Xerxes after his flight from Greece are only noticed by the Greek historians as they affect the Hellenic race. P. S.—The synchronisms, remarked by Eichhorn, strongly confirm this view. In the third year of his reign, Ahasuerus summons a divan of all the great officers of the kingdom at Susa, whom he entertains and banquets one hundred and eighty days. In his third year, Xerxes, at a great assembly, deliberates and takes measures for the subjugation of Greece. In his seventh year (B.C. 479) Ahasuerus marries Esther. In his seventh year Xerxes returns, discomfited, to Susa, and abandons himself to the pleasures of his harem. The imbecile facility with which Xerxes, according to Herodotus, first gave up to his seductive mistress, Artaynta, a splendid robe, the present of his queen; and then, having made a rash promise at a banquet, yielded up the wife of his brother Masistes (the mother of his mistress) to the barbarous vengeance of his queen; so precisely resembles the conduct of Ahasuerus, that it is impossible not to suspect we are reading of the same person in the Grecian and Hebrew annalist. Milman. 3. Shushan. The great Persian, or, rather, Elamitic, city of Susa—"Shushan" in the Hebrew—was a city of a high antiquity, which for many centuries had been the capital of an important state, and had held a position little inferior to that of Nineveh or Babylon. It was situated between the Choaspes and Euleus rivers, in a fertile plain, within sight of the Bakhtiyari Mountains, about eighty miles east of the Tigris. The tract about it was clothed for a great part of the year with an abundant vegetation. In Susiana, "after the winter rains, which last from December till March, the entire surface of the ground puts on a livery of green, diversified with numerous brilliant flowers, and a rich pasturage is everywhere afforded to the flocks and herds of the inhabitants. The heat, though considerable, is not oppressive. In the distance can be seen the snow-clad range of the Bakhtiyari Mountains, rising to an elevation of from eight thousand to ten thousand feet above the level of the sea, in a continuous undulating line void of peaks or of any prominent features, while the breeze which blows from them is almost always cool and refreshing." Susa was a city of a considerable size. Its ruins at the present day consist of "four spacious artificial platforms, distinctly separated from each other." The most elevated of these is toward the west, and is washed by the Shapur. It attains a height of one hundred and nineteen feet above the river, and is believed to represent the ancient acropolis or citadel. To the north of this is a square mass of ruins, about a thousand feet each way, which was certainly the site of the royal palace in Persian times. Southeast of these two mounds, and much exceeding in size both of them put together, is the third or "great central platform," which attains an elevation of about seventy feet, and covers an area of sixty acres. These three together formed the Upper City, and appear to have been known as Shushan-ha-birah, "Susa the fortress," or "Susa the palace." Further eastward, and at a lower level, are various irregular groups of ruins, and one extensive platform of comparatively slight elevation, which constituted the Lower town, and was inhabited probably by the poorer classes of the population. There are considerable remains, even at the present day, of the ancient Persian palace. Its main feature was a great pillared hall, closely resembling, both in dimensions and ornamentation, the famous "Hall of Xerxes" at Persepolis, whereof it was perhaps the model. A central phalanx of thirty-six columns, arranged in six rows of six each, supported probably a solid roof, and formed a "throne room" or "hall of audience," two hundred feet each way, "the largest interior of the ancient world, with the single exception of the great hall of Karnak, which covered 58,300 square feet, while this only extended to 40,000." G. R. 3. In the third year of his reign he made a feast. In this year (n.c. 483) Xerxes, according to Herodotus, assembled the governors of provinces at Susa, in connection with his contemplated expedition against Greece. Councils were held, speeches were made, and at last formal orders were issued to the satraps to prepare their several contingents. The governors would be guests at his table during their stay. Persia and Media.** The position of Media, as second only to Persia under the Achaemenian princes, is clearly apparent both in the native monuments and in the accounts of the Greeks. Medes held many of the highest offices both under Darius and under Xerxes. B. C. The feast made in his third year synchronizes with the great assembly which Herodotus says Xerxes held to consider his plans for conquering Greece. As long as Xerxes was busy and self-conscious with that greatest military expedition of history, he probably did not miss Vashti very much. But three years later, after his defeat at Salamis, in September of his sixth year, and his sudden return home without any millions of soldiers following him, he was less self-sufficient, and "remembered Vashti." He consoled himself for the disasters that had befallen him by his magnificent plans for securing a new queen. W. J. B. The Persian court under the later Achaemenian monarchs was organized on a scale of extraordinary splendor and magnificence. Cyrus and Cambyses had been comparatively simple in their habits; even Darius, the son of Hystaspes, had not launched out into much extravagance; but from the time of Xerxes, the son of this Darius, to the close of the empire, a profusion and prodigality prevailed scarcely equalled either before or since in any other Oriental monarchy. The centre and culminating point of the magnificence was, of course, the person of the king. Glorious in his apparel, clothed in robes of richest silk, purple or crimson in hue, and adorned with embroidery in gold, wearing the kidaris, or tall, stiff cap, encircled with the diadem—a fillet or band, blue, spotted with white—the great king was the cynosure of all eyes, the centre of attraction, the principal luminary around which all the minor lights of the court revolved. We are shown him in the Persepolitan sculptures seated upon his throne, with his feet resting upon a footstool, and with his sceptre in his right hand, receiving those who prostrate themselves before him, or again advancing in procession, followed by the parasol-bearer and other attendants, passing through the royal apartments on his way to the throne room or the banquet chamber. Other officers of the court were the steward of the household; the groom or master of the horse; the chief eunuch or keeper of the women; the king's "eyes" and "ears," or persons whose business it was to keep him informed on all matters of importance; his scribes, or secretaries, who wrote his letters and his edicts; his messengers, who went his errands; his "ushers," who introduced strangers to him; his "tasters," who tried the various dishes set before him, lest they should be poisoned; his cupbearers, who handed him his wine and tasted it; his chamberlains, who assisted him to bed; and his musicians, who entertained him with singing and instruments of music. Besides these the court comprised, among its inferior officers, various classes of guards, and also doorkeepers, huntsmen, grooms, cooks, and other domestic servants in great abundance, together with a vast multitude of visitors and guests—prices, nobles, captives of high rank, foreign refugees, ambassadors, travellers. We are assured that the Persian king fed daily within the precincts of his palace as many as fifteen thousand persons. G. R. 4. For six months Xerxes kept “open house,” and, with the ostentation which was one of his chief characteristics, displayed his wealth and luxury in prodigal hospitality to thousands of the officers of government, who doubtless came and went as they had occasion. Alcott. The feast of Ahasuerus was a wonderful scene. There is nothing morally great about it. There never can be about mere feasting, and splendor, and eating and drinking, and outward show. Neither, so far as we can see, is there anything morally wrong in this, at least when kept in due moderation. It was kept in moderation in this instance. There is the most prodigal abundance, and yet there is a royal wisdom in the dispensation of it. For we read that “the drinking was according to the law,” and that law means “no compulsion.” If we embody the principle of moderation in our life, and walk by faith, and not by sight, then, and only then, we surmount the poor pageant in which outwardly we are moving figures; then, and only then, we cast anchor within the veil, and lay up treasure where it can never be lost. Raleigh. 5. An especial closing banquet is now given to all the men who are dwelling or visiting in the royal town. Literally it is a drinking, the word being the same as in 1:3. 7. The remaining expression describes the free abundance of this costly drink, as worthy of so rich and magnificent a king. “With a liberal hand,” or “in right royal fashion,” would be a correct interpretation. Alcott. 10-22. The disgrace of Vashti. On the seventh day of the feast “to all in Shushan” (verse 5), the king having excited himself with drink, sent a message to Vashti, requiring her to make her appearance in the banquet of the men, since he desired to exhibit her beauty to the assembled guests, as “she was fair to look on” (verse 11). Such a proceeding was a gross breach of Persian etiquette, and a cruel outrage upon one whom he above all men was bound to protect. Vashti, therefore, declined to obey (verse 12). Preferring the risk of death to dishonor, she braved the anger of her despotic lord, and sent him back a message by his chamberlains that she would not come. To an absolute monarch such a rebuff, in the face of his whole court and of some hundreds or thousands of assembled guests, must have been exasperating in the extreme. “Therefore was the king very wroth, and his anger burned in him.” But he so far restrained himself as to refer the matter to the judgment of others, and ask the “seven princes” the question, “What is to be done according to law unto Queen Vashti, for not performing the commandment of the king?” (verse 15.) The advice of the princes, uttered by one of their body (verses 16-20), and assented to by the remainder (verse 21), was, that Vashti should be degraded from the position of queen, and her place given to another. This sentence was supported by specious arguments based upon expediency, and ignoring entirely the outrageous character of the king’s command, which was of course the real, and sole, justification of Vashti’s disobedience. It was treated as a simple question of the wife’s duty to obey her husband, and the husband’s right to enforce submission. Ahasuerus, as might be expected, received the decision of his obsequious counsellors with great satisfaction, and forthwith sent letters into all the provinces of his vast empire, announcing what had been done, and requiring wives everywhere to submit themselves unreservedly to the absolute rule of their lord (verse 22). P. C. 14. The seven princes which saw the king’s face. According to Herodotus, there were seven families of the first rank in Persia, from which alone the king could take his wives. Their chiefs were entitled to have free access to the monarch’s person. The Behistun inscription, which gives Darius six coadjutors in his conspiracy, confirms the Greek writer. B. C. 16. And Memucan answered. We gather from Memucan’s reply that the Persian law had provided no penalty for the case in hand. He first argues the matter on general grounds of morality (verse 16) and expediency (verses 17, 18), and then proposes the enactment of a new law—a privilegium—assigning Vashti a special punishment for her contempt of the king’s order. The “decree” (verse 20) would not have been necessary had there already existed a law on the point. Memucan throws himself wholly on the king’s side—insinuates no word of blame against his royal master, on whom in justice the whole blame rested; but sets himself to make the worst he can of Vashti’s conduct. P. C.—Memucan’s words are shrewd, bespeaking one wise in human nature, and in the peculiar variety thereof found in an Oriental despot. He first artfully exaggerates the offence of the queen into an evil which it was for the interest of every husband in the empire to have at once checked. He then suggests a decree which would have this effect, and finally describes the beneficial results to be expected from its enactment. 18-19. Persia is placed before Media because it had now assumed the precedence; while in Daniel the order of the names is adapted to the Median viceroy then upon the throne. Alcott. 20. The idea here is that the women will come to regard their husbands as peculiarly valuable and rather precarious possessions, against the alienation of which they need to guard with peculiar care. W. J. B. 22. Besides publishing the decree, Ahasuerus sent letters prescribing certain things—viz.: 1. That every man should bear rule in his own house. 2. That every man should speak his own language in his family, and not that of his wife if it were different. This is the plain meaning of the existing text. P. C. That every man should bear rule in his own house. This decree has been called “absurd” and “quite unnecessary in Persia.” But it may be questioned whether the decree was unnecessary. The undue influence of women in domestic, and even in public, matters is a feature of the ancient Persian monarchy. Herodotus tells us that Atossa “completely ruled” Darius. Xerxes himself was, in his later years, shamefully subject to Amestris. The example of the court would naturally infect the people. The decree therefore would seem to have been not so much an idle and superfluous act as an ineffectual protest against a real and growing evil. Chap. 2:1. After these things. The events here related (verses 1-11) must belong to the time between the great assembly held at Susa in Xerxes’ third year, B.C. 483, and the departure of the monarch on his expedition against Greece in his fifth year, B.C. 481. It is impossible to fix their date more exactly. B. C. 5,6. One of God’s chosen people now comes upon the scene—a man, a Jew—as we should say, “a certain Jew.” The name Mordecai is probably connected with Marduk or Merodach, the Assyrian god. “It may have been given to his son by a Babylonian Jew without thought of heathen derivation and meaning, or out of compliment to some Babylonian friend or master.” 7. Uncle.** An uncle on the father’s side, literally, a friend. Esther’s father, Abihail (verse 15), and Mordecai’s father, Jair, were brothers. Esther was probably twenty years old, and Mordecai could not have been less than thirty or forty, since it appears that he adopted his cousin when she was young. Alcott. 11. Mordecai walked every day before the court of the women’s house.** Mordecai occupied, apparently, a humble place in the royal household. He was probably one of the porters or doorkeepers at the main entrance to the palace. This position separated him from his adopted daughter, and some effort was needed to keep up communication with her. B. C. 15. It was the mark of unusual wisdom and self-restraint, if not of even nobler qualities, that Esther in this supreme hour manifested no self-will concerning her adornments, but left it to those whose judgment was better than her own. Alcott. 16. Four years after the disgrace of Vashti, probably in January, B.C. 479. Xerxes had recently returned from the Grecian expedition defeated and disgraced. He was glad to dismiss warlike matters from his thoughts, and to console himself for his failure by the pleasures of the seraglio. 19-23. Mordecai’s discovery of a plot against Ahasuerus’ life. Some time after Esther had been made queen, there was a second collection of virgins at Susa (verse 19), under circumstances which are not related, and which were probably of small importance. At this time (verse 21) Mordecai, still serving in his humble office at the palace gate, from which he had not been advanced since Esther had told no one that he was her relation (verse 20), happened to detect a conspiracy against the king’s life which had been formed by two of the palace eunuchs, Bigthan and Teresh, whom Ahasuerus had somehow offended (verse 21). Being still in the habit of holding communication with Esther, Mordecai was able to make her acquainted with the facts, of which she then informed the king, telling him how she had obtained her knowledge (verse 22). There was nothing surprising or suspicious in a eunuch of the palace having had speech with the queen, especially when he had intelligence of such importance to impart to her. On inquiry, the king found that Mordecai’s information was correct; the conspiracy was laid bare, and the conspirators put to death (verse 23)—the facts being, as was sure to be the case, entered in the court chronicle, a daily record of the life of the court and of the circumstances that befell the king. It was to have been expected that Mordecai would have been rewarded for his zeal; but somehow or other it happened that his services were overlooked—he was neither promoted from his humble office, nor did he receive any gift (chap. 6:3). This was quite contrary to ordinary Persian practice. P. C. 21. Sought to lay hand on the king.** Conspiracies inside the palace were ordinary occurrences in Persia. Xerxes was ultimately murdered by Artabanus, the captain of the guard, and Aspamitras, a chamberlain and eunuch. B. C. 19. Gate of the king.** The gate of an Oriental palace is not a mere entrance, but is ordinarily flanked at least by recesses for guards, sometimes by towers containing rooms below and overhead. It was often a place for holding courts, and even for royal audience. Hence Sublime Porte (gate), which originally meant the chief entrance of the Sultan's palace, has come to denote the government of the Turkish Empire. Alcott. 20. Esther's silence accounts for Mordecai's low estate; Mordecai's command (see verse 10) accounts for Esther's silence. The royal dignity did not change Esther's heart. She was still the dutiful child she had been so many years. Mordecai had forbidden her to tell her kindred; he had not removed his prohibition, so she had kept silence. P. C.—That mind is truly great and noble that is not changed with the highest prosperity; and such was the disposition of Queen Esther, whom even the splendor of royalty could not induce to disregard her kinsman and friend, or to depart from a dutiful observance of his directions. 21-23. Mordecai overhears the whispering of these wicked conspirators, and reveals it to Esther. She, as glad of such an opportunity to commend unto Ahasuerus the loyalty of him whom she durst but secretly honor, reveals it to the king. The circumstances are examined; the plot is discovered; the traitors executed; the service recorded in the Persian annals. Bp. H. Mordecai sets before us the example of a faithful subject, in counteracting the treasonable designs of these men; he showed this loyalty toward a heathen sovereign and one under whom he lived as a captive, true religion and loyalty being inseparable; and herein he exemplified the injunction of the Lord by the prophet Jeremiah, "Seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives" (Jer. 29:7). Mordecai discreetly communicated his discovery not to indifferent persons, but to the queen: Esther, in laying it before the king, dutifully remembered Mordecai, and commended him to the royal favor by mentioning him as the author of her information. Bp. Andrews. 23. It was written in the book of the chronicles before the king.** Mordecai was thus registered in the public annals as the author of this service done to the crown: the circumstance of his name being so recorded became afterward the occasion of his advancement, and of great events treated of in the sequel of this book. Pyle. 3:1 AFTER these things did king Ahasuerus promote Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all the princes that were with him. And all the king's servants, that were in the king's gate, bowed down, and did reverence to Haman: for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai bowed not down, nor did him reverence. Then the king's servants, that were in the king's gate, said unto Mordecai, Why transgressest thou the king's commandment? Now it came to pass, when they spake daily unto him, and he hearkened not unto them, that they told Haman, to see whether Mordecai's matters would stand: for he had told them that he was a Jew. And when Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not down, nor did him reverence, then was Haman full of wrath. But he thought scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone; for they had shewed him the people of Mordecai: wherefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews that were 7 throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even the people of Mordecai. In the first month, which is the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of king Ahasuerus, they cast Pur, that is, the lot, before Haman from day to day, and from month to month, to the twelfth 8 month, which is the month Adar. And Haman said unto king Ahasuerus, There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of thy kingdom; and their laws are diverse from those of every people; neither keep they 9 the king's laws: therefore it is not for the king's profit to suffer them. If it please the king, let it be written that they be destroyed: and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those that have the charge of the king's business, to bring it into the king's 10 treasuries. And the king took his ring from his hand, and gave it unto Haman the son of 11 Hammedatha the Agagite, the Jews' enemy. And the king said unto Haman, The silver is 12 given to thee, the people also, to do with them as it seemeth good to thee. Then were the king's scribes called in the first month, on the thirteenth day thereof, and there was written according to all that Haman commanded unto the king's satraps, and to the governors that were over every province, and to the princes of every people; to every province according to the writing thereof, and to every people after their language; in the name of king 13 Ahasuerus was it written, and it was sealed with the king's ring. And letters were sent by posts into all the king's provinces, to destroy, to slay, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even upon the thirteenth day of 14 the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to take the spoil of them for a prey. A copy of the writing, that the decree should be given out in every province, was published 15 unto all the peoples, that they should be ready against that day. The posts went forth in haste by the king's commandment, and the decree was given out in Shushan the palace: and the king and Haman sat down to drink; but the city of Shushan was perplexed. 4:1 Now when Mordecai knew all that was done, Mordecai rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and cried with a loud and a bit- 2 ter cry: and he came even before the king's gate: for none might enter within the king's 3 gate clothed with sackcloth. And in every province, whithersoever the king's command- ment and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and 4 weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes. And Esther's maidens and her chamberlains came and told it her; and the queen was exceedingly grieved: and she sent raiment to clothe Mordecai, and to take his sackcloth from off him: but he received it 5 not. Then called Esther for Hathach, one of the king's chamberlains, whom he had ap- pointed to attend upon her, and charged him to go to Mordecai, to know what this was, and 6 why it was. So Hathach went forth to Mordecai unto the broad place of the city, which was 7 before the king's gate. And Mordecai told him of all that had happened unto him, and the exact sum of the money that Haman had promised to pay to the king's treasuries for the 8 Jews, to destroy them. Also he gave him the copy of the writing of the decree that was given out in Shushan to destroy them, to shew it unto Esther, and to declare it unto her; and to charge her that she should go in unto the king, to make supplication unto him, and 9 to make request before him, for her people. And Hathach came and told Esther the words 10 of Mordecai. Then Esther spake unto Hathach, and gave him a message unto Mordecai, 11 saying: All the king's servants, and the people of the king's provinces, do know, that whosoever, whether man or woman, shall come unto the king into the inner court, who is not called, there is one law for him, that he be put to death, except such to whom the king shall hold out the golden sceptre, that he may live: but I have not been called to come in 12, 13 unto the king these thirty days. And they told to Mordecai Esther's words. Then Mor- decai bade them return answer unto Esther, Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in 14 the king's house, more than all the Jews. For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall relief and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place, but thou and thy father's house shall perish: and who knoweth whether thou art not come to the kingdom 15, 16 for such a time as this? Then Esther bade them return answer unto Mordecai, Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast in like manner; and so will 17 I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish. So Mor- decai went his way, and did according to all that Esther had commanded him. 3:1-6. Mordecai, by want of respect, offends Haman, Ahasuerus's chief minister. Haman, in revenge, resolves to destroy the entire nation of the Jews. A break, probably of some years, separates chap. 2 from chap. 3. In the interval a new and important event has occurred—a new character has made appearance upon the scene. Haman, the son of Hammedatha, an Agagite (whatever that may mean), has risen high in the favor of Ahasuerus, and been assigned by him the second place in the kingdom. He has in fact become "grand vizier," or chief minister. In the East men are so servile that a new favorite commonly receives the profoundest homage and reverence from all classes, and royal orders to bow down to such an one are superfluous. But on the occasion of Haman's elevation, for some reason that is not stated, a special command to bow down before him was issued by Ahasuerus (verse 2). All obeyed as a matter of course, excepting one man. This was Mordecai the Jew. He would not do as his fellows did, not even when they remonstrated with him and taxed him with disobedience to the royal order (verse 3). In the course of their remonstrances—probably in order to account for his reluctance—Mordecai stated himself to be a Jew (verse 4). It would seem to have been after this that Haman's attention was first called by the other porters to Mordecai's want of respect. Haman was violently enraged (verse 5); but instead of taking proceedings against the individual, he resolved to have the Jews exterminated (verse 6). P. C. These events are dated in the twelfth year of his reign, at some time between the thirteenth day of the first month and the twenty-third day of the third month (Esth. 3:12; 8:9); probably nearer the latter date. This was 474 B.C., forty-two years after the dedication of Zerubbabel's temple, and sixteen years before Ezra went to Jerusalem. W. J. B. 2. Mordecai bowed not.** It is most likely that Mordecai regarded the required prostration, usual though it was, as trenching on the reverence due to the Supreme Being, and refused on religious grounds. Hence his opposition led on to his confession that he was a Jew (verse 4). B. C.—And this trivial circumstance, this slight to the pride of the haughty noble, led to all that follows in the story. Though occupying the highest place to which a subject could aspire, treated by the monarch's order with well-nigh the reverence due unto himself, Haman was yet sorely angered because one of the multitude beneath him dared to refuse personal homage. B. 6. Haman sought to destroy all the Jews.** In the West such an idea as this would never have occurred to a revengeful man; but in the East it is different. There massacres of a people, a race, a class, have at all times been among the incidents of history, and would naturally present themselves to the mind of a statesman. The Magophonia, or the great massacre of the Magi at the accession of Darius Hystaspes, was an event not fifty years old in the twelfth year of Xerxes, and was commemorated annually. A massacre of the Scythians had occurred about a century previously (Herod. i. 106). B. C.—Haman scorns to take up with the blood of Mordecai. This were but a vulgar amends. It is a Jew that hath despised him; all the whole nation of the Jews shall perish for the scorn of this one. The monarchy of the world was now in the hand of the Persian. As Judea was within this compass, so there was scarce a Jew upon earth without the verge of the Persian dominions. The generation, the name, shall now die at once. Neither shall there be any memory of them but this: "There was a people, which, having been famous through the world for three thousand four hundred and fourscore years, were in a moment extinct, by the power of Haman, for default of a courtesy." Bp. H. 7. Haman casts lots to obtain a lucky day for his enterprise, and obtains a day in the month Adar, the last month of the year.** Having determined on a general massacre of the Jews on a given day, Haman thought it of supreme importance to select a fortunate day. By recourse to "the lot" he obtained, as the right day for his purpose, the 13th of Adar, which was more than ten months distant. P. C. The practice of casting lots to obtain a lucky day obtains still in the East, and is probably extremely ancient. Assyrian calendars note lucky and unlucky days as early as the eighth century B.C. Lots were in use both among the Oriental and the classical nations from a remote antiquity. From day to day, and from month to month. A lot seems to have been cast, or a throw of some kind made, for each day of the month and each month of the year. The day and month which obtained the best throws were then selected. B. C.—By a comparison of dates we find that he had an interval of some eleven months previous to the day of massacre in which to prepare for the execution of his bloody purpose. We cannot suppose that so long a delay was agreeable to his vengeful disposition; but his superstitious mind did not venture to strike the blow previous to the arrival of the day supposed to have been designated by the gods which he worshipped. That the Divine hand, unknown to Haman, guided the lot, and arranged for the long interval in which the deliverance of the Jews might be wrought out, is certain. Haley. The lot was made to fix the time to the remotest possible period to be within the year, so that the execution was delayed for almost a complete year, affording time not only for the subversion of the plot at court, but for the arrival of the messengers who were despatched with the counteracting decree. That the name of God does not once occur here is a remarkable fact. But God Himself is there, though His name be absent. We trace Him at every step through this wonderful book, and everywhere behold the leadings of His providence. God not in the Book of Esther! If not there, where is He? To our view, His glory—the glory of His goodness, in caring for and shielding from harm His afflicted Church, shines through every page. Kitto. 8-15. Haman persuades Ahasuerus to publish a decree commanding the destruction of all the Jews in his kingdom on the ensuing thirteenth day of Adar. It remained for Haman to bring his proposal before Ahasuerus in such a shape as should secure his acquiescence in it. For this purpose he sought, first, to raise a prejudice against the Jews by representing them as bad subjects, causing trouble through the peculiarity of their own laws, and still more through their unwillingness to render obedience to the Persian laws (verse 8). He also appealed to the king's cupidity, which constituted his main reliance. If the king gave his consent to the destruction of the Jewish nation, Haman undertook to pay into the royal treasuries, out of his private means, a sum which cannot be estimated at much less than two millions and a quarter of pounds sterling, and which may have amounted to a much higher figure (verse 9). Ahasuerus at once took his signet-ring from his finger and made it over to his minister (verse 10), thus enabling him to promulgate any decree that he pleased, and he openly declared that he gave over the Jewish nation, their lives and properties, into Haman's hands (verse 11). The king's scribes were put in requisition—a decree was composed, numerous copies of it made, the royal seal affixed to each (verse 12), and a copy despatched forthwith to each governor of a province by the royal post, ordering the complete destruction of the Jews within his province, young and old, men, women, and children, on the thirteenth day of the month Adar, and the confiscation of their property (verse 13). The posts started off with all speed, "being hastened by the king's commandment" (verse 15); and the two men who had plotted a nation's extermination, as if they had done a good day's work, and deserved refreshment, "sat down to drink." But the Persians generally were less satisfied with the decree than their monarch and his minister; it surprised and startled them; "the city Shushan was perplexed." P. C. 8. "That they have laws of their own were not so unsufferable, if they did observe thine, O king; but these Jews, as they are unconformable, so they are seditious. They keep not the king's laws." Thou slanders, Haman. They could not keep their own laws if they kept not the king's; for their laws call them to obedience unto their sovereigns. In all those hundred and seven and twenty provinces, King Ahasuerus hath no subjects but them. They obey out of conscience; others, out of fear. Bp. H Haman says they were dispersed among all the provinces of the empire. This dispersion must have been in a great part voluntary, as they had the same liberty, both civil and religious, as the other nationalities of the empire. The predicted misery of their doom of expatriation had been hard to bear while the power of Babylon remained unbroken, but almost immediately afterward their status was essentially changed. The conquerors were naturally their deliverers and friends. Wherever the Medes and Persians found disaffection or hatred of the Babylonish power, there they found their allies and helpers, and were predisposed to favor them. The Jewish people have always shown a marked ability to make the best of the most adverse circumstances, and still more to turn to account every change that has been made in their favor. Street. 9. Now, when all these are laid together, the baseness and dispersedness of the people, the diversity of the laws, the irregularity of their government, the rebellion of their practice, the inconvenience of their toleration, the gain of their extirpation, what could the wit or art of man devise more insinuative, more likely to persuade? How could it be but Ahasuerus must needs think, since he could not suspect the ground of this suit, "What a zealous patriot have I raised, that can be content to buy off the incommodity of the state at his own charge! How worthy is he rather of the aid, both of my power and purse!" "The silver is given to thee, the people also, to do with them as seemeth good to thee." Bp. H. 10. The employment by the Persian monarchs of a signet, by which they authenticated decrees and other documents, is strongly marked in Esther, where the royal signet is mentioned no fewer than five times. The late researches in Mesopotamia, which have brought to light signets of several earlier monarchs, have yielded one such memorial of a Persian king. This is the signet cylinder of Darius Hystaspes. It represents the monarch as engaged in the chase of the lion amid a palm-grove, seated in a chariot, driven by an unarmed charioteer. On the left side of the pictorial representation is a bi-lingual inscription (Persian and Scythic) which tells us that the monarch represented is "Darius, the great king." Whether the signet of Ahasuerus which he took from Haman and gave to Mordecai (8:2) was a cylinder or a ring is perhaps doubtful; but, on the whole, probability is in favor of its having resembled the signet of Darius. G. R. 11. The silver is given thee, the people also.