Esther 9:4

For Mordecai [was] great in the king's house, and his fame went out throughout all the provinces: for this man Mordecai waxed greater and greater.

Ver. 4. For Mordecai was great in the king's house] So great a favourite, as that it was dangerous to displease him; and most men coveted his favour. It was now in the court and kingdom of Persia, as it was once at Rome when Sejanus ruled the roast under Tiberius. Ut quisque Seiano intimus, ita ad Caesaris amicitiam validus. Contra quibus infensus esset, metu et sordibus conflictabantur (Tacit.). His friends were Caesar's friends, and his enemies were in a very low and lamentable condition.

And his fame went throughout all the provinces] Auditio eius, the report of him went far and near. Per ora hominum volitabat, so the Vulgate Latin. He was

Claros inter habens nomina clara vires.

Famous among famous man who have a reputation. It was everywhere discoursed that Mordecai was the king's darling, kinsman, counsellor, that he had saved the king's life, and was therefore promoted to the highest dignity; that it were good getting in with him, who both could and would reciprocate aud remunerate any that should well deserve him and his people. How thankful the Lord Cromwell was to those that had done him any courtesy. See Acts and Mon. fol. 1083. How ungrateful Bishop Banner was to the same Lord Cromwell, who had been his great patron, railing at him as the rankest heretic that had ever lived, &c.; see in fol. 1087; but this was after his death; Leoni mortuo vel mus insultat. A dead lion or a leaping mouse.

For this man Mordecai] Vir ille insignis, that distinguished man, though he were but novus homo et peregrinus, a newly raised man, a stranger, and one that had brought in a strange alteration of things in the court and commonwealth; and therefore could not but be much envied and maligned, as far as men dared show themselves against him; yet

He waxed greater and greater] Heb. he was going (that is, growing) and greatening. See the like Hebraism, Pro 4:18 Genesis 8:5. For why? he did gloria invidiam vincere, conquor, envy, and dazzle her eyes with his lustre; which, saith Sallust, is the hardest thing that can be, Difficillimum inter mortales. For as the tallest trees are weakest at the tops; so doth envy always aim at the highest. But maugre malice itself, Mordecai was in the number of those few that lived and died with glory, gotten by his piety, zeal, and other virtues; neither had his adversaries anything to complain of him more than his greatness, as Camden saith of the old earl of Essex (Camd Eliz. fol. 532).