Esther 3:9

If it please the king, let it be written that they may be destroyed: and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver to the hands of those that have the charge of the business, to bring [it] into the king's treasuries.

Ver. 9. If it please the king] Here he showeth himself a smooth courtier, and speaketh silken words, the sooner to insinuate. But if Solomon had been by he would have said, "When he speaketh fair, believe him not: for there are seven abominations in his heart," Proverbs 26:25 .

Let it be written that they may be destroyed] As Mithridates, king of Pontus, by writing one bloody letter only, destroyed eighty thousand citizens of Rome, dispersed up and down Asia for traffic's sake (Val. Max.). That was bad, but this was worse that Haman motioned, and well near effected. And surely never did the old red dragon, saith Rupertus, lift up his head so fiercely and furiously against the woman, that is, against the Church of God, as in this place. Therefore is Haman to be reckoned among those cruel enemies, who said, Come, and let us destroy them from being a nation, that the name of Israel may be no more remembered, Psalms 83:4. But let them rage and kill up the saints as much as they can, the sheep will still be more in number than the wolves, the doves than the hawks. Plures efficimur quoties metimur, saith Tertullian, the more you crop us the faster we grow.

And I shall pay ten thousand talents of silver] A vast sum, three thousand seven hundred fifty thousand pounds sterling. At so great charge would this butcher be, to satisfy his lust, and to have his pennyworths upon God's poor people. So, in the gunpowder treason (besides their pains, digging like moles in their vault of villany), Digby offered to bring in fifteen hundred pounds, Tresham two thousand, Piercy four thousand, out of the earl of Northumberland's rents; besides ten swift horses to steed them when the blow was past. But where should Haman have all this money, may some say? I answer, First, if he were of the seed royal of Amalek, as it is thought, he might have much left him by his ancestors. Secondly, being so great a favourite to the king of Persia, he had, doubtless, many profitable offices, and so might lay up gold as dust, and silver as the stones of the brooks, Job 22:24. Did not Wolsey so here in Henry VIII's time? Thirdly, he had already devoured in his hopes the goods and spoils of all the slain Jews, which he doubted not but the king would bestow upon him for his good service. Like as Henry II of France gave his mistress, Diana Valentina, all the confiscations of goods made in the kingdom for cause of heresy. Hereupon many good men were burned for religion, as it was said, but, indeed, it was to satiate her covetousness (Hist. of Counc. of Trent, 387).

To the hands of those, &c.] Vulg. Arcariis gazae tuae.

To bring it into the king's treasuries] That he might not be damnified in the tributes formerly paid by the Jews for their liberty of conscience. Kings use to take care that their incomes and revenues be not impaired or diminished. It is said of Soliman, the Great Turk, that, seeing a company of many thousands of his Christian subjects fall down before him, and hold up the forefinger, as their manner of conversion to the Turkish religion is, he asked what moved them to turn? they replied, it was to be eased of their heavy taxations. He, not willing to lose in tribute for an unsound accession in religion, rejected their conversion, and doubled their taxations.