** Not "the silver which thou hast given me is given back to thee," for the ten thousand talents had not been given, but only offered. Rather, "the silver of the people is given thee, together with the people themselves, to do with both as it pleases thee." Confiscation always accompanies execution in the East, and the goods of those who are put to death naturally escheat to the crown, which either seizes them or makes a grant of them. Compare chap. 8:11, where the property of those of the Jews' enemies who should suffer death is granted to those who should slay them. P. C. The people also. It has been said to be "incredible" that any king should thus sacrifice a whole people to the offended dignity of a minister; but even De Wette allows that such an act is in keeping with the character of Xerxes, and, being told of him, is credible. In fact, it is on a par with many acts of Oriental despots. B. C. 12. The satrap, or supreme civil governor of each department, was "charged with the collection and transmission of the revenue, the administration of justice, the maintenance of order, and the general supervision of the territory." Each satrap was appointed by the king, and removable at pleasure, but while in office was despotic, as being the representative of the great king. Haley. 13. Xenophon says: "I find that Cyrus set on foot another contrivance beneficial to his vast empire, by means of which he gained early information of what was doing in remote parts of his dominions. He formed establishments of stables, horses, and attendants, as far distant from each other as a horse could travel with ease in one day; and at each of these stations he appointed a person to receive and transmit the letters brought by the messengers, and to see that the men and horses were taken care of after their journey, and that fresh ones were sent forward. Sometimes these journeys were not intermitted during the night; the messenger to whose turn it fell to travel at night proceeding as he who had travelled during the day." Parkhurst. The thirteenth day of the twelfth month. There are full eleven months betwixt the first sending forth of the bloody edict and the time of executing the same. Herein, on the one side, his folly is discovered; and, on the other side, God's wise providence is manifested. His folly in putting off the execution to so long a time; for he might have suspected that something or other might have intervened to hinder so cruel a design, which was so long made known before it was executed. God's wise providence was manifested in ordering a means to prevent that plot before the time of executing it. Ainsworth. The Jews at present keep three days—the 13th, the 14th, and the 15th of Adar—as connected with "the feast of Purim," but make the 13th a fast, commemorative of the fast of Esther (chap. 4:16), and keep the feast itself on the 14th and 15th. B. C. 15. Perplexed.** The Jews no doubt had shown themselves a quiet, industrious, well-disposed people. They had gained many friends. Besides, the extermination of a whole people by such arbitrary slaughter must have seemed, as it was in reality, a dangerous precedent. Who could tell what people or race would next fall under the king's ban? No wonder that the capital was "perplexed." And how terribly laconic the latter word! Chap. 4:1. Knew. The matter may have transpired through the publication of the edict; or possibly the king's scribes had mentioned it to other officials of the court, and so it had become known throughout the palace before the edict appeared. Haley. 11. Clearly Esther sees and calmly she tells Mordecai the tremendous risk which following his counsel would bring. Note that she does not refuse. She simply puts the case plainly, as if she invited further communication. "This is how things stand. Do you still wish me to run the risk?" That is poor courage which has to shut its eyes in order to keep itself up to the mark. Unfortunately, the temperament which clearly sees dangers and that which dares them are not often found together in due proportion, and so men are over-rash and over-cautious. This young queen with her clear eyes saw and with her brave heart was ready to face peril to her life. Unless we fully realize difficulties and dangers beforehand, our enthusiasm for great causes will ooze out at our fingers' ends at the first rule assault of these. So let us count the cost before we take up arms, and let us take up arms after we have counted the cost. Cautious courage, courageous caution, are good guides. Either alone is a bad one. 13,14. Mordecai's grand message is a condensed statement of the great reasons which always exist for self-sacrificing efforts for others' good. His words are none the less saturated with devout thought because they do not name God. This porter at the palace gate had not the tongue of a psalmist or of a prophet. He was a plain man, not uninfluenced by his pagan surroundings, and perhaps he was careful to adapt his message to the lips of the Gentile messenger, and therefore did not more definitely use the sacred name. It is very striking that Mordecai makes no attempt to minimize Esther's peril in doing as he wished. He knew that she would take her life in her hand, and he expects her to be willing to do it, as he would have been willing. It is grand when love exhorts loved ones to a course which may bring death to them, and lifelong loneliness and quenched hopes to it. Think of Mordecai's years of care over and pride in his fair young cousin, and how many joys and soaring visions would perish with her, and then estimate the heroic self-sacrifice he exercised in urging her to her course. His first appeal is on the lowest ground. Pure selfishness should send her to the king; for, if she did not go, she would not escape the common ruin. So, on the one hand, she had to face certain destruction; and, on the other, there were possible success and escape. The argument holds in reference to many forms of conflict with national and social evils. If Christian people allow vice and godlessness to riot unchecked, they will not escape the contagion in some form or other. How many good men's sons have been swept away by the immoralities of great cities! How few families there are in which there is not "one dead," the victim of drink and dissipation! How the godliness of the Church is cooled down by the low temperature around! At the very lowest, self-preservation tion should enlist all good men in a sacred war against the sins which are slaying their countrymen. Mordecai goes back to the same argument in the latter part of his answer, when he foretells the destruction of Esther and her father's house. There he puts it, however, in a rather different light. The destruction is not now, as before, her participation in the common tragedy, but her exceptional ruin while Israel is preserved. The unfaithful one, who could have intervened to save, and did not, will have a special infliction of punishment. That is true in many applications. Certainly, neglect to do what we can do for others does always bring some penalty on the slothful coward; and there is no more short-sighted policy than that which shirks plain duties of beneficence from regard to self. But higher considerations than selfish ones are appealed to. Mordecai is sure that deliverance will come. He does not know whence, but come it will. How did he arrive at that serene confidence? Certainly because he trusted God's ancient promises, and believed in the indestructibility of the nation which a Divine hand protected. How does such a confidence agree with fear of "destruction"? The two parts of Mordecai's message sound contradictory; but he might well dread the threatened catastrophe, and yet be sure that through any disaster Israel as a nation would pass, cast down, no doubt, but not destroyed. How did it agree with his earnestness in trying to secure Esther's help? If he were certain of the issue, why should he have troubled her or himself? Just for the same reason that the discernment of God's purposes and absolute reliance on these stimulates and does not paralyze devout activity in helping to carry them out. If we are sure that a given course, however full of peril and inconvenience, is in the line of God's purposes, that is a reason for strenuous effort to carry it out. Since some men are to be honored to be His instruments, shall not we be willing to offer ourselves? There is a holy and noble ambition which covets the dignity of being used by Him. They who believe that their work helps forward what is dear to God's heart may well do with their might what they find to do, and not be too careful to keep on the safe side in doing it. The honor is more than the danger. "Here am I; take me," should be the Christian feeling about all such work. The last argument in this noble summary of motives for self-sacrifice for others' good is the thought of God's purpose in giving Esther her position. It carries large truth applicable to us all. The source of all endowments of position, possessions, or capacities is God. His purpose in them all goes far beyond the happiness of the receiver. Dignities and gifts of every sort are ours for use in carrying out His great designs of good to our fellows. Esther was made queen, not that she might live in luxury and be the plaything of a king, but that she might serve Israel. Power is duty. Responsibility is measured by capacity. Obligation attends advantages. Gifts are burdens. All men are stewards, and God gives His servants their "talents," not for selfish squandering or hoarding, but to trade with, and to pay the profits to Him. This penetrating insight into the source and intention of all which we have carries a solemn lesson for us all. A. M. This is a day wherein great things are doing and grievous things are a suffering by many of our brethren; therefore you should be working this day. This is a day in which sons of Belial—men that will not have Christ's yoke—are combining to break it and cast His cord from them. Then join this day to help Christ, else, as Mordecai said to Esther, so I may say to you in reference to the present opportunity: if you altogether hold your peace, hold your purses and hold your hand at this time, enlargement will come to the Church some other way, but you may be destroyed who think to hold and keep your peace, either by saying or doing nothing; if ever you will appear, this is a day to appear in to do good. Let us be wise to manage and improve our day, so that it may never be said of us as our Lord did of Jerusalem, "If ye had known, even in this your day, the things which belong unto your peace!" Caryl. Mordecai encourages Esther to estimate her position and lofty calling. "Who knoweth whether thou art not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" God may have given thee the noble mission to save thy nation. He has invested thee with personal beauty; He has given thee the heart and the hand of Ahasuerus; He has made thy home a palace, and seated thee on a throne, not to gratify thy vanity and love of splendor; not for thy safety in the day of thy nation's peril, but as an angel of deliverance. Who knows but there is a proud destiny reserved for thee, to use thy elevation to lift up thy down trodden people? Brainerd.—As if he had said, "Consider the wonderful and gracious providence of God, in raising thee from among a despised people to be the consort of the greatest monarch upon earth." Think not but the Lord therein certainly intended that some great work should be accomplished by thy hand in favor of His afflicted Church. And now the hour is come for thee to make use of the advancement given thee by the Lord; and to try, by that power and interest which thou hast with the king, to reverse the decree of our adversary, and effect the deliverance of our whole nation. The argument used by Mordecai to Esther is one of general application and use—viz., that one great purpose for which men are intrusted by Providence with power or riches is that they may therewith do good, and succor those who require their assistance; that they may help those to right who suffer wrong, may stand by their poorer brethren in the day of calamity and distress. Bp. Sanderson. 16. Mordecai hath said enough. These words have so put a new life into Esther that she is resolute to hazard the old: "Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law; and if I perish, I perish." Heroical thoughts do well befit great actions. Life can never be better adventured than where it shall be gain to lose it. Bp. II. Fast ye for me. Fasting for another is fasting to obtain God's blessing on that other, and is naturally accompanied with earnest prayer to God for the person who is the object of the fast. Thus here again the thought of God underlies the narrative. P. C.—Here again the religious element shows itself. Esther's fast could have no object but to obtain God's favor and protection in the dangerous course on which she was about to enter. B. C. Esther had not overlooked the importance of a general union of her people in religious exercise. She called into vitality and determined activity the whole combined and sympathetic force of multitudes, who at her instance did for three days put away from themselves every other thought, care, hope, that they might be found "watching" as regards the crisis of this hour. What an interesting suggestion arises from the words (verse 17), "So Mordecai went his way, and did according to all that Esther had commanded him!" The tender ward has become the strong, firm, religious teacher of her guardian. P. C. The soul of Esther was worthy of a daughter of Abraham and of Mordecai. It rose with danger and difficulty. To save the life of her nation, she at once determined to go over the letter of a law, over the custom of her sex, and to hazard her own life that her nation might not die. Her bearing indicated deep piety as well as patriotism. Brainerd.—The fair young heroine's soul rose to the occasion, and responded with a swift determination to her older cousin's lofty words. Little as she says about her faith in God, it obviously underlay her courage. A soul that dares death in obedience to His will and in dependence on His aid demonstrates its godliness more forcibly in silence than by many professions. "If I perish, I perish." Think of the fair, soft lips set to utter that grand surrender, and of all the flowery and silken cords which bound the young heart to life so bright and desirable as was assured to her. Note the resolute calmness, the Spartan brevity, the clear sight of the possible fatal issue, the absolute submission. No higher strain has ever come from human lips. This womanly soul was of the same stock as a Miriam, a Deborah, Jephthah's daughter; and the same fire burned in her—utter devotion to Israel because entire consecration to Israel's God. Religion and patriotism were to her inseparable. What was her individual life compared with her people's weal and her God's will? She was ready without a murmur to lay her young, radiant life down. Such ecstasy of willing self-sacrifice raises its subject above all fears and dissolves all hindrances. It may be wrought out in uneventful details of our small lives, and may illuminate these as truly as it sheds imperishable lustre over the lovely figure standing in the palace court, and waiting for life or death at the will of a sensual tyrant. A. M. 3:1 AFTER these things did king Ahasuerus promote Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all the princes that were with him. And all the king's servants, that were in the king's gate, bowed down, and did reverence to Haman: for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai bowed not down, nor did him reverence. Then the king's servants, that were in the king's gate, said unto Mordecai, Why transgressest thou the king's commandment? Now it came to pass, when they spake daily unto him, and he hearkened not unto them, that they told Haman, to see whether Mordecai's matters would stand: for he had told them that he was a Jew. And when Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not down, nor did him reverence, then was Haman full of wrath. But he thought scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone; for they had shewed him the people of Mordecai: wherefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews that were 7 throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even the people of Mordecai. In the first month, which is the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of king Ahasuerus, they cast Pur, that is, the lot, before Haman from day to day, and from month to month, to the twelfth 8 month, which is the month Adar. And Haman said unto king Ahasuerus, There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of thy kingdom; and their laws are diverse from those of every people; neither keep they 9 the king's laws: therefore it is not for the king's profit to suffer them. If it please the king, let it be written that they be destroyed: and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those that have the charge of the king's business, to bring it into the king's 10 treasuries. And the king took his ring from his hand, and gave it unto Haman the son of 11 Hammedatha the Agagite, the Jews' enemy. And the king said unto Haman, The silver is 12 given to thee, the people also, to do with them as it seemeth good to thee. Then were the king's scribes called in the first month, on the thirteenth day thereof, and there was written according to all that Haman commanded unto the king's satraps, and to the governors that were over every province, and to the princes of every people; to every province according to the writing thereof, and to every people after their language; in the name of king 13 Ahasuerus was it written, and it was sealed with the king's ring. And letters were sent by posts into all the king's provinces, to destroy, to slay, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even upon the thirteenth day of 14 the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to take the spoil of them for a prey. A copy of the writing, that the decree should be given out in every province, was published 15 unto all the peoples, that they should be ready against that day. The posts went forth in haste by the king's commandment, and the decree was given out in Shushan the palace: and the king and Haman sat down to drink; but the city of Shushan was perplexed. 4:1 Now when Mordecai knew all that was done, Mordecai rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and cried with a loud and a bit- 2 ter cry: and he came even before the king's gate: for none might enter within the king's 3 gate clothed with sackcloth. And in every province, whithersoever the king's command- ment and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and 4 weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes. And Esther's maidens and her chamberlains came and told it her; and the queen was exceedingly grieved: and she sent raiment to clothe Mordecai, and to take his sackcloth from off him: but he received it 5 not. Then called Esther for Hathach, one of the king's chamberlains, whom he had ap- pointed to attend upon her, and charged him to go to Mordecai, to know what this was, and 6 why it was. So Hathach went forth to Mordecai unto the broad place of the city, which was 7 before the king's gate. And Mordecai told him of all that had happened unto him, and the exact sum of the money that Haman had promised to pay to the king's treasuries for the 8 Jews, to destroy them. Also he gave him the copy of the writing of the decree that was given out in Shushan to destroy them, to shew it unto Esther, and to declare it unto her; and to charge her that she should go in unto the king, to make supplication unto him, and 9 to make request before him, for her people. And Hathach came and told Esther the words 10 of Mordecai. Then Esther spake unto Hathach, and gave him a message unto Mordecai, 11 saying: All the king's servants, and the people of the king's provinces, do know, that whosoever, whether man or woman, shall come unto the king into the inner court, who is not called, there is one law for him, that he be put to death, except such to whom the king shall hold out the golden sceptre, that he may live: but I have not been called to come in 12, 13 unto the king these thirty days. And they told to Mordecai Esther's words. Then Mor- decai bade them return answer unto Esther, Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in 14 the king's house, more than all the Jews. For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall relief and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place, but thou and thy father's house shall perish: and who knoweth whether thou art not come to the kingdom 15, 16 for such a time as this? Then Esther bade them return answer unto Mordecai, Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast in like manner; and so will 17 I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish. So Mor- decai went his way, and did according to all that Esther had commanded him. 3:1-6. Mordecai, by want of respect, offends Haman, Ahasuerus's chief minister. Haman, in revenge, resolves to destroy the entire nation of the Jews. A break, probably of some years, separates chap. 2 from chap. 3. In the interval a new and important event has occurred—a new character has made appearance upon the scene. Haman, the son of Hammedatha, an Agagite (whatever that may mean), has risen high in the favor of Ahasuerus, and been assigned by him the second place in the kingdom. He has in fact become "grand vizier," or chief minister. In the East men are so servile that a new favorite commonly receives the profoundest homage and reverence from all classes, and royal orders to bow down to such an one are superfluous. But on the occasion of Haman's elevation, for some reason that is not stated, a special command to bow down before him was issued by Ahasuerus (verse 2). All obeyed as a matter of course, excepting one man. This was Mordecai the Jew. He would not do as his fellows did, not even when they remonstrated with him and taxed him with disobedience to the royal order (verse 3). In the course of their remonstrances—probably in order to account for his reluctance—Mordecai stated himself to be a Jew (verse 4). It would seem to have been after this that Haman's attention was first called by the other porters to Mordecai's want of respect. Haman was violently enraged (verse 5); but instead of taking proceedings against the individual, he resolved to have the Jews exterminated (verse 6). P. C. These events are dated in the twelfth year of his reign, at some time between the thirteenth day of the first month and the twenty-third day of the third month (Esth. 3:12; 8:9); probably nearer the latter date. This was 474 B.C., forty-two years after the dedication of Zerubbabel's temple, and sixteen years before Ezra went to Jerusalem. W. J. B. 2. Mordecai bowed not.** It is most likely that Mordecai regarded the required prostration, usual though it was, as trenching on the reverence due to the Supreme Being, and refused on religious grounds. Hence his opposition led on to his confession that he was a Jew (verse 4). B. C.—And this trivial circumstance, this slight to the pride of the haughty noble, led to all that follows in the story. Though occupying the highest place to which a subject could aspire, treated by the monarch's order with well-nigh the reverence due unto himself, Haman was yet sorely angered because one of the multitude beneath him dared to refuse personal homage. B. 6. Haman sought to destroy all the Jews.** In the West such an idea as this would never have occurred to a revengeful man; but in the East it is different. There massacres of a people, a race, a class, have at all times been among the incidents of history, and would naturally present themselves to the mind of a statesman. The Magophonia, or the great massacre of the Magi at the accession of Darius Hystaspes, was an event not fifty years old in the twelfth year of Xerxes, and was commemorated annually. A massacre of the Scythians had occurred about a century previously (Herod. i. 106). B. C.—Haman scorns to take up with the blood of Mordecai. This were but a vulgar amends. It is a Jew that hath despised him; all the whole nation of the Jews shall perish for the scorn of this one. The monarchy of the world was now in the hand of the Persian. As Judea was within this compass, so there was scarce a Jew upon earth without the verge of the Persian dominions. The generation, the name, shall now die at once. Neither shall there be any memory of them but this: "There was a people, which, having been famous through the world for three thousand four hundred and fourscore years, were in a moment extinct, by the power of Haman, for default of a courtesy." Bp. H. 7. Haman casts lots to obtain a lucky day for his enterprise, and obtains a day in the month Adar, the last month of the year.** Having determined on a general massacre of the Jews on a given day, Haman thought it of supreme importance to select a fortunate day. By recourse to "the lot" he obtained, as the right day for his purpose, the 13th of Adar, which was more than ten months distant. P. C. The practice of casting lots to obtain a lucky day obtains still in the East, and is probably extremely ancient. Assyrian calendars note lucky and unlucky days as early as the eighth century B.C. Lots were in use both among the Oriental and the classical nations from a remote antiquity. From day to day, and from month to month. A lot seems to have been cast, or a throw of some kind made, for each day of the month and each month of the year. The day and month which obtained the best throws were then selected. B. C.—By a comparison of dates we find that he had an interval of some eleven months previous to the day of massacre in which to prepare for the execution of his bloody purpose. We cannot suppose that so long a delay was agreeable to his vengeful disposition; but his superstitious mind did not venture to strike the blow previous to the arrival of the day supposed to have been designated by the gods which he worshipped. That the Divine hand, unknown to Haman, guided the lot, and arranged for the long interval in which the deliverance of the Jews might be wrought out, is certain. Haley. The lot was made to fix the time to the remotest possible period to be within the year, so that the execution was delayed for almost a complete year, affording time not only for the subversion of the plot at court, but for the arrival of the messengers who were despatched with the counteracting decree. That the name of God does not once occur here is a remarkable fact. But God Himself is there, though His name be absent. We trace Him at every step through this wonderful book, and everywhere behold the leadings of His providence. God not in the Book of Esther! If not there, where is He? To our view, His glory—the glory of His goodness, in caring for and shielding from harm His afflicted Church, shines through every page. Kitto. 8-15. Haman persuades Ahasuerus to publish a decree commanding the destruction of all the Jews in his kingdom on the ensuing thirteenth day of Adar. It remained for Haman to bring his proposal before Ahasuerus in such a shape as should secure his acquiescence in it. For this purpose he sought, first, to raise a prejudice against the Jews by representing them as bad subjects, causing trouble through the peculiarity of their own laws, and still more through their unwillingness to render obedience to the Persian laws (verse 8). He also appealed to the king's cupidity, which constituted his main reliance. If the king gave his consent to the destruction of the Jewish nation, Haman undertook to pay into the royal treasuries, out of his private means, a sum which cannot be estimated at much less than two millions and a quarter of pounds sterling, and which may have amounted to a much higher figure (verse 9). Ahasuerus at once took his signet-ring from his finger and made it over to his minister (verse 10), thus enabling him to promulgate any decree that he pleased, and he openly declared that he gave over the Jewish nation, their lives and properties, into Haman's hands (verse 11). The king's scribes were put in requisition—a decree was composed, numerous copies of it made, the royal seal affixed to each (verse 12), and a copy despatched forthwith to each governor of a province by the royal post, ordering the complete destruction of the Jews within his province, young and old, men, women, and children, on the thirteenth day of the month Adar, and the confiscation of their property (verse 13). The posts started off with all speed, "being hastened by the king's commandment" (verse 15); and the two men who had plotted a nation's extermination, as if they had done a good day's work, and deserved refreshment, "sat down to drink." But the Persians generally were less satisfied with the decree than their monarch and his minister; it surprised and startled them; "the city Shushan was perplexed." P. C. 8. "That they have laws of their own were not so unsufferable, if they did observe thine, O king; but these Jews, as they are unconformable, so they are seditious. They keep not the king's laws." Thou slanders, Haman. They could not keep their own laws if they kept not the king's; for their laws call them to obedience unto their sovereigns. In all those hundred and seven and twenty provinces, King Ahasuerus hath no subjects but them. They obey out of conscience; others, out of fear. Bp. H Haman says they were dispersed among all the provinces of the empire. This dispersion must have been in a great part voluntary, as they had the same liberty, both civil and religious, as the other nationalities of the empire. The predicted misery of their doom of expatriation had been hard to bear while the power of Babylon remained unbroken, but almost immediately afterward their status was essentially changed. The conquerors were naturally their deliverers and friends. Wherever the Medes and Persians found disaffection or hatred of the Babylonish power, there they found their allies and helpers, and were predisposed to favor them. The Jewish people have always shown a marked ability to make the best of the most adverse circumstances, and still more to turn to account every change that has been made in their favor. Street. 9. Now, when all these are laid together, the baseness and dispersedness of the people, the diversity of the laws, the irregularity of their government, the rebellion of their practice, the inconvenience of their toleration, the gain of their extirpation, what could the wit or art of man devise more insinuative, more likely to persuade? How could it be but Ahasuerus must needs think, since he could not suspect the ground of this suit, "What a zealous patriot have I raised, that can be content to buy off the incommodity of the state at his own charge! How worthy is he rather of the aid, both of my power and purse!" "The silver is given to thee, the people also, to do with them as seemeth good to thee." Bp. H. 10. The employment by the Persian monarchs of a signet, by which they authenticated decrees and other documents, is strongly marked in Esther, where the royal signet is mentioned no fewer than five times. The late researches in Mesopotamia, which have brought to light signets of several earlier monarchs, have yielded one such memorial of a Persian king. This is the signet cylinder of Darius Hystaspes. It represents the monarch as engaged in the chase of the lion amid a palm-grove, seated in a chariot, driven by an unarmed charioteer. On the left side of the pictorial representation is a bi-lingual inscription (Persian and Scythic) which tells us that the monarch represented is "Darius, the great king." Whether the signet of Ahasuerus which he took from Haman and gave to Mordecai (8:2) was a cylinder or a ring is perhaps doubtful; but, on the whole, probability is in favor of its having resembled the signet of Darius. G. R. 11. The silver is given thee, the people also.** Not "the silver which thou hast given me is given back to thee," for the ten thousand talents had not been given, but only offered. Rather, "the silver of the people is given thee, together with the people themselves, to do with both as it pleases thee." Confiscation always accompanies execution in the East, and the goods of those who are put to death naturally escheat to the crown, which either seizes them or makes a grant of them. Compare chap. 8:11, where the property of those of the Jews' enemies who should suffer death is granted to those who should slay them. P. C. The people also. It has been said to be "incredible" that any king should thus sacrifice a whole people to the offended dignity of a minister; but even De Wette allows that such an act is in keeping with the character of Xerxes, and, being told of him, is credible. In fact, it is on a par with many acts of Oriental despots. B. C. 12. The satrap, or supreme civil governor of each department, was "charged with the collection and transmission of the revenue, the administration of justice, the maintenance of order, and the general supervision of the territory." Each satrap was appointed by the king, and removable at pleasure, but while in office was despotic, as being the representative of the great king. Haley. 13. Xenophon says: "I find that Cyrus set on foot another contrivance beneficial to his vast empire, by means of which he gained early information of what was doing in remote parts of his dominions. He formed establishments of stables, horses, and attendants, as far distant from each other as a horse could travel with ease in one day; and at each of these stations he appointed a person to receive and transmit the letters brought by the messengers, and to see that the men and horses were taken care of after their journey, and that fresh ones were sent forward. Sometimes these journeys were not intermitted during the night; the messenger to whose turn it fell to travel at night proceeding as he who had travelled during the day." Parkhurst. The thirteenth day of the twelfth month. There are full eleven months betwixt the first sending forth of the bloody edict and the time of executing the same. Herein, on the one side, his folly is discovered; and, on the other side, God's wise providence is manifested. His folly in putting off the execution to so long a time; for he might have suspected that something or other might have intervened to hinder so cruel a design, which was so long made known before it was executed. God's wise providence was manifested in ordering a means to prevent that plot before the time of executing it. Ainsworth. The Jews at present keep three days—the 13th, the 14th, and the 15th of Adar—as connected with "the feast of Purim," but make the 13th a fast, commemorative of the fast of Esther (chap. 4:16), and keep the feast itself on the 14th and 15th. B. C. 15. Perplexed.** The Jews no doubt had shown themselves a quiet, industrious, well-disposed people. They had gained many friends. Besides, the extermination of a whole people by such arbitrary slaughter must have seemed, as it was in reality, a dangerous precedent. Who could tell what people or race would next fall under the king's ban? No wonder that the capital was "perplexed." And how terribly laconic the latter word! Chap. 4:1. Knew. The matter may have transpired through the publication of the edict; or possibly the king's scribes had mentioned it to other officials of the court, and so it had become known throughout the palace before the edict appeared. Haley. 