Esther 6:3

And the king said, What honour and dignity hath been done to Mordecai for this? Then said the king's servants that ministered unto him, There is nothing done for him.

Ver. 3. And the king said, What honour and dignity hath been done to Mordecai for this?] Lyra saith that he had waited six years for reward and had none. In princes' courts men are sure to meet with two evils, Aναβολη and Mεταβολη, not so in heaven. The butler forgat Joseph. Solomon speaketh of a poor wise man, who by his wisdom delivered the city, yet no man remembered that same poor man, Ecclesiastes 9:15. This is merces mundi, the world's wages. Mordecai had saved the king's life, and yet is unrewarded. The kings of Persia used to be very bountiful to those that had well deserved them, or of the commonwealth; calling such Orosangae, and setting down both their names and their acts in the Chronicles, as Herodotus testifieth. Among the rest he mentioned one Phylacus, Qui inter bene de rege meritos ascriptus est, et multo tractu soli donatus, who was put upon record for his good service to the king, and rewarded with a great deal of land given him. Others had great store of gold and silver, and a gallant house, as Democedes Crotoniates, the physician who cured Darius, had at Susis. It is well known out of Xenophon, what rich gifts Cyrus gave to his friends and followers, chains of gold, armlets, bridles embossed with gold, Persian stools, called Dorophoricae, &c. Herodotus telleth us, that this Ahasuerus, alias Xerxes, gave Megabyzus, for his good service at Babylon, a golden mill weighing six talents. Plutarch writeth, that he gave Themistocles over two hundred talents, and three cities besides, viz. Magnesia, Lampsacus, and Myuntis, to find him food, and for clothing and furniture two more, viz. Percos and Palaescepsis. How came it then to pass that good Mordecai was so forgotten? Surely it was a great fault in this ungrateful king, but God's holy hand was in it, that Mordecai should not have a present recompense, but that it should be deferred till a fitter opportunity, when God might be more glorified in the preservation of his people and destruction of their enemies. Let us not therefore be weary of well doing; for (however men deal by us) we shall be sure to reap in due season if we faint not, Galatians 6:9. God best seeth when a mercy will be most sweet and seasonable. When his people are low enough, and the enemy high enough, then usually it appeareth that there is a God that judgeth in the earth, and a rich reward for the righteous. Men may neither remunerate nor remember the good turns we have done them; but there is a book of remembrance written before tbe Lord for all them that fear him, and that think upon his name, Malachi 3:16. See my treatise on that text, called, The Righteous Man's Recompense, annexed to my Comment upon the Small Prophets.

Then said the king's servants] The eunuchs or gentlemen of the bedchamber: ingenuous men they were, and not disaffected to Mordecai, whom yet they could not but know to be a great eyesore to Prince Haman. Si iuvenes isti vulgari invidentiae morbo laborasscnt, saith Lavater. If these young men had been sick of that common disease of envy, they would have extenuated his good service, and have said, Mordecai is a despised Jew, a stranger, a captive. If he revealed the conspiracy, he did but his duty, and provided thereby well for his own safety. Is it not reward enough that he lives, and at court, where he hath a place, an office, &c.? Courtiers, we know, love not to have others come over their heads, but think all lost which themselves acquire not, as Seneca saith Sejanus did, Quicquid non acquiritur damnum est. Whatever he did not own, was consumed. We know how it was in the courts of Pharaoh, Saul, Herod. That is a rare commendation that is given by Xenophon of Cyrus's courtiers, that though a man should seek or choose blindfold, he could not miss of a good man, Eνθα καν μυων βαλη τις ουκ αν αμαρτοι ανδρος αγαθου (Xen. Cyrop. 1. 8). David's court might very well be such, Psalms 101:1,8, and Queen Elizabeth's, and George's, prince of Anhalt, of whom Melancthon writeth, that his chamber was Ecclesia, Academia, Curia, a church, a university, and a court; Palaestra pietatis et literarum, as Tremellius saith of Cranmer's family, a school of piety and learning.

There is nothing done for him] And yet the Apocryphal additions, Esther 12:5,6, say otherwise.