11. Clearly Esther sees and calmly she tells Mordecai the tremendous risk which following his counsel would bring. Note that she does not refuse. She simply puts the case plainly, as if she invited further communication. "This is how things stand. Do you still wish me to run the risk?" That is poor courage which has to shut its eyes in order to keep itself up to the mark. Unfortunately, the temperament which clearly sees dangers and that which dares them are not often found together in due proportion, and so men are over-rash and over-cautious. This young queen with her clear eyes saw and with her brave heart was ready to face peril to her life. Unless we fully realize difficulties and dangers beforehand, our enthusiasm for great causes will ooze out at our fingers' ends at the first rule assault of these. So let us count the cost before we take up arms, and let us take up arms after we have counted the cost. Cautious courage, courageous caution, are good guides. Either alone is a bad one. 13,14. Mordecai's grand message is a condensed statement of the great reasons which always exist for self-sacrificing efforts for others' good. His words are none the less saturated with devout thought because they do not name God. This porter at the palace gate had not the tongue of a psalmist or of a prophet. He was a plain man, not uninfluenced by his pagan surroundings, and perhaps he was careful to adapt his message to the lips of the Gentile messenger, and therefore did not more definitely use the sacred name. It is very striking that Mordecai makes no attempt to minimize Esther's peril in doing as he wished. He knew that she would take her life in her hand, and he expects her to be willing to do it, as he would have been willing. It is grand when love exhorts loved ones to a course which may bring death to them, and lifelong loneliness and quenched hopes to it. Think of Mordecai's years of care over and pride in his fair young cousin, and how many joys and soaring visions would perish with her, and then estimate the heroic self-sacrifice he exercised in urging her to her course. His first appeal is on the lowest ground. Pure selfishness should send her to the king; for, if she did not go, she would not escape the common ruin. So, on the one hand, she had to face certain destruction; and, on the other, there were possible success and escape. The argument holds in reference to many forms of conflict with national and social evils. If Christian people allow vice and godlessness to riot unchecked, they will not escape the contagion in some form or other. How many good men's sons have been swept away by the immoralities of great cities! How few families there are in which there is not "one dead," the victim of drink and dissipation! How the godliness of the Church is cooled down by the low temperature around! At the very lowest, self-preservation tion should enlist all good men in a sacred war against the sins which are slaying their countrymen. Mordecai goes back to the same argument in the latter part of his answer, when he foretells the destruction of Esther and her father's house. There he puts it, however, in a rather different light. The destruction is not now, as before, her participation in the common tragedy, but her exceptional ruin while Israel is preserved. The unfaithful one, who could have intervened to save, and did not, will have a special infliction of punishment. That is true in many applications. Certainly, neglect to do what we can do for others does always bring some penalty on the slothful coward; and there is no more short-sighted policy than that which shirks plain duties of beneficence from regard to self. But higher considerations than selfish ones are appealed to. Mordecai is sure that deliverance will come. He does not know whence, but come it will. How did he arrive at that serene confidence? Certainly because he trusted God's ancient promises, and believed in the indestructibility of the nation which a Divine hand protected. How does such a confidence agree with fear of "destruction"? The two parts of Mordecai's message sound contradictory; but he might well dread the threatened catastrophe, and yet be sure that through any disaster Israel as a nation would pass, cast down, no doubt, but not destroyed. How did it agree with his earnestness in trying to secure Esther's help? If he were certain of the issue, why should he have troubled her or himself? Just for the same reason that the discernment of God's purposes and absolute reliance on these stimulates and does not paralyze devout activity in helping to carry them out. If we are sure that a given course, however full of peril and inconvenience, is in the line of God's purposes, that is a reason for strenuous effort to carry it out. Since some men are to be honored to be His instruments, shall not we be willing to offer ourselves? There is a holy and noble ambition which covets the dignity of being used by Him. They who believe that their work helps forward what is dear to God's heart may well do with their might what they find to do, and not be too careful to keep on the safe side in doing it. The honor is more than the danger. "Here am I; take me," should be the Christian feeling about all such work. The last argument in this noble summary of motives for self-sacrifice for others' good is the thought of God's purpose in giving Esther her position. It carries large truth applicable to us all. The source of all endowments of position, possessions, or capacities is God. His purpose in them all goes far beyond the happiness of the receiver. Dignities and gifts of every sort are ours for use in carrying out His great designs of good to our fellows. Esther was made queen, not that she might live in luxury and be the plaything of a king, but that she might serve Israel. Power is duty. Responsibility is measured by capacity. Obligation attends advantages. Gifts are burdens. All men are stewards, and God gives His servants their "talents," not for selfish squandering or hoarding, but to trade with, and to pay the profits to Him. This penetrating insight into the source and intention of all which we have carries a solemn lesson for us all. A. M. This is a day wherein great things are doing and grievous things are a suffering by many of our brethren; therefore you should be working this day. This is a day in which sons of Belial—men that will not have Christ's yoke—are combining to break it and cast His cord from them. Then join this day to help Christ, else, as Mordecai said to Esther, so I may say to you in reference to the present opportunity: if you altogether hold your peace, hold your purses and hold your hand at this time, enlargement will come to the Church some other way, but you may be destroyed who think to hold and keep your peace, either by saying or doing nothing; if ever you will appear, this is a day to appear in to do good. Let us be wise to manage and improve our day, so that it may never be said of us as our Lord did of Jerusalem, "If ye had known, even in this your day, the things which belong unto your peace!" Caryl. Mordecai encourages Esther to estimate her position and lofty calling. "Who knoweth whether thou art not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" God may have given thee the noble mission to save thy nation. He has invested thee with personal beauty; He has given thee the heart and the hand of Ahasuerus; He has made thy home a palace, and seated thee on a throne, not to gratify thy vanity and love of splendor; not for thy safety in the day of thy nation's peril, but as an angel of deliverance. Who knows but there is a proud destiny reserved for thee, to use thy elevation to lift up thy down trodden people? Brainerd.—As if he had said, "Consider the wonderful and gracious providence of God, in raising thee from among a despised people to be the consort of the greatest monarch upon earth." Think not but the Lord therein certainly intended that some great work should be accomplished by thy hand in favor of His afflicted Church. And now the hour is come for thee to make use of the advancement given thee by the Lord; and to try, by that power and interest which thou hast with the king, to reverse the decree of our adversary, and effect the deliverance of our whole nation. The argument used by Mordecai to Esther is one of general application and use—viz., that one great purpose for which men are intrusted by Providence with power or riches is that they may therewith do good, and succor those who require their assistance; that they may help those to right who suffer wrong, may stand by their poorer brethren in the day of calamity and distress. Bp. Sanderson. 16. Mordecai hath said enough. These words have so put a new life into Esther that she is resolute to hazard the old: "Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law; and if I perish, I perish." Heroical thoughts do well befit great actions. Life can never be better adventured than where it shall be gain to lose it. Bp. II. Fast ye for me. Fasting for another is fasting to obtain God's blessing on that other, and is naturally accompanied with earnest prayer to God for the person who is the object of the fast. Thus here again the thought of God underlies the narrative. P. C.—Here again the religious element shows itself. Esther's fast could have no object but to obtain God's favor and protection in the dangerous course on which she was about to enter. B. C. Esther had not overlooked the importance of a general union of her people in religious exercise. She called into vitality and determined activity the whole combined and sympathetic force of multitudes, who at her instance did for three days put away from themselves every other thought, care, hope, that they might be found "watching" as regards the crisis of this hour. What an interesting suggestion arises from the words (verse 17), "So Mordecai went his way, and did according to all that Esther had commanded him!" The tender ward has become the strong, firm, religious teacher of her guardian. P. C. The soul of Esther was worthy of a daughter of Abraham and of Mordecai. It rose with danger and difficulty. To save the life of her nation, she at once determined to go over the letter of a law, over the custom of her sex, and to hazard her own life that her nation might not die. Her bearing indicated deep piety as well as patriotism. Brainerd.—The fair young heroine's soul rose to the occasion, and responded with a swift determination to her older cousin's lofty words. Little as she says about her faith in God, it obviously underlay her courage. A soul that dares death in obedience to His will and in dependence on His aid demonstrates its godliness more forcibly in silence than by many professions. "If I perish, I perish." Think of the fair, soft lips set to utter that grand surrender, and of all the flowery and silken cords which bound the young heart to life so bright and desirable as was assured to her. Note the resolute calmness, the Spartan brevity, the clear sight of the possible fatal issue, the absolute submission. No higher strain has ever come from human lips. This womanly soul was of the same stock as a Miriam, a Deborah, Jephthah's daughter; and the same fire burned in her—utter devotion to Israel because entire consecration to Israel's God. Religion and patriotism were to her inseparable. What was her individual life compared with her people's weal and her God's will? She was ready without a murmur to lay her young, radiant life down. Such ecstasy of willing self-sacrifice raises its subject above all fears and dissolves all hindrances. It may be wrought out in uneventful details of our small lives, and may illuminate these as truly as it sheds imperishable lustre over the lovely figure standing in the palace court, and waiting for life or death at the will of a sensual tyrant. A. M. 5:1 Now it came to pass on the third day, that Esther put on her royal apparel, and stood in the inner court of the king's house, over against the king's house: and the king sat upon his royal throne in the royal house, over against the entrance of the house. And it was so, when the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, that she obtained favour in his sight: and the king held out to Esther the golden sceptre that was in his hand. So Esther drew near, and touched the top of the sceptre. Then said the king unto her, What wilt thou, queen Esther? and what is thy request? it shall be given thee even to the half of the kingdom. And Esther said, If it seem good unto the king, let the king and Haman come this day unto the banquet that I have prepared for him. Then the king said, Cause Haman to make haste, that it may be done as Esther hath said. So the king and Haman came to the banquet that Esther had prepared. And the king said unto Esther at the banquet of wine, What is thy petition? and it shall be granted thee: and what is thy request? even to the half of the kingdom it shall be performed. Then answered Esther, and said, My petition and my request is; if I have found favour in the sight of the king, and if it please the king to grant my petition, and to perform my request, let the king and Haman come to the banquet that I shall prepare for them, and I will do to-morrow as the king hath said. Then went Haman forth that day joyful and glad of heart: but when Haman saw Mordecai in the king's gate, that he stood not up nor moved for him, he was filled with wrath against Mordecai. Nevertheless Haman refrained himself, and went home; and he sent and fetched his friends and Zeresh his wife. And Haman recounted unto them the glory of his riches, and the multitude of his children, and all the things wherein the king had promoted him, and how he had advanced him above the princes and servants of the king. Haman said moreover, Yea, Esther the queen did let no man come in with the king unto the banquet that she had prepared but myself; and to-morrow also am I invited by her together with the king. Yet all this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate. Then said Zeresh his wife and all his friends unto him, Let a gallows be made of fifty cubits high, and in the morning speak thou unto the king that Mordecai may be hanged thereon: then go thou in merrily with the king unto the banquet. And the thing pleased Haman; and he caused the gallows to be made. 6:1 On that night could not the king sleep; and he commanded to bring the book of 2 records of the chronicles, and they were read before the king. And it was found written, that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king's chamberlains, of those that 3 kept the door, who had sought to lay hands on the king Ahasuerus. And the king said, What honour and dignity hath been done to Mordecai for this? Then said the king's servants 4 that ministered unto him, There is nothing done for him. And the king said, Who is in the court? Now Haman was come into the outward court of the king's house, to speak unto the 5 king to hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him. And the king's servants said unto him, Behold, Haman standeth in the court. And the king said, Let him come in. 6 So Haman came in. And the king said unto him, What shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour? Now Haman said in his heart, To whom would the king 7 delight to do honour more than to myself? And Haman said unto the king, For the man 8 whom the king delighteth to honour, let royal apparel be brought which the king useth to wear, and the horse that the king rideth upon, and on the head of which a crown royal is set: 9 and let the apparel and the horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king's most noble princes, that they may array the man withal whom the king delighteth to honour, and cause him to ride on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaim before him, Thus shall 10 it be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honour. Then the king said to Haman, Make haste, and take the apparel and the horse, as thou hast said, and do even so to Mordecai 11 the Jew, that sitteth at the king's gate: let nothing fail of all that thou hast spoken. Then took Haman the apparel and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and caused him to ride through the street of the city, and proclaimed before him, Thus shall it be done unto the man whom 12 the king delighteth to honour. And Mordecai came again to the king's gate. But Haman 13 hastened to his house, mourning and having his head covered. And Haman recounted unto Zeresh his wife and all his friends every thing that had befallen him. Then said his wise men and Zeresh his wife unto him, If Mordecai, before whom thou hast begun to fall, be of the seed 14 of the Jews, thou shalt not prevail against him, but shalt surely fall before him. While they were yet talking with him, came the king's chamberlains, and hastened to bring Haman unto the banquet that Esther had prepared. 5:1. And now she walks into the inner court of the king, and puts herself into that forbidden presence, as if she said, "Here I am, with my life in my hand. If it please the king to take it, it is ready for him. Vashti, my predecessor, forfeited her place for not coming when she was called. Esther shall now hazard the forfeiture of her life for com- ing when she is not called. It is necessity, not disobedience, that hath put me upon this bold approach. According to thy construction, O king, I do either live or die; either shall be welcome." Bp. H. 2,3. Esther passed through the entrance into the pillared throne room, and across the wide room to the throne, and touched the top of the sceptre. What she did, she did right royally. I think the king became at once as proud of her courage as he was of her beauty. I think he felt a respect for her such as he had never felt before. He did not wait for her to speak, but addressed her as "Queen Esther," and promised that her request should be grant- ed, to the half of his kingdom. W. J. B. 4. Ahasuerus at once showed favor to his queen; and surmising, as she drew near, that she had an important request to make, encour- aged her to make it. She would not tell it in open court, but invited the king and Haman to a banquet in her own apartments. It was shrewdly done. Esther would re-establish her influence over her husband; and she would throw the favorite off his guard, taking care, too, to have him present when she should un- veil his malice, that he might not defeat or es- cape her. D. F.—The king understood that this invitation to a banquet, couched in the form of a request, was simply preliminary to some petition of greater importance. This was in accordance with Oriental usage. 8. She proposes a similar banquet on the morrow, with the promise that she will then make a full disclosure of that which she has upon her heart. Whence came that wisdom? We cannot well doubt, in the light of what im- mediately follows, that an unseen guide was leading her in a way that she knew not. Street.—Her intention in thus desiring to en- tertain the king twice at her banquets before she made known her petition to him was, that she might thereby dispose him the better to grant the request which she had to make to him. Prideaux.—There was also a singular providence of God in so disposing her mind that the high honor which the king bestowed on Mordecai the next day might in the mean while fall out, and so make way for her petition; as also that Haman might in the mean while make his preparations for the execution of Mordecai. Wells. 13. This is the most brilliant day in the life of the favorite courtier. Rich in treasure, in sons, in honor, he is invited, not merely to-day, but to-morrow, to the table of the king and queen; perhaps from this some new distinction may proceed. "Yet all this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting in the king's gate." The one bitter drop poisons the entire cup of sensual gratification, and the universally envied Haman is really the man most to be pitied in all Susa. Van O. We are usually more alive to the good we want than to that which we possess; rendered delicate by indulgence rather than satiated by enjoyment, the slightest check in the career of our desires inflicts a wound which their gratification in every other particular is incapable of healing. Thus the wretched Haman, in the highest plenitude of affluence and power, exclaimed, All this availeth me nothing, while Mordecai sits in the gate. Such is the capricious fastidiousness of the human heart, chiefly in those who are most pampered with the gifts of fortune, that the person whom nothing has the power of gratifying long the merest trifle is sufficient to displease, and that he is often extremely chagrined and disquieted by the absence of that whose presence would scarcely be felt. R. Hall. Those things which availed nothing to the happiness of Haman, under his vexation of spirit, are enumerated by him in his complaint uttered in the presence of his friends. They consist of the greatest distinctions and favors that he could desire from the king, and the most alluring objects of human wishes. Nevertheless his enjoyment of all this prosperity is alloyed by the single circumstance of Mordecai's disrespect, which was made a source of misery by his own passions and imagination. So it is that the proud, the revengeful, the discontented, the unthankful and impatient, are their own tormentors; whether God immediately execute His judgments on them or not, their own temper of mind is their punishment; on the other hand, the various natural passions and affections of the heart work together for good, through the Divine grace, to those who govern them rightly. J. Ba'guy. 14. A gallows, in the ordinary sense, is scarcely intended, since hanging was not a Persian punishment. The intention, no doubt, was to crucify or impale Mordecai; and the pale or cross was to be seventy-five feet high, to make the punishment more conspicuous. B. C. 6:1-11. Mordecai slept well that night, unconscious of danger; but the Lord, who kept Israel, slumbered not, and so ordered it in His providence that the rage of the heathen was disappointed of its prey. "On that night could not the king sleep." No doubt this had happened before, for sleep is far more secure and sweet to the laboring man than to the voluptuary; but it was of God that, on this critical night, when sleep fled, the king was disposed, not to vain amusement, but to reflection on the events of his reign. The chronicles of his kingdom were brought forth and read to him. In the roll of records read on that night to Ahasuerus, mention was made of the plot against his life, which Mordecai detected and defeated. On hearing it, conscience smote the king; nothing had been done for the preserver of his life; and the Jew had urged no claim, nor sought reward, but sat patiently in his place at the king's gate. Ahasuerus, when roused, was full of will and energy. So soon as it was day he called, "Who is in the court?" Lo! Haman, greedy of revenge, had come already to crave the death of Mordecai. Before he could prefer his request, he was commanded by the king to lead Mordecai in a procession of honor through the city. What an effort Haman must have made to command himself, and to conceal the secret writhing he endured in doing such a service! Think how he must have felt, as the procession passed the gallows fifty cubits high. Mordecai showed a sober mind. Not elated by the sudden mark of royal favor he had received, he returned quietly to his post at the gate. But he was confirmed, we may be sure, in faith that God would deliver His people, and he was encouraged to augur well for Esther's intervention. D. F. 1. On that night.** The Hebrew makes the time very definite; that very night—i.e., the night immediately following the day of the queen's banquet, and of Haman's conference with Zeresh and his friends just narrated. The king's sleep fled—this is literal; a bold figure! The king cannot command his own sleep. It was not an event that was in any way surprising or worthy of special notice, except as connected in the chain of events. In this connection it was vital, and gave token of the ordering of the Divine hand. Street. At the very juncture when Esther was gradually preparing for herself a favorable opportunity to plead the cause of her people, on the very night preceding the day upon which Haman, unable in the greatness of his anger longer to wait the full execution of his rapacious revenge, had determined to petition the king for Mordecai's destruction, on the night, too, of the very day in which he had prepared a gallows for this purpose—"on that night," recites the text, "could not the king sleep." B. A seemingly slight incident may involve great, momentous issues. Often may sleep have gone from the king's eyes and nothing of consequence have followed. But that night was memorable, for that night's sleeplessness was the occasion of the salvation of Mordecai, and perhaps of Israel. In the providence of God, as though to rebuke men's self-confidence, little things are sent on high errands. It is a striking instance of Divine providence. He who "holds the king's heart in His hand," who can touch with the finger of His power the secret springs of thought and feeling, now sent troubled thoughts to this Persian king. That Lord of heaven, keeper of Israel, who slumbers not nor sleeps, was interposing on behalf of His chosen people. God willed that the sovereign should not slumber in order that he might thus be led to have "the book of records of the chronicles brought and read before the king," and Mordecai's services be thus brought to his royal notice. Little did Ahasuerus, as he tossed his restless head on the pillow, imagine that a Divine hand was laid on his troubled brain. As little do we know when the finger of God is working on us, with us, for us, or mercifully against us. P. C. 2. The wit of Zeresh had like to have gone beyond the wit of Esther. Had not the working providence of the Almighty contrived these events, beyond all hopes, all conceits, Mordecai had been dispatched, ere Esther's second banquet. To-morrow was the day pitched for both their designs. But God meant better things to His people; and fetches about all His holy purposes, after a wonderful fashion, in the very instant of opportunity. "He that keepeth Israel, and neither slumbereth nor sleepeth," causeth sleep that night to depart from him that had decreed to root out Israel. Great Ahasuerus, that commanded a hundred and seven and twenty provinces, cannot command a night's sleep. So he shall spend his restless hours in the chronicles of his time. Among those voluminous registers of acts and monuments, which so many scores of provinces must needs yield, the book shall open upon Mordecai's discovery of the late treason of the two eunuchs; the reader is turned thither, by an insensible sway of Providence. Our most arbitrary or casual actions are overruled by a hand in heaven. Bp. H. The Scriptures relate many events brought to pass by means which seem disproportionate, unsuitable and even contrary to the effect. Such events speak God to be their cause, His invisible power supplying the apparent defects in the means. Thus plots contrived in darkness, with all possible caution and secrecy, are by improbable means and unaccountable accidents disclosed and brought to light; "a bird of the air," as the wise man speaks, "telling the matter," or "the stone," according to the expression of the prophet, "crying out of the wall." In the Book of Esther we read: The king cannot sleep; to divert him, the chronicle is called for; Mordecai's service is there pitched upon, and inquiry made concerning his recompense; honor is decreed him; so the cruel device of Haman comes out, and he himself suffers. Whence can such events proceed but from the ever-watchful care of Him whose eyes are upon the ways of man, and He seeth all his goings? Isaac Barrow. God's providence is a wonderful scheme; a web of many threads, woven with marvellous skill; a network composed of all kinds of materials, great and small, but so arranged that the very smallest of them is as essential as the largest to the completeness of the fabric. One would suppose that many of the dramas of the Old Testament were planned on very purpose to show how intimately things secular and things sacred, as we call them, are connected together; how entirely the minutest events are controlled by God, and at the same time how thoroughly the freedom of man is preserved. The meeting of two convicts in an Egyptian prison is a vital link in the chain of events that makes Joseph governor of Egypt; a young lady coming to bathe in the river preserves the life of Moses, and secures the escape of the Israelites; the thoughtful regard of a father for the comfort of his sons in the army brings David into contact with Goliath, and prepares the way for his elevation to the throne; the beauty of a Hebrew girl fascinating a Persian king saves the whole Hebrew race from massacre and extermination. W. G. B. 3. What honor hath been done to** Mordecai for this? It was a settled principle of the Persian government that "royal benefactors" were to receive an adequate reward. The names of such persons were placed on a special roll (Herod. viii. 85), and great care was taken that they should be properly recompensed. B. C. 4. The king said, Who is in the court? Probably some high officer of state was required to be always in attendance upon the monarch, to take his orders at any moment. Now Haman was come.** Early morning is a common time for the transaction of business at an Eastern court. Haman was so anxious to get the business on which he was bent dispatched, that he had come perhaps even before daybreak, and was waiting in the outer court to get, if possible, the first audience. This haste of his to effect Mordecai's destruction led to his being the person deputed to do him the highest honor. P. C. 10. Mordecai the Jew, that sitteth at the king's gate. There is nothing strange in the king's knowing the nationality and position of Mordecai. His nationality would probably have been noted in the book of the chronicles. B. C.—Do so to Mordecai.** Probably no more sudden or chilling reverse ever befell any mortal. Not only does his vision of the highest earthly glory to which he could aspire collapse at a breath, but his dream of revenge is gone; and worse than all, the magnificent demonstration which he had devised for himself all goes under his own superintendence to the honor of him whom he hated most of all men, and for whom he had been contriving a doom of shame and death. This sudden check to the flow of his spirits led him to imagine something deeper than the king intended. 12. His head covered.** He went through the required demonstration, doubtless, as became a great minister of state upon whom a thousand eyes were turned. But when he had escaped from public gaze, he could command himself no longer. He felt that he must hide his telltale countenance from those he would meet, till he reached the asylum of sympathy which he would find in his home. Street. Came again to the gate. A Haman would have been intoxicated by such an honor as was conferred on his enemy. To Mordecai the parade through the city was but an empty pageant, except in so far as it might contribute to his purpose of saving Israel. Hence we find him, after putting off the royal robes, returning to his post at the king's gate. The passing honors of the world make no change in those who are weighted with the pursuit of honors which the world cannot give. Their chief desire is to be at their post and do the work given them by a higher than an earthly master—"to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with their God" (Micah 6: 8). It required no effort for Mordecai to descend from his momentary exaltation to his humble position as a palace servitor. His duty was in the king's gate. How blessed to be able to subordinate all merely personal or earthly things to the service of God! P. C. 13. Hast begun to fall.** His counsellors, and even his wife, have no prop for him in his adversity. Their words have the effect, rather, of an additional impulse downward. No less than three changes are rung by them on that word fall. "Thou hast begun to fall; falling, thou shalt fall before him"—so, when literally rendered. How different their language from that with which they cheered him on his way to the former banquet of the queen! Street. After all necessary allowances and substitutions have been made, it may be very justly said that Shakespeare's Wolsey is essentially dwarfed by Scripture's Haman, and that not the finest of Shakespeare's five-act plays—wonderful products of human genius as they are—but must yield to the ten briefer chapters, with their five chief characters, of our Book of Esther. The book is indeed a consummate epic of the human heart. Its photographs are vivid and accurate, but they are not the facsimile of a countenance alone, but of things revealed and laid bare, in the fallen type of man, by the most skilful anatomy. What an extraordinary proclamation it makes, at one and the same time, of the vanity of human greatness and of the greatness of human vanity! How forcibly does it remind us of that Scripture that saith not in vain, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked," and there bids us hold our breath awhile! We can scarcely go on to say, "Who can know it?" for we find it manifestly set forth as known by One, at all events, whose finger guides us to the observation of it, and whose pencil limms it. Certainly the present passage lays bare such a heart to the core of it, and at the core it is bad. It is of an aggravated type. It reveals a miserable creature on his own showing, judged by his own standard, and at the confession of his own lips. We have no difficulty in understanding the description which Haman gives of himself. But the difficulty would lie in crediting the phenomenon of any man, knowing his own symptoms so well, being ready to speak them so frankly, where they are what they are here. In the larger, bolder, blacker portrait of Haman is there not some semblance of self, when, amid opportunities and advantages innumerable, comforts and joys innumerable, bright prospects and hopes innumerable, we put them all far from us just because everything conceivable is not to our mind. We are prone to share the perverse nature of Haman when, as mere matter of fact, we overlook a thousand mercies we possess in favor of keenly noticing the absence of one withheld, like Eden's apple, or withdrawn after long enjoyment of it. We are prone to share the unfruitful nature of Haman. No fact has come to be better ascertained in human life than this, that it is not those who have most who give most. The greatest opportunity often witnesses the least improvement of it. Barker. ESTHER'S PLEA FOR HER PEOPLE, AND CHARGE AGAINST HAMAN. HAMAN IMPALED AND MORDECAI ELEVATED. DECREE PERMITTING SELF-DE-FENCE BY THE JEWS. 5:1 Now it came to pass on the third day, that Esther put on her royal apparel, and stood in the inner court of the king's house, over against the king's house: and the king sat upon his royal throne in the royal house, over against the entrance of the house. And it was so, when the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, that she obtained favour in his sight: and the king held out to Esther the golden sceptre that was in his hand. So Esther drew near, and touched the top of the sceptre. Then said the king unto her, What wilt thou, queen Esther? and what is thy request? it shall be given thee even to the half of the kingdom. And Esther said, If it seem good unto the king, let the king and Haman come this day unto the banquet that I have prepared for him. Then the king said, Cause Haman to make haste, that it may be done as Esther hath said. So the king and Haman came to the banquet that Esther had prepared. And the king said unto Esther at the banquet of wine, What is thy petition? and it shall be granted thee: and what is thy request? even to the half of the kingdom it shall be performed. Then answered Esther, and said, My petition and my request is; if I have found favour in the sight of the king, and if it please the king to grant my petition, and to perform my request, let the king and Haman come to the banquet that I shall prepare for them, and I will do to-morrow as the king hath said. Then went Haman forth that day joyful and glad of heart: but when Haman saw Mordecai in the king's gate, that he stood not up nor moved for him, he was filled with wrath against Mordecai. Nevertheless Haman refrained himself, and went home; and he sent and fetched his friends and Zeresh his wife. And Haman recounted unto them the glory of his riches, and the multitude of his children, and all the things wherein the king had promoted him, and how he had advanced him above the princes and servants of the king. Haman said moreover, Yea, Esther the queen did let no man come in with the king unto the banquet that she had prepared but myself; and to-morrow also am I invited by her together with the king. Yet all this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate. Then said Zeresh his wife and all his friends unto him, Let a gallows be made of fifty cubits high, and in the morning speak thou unto the king that Mordecai may be hanged thereon: then go thou in merrily with the king unto the banquet. And the thing pleased Haman; and he caused the gallows to be made. 6:1 On that night could not the king sleep; and he commanded to bring the book of 2 records of the chronicles, and they were read before the king. And it was found written, that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king's chamberlains, of those that 3 kept the door, who had sought to lay hands on the king Ahasuerus. And the king said, What honour and dignity hath been done to Mordecai for this? Then said the king's servants 4 that ministered unto him, There is nothing done for him. And the king said, Who is in the court? Now Haman was come into the outward court of the king's house, to speak unto the 5 king to hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him. And the king's servants said unto him, Behold, Haman standeth in the court. And the king said, Let him come in. 6 So Haman came in. And the king said unto him, What shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour? Now Haman said in his heart, To whom would the king 7 delight to do honour more than to myself? And Haman said unto the king, For the man 8 whom the king delighteth to honour, let royal apparel be brought which the king useth to wear, and the horse that the king rideth upon, and on the head of which a crown royal is set: 9 and let the apparel and the horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king's most noble princes, that they may array the man withal whom the king delighteth to honour, and cause him to ride on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaim before him, Thus shall 10 it be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honour. Then the king said to Haman, Make haste, and take the apparel and the horse, as thou hast said, and do even so to Mordecai 11 the Jew, that sitteth at the king's gate: let nothing fail of all that thou hast spoken. Then took Haman the apparel and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and caused him to ride through the street of the city, and proclaimed before him, Thus shall it be done unto the man whom 12 the king delighteth to honour. And Mordecai came again to the king's gate. But Haman 13 hastened to his house, mourning and having his head covered. And Haman recounted unto Zeresh his wife and all his friends every thing that had befallen him. Then said his wise men and Zeresh his wife unto him, If Mordecai, before whom thou hast begun to fall, be of the seed 14 of the Jews, thou shalt not prevail against him, but shalt surely fall before him. While they were yet talking with him, came the king's chamberlains, and hastened to bring Haman unto the banquet that Esther had prepared. 5:1. And now she walks into the inner court of the king, and puts herself into that forbidden presence, as if she said, "Here I am, with my life in my hand. If it please the king to take it, it is ready for him. Vashti, my predecessor, forfeited her place for not coming when she was called. Esther shall now hazard the forfeiture of her life for com- ing when she is not called. It is necessity, not disobedience, that hath put me upon this bold approach. According to thy construction, O king, I do either live or die; either shall be welcome." Bp. H. 2,3. Esther passed through the entrance into the pillared throne room, and across the wide room to the throne, and touched the top of the sceptre. What she did, she did right royally. I think the king became at once as proud of her courage as he was of her beauty. I think he felt a respect for her such as he had never felt before. He did not wait for her to speak, but addressed her as "Queen Esther," and promised that her request should be grant- ed, to the half of his kingdom. W. J. B. 4. Ahasuerus at once showed favor to his queen; and surmising, as she drew near, that she had an important request to make, encour- aged her to make it. She would not tell it in open court, but invited the king and Haman to a banquet in her own apartments. It was shrewdly done. Esther would re-establish her influence over her husband; and she would throw the favorite off his guard, taking care, too, to have him present when she should un- veil his malice, that he might not defeat or es- cape her. D. F.—The king understood that this invitation to a banquet, couched in the form of a request, was simply preliminary to some petition of greater importance. This was in accordance with Oriental usage. 8. She proposes a similar banquet on the morrow, with the promise that she will then make a full disclosure of that which she has upon her heart. Whence came that wisdom? We cannot well doubt, in the light of what im- mediately follows, that an unseen guide was leading her in a way that she knew not. Street.—Her intention in thus desiring to en- tertain the king twice at her banquets before she made known her petition to him was, that she might thereby dispose him the better to grant the request which she had to make to him. Prideaux.—There was also a singular providence of God in so disposing her mind that the high honor which the king bestowed on Mordecai the next day might in the mean while fall out, and so make way for her petition; as also that Haman might in the mean while make his preparations for the execution of Mordecai. Wells. 13. This is the most brilliant day in the life of the favorite courtier. Rich in treasure, in sons, in honor, he is invited, not merely to-day, but to-morrow, to the table of the king and queen; perhaps from this some new distinction may proceed. "Yet all this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting in the king's gate." The one bitter drop poisons the entire cup of sensual gratification, and the universally envied Haman is really the man most to be pitied in all Susa. Van O. We are usually more alive to the good we want than to that which we possess; rendered delicate by indulgence rather than satiated by enjoyment, the slightest check in the career of our desires inflicts a wound which their gratification in every other particular is incapable of healing. Thus the wretched Haman, in the highest plenitude of affluence and power, exclaimed, All this availeth me nothing, while Mordecai sits in the gate. Such is the capricious fastidiousness of the human heart, chiefly in those who are most pampered with the gifts of fortune, that the person whom nothing has the power of gratifying long the merest trifle is sufficient to displease, and that he is often extremely chagrined and disquieted by the absence of that whose presence would scarcely be felt. R. Hall. Those things which availed nothing to the happiness of Haman, under his vexation of spirit, are enumerated by him in his complaint uttered in the presence of his friends. They consist of the greatest distinctions and favors that he could desire from the king, and the most alluring objects of human wishes. Nevertheless his enjoyment of all this prosperity is alloyed by the single circumstance of Mordecai's disrespect, which was made a source of misery by his own passions and imagination. So it is that the proud, the revengeful, the discontented, the unthankful and impatient, are their own tormentors; whether God immediately execute His judgments on them or not, their own temper of mind is their punishment; on the other hand, the various natural passions and affections of the heart work together for good, through the Divine grace, to those who govern them rightly. J. Ba'guy. 14. A gallows, in the ordinary sense, is scarcely intended, since hanging was not a Persian punishment. The intention, no doubt, was to crucify or impale Mordecai; and the pale or cross was to be seventy-five feet high, to make the punishment more conspicuous. B. C. 6:1-11. Mordecai slept well that night, unconscious of danger; but the Lord, who kept Israel, slumbered not, and so ordered it in His providence that the rage of the heathen was disappointed of its prey. "On that night could not the king sleep." No doubt this had happened before, for sleep is far more secure and sweet to the laboring man than to the voluptuary; but it was of God that, on this critical night, when sleep fled, the king was disposed, not to vain amusement, but to reflection on the events of his reign. The chronicles of his kingdom were brought forth and read to him. In the roll of records read on that night to Ahasuerus, mention was made of the plot against his life, which Mordecai detected and defeated. On hearing it, conscience smote the king; nothing had been done for the preserver of his life; and the Jew had urged no claim, nor sought reward, but sat patiently in his place at the king's gate. Ahasuerus, when roused, was full of will and energy. So soon as it was day he called, "Who is in the court?" Lo! Haman, greedy of revenge, had come already to crave the death of Mordecai. Before he could prefer his request, he was commanded by the king to lead Mordecai in a procession of honor through the city. What an effort Haman must have made to command himself, and to conceal the secret writhing he endured in doing such a service! Think how he must have felt, as the procession passed the gallows fifty cubits high. Mordecai showed a sober mind. Not elated by the sudden mark of royal favor he had received, he returned quietly to his post at the gate. But he was confirmed, we may be sure, in faith that God would deliver His people, and he was encouraged to augur well for Esther's intervention. D. F. 1. On that night.** The Hebrew makes the time very definite; that very night—i.e., the night immediately following the day of the queen's banquet, and of Haman's conference with Zeresh and his friends just narrated. The king's sleep fled—this is literal; a bold figure! The king cannot command his own sleep. It was not an event that was in any way surprising or worthy of special notice, except as connected in the chain of events. In this connection it was vital, and gave token of the ordering of the Divine hand. Street. At the very juncture when Esther was gradually preparing for herself a favorable opportunity to plead the cause of her people, on the very night preceding the day upon which Haman, unable in the greatness of his anger longer to wait the full execution of his rapacious revenge, had determined to petition the king for Mordecai's destruction, on the night, too, of the very day in which he had prepared a gallows for this purpose—"on that night," recites the text, "could not the king sleep." B. A seemingly slight incident may involve great, momentous issues. Often may sleep have gone from the king's eyes and nothing of consequence have followed. But that night was memorable, for that night's sleeplessness was the occasion of the salvation of Mordecai, and perhaps of Israel. In the providence of God, as though to rebuke men's self-confidence, little things are sent on high errands. It is a striking instance of Divine providence. He who "holds the king's heart in His hand," who can touch with the finger of His power the secret springs of thought and feeling, now sent troubled thoughts to this Persian king. That Lord of heaven, keeper of Israel, who slumbers not nor sleeps, was interposing on behalf of His chosen people. God willed that the sovereign should not slumber in order that he might thus be led to have "the book of records of the chronicles brought and read before the king," and Mordecai's services be thus brought to his royal notice. Little did Ahasuerus, as he tossed his restless head on the pillow, imagine that a Divine hand was laid on his troubled brain. As little do we know when the finger of God is working on us, with us, for us, or mercifully against us. P. C. 2. The wit of Zeresh had like to have gone beyond the wit of Esther. Had not the working providence of the Almighty contrived these events, beyond all hopes, all conceits, Mordecai had been dispatched, ere Esther's second banquet. To-morrow was the day pitched for both their designs. But God meant better things to His people; and fetches about all His holy purposes, after a wonderful fashion, in the very instant of opportunity. "He that keepeth Israel, and neither slumbereth nor sleepeth," causeth sleep that night to depart from him that had decreed to root out Israel. Great Ahasuerus, that commanded a hundred and seven and twenty provinces, cannot command a night's sleep. So he shall spend his restless hours in the chronicles of his time. Among those voluminous registers of acts and monuments, which so many scores of provinces must needs yield, the book shall open upon Mordecai's discovery of the late treason of the two eunuchs; the reader is turned thither, by an insensible sway of Providence. Our most arbitrary or casual actions are overruled by a hand in heaven. Bp. H. The Scriptures relate many events brought to pass by means which seem disproportionate, unsuitable and even contrary to the effect. Such events speak God to be their cause, His invisible power supplying the apparent defects in the means. Thus plots contrived in darkness, with all possible caution and secrecy, are by improbable means and unaccountable accidents disclosed and brought to light; "a bird of the air," as the wise man speaks, "telling the matter," or "the stone," according to the expression of the prophet, "crying out of the wall." In the Book of Esther we read: The king cannot sleep; to divert him, the chronicle is called for; Mordecai's service is there pitched upon, and inquiry made concerning his recompense; honor is decreed him; so the cruel device of Haman comes out, and he himself suffers. Whence can such events proceed but from the ever-watchful care of Him whose eyes are upon the ways of man, and He seeth all his goings? Isaac Barrow. God's providence is a wonderful scheme; a web of many threads, woven with marvellous skill; a network composed of all kinds of materials, great and small, but so arranged that the very smallest of them is as essential as the largest to the completeness of the fabric. One would suppose that many of the dramas of the Old Testament were planned on very purpose to show how intimately things secular and things sacred, as we call them, are connected together; how entirely the minutest events are controlled by God, and at the same time how thoroughly the freedom of man is preserved. The meeting of two convicts in an Egyptian prison is a vital link in the chain of events that makes Joseph governor of Egypt; a young lady coming to bathe in the river preserves the life of Moses, and secures the escape of the Israelites; the thoughtful regard of a father for the comfort of his sons in the army brings David into contact with Goliath, and prepares the way for his elevation to the throne; the beauty of a Hebrew girl fascinating a Persian king saves the whole Hebrew race from massacre and extermination. W. G. B. 3. What honor hath been done to** Mordecai for this? It was a settled principle of the Persian government that "royal benefactors" were to receive an adequate reward. The names of such persons were placed on a special roll (Herod. viii. 85), and great care was taken that they should be properly recompensed. B. C. 4. The king said, Who is in the court? Probably some high officer of state was required to be always in attendance upon the monarch, to take his orders at any moment. Now Haman was come.** Early morning is a common time for the transaction of business at an Eastern court. Haman was so anxious to get the business on which he was bent dispatched, that he had come perhaps even before daybreak, and was waiting in the outer court to get, if possible, the first audience. This haste of his to effect Mordecai's destruction led to his being the person deputed to do him the highest honor. P. C. 10. Mordecai the Jew, that sitteth at the king's gate. There is nothing strange in the king's knowing the nationality and position of Mordecai. His nationality would probably have been noted in the book of the chronicles. B. C.—Do so to Mordecai.** Probably no more sudden or chilling reverse ever befell any mortal. Not only does his vision of the highest earthly glory to which he could aspire collapse at a breath, but his dream of revenge is gone; and worse than all, the magnificent demonstration which he had devised for himself all goes under his own superintendence to the honor of him whom he hated most of all men, and for whom he had been contriving a doom of shame and death. This sudden check to the flow of his spirits led him to imagine something deeper than the king intended. 12. His head covered.** He went through the required demonstration, doubtless, as became a great minister of state upon whom a thousand eyes were turned. But when he had escaped from public gaze, he could command himself no longer. He felt that he must hide his telltale countenance from those he would meet, till he reached the asylum of sympathy which he would find in his home. Street. Came again to the gate. A Haman would have been intoxicated by such an honor as was conferred on his enemy. To Mordecai the parade through the city was but an empty pageant, except in so far as it might contribute to his purpose of saving Israel. Hence we find him, after putting off the royal robes, returning to his post at the king's gate. The passing honors of the world make no change in those who are weighted with the pursuit of honors which the world cannot give. Their chief desire is to be at their post and do the work given them by a higher than an earthly master—"to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with their God" (Micah 6: 8). It required no effort for Mordecai to descend from his momentary exaltation to his humble position as a palace servitor. His duty was in the king's gate. How blessed to be able to subordinate all merely personal or earthly things to the service of God! P. C. 13. Hast begun to fall.** His counsellors, and even his wife, have no prop for him in his adversity. Their words have the effect, rather, of an additional impulse downward. No less than three changes are rung by them on that word fall. "Thou hast begun to fall; falling, thou shalt fall before him"—so, when literally rendered. How different their language from that with which they cheered him on his way to the former banquet of the queen! Street. After all necessary allowances and substitutions have been made, it may be very justly said that Shakespeare's Wolsey is essentially dwarfed by Scripture's Haman, and that not the finest of Shakespeare's five-act plays—wonderful products of human genius as they are—but must yield to the ten briefer chapters, with their five chief characters, of our Book of Esther. The book is indeed a consummate epic of the human heart. Its photographs are vivid and accurate, but they are not the facsimile of a countenance alone, but of things revealed and laid bare, in the fallen type of man, by the most skilful anatomy. What an extraordinary proclamation it makes, at one and the same time, of the vanity of human greatness and of the greatness of human vanity! How forcibly does it remind us of that Scripture that saith not in vain, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked," and there bids us hold our breath awhile! We can scarcely go on to say, "Who can know it?" for we find it manifestly set forth as known by One, at all events, whose finger guides us to the observation of it, and whose pencil limms it. Certainly the present passage lays bare such a heart to the core of it, and at the core it is bad. It is of an aggravated type. It reveals a miserable creature on his own showing, judged by his own standard, and at the confession of his own lips. We have no difficulty in understanding the description which Haman gives of himself. But the difficulty would lie in crediting the phenomenon of any man, knowing his own symptoms so well, being ready to speak them so frankly, where they are what they are here. In the larger, bolder, blacker portrait of Haman is there not some semblance of self, when, amid opportunities and advantages innumerable, comforts and joys innumerable, bright prospects and hopes innumerable, we put them all far from us just because everything conceivable is not to our mind. We are prone to share the perverse nature of Haman when, as mere matter of fact, we overlook a thousand mercies we possess in favor of keenly noticing the absence of one withheld, like Eden's apple, or withdrawn after long enjoyment of it. We are prone to share the unfruitful nature of Haman. No fact has come to be better ascertained in human life than this, that it is not those who have most who give most. The greatest opportunity often witnesses the least improvement of it. Barker. ESTHER'S PLEA FOR HER PEOPLE, AND CHARGE AGAINST HAMAN. HAMAN IMPALED AND MORDECAI ELEVATED. DECREE PERMITTING SELF-DE-FENCE BY THE JEWS. 7:1, 2 So the king and Haman came to banquet with Esther the queen. And the king said again unto Esther on the second day at the banquet of wine, What is thy petition, queen Esther? and it shall be granted thee: and what is thy request? even to the half of the kingdom it shall be performed. Then Esther the queen answered and said, If I have found favour in thy sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request: for we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my peace, although the adversary could not have compensated for the king's damage. Then spake the king Ahasuerus and said unto Esther the queen, Who is he, and where is he, that durst presume in his heart to do so? And Esther said, An adversary and an enemy, even this wicked Haman. Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen. And the king arose in his wrath from the banquet of wine and went into the palace garden: and Haman stood up to make request for his life to Esther the queen; for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king. Then the king returned out of the palace garden into the place of the banquet of wine; and Haman was fallen upon the couch whereon Esther was. Then said the king, Will he even force the queen before me in the house? As the word went out of the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face. Then said Harbonah, one of the chamberlains that were before the king, Behold, also, the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman hath made for Mordecai, who spake good for the king, standeth in the house of Haman. And the king said, Hang him thereon. So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king's wrath pacified. 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. 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. 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 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: for how can I endure to see the evil that shall come 7 unto my people? or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred? 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 8 upon the Jews. Write ye also to 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 9 the king's ring, may no man reverse. 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, 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 10 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 11 the king's service, bred of the stud: 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, their little 12 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 13 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 14 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 15 decree was given out in Shushan the palace. 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 16 of fine linen and purple: and the city of Shushan shouted and was glad. The Jews had 17 light and gladness, and joy and honour. And in every province, and in every city, whither-soever 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. 7:3, 4. My life, and my people. The queen's lips are unsealed now, and three glowing sentences will tell the whole. Sold, destroy, kill, perish—the very words of Haman's infamous decree! Compensate—literally, "the enemy could not be even, or level with"—i.e., up to the level of, the king's damage. Let the enemy exhaust all his resources, and the king would still be a loser. Street. 4. It was the proffer of ten thousand talents, wherewith Haman hoped both to purchase his intended revenge and the reputation of a worthy patriot. Well might Esther plead, "If we Jews deserved death, what needed our slaughter to be bought out? and if we deserved it not, what horrible cruelty was it to set a price upon innocent blood! It is not any offence of ours; it is only the despite of an enemy that hath wrought our destruction." Bp. H.—Esther adds that if it had been only a question of bondage, and of selling into such bondage of every man and woman of them, it was not her voice that should have been heard to deprecate, nor her lips that should have been parted in prayer to prevent it. But, she says, the case was one of greater, even of supreme extremity. They were sold—to death. They were sold, in the words of the opportunely quoted "decree," "to be destroyed, to be slain and to perish." P. C. It has been said that the whole book "breathes nothing but a spirit of pride and revenge"—"a very narrow-minded and Jewish spirit of revenge and persecution"—and that thus it is quite unworthy of a place in the canon. To us it seems that this is a gross misrepresentation. Esther, the heroine, is not a Judith, not even a Jael, but a timid, shrinking woman, forced into action by the danger of her near relative and of her nation. What can be more affecting than her words when first required to take an active part: "Go and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day; I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law; and if I perish, I perish!" Or what, again, more touching than her exclamation: "Oh, how could I endure to see it—the evil which is coming on my people! Oh, how could I endure to see it—the destruction of my kindred!" (8:6.) So far is she from being revengeful or persecutting, that she declares, apparently from her heart, "If we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my tongue" (7:4). G. R. 5. Who is this? The king is evidently aroused. The words of Esther have gone home to the mark. He throws out his pronouns in a wild confusion of excitement, and then repeats them with the order inverted. "Who is he, that one—and where is that one, he, whose heart has filled him (with the audacity) to do so?"—it is clear that the identification cannot wait. It must be prompt and unmistakable. And the queen is equal to the demand. 6. The man, adversary. The queen sees her advantage; and she speaks with all the vehemence of one who has deeply felt the monstrous injustice of Haman's plot. The collocation of the words in the Hebrew leaves no doubt that they were accompanied with a gesture of the hand; her scorn and righteous indignation flashed out as she pointed to him. "The man, adversary and enemy, is Haman, the wretch, this (one)." Well might he be terror-stricken in that presence. He reads, in the king's countenance and in his movements, the angry excitement that has taken possession of him. Street. 8. Haman, in the intensity of his supplication, had thrown himself upon the couch at Esther's feet. Of course the king did not believe his own words. But he meant to tax Haman with a further offence in not sufficiently respecting the person of the queen; and he thereby suggested to the attendants his instant execution. B. C. They covered Haman's face. It was the custom so to cover the faces of condemned criminals, a custom also found among the ancient Romans, in that form of pronouncing sentence on a criminal ascribed by Cicero to Tarquinius Superbus: "Go, officer, bind his hands, veil his head, hang him on the fatal tree." This custom was noticed in Egypt by Dr. Pococke, who speaks of a man brought before the Bey, like a malefactor, with his hands behind him as if tied, and a napkin put over his head, as malefactors commonly have. Parkhurst. 9. Hang him thereon. Thus, within the compass of a day, Haman's fortune was completely reversed; but a few hours after he imagined his success most certain, this sentence of condemnation was pronounced upon him. Bp. Andrewes. When iniquitous enterprises, managed by subtilty or violence, are suddenly and seasonably defeated, then the ever-vigilant eye and the all-powerful hand are concerned. God beholdeth unjust men setting out in their designs; He letteth them proceed in full career till they are reaching the object of their wishes; then instantly He checketh, He turneth them back, He overthroweth them. Thus was Haman's plot confounded, when he had procured a royal decree, when he had fixed a time, when he had issued forth letters to destroy the people of God; thus declaring how vain is the presumption of the ungodly, how needful and how certain is His protection over His good and faithful servants; how much reason the one hath to dread Him, and the other to confide in Him. Barrow. 10. On the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. That same instrument, which he had reared on high for Mordecai's destruction, is appointed by Providence for his own; and his shame and punishment are rendered as conspicuous as his former honor and prosperity. Balguy. In that deliverance of the Jews from Haman's conspiracy, there is no extraordinary manifestation of God's power; no particular cause or agent was in its working advanced above the ordinary pitch of nature; and yet the contrivance or suiting of these ordinary agents appointed by God is more admirable than if the same end had been effected by means truly miraculous. For a king not to take kindly rest by night, though in a bed of ease, is not unusual; for a king again to seek to solace his waking thoughts by hearing the annals of his kingdom is more commendable than rare; but that king Ahasuerus should lie awake at that time, specially when Haman did plot the destruction of Mordecai; that, causing the chronicles of his kingdom to be read, the reader should light on the place wherein was recorded Mordecai's unrewarded good service in discovering the treason intended against the king's person—this was from the keeper of Israel, who neither slumbereth nor sleepeth, and who was marvellous in His people's sight. Jackson. Sooner or later, successful sin will be overthrown. We all "see the prosperity of the wicked," as the psalmist did, and, like him, we are grieved and troubled by it. But we must be like the patient patriarch, and wait to see "the end of the Lord." If we wait long enough we shall find that sin meets with its due award. The guilty empire founded in usurpation and bloodshed, and maintained by violence and corruption, goes down and goes out in ignominy and disaster. The guilty adventurer rears his head for many years, but misfortune and misery overtake him in time. Haman goes to the gallows at last. The truth is, that sin carries in itself the seeds of its own discomfiture; these must germinate, and grow, and bear fruit in time. "I have seen the wicked in great power," etc.; but wait awhile, and "lo, he is not: he has passed away" (Ps. 37: 35). Sooner or later, persecuted righteousness will triumph. Haman has gone to the gallows, and now Mordecai takes the chief chair of state. Let the godly man who is oppressed by iniquity bear his burden, and also his testimony; let him patiently pursue his course, looking up and looking on, and somewhere in the future the crown of a pure success awaits him—if not here, hereafter. "Weeping may endure for a night"—possibly a long night—but "joy comes in the morning." It may be the morrow of the distant future, but it will then be the beginning of a cloudless and endless day. P. C. 8:2. Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman. The "house of Haman" would include, 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. Esther, having received all this as a present from the king, placed her cousin in charge of it. B. C.—He whom Haman had plotted to destroy was now on the pinnacle of honor and power. "Man proposes, but God disposes." Haman passed away, and Mordecai sits in his place, and is clothed with power for the saving of the people whom their wicked adversary would annihilate. 3. Continued, spoke, fell at his feet, wept, besought.** Here are five verbs describing the actions of Esther, and they disclose what a world of deep and mingled emotions had taken possession of her soul. They reveal also the nobler and heroic elements of character. Many a one that had undergone what had been laid on her would have ceased now that Haman's body hung on the gibbet and Mordecai was in the seat of power. But this courageous woman rested not until all the work was done. She carries her people on her heart, and is ever ready to face danger in their behalf. Greene. 5. Reverse the letters devised by Haman.** To ask the king to unsay his own words was impossible. By representing the letters as devised by Haman, and written by Haman, Esther avoids doing so. 6. Esther's life was now safe, and probably her cousin's too.** But that was not enough. Her nation was still in danger. The royal decree had delivered the Jews throughout the empire into the hands of their enemies. In a few months, unless measures were meantime taken to check and hinder the malice of their foes, thousands of Israelites might be exposed to violence, pillage and massacre. The thought was to Esther cruel beyond bearing. "How," said she, "can I endure to see the evil that shall come unto my people, the destruction of my kindred?" This was patriotism indeed. P. C. 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 among 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 splendors, undaunted by the terror, 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?" Stanley.—None but a truly heroic soul could have uttered such words as these, and with such effect. These speeches themselves afford an argument in favor of the genuineness and authenticity of this book. If they were uttered by Esther, and recorded by the scribes who wrote down all that fell from the lips of the king and those in his presence, and were engrossed in "the book of daily records," we may well expect to find in these extracts from that book a true reflection of the genius, the character and intellectual ability of this remarkable woman. Put these speeches beside those of any heathen woman of antiquity, and how they tower up in all that constitutes womanly nobility. Greene. 8. The Medo-Persians prided themselves on the unchangeableness of their laws and edicts.** As Darius the Mede could not recede from his decree when he found that it menaced his favorite minister, Daniel; as Xerxes could not recall his word passed to Amestris, though it threatened to make a rebel of his brother; so Ahasuerus was (according to Persian notions) bound by his own act, and could not, without loss of his subjects' respect, annul the edict which he had allowed Haman to issue in his name, and sign with his signet. It was necessary to have recourse to contrivance. The Jews' enemies must be allowed to set on them; but the Jews might be permitted to defend themselves. That course had not been forbidden by the first edict; it was expressly allowed by the second. And the governors of provinces might be told to favor the Jews, and, if need were, to take their part. In this way the triumph of the Jews would be secured without the king having to go from his word. G. R. 9. 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. P. C. 9. This is the longest verse in the Bible. The word rendered "scribe" occurs only in one other place (3:12) in this book. Among the Jews, the position of scribe was one of great importance. Among the Persians, the honor attaching to this term must have been even greater than among the Jews, because fewer of the people in proportion could wield the pen. "Ctesias informs us that the royal archives were written on parchment; and there is abundant evidence that writing was an art perfectly familiar to the educated Persian" (Raselinson). To the satraps, pashas, and princes of the provinces. The satraps were the rulers of the provinces, imperial magistrates representing the king in the provinces. Their authority was purely political and civil, the king making the military commanders always amenable to himself. The number of the satraps and the extent of their jurisdiction varied at different times. Greene. 10,11. This state of apprehension lasted for somewhat more than two months. Then, a little before midsummer, the posts went once more speeding through the land, bearing a royal message. The former decree could not be directly countermanded; and so, to defeat it, the Jews were allowed and encouraged to resist in arms any attack that might be made upon them by the native races among whom they dwelt, and assured of the neutrality—the benevolent neutrality—of the royal forces. At once there was a revulsion of feeling. The Jews were confident of their own strength, if they might freely use it, unhampered by the fear of being taxed with rebellion, and punished by the central authority for insurrection. So, everywhere, "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" (verse 17). The sackcloth was put off; the mourning came to an end; feasting superseded fasting; "joy and gladness" took the place of sorrow and apprehension. G. R. 14. 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 above eight months; and two months would certainly have sufficed to carry the royal mandate to the remotest portions of the empire. Still, seeing how much depended on the mandate, and how necessary it was that the provincial governors should well comprehend the real wishes of the court in the matter (cf. chap. 9:3), we cannot be surprised that all haste was made. B. C. 15-17. Mordecai's honor and the Jews' joy. 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 honor; and thus arrayed he proceeded into the city of Susa, where the new edict was already known, and had been received with satisfaction (verse 15). The Persians, who formed the predominant element in the population of the town, sympathized with the Jews, and rejoiced in the king's favor toward 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" (verse 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. P. C. 17. 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. H.—Persecution always defeats its own object. Viewed as mere policy, it is the worst that can be employed. Persecute error, and it will spread tenfold; persecute truth, and it will spread a hundredfold. Unless, therefore, you wish the principles you hate to gain ground, persecute not at all. Haman, while he brought utter ruin upon himself by his cruel attempt to exterminate the Jews, raised the latter into an incomparably better position than they occupied before. P. C. The Jews who remained among the heathen were thus not only to be preserved, as well as those who returned home, but they and their religion were destined to come to honor; and so the future residence of the Jews who remained behind among the heathen would serve ever to diffuse more widely the knowledge and worship of the true God, and to prepare a larger number than that of the Jews only for the advent of Christ. This new favor toward the Jews was adapted to promote the views of Ezra and Nehemiah (cf. Ezra 9: 8, 9). C. G. B.—The dispersion of the Jews throughout the numerous provinces of the Babylonian and Persian empires became providentially the means of publishing the true religion among the people with whom they were intermixed. Being often eminently distinguished by the royal favor, they were enabled to convey a knowledge of the truth with greater advantage; the evident interpositions of God in the cause of His people also raising exalted sentiments of His religion. Owen. 7:1, 2 So the king and Haman came to banquet with Esther the queen. And the king said again unto Esther on the second day at the banquet of wine, What is thy petition, queen Esther? and it shall be granted thee: and what is thy request? even to the half of the kingdom it shall be performed. Then Esther the queen answered and said, If I have found favour in thy sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request: for we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my peace, although the adversary could not have compensated for the king's damage. Then spake the king Ahasuerus and said unto Esther the queen, Who is he, and where is he, that durst presume in his heart to do so? And Esther said, An adversary and an enemy, even this wicked Haman. Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen. And the king arose in his wrath from the banquet of wine and went into the palace garden: and Haman stood up to make request for his life to Esther the queen; for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king. Then the king returned out of the palace garden into the place of the banquet of wine; and Haman was fallen upon the couch whereon Esther was. Then said the king, Will he even force the queen before me in the house? As the word went out of the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face. Then said Harbonah, one of the chamberlains that were before the king, Behold, also, the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman hath made for Mordecai, who spake good for the king, standeth in the house of Haman. And the king said, Hang him thereon. So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king's wrath pacified. 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. 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. 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 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: for how can I endure to see the evil that shall come 7 unto my people? or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred? 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 8 upon the Jews. Write ye also to 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 9 the king's ring, may no man reverse. 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, 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 10 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 11 the king's service, bred of the stud: 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, their little 12 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 13 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 14 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 15 decree was given out in Shushan the palace. 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 16 of fine linen and purple: and the city of Shushan shouted and was glad. The Jews had 17 light and gladness, and joy and honour. And in every province, and in every city, whither-soever 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. 7:3, 4. My life, and my people. The queen's lips are unsealed now, and three glowing sentences will tell the whole. Sold, destroy, kill, perish—the very words of Haman's infamous decree! Compensate—literally, "the enemy could not be even, or level with"—i.e., up to the level of, the king's damage. Let the enemy exhaust all his resources, and the king would still be a loser. Street. 4. It was the proffer of ten thousand talents, wherewith Haman hoped both to purchase his intended revenge and the reputation of a worthy patriot. Well might Esther plead, "If we Jews deserved death, what needed our slaughter to be bought out? and if we deserved it not, what horrible cruelty was it to set a price upon innocent blood! It is not any offence of ours; it is only the despite of an enemy that hath wrought our destruction." Bp. H.—Esther adds that if it had been only a question of bondage, and of selling into such bondage of every man and woman of them, it was not her voice that should have been heard to deprecate, nor her lips that should have been parted in prayer to prevent it. But, she says, the case was one of greater, even of supreme extremity. They were sold—to death. They were sold, in the words of the opportunely quoted "decree," "to be destroyed, to be slain and to perish." P. C. It has been said that the whole book "breathes nothing but a spirit of pride and revenge"—"a very narrow-minded and Jewish spirit of revenge and persecution"—and that thus it is quite unworthy of a place in the canon. To us it seems that this is a gross misrepresentation. Esther, the heroine, is not a Judith, not even a Jael, but a timid, shrinking woman, forced into action by the danger of her near relative and of her nation. What can be more affecting than her words when first required to take an active part: "Go and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day; I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law; and if I perish, I perish!" Or what, again, more touching than her exclamation: "Oh, how could I endure to see it—the evil which is coming on my people! Oh, how could I endure to see it—the destruction of my kindred!" (8:6.) So far is she from being revengeful or persecutting, that she declares, apparently from her heart, "If we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my tongue" (7:4). G. R. 5. Who is this? The king is evidently aroused. The words of Esther have gone home to the mark. He throws out his pronouns in a wild confusion of excitement, and then repeats them with the order inverted. "Who is he, that one—and where is that one, he, whose heart has filled him (with the audacity) to do so?"—it is clear that the identification cannot wait. It must be prompt and unmistakable. And the queen is equal to the demand. 6. The man, adversary. The queen sees her advantage; and she speaks with all the vehemence of one who has deeply felt the monstrous injustice of Haman's plot. The collocation of the words in the Hebrew leaves no doubt that they were accompanied with a gesture of the hand; her scorn and righteous indignation flashed out as she pointed to him. "The man, adversary and enemy, is Haman, the wretch, this (one)." Well might he be terror-stricken in that presence. He reads, in the king's countenance and in his movements, the angry excitement that has taken possession of him. Street. 8. Haman, in the intensity of his supplication, had thrown himself upon the couch at Esther's feet. Of course the king did not believe his own words. But he meant to tax Haman with a further offence in not sufficiently respecting the person of the queen; and he thereby suggested to the attendants his instant execution. B. C. They covered Haman's face. It was the custom so to cover the faces of condemned criminals, a custom also found among the ancient Romans, in that form of pronouncing sentence on a criminal ascribed by Cicero to Tarquinius Superbus: "Go, officer, bind his hands, veil his head, hang him on the fatal tree." This custom was noticed in Egypt by Dr. Pococke, who speaks of a man brought before the Bey, like a malefactor, with his hands behind him as if tied, and a napkin put over his head, as malefactors commonly have. Parkhurst. 9. Hang him thereon. Thus, within the compass of a day, Haman's fortune was completely reversed; but a few hours after he imagined his success most certain, this sentence of condemnation was pronounced upon him. Bp. Andrewes. When iniquitous enterprises, managed by subtilty or violence, are suddenly and seasonably defeated, then the ever-vigilant eye and the all-powerful hand are concerned. God beholdeth unjust men setting out in their designs; He letteth them proceed in full career till they are reaching the object of their wishes; then instantly He checketh, He turneth them back, He overthroweth them. Thus was Haman's plot confounded, when he had procured a royal decree, when he had fixed a time, when he had issued forth letters to destroy the people of God; thus declaring how vain is the presumption of the ungodly, how needful and how certain is His protection over His good and faithful servants; how much reason the one hath to dread Him, and the other to confide in Him. Barrow. 10. On the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. That same instrument, which he had reared on high for Mordecai's destruction, is appointed by Providence for his own; and his shame and punishment are rendered as conspicuous as his former honor and prosperity. Balguy. In that deliverance of the Jews from Haman's conspiracy, there is no extraordinary manifestation of God's power; no particular cause or agent was in its working advanced above the ordinary pitch of nature; and yet the contrivance or suiting of these ordinary agents appointed by God is more admirable than if the same end had been effected by means truly miraculous. For a king not to take kindly rest by night, though in a bed of ease, is not unusual; for a king again to seek to solace his waking thoughts by hearing the annals of his kingdom is more commendable than rare; but that king Ahasuerus should lie awake at that time, specially when Haman did plot the destruction of Mordecai; that, causing the chronicles of his kingdom to be read, the reader should light on the place wherein was recorded Mordecai's unrewarded good service in discovering the treason intended against the king's person—this was from the keeper of Israel, who neither slumbereth nor sleepeth, and who was marvellous in His people's sight. Jackson. Sooner or later, successful sin will be overthrown. We all "see the prosperity of the wicked," as the psalmist did, and, like him, we are grieved and troubled by it. But we must be like the patient patriarch, and wait to see "the end of the Lord." If we wait long enough we shall find that sin meets with its due award. The guilty empire founded in usurpation and bloodshed, and maintained by violence and corruption, goes down and goes out in ignominy and disaster. The guilty adventurer rears his head for many years, but misfortune and misery overtake him in time. Haman goes to the gallows at last. The truth is, that sin carries in itself the seeds of its own discomfiture; these must germinate, and grow, and bear fruit in time. "I have seen the wicked in great power," etc.; but wait awhile, and "lo, he is not: he has passed away" (Ps. 37: 35). Sooner or later, persecuted righteousness will triumph. Haman has gone to the gallows, and now Mordecai takes the chief chair of state. Let the godly man who is oppressed by iniquity bear his burden, and also his testimony; let him patiently pursue his course, looking up and looking on, and somewhere in the future the crown of a pure success awaits him—if not here, hereafter. "Weeping may endure for a night"—possibly a long night—but "joy comes in the morning." It may be the morrow of the distant future, but it will then be the beginning of a cloudless and endless day. P. C. 8:2. Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman. The "house of Haman" would include, 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. Esther, having received all this as a present from the king, placed her cousin in charge of it. B. C.—He whom Haman had plotted to destroy was now on the pinnacle of honor and power. "Man proposes, but God disposes." Haman passed away, and Mordecai sits in his place, and is clothed with power for the saving of the people whom their wicked adversary would annihilate. 3. Continued, spoke, fell at his feet, wept, besought.** Here are five verbs describing the actions of Esther, and they disclose what a world of deep and mingled emotions had taken possession of her soul. They reveal also the nobler and heroic elements of character. Many a one that had undergone what had been laid on her would have ceased now that Haman's body hung on the gibbet and Mordecai was in the seat of power. But this courageous woman rested not until all the work was done. She carries her people on her heart, and is ever ready to face danger in their behalf. Greene. 5. Reverse the letters devised by Haman.** To ask the king to unsay his own words was impossible. By representing the letters as devised by Haman, and written by Haman, Esther avoids doing so. 6. Esther's life was now safe, and probably her cousin's too.** But that was not enough. Her nation was still in danger. The royal decree had delivered the Jews throughout the empire into the hands of their enemies. In a few months, unless measures were meantime taken to check and hinder the malice of their foes, thousands of Israelites might be exposed to violence, pillage and massacre. The thought was to Esther cruel beyond bearing. "How," said she, "can I endure to see the evil that shall come unto my people, the destruction of my kindred?" This was patriotism indeed. P. C. 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 among 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 splendors, undaunted by the terror, 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?" Stanley.—None but a truly heroic soul could have uttered such words as these, and with such effect. These speeches themselves afford an argument in favor of the genuineness and authenticity of this book. If they were uttered by Esther, and recorded by the scribes who wrote down all that fell from the lips of the king and those in his presence, and were engrossed in "the book of daily records," we may well expect to find in these extracts from that book a true reflection of the genius, the character and intellectual ability of this remarkable woman. Put these speeches beside those of any heathen woman of antiquity, and how they tower up in all that constitutes womanly nobility. Greene. 8. The Medo-Persians prided themselves on the unchangeableness of their laws and edicts.** As Darius the Mede could not recede from his decree when he found that it menaced his favorite minister, Daniel; as Xerxes could not recall his word passed to Amestris, though it threatened to make a rebel of his brother; so Ahasuerus was (according to Persian notions) bound by his own act, and could not, without loss of his subjects' respect, annul the edict which he had allowed Haman to issue in his name, and sign with his signet. It was necessary to have recourse to contrivance. The Jews' enemies must be allowed to set on them; but the Jews might be permitted to defend themselves. That course had not been forbidden by the first edict; it was expressly allowed by the second. And the governors of provinces might be told to favor the Jews, and, if need were, to take their part. In this way the triumph of the Jews would be secured without the king having to go from his word. G. R. 9. 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. P. C. 9. This is the longest verse in the Bible. The word rendered "scribe" occurs only in one other place (3:12) in this book. Among the Jews, the position of scribe was one of great importance. Among the Persians, the honor attaching to this term must have been even greater than among the Jews, because fewer of the people in proportion could wield the pen. "Ctesias informs us that the royal archives were written on parchment; and there is abundant evidence that writing was an art perfectly familiar to the educated Persian" (Raselinson). To the satraps, pashas, and princes of the provinces. The satraps were the rulers of the provinces, imperial magistrates representing the king in the provinces. Their authority was purely political and civil, the king making the military commanders always amenable to himself. The number of the satraps and the extent of their jurisdiction varied at different times. Greene. 10,11. This state of apprehension lasted for somewhat more than two months. Then, a little before midsummer, the posts went once more speeding through the land, bearing a royal message. The former decree could not be directly countermanded; and so, to defeat it, the Jews were allowed and encouraged to resist in arms any attack that might be made upon them by the native races among whom they dwelt, and assured of the neutrality—the benevolent neutrality—of the royal forces. At once there was a revulsion of feeling. The Jews were confident of their own strength, if they might freely use it, unhampered by the fear of being taxed with rebellion, and punished by the central authority for insurrection. So, everywhere, "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" (verse 17). The sackcloth was put off; the mourning came to an end; feasting superseded fasting; "joy and gladness" took the place of sorrow and apprehension. G. R. 14. 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 above eight months; and two months would certainly have sufficed to carry the royal mandate to the remotest portions of the empire. Still, seeing how much depended on the mandate, and how necessary it was that the provincial governors should well comprehend the real wishes of the court in the matter (cf. chap. 9:3), we cannot be surprised that all haste was made. B. C. 15-17. Mordecai's honor and the Jews' joy. 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 honor; and thus arrayed he proceeded into the city of Susa, where the new edict was already known, and had been received with satisfaction (verse 15). The Persians, who formed the predominant element in the population of the town, sympathized with the Jews, and rejoiced in the king's favor toward 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" (verse 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. P. C. 17. 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. H.—Persecution always defeats its own object. Viewed as mere policy, it is the worst that can be employed. Persecute error, and it will spread tenfold; persecute truth, and it will spread a hundredfold. Unless, therefore, you wish the principles you hate to gain ground, persecute not at all. Haman, while he brought utter ruin upon himself by his cruel attempt to exterminate the Jews, raised the latter into an incomparably better position than they occupied before. P. C. The Jews who remained among the heathen were thus not only to be preserved, as well as those who returned home, but they and their religion were destined to come to honor; and so the future residence of the Jews who remained behind among the heathen would serve ever to diffuse more widely the knowledge and worship of the true God, and to prepare a larger number than that of the Jews only for the advent of Christ. This new favor toward the Jews was adapted to promote the views of Ezra and Nehemiah (cf. Ezra 9: 8, 9). C. G. B.—The dispersion of the Jews throughout the numerous provinces of the Babylonian and Persian empires became providentially the means of publishing the true religion among the people with whom they were intermixed. Being often eminently distinguished by the royal favor, they were enabled to convey a knowledge of the truth with greater advantage; the evident interpositions of God in the cause of His people also raising exalted sentiments of His religion. Owen. 9:1 Now in the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, on the thirteenth day of the same, when the king's commandment and his decree drew near to be put in execution, in the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to have rule over them; whereas it was turned to the contrary, that the Jews had rule over them that hated them; the Jews gathered themselves together in their cities throughout all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, to lay hand on such as sought their hurt: and no man could withstand them; for the fear of them was fallen upon all the peoples. And all the princes of the provinces, and the satraps, and the governors, and they that did the king's business, helped the Jews; because the fear of Mordecai was fallen upon them. For Mordecai was great in the king's house, and his fame went forth throughout all the provinces: for the man Mordecai waxed greater and greater. And the Jews smote all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, and with slaughter and destruction, and did what they would unto them that hated them. And in Shushan the palace the Jews slew and destroyed five hundred men. And Parshandatha, and Dalphon, 8, 9 and Aspatha, and Poratha, and Adalia, and Aridatha, and Parmashta, and Arisai, and Aridai, and Vaizatha, the ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Jews' enemy, slew they; but on the spoil they laid not their hand. On that day the number of those that were slain in Shushan the palace was brought before the king. And the king said unto Esther the queen, The Jews have slain and destroyed five hundred men in Shushan the palace, and the ten sons of Haman; what then have they done in the rest of the king's provinces! Now what is thy petition? and it shall be granted thee: or what is thy request further? and it shall be done. Then said Esther, If it please the king, let it be granted to the Jews which are in Shushan to do to-morrow also according unto this day's decree, and let Haman's ten sons be hanged upon the gallows. And the king commanded it so to be done: and a decree was given out in Shushan; and they hanged Haman's ten sons. And the Jews that were in Shushan gathered themselves together on the fourteenth day also of the month Adar, and slew three hundred men in Shushan; but on the spoil they laid not their hand. And the other Jews that were in the king's provinces gathered themselves together, and stood for their lives, and had rest from their enemies, and slew of them that hated them seventy and five thousand; but on the spoil they laid not their hand. This was done on the thirteenth day of the month Adar; and on the fourteenth day of the same they rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness. But the Jews that were in Shushan assembled together on the thirteenth day thereof, and on the fourteenth thereof; and on the 19 fifteenth day of the same they rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness. Therefore do the Jews of the villages, that dwell in the unwalled towns, make the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of gladness and feasting, and a good day, and of sending portions one to another. 20 And Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters unto all the Jews that were in all the 21 provinces of the king Ahasuerus, both nigh and far, to enjoin them that they should keep 22 the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly, as the days wherein the Jews had rest from their enemies, and the month which was turned unto them from sorrow to gladness, and from mourning into a good day : that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor. 23 And the Jews undertook to do as they had begun, and as Mordecai had written unto them ; 24 because Haman the son of Hammadatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had devised against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast Pur, that is, the lot, to consume them, 25 and to destroy them ; but when the matter came before the king, he commanded by letters that his wicked device, which he had devised against the Jews, should return upon his own 26 head ; and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows. Wherefore they called these days Purim, after the name of Pur. Therefore because of all the words of this letter, and of that which they had seen concerning this matter, and that which had come unto them, 27 the Jews ordained, and took upon them, and upon their seed, and upon all such as joined themselves unto them, so as it should not fail, that they would keep these two days according to the writing thereof, and according to the appointed time thereof, every year ; and that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city ; and that these days of Purim should not fail from among 28 the Jews, nor the memorial of them perish from their seed. Then Esther the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, wrote with all authority to confirm this second 29 letter of Purim. And he sent letters unto all the Jews, to the hundred twenty and seven 30 provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, with words of peace and truth, to confirm these days of Purim in their appointed times, according as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had enjoined them, and as they had ordained for themselves and for their seed, in the matter 31 of the fastings and their cry. And the commandment of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim ; and it was written in the book. 10 : 1 And the king Ahasuerus laid a tribute upon the land, and upon the isles of the sea. 2. And all the acts of his power and of his might, and the full account of the greatness of Mordecai, whereunto the king advanced him, are they not written in the book of the chron- 3 icles of the kings of Media and Persia ? For Mordecai the Jew was next unto king Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews, and accepted of the multitude of his brethren ; seeking the good of his people, and speaking peace to all his seed. 9 : 3-16. Mordecai's position at the capital being known, and his power evidently established, the Persian governors of all grades understood it to be their duty to throw their weight into the scale on behalf of the Jews, and lend them whatever help they could (verse 3). The Jews everywhere got the better of their adversaries. In "Shushan the palace," as it was called, or the upper town, of which the palace formed a part, they killed five hundred of them (verse 6). In the rest of the empire, if we accept the numbers of the present Hebrew text, as many as seventy-five thousand (verse 16). The Septuagint translators, however, who would have no reason for falsifying the text, give the number as fifteen thousand, which seems to be intrinsically more probable. They also, on the ensuing day, the 14th of Adar, by special permission of Ahasuerus, contended with their adversaries in Shushan a second time, and slew on this occasion three hundred (verse 15). Among the killed, the only persons mentioned by name are ten sons of Haman, who were slain in "Shushan the palace" on the first day, while on the second day permission was given to expose their bodies on crosses (verse 14). P. C. 5,6. The record shows (verse 2) that the Jews stood strictly on the defensive, that they made no attack on any, but simply repelled the assault of those who sought to destroy them. It also shows how furiously their enemies attacked them ; and that had self-defence been denied them, they would have been exterminated as a people. 10. But on the spoil they laid not their hands. According to the decree (8 : 11) the Jews were allowed " to take the spoil of them for booty;” but three times it is recorded (9 : 10, 15, 16) that “on the spoil they laid not their hands.” They were allowed also “to destroy, to kill, and cause to perish little children and women,” as well as “the force”—i.e., the military force, of the people; but the record expressly declares that they put to death only men (9 : 6, 12, 15). We can see how this would come out of the fact that the Jews stood on the defensive, and that only the armed force of the people—i.e., the men, would be the assailants. We have no evidence that the Jews had any desire to destroy the women and children. It was the edict of the heathen king, the counterpart of his previous decree (3 : 13), which gave them the liberty. But they were the people of God, and as such morally far above their oppressors. The wives and children of the slain men needed the property all the more that the husband and father had been taken from them. It was not plunder that the Jews sought, but self-protection, the right to exist unmolested. 12. This verse is important as showing that the idea of further slaughter originated not with Esther, but rather with the king himself. He suggests here that something more is needed, and asks what it shall be. Greene. 13. It would seem that the Jews in Susa gathered themselves in the upper town on the appointed day, and were engaged there the whole day with their enemies. Esther asks that they may be allowed a second day to complete their work and free themselves from all danger of further persecution from their foes. She is not likely to have made this request unless prompted to make it by Mordecai, who must have had means of knowing how matters really stood, and, as the chief minister over the whole nation, is likely to have been actuated rather by general views of policy than by a blind spirit of revenge. P. C. There was no thirst for blood in Esther’s heart. Her whole character as delineated in this book is averse to this; but she was made of stuff stern enough to demand further bloodshed if it were needed to stay the unrighteous blotting out of her people and God’s church. This verse also shows that the right of self-defence was granted the Jews only as a special favor. There could be nothing wrong in asking that the privilege of self-defence might extend over all the days of the king’s reign. It is what subjects in all Christian civilized society enjoy. As to impaling Haman’s sons, that was intended to strike terror into the adversaries of the Jews. Nothing could have been better fitted to check the work of slaughter. They had been slain; now let them be hung up as a warning to all who had their spirit and were doing their fell work. These sons seem to have had the spirit and purpose of their father to “kill, destroy, and cause to perish” all the Jews. Doubtless Esther made this request at the prompting of Mordecai and such wise Jews as were in conference with him. Greene. 14. They hanged Haman’s ten sons.** A further instance of the retribution awaiting guilt. Haman had flattered his malicious and sanguinary spirit with the cruel hope of destroying the whole Jewish kindred; now his own sons (of the number of whom he had before boasted) are all cut off, and on the gallows share the reproach of their father. Bp. H. 16. Slew seventy and five thousand.** These persons were destroyed in consequence of their having obstinately persevered in measures of active hostility against the Jews, notwithstanding the change in the disposition of the king. Hales.—The people whom the Jews slaughtered were not, perhaps, in any case, Persians. The standing army of Persians which governed the empire was on the side of the Jews (Esth. 9 : 3); their enemies were the idolatrous people of the provinces, conquered races like themselves, for whom the Persians had little regard, and with whom they felt no sympathy. The number, seventy-five thousand, is uncertain, for it is replaced by fifteen thousand in the Septuagint version, and this latter figure is more in harmony with the eight hundred destroyed at Susa (verses 6, 15), than the larger number of the present Hebrew text. The “tameness, apathy and submission” objected to by the critics are imaginations of their own, founded merely on the silence of Scripture, which is always a weak ground, and here has no weight at all. It is the writer’s object to set before us broadly the great danger of the Jews, their deliverance, and their triumph—not to give us all the details and minor features of the transactions. He does not tell us what the Jews would have done had the original design of Haman been carried out, or what their enemies did when the Jews set upon them. It is quite a gratuitous supposition that there was no fighting, and that none of the Jews perished. G. R. There not only is no evidence of there having been any indiscriminate slaughter on the part of the Jews, but presumably none were slain except such as rose up to slay. Esther and Mordecai desired one thing—the safety of their people. They wished for "rest from their enemies." They probably felt that they were the ministers of righteous retribution. They desired that Haman's ten sons "hanged on the gallows" should still drive home on an impressed populace the sense and conviction of what a force righteous retribution was, and how much men ought "to stand in awe" because of it; but there is no proof whatever that in all the relief to the bitterness of their soul revenge played any part. The lessons of this portion of the narrative are not needed for the pulpit on every Lord's day certainly, but it may be they are provided here, in the universality of the use of the Divine Book, for some special and solemn crises. Barker. 17-32. Festival held, and feast of Purim instituted.** A natural instinct led the Jews, so soon as their triumph was accomplished, to indulge themselves in a day of rest and rejoicing (verse 17). The writer of the Book of Esther, practising his usual reticence, says nothing of the character of the "gladness;" but we can scarcely be wrong in believing it to have been in the main religious, and to have included gratitude to God for their deliverance, the ascription of praise to His name, and an outpouring of the heart before Him in earnest and prolonged thanksgiving. The circumstances of the struggle caused a difference, with regard to the date of the day of rejoicing, between the Jews of the capital and those of the provinces. The metropolitan Jews had two days of struggle, and could not "rest" until the third day, which was the 15th of Adar (verse 18); the provincial Jews began and ended their work in one day, the 13th, and so their thanksgiving-day was the 14th and not the 15th of the month (verse 17). The consequence was that it was wisely resolved to keep both days (verse 21). Nothing seems to have been determined as to the mode of keeping the feast, except that both days were to be "days of feasting and joy," and days upon which the richer members of the community should send "portions" and "gifts" to the poorer ones (verse 22). The name, "feast of Purim," was at once attached to the festival, in memory of Haman's consultation of the lot, the word "Pur" meaning "lot" in Persian (verse 24). The festival became a national institution by the general consent of the Jews everywhere (verse 27), and has remained to the present day among the most cherished of their usages. It falls in early spring, a month before the Passover, and occupies two days, which are still those fixed by Mordecai and Esther, the 14th and 15th of Adar. The day preceding the feast is observed as a fast day, in commemoration of Esther's fast before going in uninvited to the king (chap. 4:16). 20. Mordecai wrote these things.** Mordecai seems, in the first instance, to have written to the provincial Jews, suggesting to them the future observance of two days of Purim instead of one, and explaining the grounds of his proposition, but without venturing to issue any order. When he found his proposition well received (verses 23, 27), he sent out a second letter, "with all authority" (verse 29), enjoining the observance. P. C. 22. And of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor.** They made it a day both of thanksgiving and praise to God, and of feasting with one another; and they sent portions and gifts to their poorer neighbors, that they might partake in the festival. Bp. Patrick.—In like manner almsgiving and attention to the poor ought to make part of every Christian festival. Bp. Andrews. 25. Should return upon his own head.** When such men as Haman are not only supplanted in their wicked contrivances, but chastised for them, these occurrences do more than insinuate Divine wisdom to intervene, countermining and confounding such devices. For he it is who, as the Scripture telleth us, maketh the diviners mad; that turneth wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish; disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise; taketh the wise in their own craftiness, and turneth down the counsels of the froward headlong. Barrow. 27. We see in this verse a remarkable instance of national solidarity. The Jewish nation, in its present and prospective members, was one community. One life, one interest, one fate, has awaited that people wherever they have lived. In many respects the Jews are the most remarkable people that have ever lived upon the earth; and the cause of it, humanly speaking, is their national unity. The Jews in the time of Esther pledged themselves and their successors to a specific course of action. They did it not from selfish, worldly considerations, but out of regard to God and the interests of religion. Their children have accepted the action of their ancestors as their own, and faithfully complied with all its requisitions. Such a national unity as this cannot but be most powerful in moulding and shaping the character and destiny of a nation. The Jews, though they have been scattered to the four winds and oppressed beyond measure, are still a mighty and unified people, their hearts throbbing with one life-current, and their wills subject to one Lord and King. National unity founded in religion finds a signal illustration in the Jews. Greene. 28. That these days should be remembered.** Wherever Mordecai had sent to his people the messages of relief and the warrants to resist, there he now sends proposals which, if acceded to, will insure the perpetual memory of their deliverance, and will suggest ever new gratefulness for it. Esther joins heart and hand in the same, and the people themselves warmly approve the suggestion. They solemnly and enthusiastically adopt the proposal. They "undertook to do as they had begun, and as Mordecai had written to them." The method of observing an anniversary to all generations is accepted as the means by which "the memorial" of their deliverance "shall never perish" from them or "their seed." It is evident that a deep religious interest was thrown into this matter, and the account of it is repeated as many as four times, and with minuteness of detail. The example is good for individuals. The precedent is good for nations. P. C. It was usual with God's people in all ages to keep remarkable deliverances in perpetual remembrance. Most of the feasts that the Israelites had tended to this end, as the Passover and Feast of Tabernacles. For by memorials of mercy the memory of mercies is kept fresh; and men thereby are the more and oftener stirred up to praise God for them. Yea, by this means God's mercies, manifested in one age, are propagated to many ages; whereby many ages have matter of praising God ministered unto them, and of believing in God, and of hoping for deliverance in their distress. Ainsworth. That these days of Purim should not fail. Josephus bears testimony to the observance of this festival in his time in the following words: "Hence, even now all the Jews that are in the habitable earth keep these days festival, and send presents to one another." It has also been regularly observed by the Jews to this day as an annual solemnity; and it forms a standing monument of the events recorded in this book. Gray.—The festival has been generally observed by a total rest from labor, by attendance in the synagogues, by sending presents to one another, by giving portions of food and gifts to the poor, and by great rejoicing and festivity. In the synagogue the Book of Esther is solemnly read from beginning to end; all Jews, whether men, women, children, or servants, being required to attend, because they all had a share in the deliverance obtained by Esther. Before the reading begins three thanksgivings are briefly offered up; in the first they praise God for counting them worthy to attend this sacred solemnity; in the second, for His wonderful preservation of their forefathers; and in the third, for their having lived to keep another festival in memory of it. The history of Esther is always read on this occasion from a copy written on a roll of parchment, and never from a printed book, it bearing peculiarly the title of the Megillah, or roll of Esther. Prideaux. 29. This second letter of Purim.** Mordecai's first letter (verse 20) was to some extent tentative, a recommendation. The Jews generally having accepted the recommendation (verses 23, 27), he and Esther now wrote a second letter, which was mandatory. The expression "this second letter" seems to imply that originally a copy of the letter followed. B. C. 30. Words of peace and truth.** Words are of inestimable weight, for evil or for good. Human words move men mightily; and of Christ's words we know that they shall "never pass away." This description of the message which Mordecai and Esther sent to their countrymen throughout the empire is very significant. It consisted of words which, while they were words of truth, concealing nothing, declaring all, were yet words of peace, speaking peace unto Israel. Chap. 10. Conclusion: The greatness of Ahasuerus, and of Mordecai under him. The Book of Esther might have been expected to terminate with the institution of the Purim feast. All that has gone before is subordinate to this, and the reader would be satisfied, and require no more, if the book stopped at the end of chap. 9. But the writer, perhaps from personal attachment to Mordecai, perhaps from mere patriotic pride in him, cannot lay down the pen until he has put on record the strength and support that he was to the Jews of his day. For the rest of Ahasuerus' "power and his might," the writer is content to refer his readers to "the Book of the Chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia" (verse 2), which contained also an account of "the greatness of Mordecai, whereto the king advanced him." This greatness forms the sole subject of the concluding verse, which declares Mordecai's position (1) with respect to the Persians—"next to the king;" and (2) with respect to the Jews—"great among them," "accepted," and their protector and benefactor, "seeking their wealth," or welfare, and "speaking peace," or insuring tranquillity, to all the whole race or people. P. C. Under all revolutions, the Jews of the Captivity had the comfort to see that some persons of their own body were surprisingly advanced into power and authority to patronize and defend their cause; which, as it showed the concern of the Almighty for the welfare of the Jews, must also have excited in their minds a regard for His honor and glory, and must have confirmed their dependence upon His great and precious promises. Owen. 1. King Ahasuerus laid a tribute. Some fresh arrangement of the tribute is likely to have followed on the return of Xerxes from Greece. His exchequer would be exhausted, and steps would have to be taken in order to replenish it. The expression in the original does not necessarily imply the first imposition of a tribute. Upon the isles of the sea.** Cyprus, Aradus, the island Tyre, Platea, etc., remained in the hands of the Persians after the victories of the Greeks, and may be the "isles" here intended; or Xerxes may have ignored the loss of the Ægean Islands, and have "laid" his tribute upon them, though he might not be able to exact it. 2. Power and might. In the later years of Xerxes his "power and might" were chiefly shown in the erection of magnificent buildings, more especially at Persepolis. He abstained from military expeditions. Kings of Media and Persia.** Media takes precedence of Persia (contrarily to chap. 1: 3, 14, 18, etc.), because the kingdom of Media had preceded that of Persia, and in the "Book of the Chronicles" its history came first. B. C. 2,3. In these verses is set forth the greatness of Xerxes for the purpose of showing to what an elevation Mordecai, as the head and representative of the Jewish nation, had been raised. The book opened with the almost total obscuration of God's people; it closes with them as the brightest star in the galaxy of nations which composed this great kingdom. Thus the providence of God is the more manifest in caring for, delivering, and promoting them who trust and love Him. Acceptable to the multitude of his brethren. Mordecai was so manifestly raised up by God for the deliverance and promotion of his nation, that the Jews everywhere felt that they honored God in honoring His instrument. Gratitude also for what Mordecai had done in their behalf would incite them to respect and affection. Seeking good for his people. Mordecai set a good example for all rulers. He did not seek self in honor or wealth; the good of the people was his aim. This is true patriotism. Speaking peace to all. Mordecai spoke words of cheer, hope, encouragement, and prosperity to his race. These are the closing words in the historical part of the Old Testament, and they seem to be a kind of prophecy of Him who was to come, bringing peace and salvation to all nations. Greene. The wealth and peace of a people the patriot's aim. It is a fine description of the aim of Mordecai's public life with which this book closes. What more could be said of the patriotic statesman in any kingdom than this: that he was ever found "seeking the wealth of his people, and speaking peace to all his seed"? Wealth includes not simply riches, but welfare in every sense: prosperity, security, progress, happiness—all that can truly enrich and bless a nation. He spoke peace to them. His acts had the effect of delivering them from the fear of their enemies. He held over them the shield of the king's protection, and enabled them to live and work in quiet contentedness. It is reserved for the very last sentences of this book to give to one of the chiefest of its characters the place and testimony he had well earned. He has won for himself the name of the great and the good statesman. He is "next to Ahasuerus;" and what he did and what he was affected not the Jews only, but the whole empire—all of the various and wide dominion of the king. He is stamped on the sacred page as the type of a beneficent statesman. #### Religious Character and Aim of this Book. God's name is absent from the whole book, but God Himself is in every chapter. There is no other book except Canticles in the sacred volume in which the Divine Being is neither mentioned nor obviously referred to. Yet no disbeliever in God could have written it; and no believer in God can read it without finding his faith strengthened thereby. A national festival is historically accounted for. The feast of Purim was held in high honor, and observed with great regularity and solemnity and rejoicing among the Jews. "The temple may fail, but the Purim never," was one of their proverbs. This Book of Esther was written to explain the origin of this national festival. A valuable moral lesson pervades the whole narrative. Not only is the great general truth, that earthly greatness and prosperity are mutable and transitory, brought effectively before us, but we learn that God humbles the proud and exalts the lowly who trust in Him. The providence of God is strikingly and memorably displayed. We are brought into contact with the righteousness and the rule of the Most High. A great deliverance is wrought; and while the means are human, the deliverance itself is Divine. God appears as "mighty to save." The book is, accordingly, one peculiarly suitable to those in distress, perplexity, and trouble. Its story is an illustration of the Divine providence. A complicated chain of events and actions is so governed as to work out the deliverance of the exiled Jews from a plot which aimed at their destruction; and this without any miracle or mention of Divine interposition. The fact is disclosed that the Jews, while in exile, under judgment, and without vision, were remembered and cared for by God. Outcast, they were not cast off; they were still the children of promise; God was still faithful to them. From this fact an inference may be drawn. There is a Divine providence in the world; no supernatural exercises of power are needed to enable God to effect His will; all laws and things are His creatures, and therefore under His control; human dramas and tragedies take place every day in which acutest plans are foiled, and, by seemingly natural processes, truth and right vindicated. P. C. Three aspects of God's providence strikingly illustrated. 1. That God overrules the designs of the wicked for a larger blessing upon the good. This is an absolute and universal truth as respects nations and individuals. 2. The Divine providence operates equally in things little and great. To effect the final deliverance and larger liberty of God's oppressed people very many trivial occurrences were combined, each of which was indispensable to the ultimate result. 3. The agencies of Providence operate in response to the earnest and trustful prayers of God's people. "In every province was great mourning and fasting and weeping, and many lay in sackcloth and ashes." And a "three days' fast" before God was kept by the Jews in Shushan and by Esther with her maidens. And we know by sure inference that Jehovah wrought deliverance for His people in answer to their fervent supplications. B. The Old Testament history here terminates. For the space of nearly five hundred years— from the time of Nehemiah and Malachi to that of Paul—the Jews possessed no inspired writer; and their history, when recorded at all, was related in works which were not regarded by themselves as authoritative or canonical. All the evidence which we possess from profane sources of a really important and trustworthy character tends to confirm the truth of the history delivered to us in the sacred volume. The monumental records of past ages—Assyrian, Babylonian, Egyptian, Persian, Phoenician—the writings of historians who have based their histories on contemporary annals, as Manetho, Berosus, Dius, Menander, Nicolas of Damascus—the descriptions given by eye-witnesses of the Oriental manners and customs—the proofs obtained by modern research of the condition of art in the time and country—all combine to confirm, illustrate, and establish the veracity of the writers, who have delivered to us, in the Pentateuch, in Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings and Chronicles, Ezra, Esther, and Nehemiah, the history of the chosen people. That history stands firm against all the assaults made upon it; and the more light that is thrown by research and discovery upon the times and countries with which it deals, the more apparent becomes its authentic and matter-of-fact character. Sound criticism finds in the sacred writings of the Jews documents belonging to the times of which they profess to treat, and on a calm investigation classes them, not with romantic poems or mythological fables, but with the sober narratives of those other ancient writers, who have sought to hand down to posterity a true account of the facts which their eyes have witnessed. As in the New Testament, so in the Old, that which the writers "declare" to the world is in the main "that which they have heard, which they have seen with their eyes, which they have looked upon, and which their hands have handled." It is not their object to amuse men, much less to impose on them by any "cunningly devised fables;" but simply to record facts and "bear their witness to the truth." G. R. And now came the great change in the map of Palestine which distinguishes the geography of the New Testament from that of the Old. For the Jews, being in time restored to their own land by the Persians, did not attempt to resume the occupation of the country by tribes, although remnants of all the Twelve Tribes may have been found among them (2 Chron. 30:11); but, first resorting to Jerusalem in a mass, and then spreading themselves upon the adjacent country, they afterward, in quest of further territory, passed round the central portion of the country possessed by the hated Samaritans, and settled the region to the north, between Gennesaret and the Mediterranean, hereafter known in history as Galilee. And, in the time of Christ, these were the three great divisions of the country—Judea on the south, Galilee on the north, and Samaria between. N. C. Burt. #### 1. Outline of the History. ##### Introductory Statements. THE traditional space put in the binding of our Bibles between the Old and New Testaments is misleading as to the oneness of the whole Book. Matthew is as truly a continuation of Malachi as Malachi is of the foregoing prophets, from a number of whom he is separated by about the same interval of time that he is from Matthew. So "the Old and the New Testament Dispensations" is a misleading phrase, if taken to mean that blessings of an entirely different sort were dispensed under the "New" from those which were distributed under the "Old." The terms respect, not the matter of the dispensations, but the manner only, just as the same gold of the king's exchequer might be dealt out as either bullion, unrecognized save by a few as part of the royal treasure, or as coin of the realm, bearing clearly on its face the king's image and superscription, and offered freely to all. So Christianity is but the bullion of Judaism coined in the gospel mint, to be scattered broadcast over the earth, and made the universal currency of the world. A. Ballard. The canon of the Old Testament closes with the prophecies of Malachi. A period, therefore, of about four hundred years separates the last book of the Old from the first of the New Testament Scriptures. This period is one of supreme importance in the history of the Jewish nation. During it the Jews were brought under the most varied influences. (1) First they were subject to the dominion of Persia; (2) for nearly a century and a half they were under Greek rulers; (3) for a century they enjoyed independence under their native Asmonæan princes; and (4) for more than half a century, while nominally ruled by the family of Herod, they were in reality subject to the power of the great Roman empire. In the course of this period a remarkable change was wrought in the condition of the elect nation. Whereas for many centuries they had been almost cut off from contact with the world around, they were now scattered everywhere, east and west, north and south, bearing about with them their peculiar customs and institutions, and diffusing wherever they went a knowledge of the law and the prophets. Corresponding to this wide diffusion of the people, which had so long "dwelt apart," there had been brought about also a change in their vernacular tongue and in their mode of worship. The language spoken in the days of David and Solomon was gradually exchanged for the Chaldee or "Syrian tongue," while the worship of the true God, before carried on only in the Temple at Jerusalem, was now celebrated, not only there on the occasion of the great festivals, but in synagogues, which arose out of the exigencies of the Captivity, and which were to be found, not only in every town, and almost in every village throughout Palestine, but also in every city in Syria, Asia Minor, Greece and Italy, where there was a Jewish settlement. Again, the intellectual culture of Greece had an important influence on Jewish development. It quickened independent thought, and led to the rise of various sects, "Freedom, ritualism and asceticism found a characteristic expression in Sudduces, Pharisees and Essenes," while politicians, as represented by Herodians, looked to the family of Herod as a bulwark against Roman ambition, and pretended to trace in that dynasty the fulfilment of ancient prophecy. Lastly, the idea of the Messiah, which the "people of the future" had been raised up to foster and keep alive from generation to generation, had been affected in no slight degree by the variety of the influences under which the Jews had been brought. As before, so now, each period added or connected something necessary to the completeness of the conception, and the sadness of the Captivity ended what the mournful close of Solomon's reign had begun. The "Son of David" gives place to the "Son of Man," and the idea of the conqueror and the king is combined with that of the lawgiver, the prophet and the priest. G. F. Maclear. # Palestine Under the Persians: to B.C. 333. A great historical chasm, about four hundred years in length, stretches between the close of the Old Testament history and the commencement of the New. During all that time there was neither prophet nor inspired writer of any kind among the Jews. Our knowledge of what took place among them is derived from the writings of Josephus, some of the books of the Apocrypha, and the notices of Greek and Latin historians. Though no further development of revealed religion took place during these four centuries, they constituted a very memorable period in general history. They witnessed the fall of the Persian empire, the rise and fall of the Macedonian, and the rise of the Roman. The seat of empire passed over from Asia to Europe; and the foundation was laid of those vast social changes which have so greatly raised the western and depressed the eastern and more ancient countries of the globe. In sketching this long and important period, we shall follow the thread of Jewish history, glancing, right and left, as we proceed, at the leading nations that crowd the stage. The history of Palestine may be divided into six sections, corresponding to the different masters whose sway it owned. 1. The Persians were its nominal masters to the year B.C. 333. 2. Alexander the Great conquered it in that year, and was its master for ten years. 3. On his death (B.C. 323) it fell, after a long contest, under the Ptolemy, or Macedonian kings of Egypt; and so remained for more than a hundred years, to B.C. 204. 4. Then it came under the rule of the Macedonian kingdom of Syria, till it was set free by the Maccabees, B.C. 163. 5. It was ruled by the Maccabees for another century, till— 6. The Roman general Pompey conquered it (B.C. 63), and made it tributary to the great mistress of the world. For a considerable time after the days of Nehemiah the Persians continued masters of Judea; but during their rule nothing of much interest happened in Palestine. The country was annexed to the satrapy of Syria, but was allowed to be governed by the Jewish high-priests, acting under the Syrian satraps. The office of high-priest became a great object of ambition, and in consequence several disgraceful contests for it took place. Jeshua, a brother of Jonadab the high-priest, having endeavored to secure the honor for himself, was slain by Jonadab in the Temple. For this scandalous act, a heavy fine was imposed upon the Jews by the Persian governor. Meanwhile, in Greece, the Peloponnesian war was brought to an end by the triumph of the Spartans and the humiliation and fall of Athens. Though partially restored afterward, Athens never again rose to its former influence and splendor. Artaxerxes Mnemon was now on the throne of Persia; and the early part of his reign was signalized by an attempt of his younger brother Cyrus to obtain the sceptre. Cyrus was defeated and slain near Babylon; and a body of ten thousand Greeks, who assisted him, had to make their retreat along the Tigris, and through the wilds of Armenia, until they reached the Black Sea. Of this celebrated retreat, an interesting account, well known to classical scholars, was written by Xenophon, the Greek historian, who conducted the expedition. It is interesting to observe, that the march of the ten thousand lay through the districts that formed the cradle of the human race, embracing, perhaps, the very land of Eden. War continued to rage between the Greeks and Persians for many years, till at length peace was concluded. But the power of the Spartans, which had predominated in Greece since the fall of Athens, was now destined to be overthrown. First at Leuctra, and again at Mantinea, they were defeated by the Thebans, under Epaminondas. The Theban supremacy was of short duration. At Cheronaea, Philip of Macedon overthrew the combined forces of the Thebans and Athenians, and made himself master of Greece. After this, Philip, having got himself appointed captain-general of all Greece, was preparing for a great war with Persia, when his life and his reign were cut short by his assassination. His son Alexander was only twenty when he succeeded him. The weapon with which the Persian empire was to be broken to pieces was now prepared. The mighty he-goat, that had been seen two hundred years before in Daniel's vision on the banks of the Ulai, was advancing from the west to overturn the two-horned ram—the vast but now tottering Medo-Persian empire. Palestine Under Alexander: B.C. 333 to 323. It was B.C. 335 that Alexander began his memorable twelve years' reign. After quelling the attempts at rebellion in Macedonia, he entered Greece, and defeated the Thebans in decisive engagements. Passing over into Asia, he encountered and defeated the forces of Darius, in the memorable battles of Granicus in Mysia and Issus in Cilicia. Proceeding toward Egypt, which had long been in a troubled condition, he passed through Syria and Palestine. Tyre withstood him for several months, but at last fell, being reached by a remarkable mole which he constructed, between the ruins of the old city on the mainland and the modern one on the adjacent island. Alexander then marched to Jerusalem. There is a tradition that, as he approached the city, he was met by a procession of priests in their robes of office, and that the impression made on him was such that he spared the city and granted favorable terms to the Jews. It is quite likely that the priests showed him the prophecies of Daniel, which foretold his conquests; and this may be the explanation of the story, that when he saw the high-priest, he recognized in him the person who had told him in a dream that he should conquer the world. From Jerusalem he proceeded to Egypt, which he rapidly subdued; and while there he founded the city of Alexandria, which still bears his name. Returning to Asia, Alexander encountered Darius in the plains of Assyria, and in the battle of Arbela, not far from the ancient Nineveh, gave its death-blow to the Persian empire, which had subsisted about two hundred years. Not content with the limits of that mighty domain, he pushed eastward into India; and had not his Macedonians positively refused to go farther, he would have penetrated far beyond the countries of the Indus. He was occupied with various new projects, when he was cut off at Babylon, by a fever brought on or aggravated by drinking to excess at a banquet. He died at the age of thirty-two, B.C. 323. Alexander the Great appears to have formed a highly favorable estimate of the Jews, and to have discovered, in their intelligence, steadiness, industry and zeal, the elements that make good citizens everywhere. Accordingly, when he founded Alexandria in Egypt, he encouraged the Jews to settle there, and gave them the privileges of citizens of the first class. He also encouraged them to settle in other newly founded cities, and generally throughout his empire. We have seen that, in the time of Esther, the Jews were widely scattered throughout the one hundred and twenty-seven provinces of Persia. Now their dispersion, as well as their missionary influence, became still more extensive. In consequence of their distance from Jerusalem, the sacrificial part of their worship became less prominent, and the study of their sacred books occupied them more. Increased attention was thus given to the law and the prophets in the various countries of their dispersion; and, in consequence, the expectation of a coming Messiah was more and more widely diffused. Palestine Under the Ptolemys: B.C. (about) 324 to 204. On the death of Alexander, in fulfilment of the prophecy of Daniel, the great horn of the he-goat was broken; and for it came up four notable horns, "toward the four winds of heaven." His great empire was ultimately divided among four of his generals—Ptolemy, Lysimachus, Cassander and Seleucus. Egypt fell to Ptolemy, and by and by Palestine was added to his share. He is distinguished in history as Ptolemy Soter. At first he treated the Jews with severity, but he soon came to see, like Alexander, that their superior character fitted them for high offices, and sent thirty thousand of them to various parts of his dominions, including Cyrenia and Libya in Africa. Of the Jews who went to Egypt at this time, some are very honorably mentioned by Greek and other writers. The successor of Soter was Ptolemy Philadelphus, one of the most eminent of the kings of Egypt of this period, and very friendly to the Jews. The reign of this prince was signalized by many remarkable events. He built the famous lighthouse of Pharos, near the mouth of the Nile, which was counted one of the wonders of the world. He founded the great library of Alexandria—a magnificent collection of the works of the writers of all nations. It was under his patronage that the Hebrew Scriptures were translated into Greek, according to the famous version of the Septuagint. This was one of the most important missionary works ever performed by man. The Hebrew Scriptures, and especially the Hebrew predictions of the coming Redeemer, might now be read wherever the Greek language was known. On the coast of Palestine, Ptolemy built the famous seaport of Acca, or Ptolemais, now called Acre, or Acho. The Ptolemys, for the most part, were excellent rulers, and under them Egypt enjoyed no small share of prosperity. The most distinguished man in Judea about this time was the high-priest, Simon the Just. His character is given in the apocryphal Book of Ecclesiasticus. He bore the highest reputation for wisdom, integrity and piety; but he seems to have had not a little of the spirit of a Pharisee. The Jews have a number of traditions about him, silly and unfounded in themselves, but showing the high estimation in which he was held. A short time after Simon, flourished Antigonus of Socho, president of the Sanhedrim; one of whose pupils, Sadoc, is thought by some to have been the founder of the sect of Sadducees. Antigonus is reported to have taught that men ought not to serve God from a servile regard to rewards, but out of love and reverence; from which Sadoc drew the unwarrantable inference that there were no rewards at all after this life, no resurrection, and no future state. These were prominent tenets of the Sadducees at a later period, but it is very doubtful whether the sect had so early an origin. During this period the foundations were laid of the great monarchy of Syria, or Syro-Macedonia, of which Palestine was afterward to form a part. Seleucus, son of Antiochus, one of Alexander's generals, after various changes of fortune, ultimately acquired nearly the whole of Asia for his dominions. It was the fashion at the time to found new cities; and Seleucus, disregarding Damascus, Babylon, Susa and all the other ancient capitals, founded Seleucia and Antioch, making the one the eastern and the other the western capital of his kingdom. Seleucia was situated on the banks of the Euphrates, about forty miles distant from Babylon, which had now become a sort of enclosed park for wild beasts. Antioch was in Syria, on the banks of the Orontes, and was afterward famous as a centre and stronghold of Christianity. Like Alexander and Ptolemy, Seleucus encouraged the Jews to take up their residence in his new cities, and many accepted his invitation. Much rivalry prevailed between the kings of Syria and those of Egypt, and the province of Palestine and Coele-Syria formed a constant bone of contention. These kings are believed to be the persons designated in chap. 11 of Daniel, as the "kings of the north" and "south." The wars, alliances and other operations of these kings are prophetically described in that chapter with great minuteness. In the reigns of Ptolemy Philopator of Egypt and Antiochus the Great of Syria, the contest between the two powers came to a climax. In a pitched battle, fought at Raphia, near Gaza, Ptolemy conquered Antiochus. Visiting Jerusalem after the battle, he determined to enter the holy of holies in the Temple. The high-priest opposed him with all his might; but Ptolemy was not to be dissuaded from his purpose. It is said, however, that when he had got so far as the holy place, he was seized with such confusion and terror that he retreated in dismay. Afterward, on returning to Alexandria, he was so enraged at the Jews for having withstood him, that he deprived them of their privileges, and fined and persecuted them in the most scandalous manner. Among other wild proceedings, he brought to Alexandria all the Jews he could lay hands on from other parts of Egypt, shut them up in the hippodrome, intending to expose them for a spectacle to be destroyed by his elephants. The poor Jews ceased not to pray to the God of their fathers for deliverance. On the third day, when the king was present, and the elephants were brought forth and made drunk with wine mingled with frankincense, instead of falling upon the Jews, they turned their rage upon those who came to see the show, and destroyed great numbers of them! The king became alarmed at the evident tokens of God's favor for the Jews, and recalled all his persecuting edicts. At his death he was succeeded by Ptolemy Epiphanes, an infant of five. Antiochus took the opportunity to wrest the districts of Coele-Syria and Palestine from Egypt; and from this time Palestine is to be regarded as subject to the kings of Syria. The era on which we now enter is a very dark one in Jewish history. Palestine Under the Macedonian Kings of Syria: B.C. 204 to 165. On the accession of the infant, Ptolemy Epiphanes, to the throne of Egypt, the Egyptians sent an embassy to Rome, craving the aid of the Romans against the encroachments of Antiochus. As the Roman people now began to take a prominent part in the affairs of the East, it is necessary to glance at their history during the preceding two centuries. In the early part of this period the Romans made a very narrow escape from utter destruction, in consequence of an eruption of the Gauls. The Gauls, or Celts, were one of the great races that spread themselves over the continent of Europe, but of whom scarcely anything is known up to the time of their coming into contact with the Romans. The Roman histories tell that after Rome was taken and burned by them, and its inhabitants butchered, the invaders were suddenly attacked by the dictator Camillus, and driven in one day beyond the confines of Rome. Recovering power and courage, the Romans now began a career of conquest in the peninsula of Italy. While this was going on, the Tarentines, one of their foes, sought the aid of Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, one of the outlying states of Greece, on the opposite shores of the Adriatic Sea. This was the first occasion of Greece and Rome coming together. Pyrrhus was a man of great enterprise, and a very skilful general. He landed in Italy with thirty thousand men and a train of elephants. The Romans had never before faced or even seen elephants in battle, and were obliged to retire before Pyrrhus; but so great loss had been inflicted on the Greek army, that Pyrrhus uttered the memorable saying, "Another such victory, and we are undone!" He was glad of a pretext for leaving Italy. Meanwhile, the Romans enlarged their sphere of conquest, and having quarrelled with the Carthaginians about the island of Sicily, measured their strength with that people in three successive Carthaginian wars. It was during the first Carthaginian war that the Romans equipped the first fleet they ever possessed. The campaign ended in their favor; the Carthaginians had to give up their possessions in Sicily. The aid of the Romans now began to be sought by the Greek states in their endless wars with each other; but till after the second Carthaginian war, the Roman armies did not move to the East. That campaign began very disastrously for the Romans; the victorious Hannibal seemed about to carry all before him. But it ended as much in favor of the Romans as it had begun in favor of the Carthaginians, the latter being wholly defeated just about the time when Palestine became part of the kingdom of Syria. Hannibal, hunted from refuge to refuge, at last ended his days by poison in Bithynia, in Asia. The third Carthaginian war ended about fifty years after, in the total destruction of Carthage. The military power of the Romans was thus thoroughly established, and the conquest of the world lay before them. War—war—war is the unchanging burden of the history of those times. War in Greece, where Aratus, followed by Philopæmen, generals of the Achæan league, have been making desperate but ineffectual efforts to stir up the old love of liberty, and set free their country; war in Macedonia, where the strong Roman legion is wrestling with what remains of valor in the Macedonian phalanx; war in Syria, war in Egypt—everywhere war; and yet all preparing the way for the establishment of the kingdom of the Prince of Peace! In compliance with the request of the Egyptians, a Roman army was sent into Egypt to aid Ptolemy Epiphanes against Antiochus the Great. At first the Romans were unsuccessful, but ultimately they prevailed. Antiochus was compelled by the Romans to evacuate the whole country east of the Taurus, and pay the expenses of the war. He went eastward to raise the money; but having plundered a temple of Jupiter in the province of Elymais, he was murdered by the inhabitants. Thus ended the career of Antiochus the Great, B.C. 187. Passing over his successor, Seleucus Philopator, in whose time little occurred in Judea of much interest, we arrive at a dark and troubled era—the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes. Epiphanes—i.e., the "Illustrious"—was illustrious only for the grossness of his character and the wickedness of his conduct. At his ascension, the high-priesthood at Jerusalem was in the hands of a worthy man, named Onias. But a brother of his having offered to pay Antiochus three hundred and sixty talents for the office, Onias was dispossessed, and the brother installed. Onias fled to Egypt, where he built a temple at Heliopolis, and acted as high-priest. The name of the usurper was Jesus; but not liking the Hebrew name, he changed it into the Greek name Jason. A Greek party now appears among the Jews. The sympathies of Jason were entirely with the Greeks; and to the utmost of his power he discountenanced the old Hebrew customs and religion. He even sent on one occasion an embassy to Tyre to take part in certain games in honor of the heathen god Hercules, and offer sacrifices on his altar. Jason, in his turn, was supplanted by another brother, who took the Greek name of Menelaus, and was still more of a Greek than Jason. Antiochus now undertook an expedition into Egypt, and was successful. While he was there the Jews heard a report of his death, at which they showed signs of great joy. Hearing of this, Antiochus, on leaving Egypt, went to Jerusalem to chastise them. He besieged and took the sacred city; slew forty thousand Jews, and sold a like number as slaves; and, to show his contempt for the Jewish religion, entered the holy of holies, sacrificed a sow on the altar of burnt offering, and sprinkled broth made from its flesh all over the building. Not content with these atrocities, Antiochus began a furious persecution against the religion of the Jews. He issued an edict requiring all the people under his sceptre to worship the same gods. The Samaritans conformed to the decree, and allowed their temple on Mount Gerizim to be dedicated to the Grecian Jove. The Temple at Jerusalem was forcibly consecrated to the same heathen deity, and the statue of Jupiter Olympus was erected on the altar of burnt offering. To observe any of the Jewish customs was made a capital offence; in short, the most rigorous measures were adopted absolutely to root out the Jewish faith. But enough remained of the noble Jewish spirit of other days to resist such blasphemous tyranny. There was a family of the priestly class, sometimes called the Asmonæans, from Asmonæus, one of their ancestors; and sometimes the Maccabees, a name, it is said, formed of the initial letters of the motto which one of them, Judas, placed on his standard, from Ex. 15:11, "Who is like unto Thee among the gods, O Lord?" The Hebrew words are, MI CAMOKA BAELIM JEHOVAH; and from the letters M C B I was derived the word Macabi, or Maccabee, which became the surname of the family, and was applied also to all who joined their cause. Mattathias, the father of the family, had five sons—Johanan, Simon, Judas, Eleazar, and Jonathan. They dwelt at Modin, a city to the west of Jerusalem, in the Philistine plain, near the sea-coast. When the emissaries of Antiochus came to Mattathias, urging him to conform to the pagan worship, he declared he should never prove unfaithful to his God; and seeing a Jew presenting himself at the heathen altar to sacrifice to the gods, he fell upon him, like Phinehas of old, and killed him on the spot. Collecting his family and other like-minded persons, he withdrew to the mountains of Judea, occupied the same caves and fastnesses which David had held nearly a thousand years before, and bade defiance to Antiochus and his armies. One body of his followers, to the number of a thousand, had taken refuge in a cave, where they were attacked on a Sabbath by a Syrian troop; and deeming it unlawful to resist on that day, every man, woman, and child were put to death. Hearing of this, Mattathias and his friends held a council, and after deliberation, came to the conclusion that resistance to such attacks on the Sabbath was lawful. The number of the patriot army under the Maccabees gradually increased; their aged leader, Mattathias, was removed by death, but his son Judas was eminently fitted to succeed him. The war of independence is a very interesting chapter of Jewish history, but our limits compel us to pass it over in a sentence. Three campaigns were undertaken by the Syro-Macedonians against the patriots. In all of these the Syrians were unsuccessful. One of them was undertaken by Antiochus in person. But the same loathsome disease which afterward cut off Herod attacked and destroyed him while breathing out threatening and slaughter against his foes. A civil war having broken out in Syria, peace was at last concluded. Judas Maccabeus became governor of Palestine, and though fresh troubles broke out speedily, a new era may be said to have begun. Palestine Under the Maccabees: B.C. 165 to 63. When Judas Maccabeus came into power, the Temple was purged and rededicated, and the ancient services resumed. But Judas was not allowed to prosecute his reforms in peace. He was again attacked by the Syrians; but, though successful once and again, he began to lose ground. He then applied to the Romans for help; but before it could be granted, he fell in battle. The command now devolved on his brother Jonathan. Owing, in a great measure, to the intrigues and plots that were going on for the Syrian throne, Jonathan contrived at last to get his authority acknowledged, and was declared meridarch or commander in Judea. But it was not long ere he was treacherously murdered. He was succeeded by his brother Simon, who, like Judas, appealed to the Romans, and, by studying their interests, obtained a large measure of power. The sovereignty was made hereditary in the family of Simon, and he was succeeded by his son, John Hyrcanus. The sects of the Pharisees and Sadducees were now keenly opposed to each other, and Hyrcanus joined first the one and then the other. Strife and commotion again prevailed. At last two rival Maccabees, Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, grandsons of John Hyrcanus, contended for the dignity, and a civil war ensued in Judea. Meanwhile the Romans, under Pompey, had extended their victories into Syria, and Hyrcanus and Aristobulus both submitted their claims to Pompey's decision. Hyrcanus was preferred. Aristobulus attempted to defend Jerusalem against Pompey, but in vain. After a three months' siege, the city and Temple were taken, B.C. 63. Pompey impiously entered the holy of holies, thereby inflicting an unpardonable outrage on the feelings of the Jews. It was remarked by them that after this his reverses of fortune began. He gave the government of Judea to Hyrcanus, but would not allow him to wear a crown. A yearly tribute to Rome was imposed. Aristobulus and some others were taken prisoners to Rome. It would be impossible to narrate all the sieges, battles, murders and massacres that give their dark hue to this period of history. The effect on the state of religion among the Jews must have been very disastrous. Perhaps, however, religion suffered quite as much from the bitter contests between the Pharisees and the Sadducees as from any other cause. It is not certain that the Sadducees yet held all those impious doctrines which were afterward maintained by them. At first, their main characteristic was opposition to the traditions so strenuously upheld by the Pharisees. The Pharisees were generally the most numerous and powerful party. Now, as formerly, true piety probably flourished, like the ferns and mosses of our mountains, in shady nooks and lonely dells. Little of it can be discovered in the leaders of factions, or in any of the men who occupied prominent positions. The rose of Sharon and the lily of the valley must be sought for in more quiet and sequestered spots. Palestine Under the Romans: B.C. 63 to 4. When the Romans conquered Judea, they exacted a yearly tribute, but allowed the country to be still governed by the Maccabees, in conformity with its ancient laws and customs. But between Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, the rival members of the Maccabee family, much strife and bloodshed arose. Hyrcanus was restored to the high-priesthood by Pompey, while Aristobulus, his brother, was carried to Rome to grace his triumph. But Aristobulus contrived to escape, and returned to renew the civil war in Judea. The contest was continued by his son Alexander, who was at last defeated with immense slaughter at Mount Tabor, in the plain of Esdraelon, the old battle-field of Palestine. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/butler/ 9:1 Now in the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, on the thirteenth day of the same, when the king's commandment and his decree drew near to be put in execution, in the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to have rule over them; whereas it was turned to the contrary, that the Jews had rule over them that hated them; the Jews gathered themselves together in their cities throughout all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, to lay hand on such as sought their hurt: and no man could withstand them; for the fear of them was fallen upon all the peoples. And all the princes of the provinces, and the satraps, and the governors, and they that did the king's business, helped the Jews; because the fear of Mordecai was fallen upon them. For Mordecai was great in the king's house, and his fame went forth throughout all the provinces: for the man Mordecai waxed greater and greater. And the Jews smote all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, and with slaughter and destruction, and did what they would unto them that hated them. And in Shushan the palace the Jews slew and destroyed five hundred men. And Parshandatha, and Dalphon, 8, 9 and Aspatha, and Poratha, and Adalia, and Aridatha, and Parmashta, and Arisai, and Aridai, and Vaizatha, the ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Jews' enemy, slew they; but on the spoil they laid not their hand. On that day the number of those that were slain in Shushan the palace was brought before the king. And the king said unto Esther the queen, The Jews have slain and destroyed five hundred men in Shushan the palace, and the ten sons of Haman; what then have they done in the rest of the king's provinces! Now what is thy petition? and it shall be granted thee: or what is thy request further? and it shall be done. Then said Esther, If it please the king, let it be granted to the Jews which are in Shushan to do to-morrow also according unto this day's decree, and let Haman's ten sons be hanged upon the gallows. And the king commanded it so to be done: and a decree was given out in Shushan; and they hanged Haman's ten sons. And the Jews that were in Shushan gathered themselves together on the fourteenth day also of the month Adar, and slew three hundred men in Shushan; but on the spoil they laid not their hand. And the other Jews that were in the king's provinces gathered themselves together, and stood for their lives, and had rest from their enemies, and slew of them that hated them seventy and five thousand; but on the spoil they laid not their hand. This was done on the thirteenth day of the month Adar; and on the fourteenth day of the same they rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness. But the Jews that were in Shushan assembled together on the thirteenth day thereof, and on the fourteenth thereof; and on the 19 fifteenth day of the same they rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness. Therefore do the Jews of the villages, that dwell in the unwalled towns, make the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of gladness and feasting, and a good day, and of sending portions one to another. 20 And Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters unto all the Jews that were in all the 21 provinces of the king Ahasuerus, both nigh and far, to enjoin them that they should keep 22 the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly, as the days wherein the Jews had rest from their enemies, and the month which was turned unto them from sorrow to gladness, and from mourning into a good day : that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor. 23 And the Jews undertook to do as they had begun, and as Mordecai had written unto them ; 24 because Haman the son of Hammadatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had devised against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast Pur, that is, the lot, to consume them, 25 and to destroy them ; but when the matter came before the king, he commanded by letters that his wicked device, which he had devised against the Jews, should return upon his own 26 head ; and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows. Wherefore they called these days Purim, after the name of Pur. Therefore because of all the words of this letter, and of that which they had seen concerning this matter, and that which had come unto them, 27 the Jews ordained, and took upon them, and upon their seed, and upon all such as joined themselves unto them, so as it should not fail, that they would keep these two days according to the writing thereof, and according to the appointed time thereof, every year ; and that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city ; and that these days of Purim should not fail from among 28 the Jews, nor the memorial of them perish from their seed. Then Esther the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, wrote with all authority to confirm this second 29 letter of Purim. And he sent letters unto all the Jews, to the hundred twenty and seven 30 provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, with words of peace and truth, to confirm these days of Purim in their appointed times, according as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had enjoined them, and as they had ordained for themselves and for their seed, in the matter 31 of the fastings and their cry. And the commandment of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim ; and it was written in the book. 10 : 1 And the king Ahasuerus laid a tribute upon the land, and upon the isles of the sea. 2. And all the acts of his power and of his might, and the full account of the greatness of Mordecai, whereunto the king advanced him, are they not written in the book of the chron- 3 icles of the kings of Media and Persia ? For Mordecai the Jew was next unto king Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews, and accepted of the multitude of his brethren ; seeking the good of his people, and speaking peace to all his seed. 9 : 3-16. Mordecai's position at the capital being known, and his power evidently established, the Persian governors of all grades understood it to be their duty to throw their weight into the scale on behalf of the Jews, and lend them whatever help they could (verse 3). The Jews everywhere got the better of their adversaries. In "Shushan the palace," as it was called, or the upper town, of which the palace formed a part, they killed five hundred of them (verse 6). In the rest of the empire, if we accept the numbers of the present Hebrew text, as many as seventy-five thousand (verse 16). The Septuagint translators, however, who would have no reason for falsifying the text, give the number as fifteen thousand, which seems to be intrinsically more probable. They also, on the ensuing day, the 14th of Adar, by special permission of Ahasuerus, contended with their adversaries in Shushan a second time, and slew on this occasion three hundred (verse 15). Among the killed, the only persons mentioned by name are ten sons of Haman, who were slain in "Shushan the palace" on the first day, while on the second day permission was given to expose their bodies on crosses (verse 14). P. C. 5,6. The record shows (verse 2) that the Jews stood strictly on the defensive, that they made no attack on any, but simply repelled the assault of those who sought to destroy them. It also shows how furiously their enemies attacked them ; and that had self-defence been denied them, they would have been exterminated as a people. 10. But on the spoil they laid not their hands. According to the decree (8 : 11) the Jews were allowed " to take the spoil of them for booty;” but three times it is recorded (9 : 10, 15, 16) that “on the spoil they laid not their hands.” They were allowed also “to destroy, to kill, and cause to perish little children and women,” as well as “the force”—i.e., the military force, of the people; but the record expressly declares that they put to death only men (9 : 6, 12, 15). We can see how this would come out of the fact that the Jews stood on the defensive, and that only the armed force of the people—i.e., the men, would be the assailants. We have no evidence that the Jews had any desire to destroy the women and children. It was the edict of the heathen king, the counterpart of his previous decree (3 : 13), which gave them the liberty. But they were the people of God, and as such morally far above their oppressors. The wives and children of the slain men needed the property all the more that the husband and father had been taken from them. It was not plunder that the Jews sought, but self-protection, the right to exist unmolested. 12. This verse is important as showing that the idea of further slaughter originated not with Esther, but rather with the king himself. He suggests here that something more is needed, and asks what it shall be. Greene. 13. It would seem that the Jews in Susa gathered themselves in the upper town on the appointed day, and were engaged there the whole day with their enemies. Esther asks that they may be allowed a second day to complete their work and free themselves from all danger of further persecution from their foes. She is not likely to have made this request unless prompted to make it by Mordecai, who must have had means of knowing how matters really stood, and, as the chief minister over the whole nation, is likely to have been actuated rather by general views of policy than by a blind spirit of revenge. P. C. There was no thirst for blood in Esther’s heart. Her whole character as delineated in this book is averse to this; but she was made of stuff stern enough to demand further bloodshed if it were needed to stay the unrighteous blotting out of her people and God’s church. This verse also shows that the right of self-defence was granted the Jews only as a special favor. There could be nothing wrong in asking that the privilege of self-defence might extend over all the days of the king’s reign. It is what subjects in all Christian civilized society enjoy. As to impaling Haman’s sons, that was intended to strike terror into the adversaries of the Jews. Nothing could have been better fitted to check the work of slaughter. They had been slain; now let them be hung up as a warning to all who had their spirit and were doing their fell work. These sons seem to have had the spirit and purpose of their father to “kill, destroy, and cause to perish” all the Jews. Doubtless Esther made this request at the prompting of Mordecai and such wise Jews as were in conference with him. Greene. 14. They hanged Haman’s ten sons.** A further instance of the retribution awaiting guilt. Haman had flattered his malicious and sanguinary spirit with the cruel hope of destroying the whole Jewish kindred; now his own sons (of the number of whom he had before boasted) are all cut off, and on the gallows share the reproach of their father. Bp. H. 16. Slew seventy and five thousand.** These persons were destroyed in consequence of their having obstinately persevered in measures of active hostility against the Jews, notwithstanding the change in the disposition of the king. Hales.—The people whom the Jews slaughtered were not, perhaps, in any case, Persians. The standing army of Persians which governed the empire was on the side of the Jews (Esth. 9 : 3); their enemies were the idolatrous people of the provinces, conquered races like themselves, for whom the Persians had little regard, and with whom they felt no sympathy. The number, seventy-five thousand, is uncertain, for it is replaced by fifteen thousand in the Septuagint version, and this latter figure is more in harmony with the eight hundred destroyed at Susa (verses 6, 15), than the larger number of the present Hebrew text. The “tameness, apathy and submission” objected to by the critics are imaginations of their own, founded merely on the silence of Scripture, which is always a weak ground, and here has no weight at all. It is the writer’s object to set before us broadly the great danger of the Jews, their deliverance, and their triumph—not to give us all the details and minor features of the transactions. He does not tell us what the Jews would have done had the original design of Haman been carried out, or what their enemies did when the Jews set upon them. It is quite a gratuitous supposition that there was no fighting, and that none of the Jews perished. G. R. There not only is no evidence of there having been any indiscriminate slaughter on the part of the Jews, but presumably none were slain except such as rose up to slay. Esther and Mordecai desired one thing—the safety of their people. They wished for "rest from their enemies." They probably felt that they were the ministers of righteous retribution. They desired that Haman's ten sons "hanged on the gallows" should still drive home on an impressed populace the sense and conviction of what a force righteous retribution was, and how much men ought "to stand in awe" because of it; but there is no proof whatever that in all the relief to the bitterness of their soul revenge played any part. The lessons of this portion of the narrative are not needed for the pulpit on every Lord's day certainly, but it may be they are provided here, in the universality of the use of the Divine Book, for some special and solemn crises. Barker. 17-32. Festival held, and feast of Purim instituted.** A natural instinct led the Jews, so soon as their triumph was accomplished, to indulge themselves in a day of rest and rejoicing (verse 17). The writer of the Book of Esther, practising his usual reticence, says nothing of the character of the "gladness;" but we can scarcely be wrong in believing it to have been in the main religious, and to have included gratitude to God for their deliverance, the ascription of praise to His name, and an outpouring of the heart before Him in earnest and prolonged thanksgiving. The circumstances of the struggle caused a difference, with regard to the date of the day of rejoicing, between the Jews of the capital and those of the provinces. The metropolitan Jews had two days of struggle, and could not "rest" until the third day, which was the 15th of Adar (verse 18); the provincial Jews began and ended their work in one day, the 13th, and so their thanksgiving-day was the 14th and not the 15th of the month (verse 17). The consequence was that it was wisely resolved to keep both days (verse 21). Nothing seems to have been determined as to the mode of keeping the feast, except that both days were to be "days of feasting and joy," and days upon which the richer members of the community should send "portions" and "gifts" to the poorer ones (verse 22). The name, "feast of Purim," was at once attached to the festival, in memory of Haman's consultation of the lot, the word "Pur" meaning "lot" in Persian (verse 24). The festival became a national institution by the general consent of the Jews everywhere (verse 27), and has remained to the present day among the most cherished of their usages. It falls in early spring, a month before the Passover, and occupies two days, which are still those fixed by Mordecai and Esther, the 14th and 15th of Adar. The day preceding the feast is observed as a fast day, in commemoration of Esther's fast before going in uninvited to the king (chap. 4:16). 20. Mordecai wrote these things.** Mordecai seems, in the first instance, to have written to the provincial Jews, suggesting to them the future observance of two days of Purim instead of one, and explaining the grounds of his proposition, but without venturing to issue any order. When he found his proposition well received (verses 23, 27), he sent out a second letter, "with all authority" (verse 29), enjoining the observance. P. C. 22. And of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor.** They made it a day both of thanksgiving and praise to God, and of feasting with one another; and they sent portions and gifts to their poorer neighbors, that they might partake in the festival. Bp. Patrick.—In like manner almsgiving and attention to the poor ought to make part of every Christian festival. Bp. Andrews. 25. Should return upon his own head.** When such men as Haman are not only supplanted in their wicked contrivances, but chastised for them, these occurrences do more than insinuate Divine wisdom to intervene, countermining and confounding such devices. For he it is who, as the Scripture telleth us, maketh the diviners mad; that turneth wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish; disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise; taketh the wise in their own craftiness, and turneth down the counsels of the froward headlong. Barrow. 27. We see in this verse a remarkable instance of national solidarity. The Jewish nation, in its present and prospective members, was one community. One life, one interest, one fate, has awaited that people wherever they have lived. In many respects the Jews are the most remarkable people that have ever lived upon the earth; and the cause of it, humanly speaking, is their national unity. The Jews in the time of Esther pledged themselves and their successors to a specific course of action. They did it not from selfish, worldly considerations, but out of regard to God and the interests of religion. Their children have accepted the action of their ancestors as their own, and faithfully complied with all its requisitions. Such a national unity as this cannot but be most powerful in moulding and shaping the character and destiny of a nation. The Jews, though they have been scattered to the four winds and oppressed beyond measure, are still a mighty and unified people, their hearts throbbing with one life-current, and their wills subject to one Lord and King. National unity founded in religion finds a signal illustration in the Jews. Greene. 28. That these days should be remembered.** Wherever Mordecai had sent to his people the messages of relief and the warrants to resist, there he now sends proposals which, if acceded to, will insure the perpetual memory of their deliverance, and will suggest ever new gratefulness for it. Esther joins heart and hand in the same, and the people themselves warmly approve the suggestion. They solemnly and enthusiastically adopt the proposal. They "undertook to do as they had begun, and as Mordecai had written to them." The method of observing an anniversary to all generations is accepted as the means by which "the memorial" of their deliverance "shall never perish" from them or "their seed." It is evident that a deep religious interest was thrown into this matter, and the account of it is repeated as many as four times, and with minuteness of detail. The example is good for individuals. The precedent is good for nations. P. C. It was usual with God's people in all ages to keep remarkable deliverances in perpetual remembrance. Most of the feasts that the Israelites had tended to this end, as the Passover and Feast of Tabernacles. For by memorials of mercy the memory of mercies is kept fresh; and men thereby are the more and oftener stirred up to praise God for them. Yea, by this means God's mercies, manifested in one age, are propagated to many ages; whereby many ages have matter of praising God ministered unto them, and of believing in God, and of hoping for deliverance in their distress. Ainsworth. That these days of Purim should not fail. Josephus bears testimony to the observance of this festival in his time in the following words: "Hence, even now all the Jews that are in the habitable earth keep these days festival, and send presents to one another." It has also been regularly observed by the Jews to this day as an annual solemnity; and it forms a standing monument of the events recorded in this book. Gray.—The festival has been generally observed by a total rest from labor, by attendance in the synagogues, by sending presents to one another, by giving portions of food and gifts to the poor, and by great rejoicing and festivity. In the synagogue the Book of Esther is solemnly read from beginning to end; all Jews, whether men, women, children, or servants, being required to attend, because they all had a share in the deliverance obtained by Esther. Before the reading begins three thanksgivings are briefly offered up; in the first they praise God for counting them worthy to attend this sacred solemnity; in the second, for His wonderful preservation of their forefathers; and in the third, for their having lived to keep another festival in memory of it. The history of Esther is always read on this occasion from a copy written on a roll of parchment, and never from a printed book, it bearing peculiarly the title of the Megillah, or roll of Esther. Prideaux. 29. This second letter of Purim.** Mordecai's first letter (verse 20) was to some extent tentative, a recommendation. The Jews generally having accepted the recommendation (verses 23, 27), he and Esther now wrote a second letter, which was mandatory. The expression "this second letter" seems to imply that originally a copy of the letter followed. B. C. 30. Words of peace and truth.** Words are of inestimable weight, for evil or for good. Human words move men mightily; and of Christ's words we know that they shall "never pass away." This description of the message which Mordecai and Esther sent to their countrymen throughout the empire is very significant. It consisted of words which, while they were words of truth, concealing nothing, declaring all, were yet words of peace, speaking peace unto Israel. Chap. 10. Conclusion: The greatness of Ahasuerus, and of Mordecai under him. The Book of Esther might have been expected to terminate with the institution of the Purim feast. All that has gone before is subordinate to this, and the reader would be satisfied, and require no more, if the book stopped at the end of chap. 9. But the writer, perhaps from personal attachment to Mordecai, perhaps from mere patriotic pride in him, cannot lay down the pen until he has put on record the strength and support that he was to the Jews of his day. For the rest of Ahasuerus' "power and his might," the writer is content to refer his readers to "the Book of the Chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia" (verse 2), which contained also an account of "the greatness of Mordecai, whereto the king advanced him." This greatness forms the sole subject of the concluding verse, which declares Mordecai's position (1) with respect to the Persians—"next to the king;" and (2) with respect to the Jews—"great among them," "accepted," and their protector and benefactor, "seeking their wealth," or welfare, and "speaking peace," or insuring tranquillity, to all the whole race or people. P. C. Under all revolutions, the Jews of the Captivity had the comfort to see that some persons of their own body were surprisingly advanced into power and authority to patronize and defend their cause; which, as it showed the concern of the Almighty for the welfare of the Jews, must also have excited in their minds a regard for His honor and glory, and must have confirmed their dependence upon His great and precious promises. Owen. 1. King Ahasuerus laid a tribute. Some fresh arrangement of the tribute is likely to have followed on the return of Xerxes from Greece. His exchequer would be exhausted, and steps would have to be taken in order to replenish it. The expression in the original does not necessarily imply the first imposition of a tribute. Upon the isles of the sea.** Cyprus, Aradus, the island Tyre, Platea, etc., remained in the hands of the Persians after the victories of the Greeks, and may be the "isles" here intended; or Xerxes may have ignored the loss of the Ægean Islands, and have "laid" his tribute upon them, though he might not be able to exact it. 2. Power and might. In the later years of Xerxes his "power and might" were chiefly shown in the erection of magnificent buildings, more especially at Persepolis. He abstained from military expeditions. Kings of Media and Persia.** Media takes precedence of Persia (contrarily to chap. 1: 3, 14, 18, etc.), because the kingdom of Media had preceded that of Persia, and in the "Book of the Chronicles" its history came first. B. C. 2,3. In these verses is set forth the greatness of Xerxes for the purpose of showing to what an elevation Mordecai, as the head and representative of the Jewish nation, had been raised. The book opened with the almost total obscuration of God's people; it closes with them as the brightest star in the galaxy of nations which composed this great kingdom. Thus the providence of God is the more manifest in caring for, delivering, and promoting them who trust and love Him. Acceptable to the multitude of his brethren. Mordecai was so manifestly raised up by God for the deliverance and promotion of his nation, that the Jews everywhere felt that they honored God in honoring His instrument. Gratitude also for what Mordecai had done in their behalf would incite them to respect and affection. Seeking good for his people. Mordecai set a good example for all rulers. He did not seek self in honor or wealth; the good of the people was his aim. This is true patriotism. Speaking peace to all. Mordecai spoke words of cheer, hope, encouragement, and prosperity to his race. These are the closing words in the historical part of the Old Testament, and they seem to be a kind of prophecy of Him who was to come, bringing peace and salvation to all nations. Greene. The wealth and peace of a people the patriot's aim. It is a fine description of the aim of Mordecai's public life with which this book closes. What more could be said of the patriotic statesman in any kingdom than this: that he was ever found "seeking the wealth of his people, and speaking peace to all his seed"? Wealth includes not simply riches, but welfare in every sense: prosperity, security, progress, happiness—all that can truly enrich and bless a nation. He spoke peace to them. His acts had the effect of delivering them from the fear of their enemies. He held over them the shield of the king's protection, and enabled them to live and work in quiet contentedness. It is reserved for the very last sentences of this book to give to one of the chiefest of its characters the place and testimony he had well earned. He has won for himself the name of the great and the good statesman. He is "next to Ahasuerus;" and what he did and what he was affected not the Jews only, but the whole empire—all of the various and wide dominion of the king. He is stamped on the sacred page as the type of a beneficent statesman. #### Religious Character and Aim of this Book. God's name is absent from the whole book, but God Himself is in every chapter. There is no other book except Canticles in the sacred volume in which the Divine Being is neither mentioned nor obviously referred to. Yet no disbeliever in God could have written it; and no believer in God can read it without finding his faith strengthened thereby. A national festival is historically accounted for. The feast of Purim was held in high honor, and observed with great regularity and solemnity and rejoicing among the Jews. "The temple may fail, but the Purim never," was one of their proverbs. This Book of Esther was written to explain the origin of this national festival. A valuable moral lesson pervades the whole narrative. Not only is the great general truth, that earthly greatness and prosperity are mutable and transitory, brought effectively before us, but we learn that God humbles the proud and exalts the lowly who trust in Him. The providence of God is strikingly and memorably displayed. We are brought into contact with the righteousness and the rule of the Most High. A great deliverance is wrought; and while the means are human, the deliverance itself is Divine. God appears as "mighty to save." The book is, accordingly, one peculiarly suitable to those in distress, perplexity, and trouble. Its story is an illustration of the Divine providence. A complicated chain of events and actions is so governed as to work out the deliverance of the exiled Jews from a plot which aimed at their destruction; and this without any miracle or mention of Divine interposition. The fact is disclosed that the Jews, while in exile, under judgment, and without vision, were remembered and cared for by God. Outcast, they were not cast off; they were still the children of promise; God was still faithful to them. From this fact an inference may be drawn. There is a Divine providence in the world; no supernatural exercises of power are needed to enable God to effect His will; all laws and things are His creatures, and therefore under His control; human dramas and tragedies take place every day in which acutest plans are foiled, and, by seemingly natural processes, truth and right vindicated. P. C. Three aspects of God's providence strikingly illustrated. 1. That God overrules the designs of the wicked for a larger blessing upon the good. This is an absolute and universal truth as respects nations and individuals. 2. The Divine providence operates equally in things little and great. To effect the final deliverance and larger liberty of God's oppressed people very many trivial occurrences were combined, each of which was indispensable to the ultimate result. 3. The agencies of Providence operate in response to the earnest and trustful prayers of God's people. "In every province was great mourning and fasting and weeping, and many lay in sackcloth and ashes." And a "three days' fast" before God was kept by the Jews in Shushan and by Esther with her maidens. And we know by sure inference that Jehovah wrought deliverance for His people in answer to their fervent supplications. B. The Old Testament history here terminates. For the space of nearly five hundred years— from the time of Nehemiah and Malachi to that of Paul—the Jews possessed no inspired writer; and their history, when recorded at all, was related in works which were not regarded by themselves as authoritative or canonical. All the evidence which we possess from profane sources of a really important and trustworthy character tends to confirm the truth of the history delivered to us in the sacred volume. The monumental records of past ages—Assyrian, Babylonian, Egyptian, Persian, Phoenician—the writings of historians who have based their histories on contemporary annals, as Manetho, Berosus, Dius, Menander, Nicolas of Damascus—the descriptions given by eye-witnesses of the Oriental manners and customs—the proofs obtained by modern research of the condition of art in the time and country—all combine to confirm, illustrate, and establish the veracity of the writers, who have delivered to us, in the Pentateuch, in Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings and Chronicles, Ezra, Esther, and Nehemiah, the history of the chosen people. That history stands firm against all the assaults made upon it; and the more light that is thrown by research and discovery upon the times and countries with which it deals, the more apparent becomes its authentic and matter-of-fact character. Sound criticism finds in the sacred writings of the Jews documents belonging to the times of which they profess to treat, and on a calm investigation classes them, not with romantic poems or mythological fables, but with the sober narratives of those other ancient writers, who have sought to hand down to posterity a true account of the facts which their eyes have witnessed. As in the New Testament, so in the Old, that which the writers "declare" to the world is in the main "that which they have heard, which they have seen with their eyes, which they have looked upon, and which their hands have handled." It is not their object to amuse men, much less to impose on them by any "cunningly devised fables;" but simply to record facts and "bear their witness to the truth." G. R. And now came the great change in the map of Palestine which distinguishes the geography of the New Testament from that of the Old. For the Jews, being in time restored to their own land by the Persians, did not attempt to resume the occupation of the country by tribes, although remnants of all the Twelve Tribes may have been found among them (2 Chron. 30:11); but, first resorting to Jerusalem in a mass, and then spreading themselves upon the adjacent country, they afterward, in quest of further territory, passed round the central portion of the country possessed by the hated Samaritans, and settled the region to the north, between Gennesaret and the Mediterranean, hereafter known in history as Galilee. And, in the time of Christ, these were the three great divisions of the country—Judea on the south, Galilee on the north, and Samaria between. N. C. Burt. #### 1. Outline of the History. ##### Introductory Statements. THE traditional space put in the binding of our Bibles between the Old and New Testaments is misleading as to the oneness of the whole Book. Matthew is as truly a continuation of Malachi as Malachi is of the foregoing prophets, from a number of whom he is separated by about the same interval of time that he is from Matthew. So "the Old and the New Testament Dispensations" is a misleading phrase, if taken to mean that blessings of an entirely different sort were dispensed under the "New" from those which were distributed under the "Old." The terms respect, not the matter of the dispensations, but the manner only, just as the same gold of the king's exchequer might be dealt out as either bullion, unrecognized save by a few as part of the royal treasure, or as coin of the realm, bearing clearly on its face the king's image and superscription, and offered freely to all. So Christianity is but the bullion of Judaism coined in the gospel mint, to be scattered broadcast over the earth, and made the universal currency of the world. A. Ballard. The canon of the Old Testament closes with the prophecies of Malachi. A period, therefore, of about four hundred years separates the last book of the Old from the first of the New Testament Scriptures. This period is one of supreme importance in the history of the Jewish nation. During it the Jews were brought under the most varied influences. (1) First they were subject to the dominion of Persia; (2) for nearly a century and a half they were under Greek rulers; (3) for a century they enjoyed independence under their native Asmonæan princes; and (4) for more than half a century, while nominally ruled by the family of Herod, they were in reality subject to the power of the great Roman empire. In the course of this period a remarkable change was wrought in the condition of the elect nation. Whereas for many centuries they had been almost cut off from contact with the world around, they were now scattered everywhere, east and west, north and south, bearing about with them their peculiar customs and institutions, and diffusing wherever they went a knowledge of the law and the prophets. Corresponding to this wide diffusion of the people, which had so long "dwelt apart," there had been brought about also a change in their vernacular tongue and in their mode of worship. The language spoken in the days of David and Solomon was gradually exchanged for the Chaldee or "Syrian tongue," while the worship of the true God, before carried on only in the Temple at Jerusalem, was now celebrated, not only there on the occasion of the great festivals, but in synagogues, which arose out of the exigencies of the Captivity, and which were to be found, not only in every town, and almost in every village throughout Palestine, but also in every city in Syria, Asia Minor, Greece and Italy, where there was a Jewish settlement. Again, the intellectual culture of Greece had an important influence on Jewish development. It quickened independent thought, and led to the rise of various sects, "Freedom, ritualism and asceticism found a characteristic expression in Sudduces, Pharisees and Essenes," while politicians, as represented by Herodians, looked to the family of Herod as a bulwark against Roman ambition, and pretended to trace in that dynasty the fulfilment of ancient prophecy. Lastly, the idea of the Messiah, which the "people of the future" had been raised up to foster and keep alive from generation to generation, had been affected in no slight degree by the variety of the influences under which the Jews had been brought. As before, so now, each period added or connected something necessary to the completeness of the conception, and the sadness of the Captivity ended what the mournful close of Solomon's reign had begun. The "Son of David" gives place to the "Son of Man," and the idea of the conqueror and the king is combined with that of the lawgiver, the prophet and the priest. G. F. Maclear. # Palestine Under the Persians: to B.C. 333. A great historical chasm, about four hundred years in length, stretches between the close of the Old Testament history and the commencement of the New. During all that time there was neither prophet nor inspired writer of any kind among the Jews. Our knowledge of what took place among them is derived from the writings of Josephus, some of the books of the Apocrypha, and the notices of Greek and Latin historians. Though no further development of revealed religion took place during these four centuries, they constituted a very memorable period in general history. They witnessed the fall of the Persian empire, the rise and fall of the Macedonian, and the rise of the Roman. The seat of empire passed over from Asia to Europe; and the foundation was laid of those vast social changes which have so greatly raised the western and depressed the eastern and more ancient countries of the globe. In sketching this long and important period, we shall follow the thread of Jewish history, glancing, right and left, as we proceed, at the leading nations that crowd the stage. The history of Palestine may be divided into six sections, corresponding to the different masters whose sway it owned. 1. The Persians were its nominal masters to the year B.C. 333. 2. Alexander the Great conquered it in that year, and was its master for ten years. 3. On his death (B.C. 323) it fell, after a long contest, under the Ptolemy, or Macedonian kings of Egypt; and so remained for more than a hundred years, to B.C. 204. 4. Then it came under the rule of the Macedonian kingdom of Syria, till it was set free by the Maccabees, B.C. 163. 5. It was ruled by the Maccabees for another century, till— 6. The Roman general Pompey conquered it (B.C. 63), and made it tributary to the great mistress of the world. For a considerable time after the days of Nehemiah the Persians continued masters of Judea; but during their rule nothing of much interest happened in Palestine. The country was annexed to the satrapy of Syria, but was allowed to be governed by the Jewish high-priests, acting under the Syrian satraps. The office of high-priest became a great object of ambition, and in consequence several disgraceful contests for it took place. Jeshua, a brother of Jonadab the high-priest, having endeavored to secure the honor for himself, was slain by Jonadab in the Temple. For this scandalous act, a heavy fine was imposed upon the Jews by the Persian governor. Meanwhile, in Greece, the Peloponnesian war was brought to an end by the triumph of the Spartans and the humiliation and fall of Athens. Though partially restored afterward, Athens never again rose to its former influence and splendor. Artaxerxes Mnemon was now on the throne of Persia; and the early part of his reign was signalized by an attempt of his younger brother Cyrus to obtain the sceptre. Cyrus was defeated and slain near Babylon; and a body of ten thousand Greeks, who assisted him, had to make their retreat along the Tigris, and through the wilds of Armenia, until they reached the Black Sea. Of this celebrated retreat, an interesting account, well known to classical scholars, was written by Xenophon, the Greek historian, who conducted the expedition. It is interesting to observe, that the march of the ten thousand lay through the districts that formed the cradle of the human race, embracing, perhaps, the very land of Eden. War continued to rage between the Greeks and Persians for many years, till at length peace was concluded. But the power of the Spartans, which had predominated in Greece since the fall of Athens, was now destined to be overthrown. First at Leuctra, and again at Mantinea, they were defeated by the Thebans, under Epaminondas. The Theban supremacy was of short duration. At Cheronaea, Philip of Macedon overthrew the combined forces of the Thebans and Athenians, and made himself master of Greece. After this, Philip, having got himself appointed captain-general of all Greece, was preparing for a great war with Persia, when his life and his reign were cut short by his assassination. His son Alexander was only twenty when he succeeded him. The weapon with which the Persian empire was to be broken to pieces was now prepared. The mighty he-goat, that had been seen two hundred years before in Daniel's vision on the banks of the Ulai, was advancing from the west to overturn the two-horned ram—the vast but now tottering Medo-Persian empire. Palestine Under Alexander: B.C. 333 to 323. It was B.C. 335 that Alexander began his memorable twelve years' reign. After quelling the attempts at rebellion in Macedonia, he entered Greece, and defeated the Thebans in decisive engagements. Passing over into Asia, he encountered and defeated the forces of Darius, in the memorable battles of Granicus in Mysia and Issus in Cilicia. Proceeding toward Egypt, which had long been in a troubled condition, he passed through Syria and Palestine. Tyre withstood him for several months, but at last fell, being reached by a remarkable mole which he constructed, between the ruins of the old city on the mainland and the modern one on the adjacent island. Alexander then marched to Jerusalem. There is a tradition that, as he approached the city, he was met by a procession of priests in their robes of office, and that the impression made on him was such that he spared the city and granted favorable terms to the Jews. It is quite likely that the priests showed him the prophecies of Daniel, which foretold his conquests; and this may be the explanation of the story, that when he saw the high-priest, he recognized in him the person who had told him in a dream that he should conquer the world. From Jerusalem he proceeded to Egypt, which he rapidly subdued; and while there he founded the city of Alexandria, which still bears his name. Returning to Asia, Alexander encountered Darius in the plains of Assyria, and in the battle of Arbela, not far from the ancient Nineveh, gave its death-blow to the Persian empire, which had subsisted about two hundred years. Not content with the limits of that mighty domain, he pushed eastward into India; and had not his Macedonians positively refused to go farther, he would have penetrated far beyond the countries of the Indus. He was occupied with various new projects, when he was cut off at Babylon, by a fever brought on or aggravated by drinking to excess at a banquet. He died at the age of thirty-two, B.C. 323. Alexander the Great appears to have formed a highly favorable estimate of the Jews, and to have discovered, in their intelligence, steadiness, industry and zeal, the elements that make good citizens everywhere. Accordingly, when he founded Alexandria in Egypt, he encouraged the Jews to settle there, and gave them the privileges of citizens of the first class. He also encouraged them to settle in other newly founded cities, and generally throughout his empire. We have seen that, in the time of Esther, the Jews were widely scattered throughout the one hundred and twenty-seven provinces of Persia. Now their dispersion, as well as their missionary influence, became still more extensive. In consequence of their distance from Jerusalem, the sacrificial part of their worship became less prominent, and the study of their sacred books occupied them more. Increased attention was thus given to the law and the prophets in the various countries of their dispersion; and, in consequence, the expectation of a coming Messiah was more and more widely diffused. Palestine Under the Ptolemys: B.C. (about) 324 to 204. On the death of Alexander, in fulfilment of the prophecy of Daniel, the great horn of the he-goat was broken; and for it came up four notable horns, "toward the four winds of heaven." His great empire was ultimately divided among four of his generals—Ptolemy, Lysimachus, Cassander and Seleucus. Egypt fell to Ptolemy, and by and by Palestine was added to his share. He is distinguished in history as Ptolemy Soter. At first he treated the Jews with severity, but he soon came to see, like Alexander, that their superior character fitted them for high offices, and sent thirty thousand of them to various parts of his dominions, including Cyrenia and Libya in Africa. Of the Jews who went to Egypt at this time, some are very honorably mentioned by Greek and other writers. The successor of Soter was Ptolemy Philadelphus, one of the most eminent of the kings of Egypt of this period, and very friendly to the Jews. The reign of this prince was signalized by many remarkable events. He built the famous lighthouse of Pharos, near the mouth of the Nile, which was counted one of the wonders of the world. He founded the great library of Alexandria—a magnificent collection of the works of the writers of all nations. It was under his patronage that the Hebrew Scriptures were translated into Greek, according to the famous version of the Septuagint. This was one of the most important missionary works ever performed by man. The Hebrew Scriptures, and especially the Hebrew predictions of the coming Redeemer, might now be read wherever the Greek language was known. On the coast of Palestine, Ptolemy built the famous seaport of Acca, or Ptolemais, now called Acre, or Acho. The Ptolemys, for the most part, were excellent rulers, and under them Egypt enjoyed no small share of prosperity. The most distinguished man in Judea about this time was the high-priest, Simon the Just. His character is given in the apocryphal Book of Ecclesiasticus. He bore the highest reputation for wisdom, integrity and piety; but he seems to have had not a little of the spirit of a Pharisee. The Jews have a number of traditions about him, silly and unfounded in themselves, but showing the high estimation in which he was held. A short time after Simon, flourished Antigonus of Socho, president of the Sanhedrim; one of whose pupils, Sadoc, is thought by some to have been the founder of the sect of Sadducees. Antigonus is reported to have taught that men ought not to serve God from a servile regard to rewards, but out of love and reverence; from which Sadoc drew the unwarrantable inference that there were no rewards at all after this life, no resurrection, and no future state. These were prominent tenets of the Sadducees at a later period, but it is very doubtful whether the sect had so early an origin. During this period the foundations were laid of the great monarchy of Syria, or Syro-Macedonia, of which Palestine was afterward to form a part. Seleucus, son of Antiochus, one of Alexander's generals, after various changes of fortune, ultimately acquired nearly the whole of Asia for his dominions. It was the fashion at the time to found new cities; and Seleucus, disregarding Damascus, Babylon, Susa and all the other ancient capitals, founded Seleucia and Antioch, making the one the eastern and the other the western capital of his kingdom. Seleucia was situated on the banks of the Euphrates, about forty miles distant from Babylon, which had now become a sort of enclosed park for wild beasts. Antioch was in Syria, on the banks of the Orontes, and was afterward famous as a centre and stronghold of Christianity. Like Alexander and Ptolemy, Seleucus encouraged the Jews to take up their residence in his new cities, and many accepted his invitation. Much rivalry prevailed between the kings of Syria and those of Egypt, and the province of Palestine and Coele-Syria formed a constant bone of contention. These kings are believed to be the persons designated in chap. 11 of Daniel, as the "kings of the north" and "south." The wars, alliances and other operations of these kings are prophetically described in that chapter with great minuteness. In the reigns of Ptolemy Philopator of Egypt and Antiochus the Great of Syria, the contest between the two powers came to a climax. In a pitched battle, fought at Raphia, near Gaza, Ptolemy conquered Antiochus. Visiting Jerusalem after the battle, he determined to enter the holy of holies in the Temple. The high-priest opposed him with all his might; but Ptolemy was not to be dissuaded from his purpose. It is said, however, that when he had got so far as the holy place, he was seized with such confusion and terror that he retreated in dismay. Afterward, on returning to Alexandria, he was so enraged at the Jews for having withstood him, that he deprived them of their privileges, and fined and persecuted them in the most scandalous manner. Among other wild proceedings, he brought to Alexandria all the Jews he could lay hands on from other parts of Egypt, shut them up in the hippodrome, intending to expose them for a spectacle to be destroyed by his elephants. The poor Jews ceased not to pray to the God of their fathers for deliverance. On the third day, when the king was present, and the elephants were brought forth and made drunk with wine mingled with frankincense, instead of falling upon the Jews, they turned their rage upon those who came to see the show, and destroyed great numbers of them! The king became alarmed at the evident tokens of God's favor for the Jews, and recalled all his persecuting edicts. At his death he was succeeded by Ptolemy Epiphanes, an infant of five. Antiochus took the opportunity to wrest the districts of Coele-Syria and Palestine from Egypt; and from this time Palestine is to be regarded as subject to the kings of Syria. The era on which we now enter is a very dark one in Jewish history. Palestine Under the Macedonian Kings of Syria: B.C. 204 to 165. On the accession of the infant, Ptolemy Epiphanes, to the throne of Egypt, the Egyptians sent an embassy to Rome, craving the aid of the Romans against the encroachments of Antiochus. As the Roman people now began to take a prominent part in the affairs of the East, it is necessary to glance at their history during the preceding two centuries. In the early part of this period the Romans made a very narrow escape from utter destruction, in consequence of an eruption of the Gauls. The Gauls, or Celts, were one of the great races that spread themselves over the continent of Europe, but of whom scarcely anything is known up to the time of their coming into contact with the Romans. The Roman histories tell that after Rome was taken and burned by them, and its inhabitants butchered, the invaders were suddenly attacked by the dictator Camillus, and driven in one day beyond the confines of Rome. Recovering power and courage, the Romans now began a career of conquest in the peninsula of Italy. While this was going on, the Tarentines, one of their foes, sought the aid of Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, one of the outlying states of Greece, on the opposite shores of the Adriatic Sea. This was the first occasion of Greece and Rome coming together. Pyrrhus was a man of great enterprise, and a very skilful general. He landed in Italy with thirty thousand men and a train of elephants. The Romans had never before faced or even seen elephants in battle, and were obliged to retire before Pyrrhus; but so great loss had been inflicted on the Greek army, that Pyrrhus uttered the memorable saying, "Another such victory, and we are undone!" He was glad of a pretext for leaving Italy. Meanwhile, the Romans enlarged their sphere of conquest, and having quarrelled with the Carthaginians about the island of Sicily, measured their strength with that people in three successive Carthaginian wars. It was during the first Carthaginian war that the Romans equipped the first fleet they ever possessed. The campaign ended in their favor; the Carthaginians had to give up their possessions in Sicily. The aid of the Romans now began to be sought by the Greek states in their endless wars with each other; but till after the second Carthaginian war, the Roman armies did not move to the East. That campaign began very disastrously for the Romans; the victorious Hannibal seemed about to carry all before him. But it ended as much in favor of the Romans as it had begun in favor of the Carthaginians, the latter being wholly defeated just about the time when Palestine became part of the kingdom of Syria. Hannibal, hunted from refuge to refuge, at last ended his days by poison in Bithynia, in Asia. The third Carthaginian war ended about fifty years after, in the total destruction of Carthage. The military power of the Romans was thus thoroughly established, and the conquest of the world lay before them. War—war—war is the unchanging burden of the history of those times. War in Greece, where Aratus, followed by Philopæmen, generals of the Achæan league, have been making desperate but ineffectual efforts to stir up the old love of liberty, and set free their country; war in Macedonia, where the strong Roman legion is wrestling with what remains of valor in the Macedonian phalanx; war in Syria, war in Egypt—everywhere war; and yet all preparing the way for the establishment of the kingdom of the Prince of Peace! In compliance with the request of the Egyptians, a Roman army was sent into Egypt to aid Ptolemy Epiphanes against Antiochus the Great. At first the Romans were unsuccessful, but ultimately they prevailed. Antiochus was compelled by the Romans to evacuate the whole country east of the Taurus, and pay the expenses of the war. He went eastward to raise the money; but having plundered a temple of Jupiter in the province of Elymais, he was murdered by the inhabitants. Thus ended the career of Antiochus the Great, B.C. 187. Passing over his successor, Seleucus Philopator, in whose time little occurred in Judea of much interest, we arrive at a dark and troubled era—the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes. Epiphanes—i.e., the "Illustrious"—was illustrious only for the grossness of his character and the wickedness of his conduct. At his ascension, the high-priesthood at Jerusalem was in the hands of a worthy man, named Onias. But a brother of his having offered to pay Antiochus three hundred and sixty talents for the office, Onias was dispossessed, and the brother installed. Onias fled to Egypt, where he built a temple at Heliopolis, and acted as high-priest. The name of the usurper was Jesus; but not liking the Hebrew name, he changed it into the Greek name Jason. A Greek party now appears among the Jews. The sympathies of Jason were entirely with the Greeks; and to the utmost of his power he discountenanced the old Hebrew customs and religion. He even sent on one occasion an embassy to Tyre to take part in certain games in honor of the heathen god Hercules, and offer sacrifices on his altar. Jason, in his turn, was supplanted by another brother, who took the Greek name of Menelaus, and was still more of a Greek than Jason. Antiochus now undertook an expedition into Egypt, and was successful. While he was there the Jews heard a report of his death, at which they showed signs of great joy. Hearing of this, Antiochus, on leaving Egypt, went to Jerusalem to chastise them. He besieged and took the sacred city; slew forty thousand Jews, and sold a like number as slaves; and, to show his contempt for the Jewish religion, entered the holy of holies, sacrificed a sow on the altar of burnt offering, and sprinkled broth made from its flesh all over the building. Not content with these atrocities, Antiochus began a furious persecution against the religion of the Jews. He issued an edict requiring all the people under his sceptre to worship the same gods. The Samaritans conformed to the decree, and allowed their temple on Mount Gerizim to be dedicated to the Grecian Jove. The Temple at Jerusalem was forcibly consecrated to the same heathen deity, and the statue of Jupiter Olympus was erected on the altar of burnt offering. To observe any of the Jewish customs was made a capital offence; in short, the most rigorous measures were adopted absolutely to root out the Jewish faith. But enough remained of the noble Jewish spirit of other days to resist such blasphemous tyranny. There was a family of the priestly class, sometimes called the Asmonæans, from Asmonæus, one of their ancestors; and sometimes the Maccabees, a name, it is said, formed of the initial letters of the motto which one of them, Judas, placed on his standard, from Ex. 15:11, "Who is like unto Thee among the gods, O Lord?" The Hebrew words are, MI CAMOKA BAELIM JEHOVAH; and from the letters M C B I was derived the word Macabi, or Maccabee, which became the surname of the family, and was applied also to all who joined their cause. Mattathias, the father of the family, had five sons—Johanan, Simon, Judas, Eleazar, and Jonathan. They dwelt at Modin, a city to the west of Jerusalem, in the Philistine plain, near the sea-coast. When the emissaries of Antiochus came to Mattathias, urging him to conform to the pagan worship, he declared he should never prove unfaithful to his God; and seeing a Jew presenting himself at the heathen altar to sacrifice to the gods, he fell upon him, like Phinehas of old, and killed him on the spot. Collecting his family and other like-minded persons, he withdrew to the mountains of Judea, occupied the same caves and fastnesses which David had held nearly a thousand years before, and bade defiance to Antiochus and his armies. One body of his followers, to the number of a thousand, had taken refuge in a cave, where they were attacked on a Sabbath by a Syrian troop; and deeming it unlawful to resist on that day, every man, woman, and child were put to death. Hearing of this, Mattathias and his friends held a council, and after deliberation, came to the conclusion that resistance to such attacks on the Sabbath was lawful. The number of the patriot army under the Maccabees gradually increased; their aged leader, Mattathias, was removed by death, but his son Judas was eminently fitted to succeed him. The war of independence is a very interesting chapter of Jewish history, but our limits compel us to pass it over in a sentence. Three campaigns were undertaken by the Syro-Macedonians against the patriots. In all of these the Syrians were unsuccessful. One of them was undertaken by Antiochus in person. But the same loathsome disease which afterward cut off Herod attacked and destroyed him while breathing out threatening and slaughter against his foes. A civil war having broken out in Syria, peace was at last concluded. Judas Maccabeus became governor of Palestine, and though fresh troubles broke out speedily, a new era may be said to have begun. Palestine Under the Maccabees: B.C. 165 to 63. When Judas Maccabeus came into power, the Temple was purged and rededicated, and the ancient services resumed. But Judas was not allowed to prosecute his reforms in peace. He was again attacked by the Syrians; but, though successful once and again, he began to lose ground. He then applied to the Romans for help; but before it could be granted, he fell in battle. The command now devolved on his brother Jonathan. Owing, in a great measure, to the intrigues and plots that were going on for the Syrian throne, Jonathan contrived at last to get his authority acknowledged, and was declared meridarch or commander in Judea. But it was not long ere he was treacherously murdered. He was succeeded by his brother Simon, who, like Judas, appealed to the Romans, and, by studying their interests, obtained a large measure of power. The sovereignty was made hereditary in the family of Simon, and he was succeeded by his son, John Hyrcanus. The sects of the Pharisees and Sadducees were now keenly opposed to each other, and Hyrcanus joined first the one and then the other. Strife and commotion again prevailed. At last two rival Maccabees, Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, grandsons of John Hyrcanus, contended for the dignity, and a civil war ensued in Judea. Meanwhile the Romans, under Pompey, had extended their victories into Syria, and Hyrcanus and Aristobulus both submitted their claims to Pompey's decision. Hyrcanus was preferred. Aristobulus attempted to defend Jerusalem against Pompey, but in vain. After a three months' siege, the city and Temple were taken, B.C. 63. Pompey impiously entered the holy of holies, thereby inflicting an unpardonable outrage on the feelings of the Jews. It was remarked by them that after this his reverses of fortune began. He gave the government of Judea to Hyrcanus, but would not allow him to wear a crown. A yearly tribute to Rome was imposed. Aristobulus and some others were taken prisoners to Rome. It would be impossible to narrate all the sieges, battles, murders and massacres that give their dark hue to this period of history. The effect on the state of religion among the Jews must have been very disastrous. Perhaps, however, religion suffered quite as much from the bitter contests between the Pharisees and the Sadducees as from any other cause. It is not certain that the Sadducees yet held all those impious doctrines which were afterward maintained by them. At first, their main characteristic was opposition to the traditions so strenuously upheld by the Pharisees. The Pharisees were generally the most numerous and powerful party. Now, as formerly, true piety probably flourished, like the ferns and mosses of our mountains, in shady nooks and lonely dells. Little of it can be discovered in the leaders of factions, or in any of the men who occupied prominent positions. The rose of Sharon and the lily of the valley must be sought for in more quiet and sequestered spots. Palestine Under the Romans: B.C. 63 to 4. When the Romans conquered Judea, they exacted a yearly tribute, but allowed the country to be still governed by the Maccabees, in conformity with its ancient laws and customs. But between Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, the rival members of the Maccabee family, much strife and bloodshed arose. Hyrcanus was restored to the high-priesthood by Pompey, while Aristobulus, his brother, was carried to Rome to grace his triumph. But Aristobulus contrived to escape, and returned to renew the civil war in Judea. The contest was continued by his son Alexander, who was at last defeated with immense slaughter at Mount Tabor, in the plain of Esdraelon, the old battle-field of Palestine. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/butler/