Esther 3:1-6. Haman offended by Mordecai's refusal to make obeisance 1. _After these things_ i.e. between the seventh (Esther 2:16) and the twelfth (Esther 3:7) years of Xerxes" reign. _Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite_ Haman's name has been held to be another form of _Humman_or _Humban_, a... [ Continue Reading ]
_bowed down_ The Heb. expresses a more profound salutation, after the Oriental fashion, than the A.V. -bow." _the king had so commanded_ Bowing down before a superior was such an established custom that one would have thought the king's command needless. It may have been that Haman's elevation was... [ Continue Reading ]
_whether Mordecai's matters would stand_ The Heb. expression signifies either matters or words. They desired to know whether his refusal would pass with impunity. In their eyes it was not only a breach of custom but a piece of unwarrantable presumption. _for he had told them that he was a Jew_ The... [ Continue Reading ]
_But he thought scorn etc._ Haman's wrath was so excessive that to punish the man who excited it seemed to him as nothing. The whole nation to which his enemy belonged must perish. A little more than forty years previously, at the accession of Darius Hystaspes, there had been a general massacre of t... [ Continue Reading ]
Haman's scheme for the extermination of the Jews 7. _In the first month, which is the month Nisan_ the Hebraised form of the Babylonian _Nisannu_. It is the later substitute for the older Israelite name for the first month of the year, viz. Abib (see on Esther 2:16), and corresponds to the latter p... [ Continue Reading ]
_scattered abroad_ better, as marg., _separated_. _peoples_ See on Esther 1:11. _in all the provinces of thy kingdom_ The Jews who availed themselves of Cyrus's decree permitting their return to Jerusalem (b.c. 538) may have formed only that portion which had no very close ties, commercial or other... [ Continue Reading ]
_that they be destroyed_ lit. _to destroy them_. Let an edict be issued for their destruction. _I will pay ten thousand talents of silver_ about £3,750,000 sterling. Xerxes, unscrupulous though we know him to have been, might well be staggered by the request that he should direct this wholesale mass... [ Continue Reading ]
_his ring_ The possession of the king's signet ring gave the holder full power to issue edicts in his name, since the sealing of them with his signet gave them validity. Alexander the Great is said to have intimated in this way that he desired his general Perdiccas to succeed him. Cp. for the use of... [ Continue Reading ]
In the East, confiscation of goods is the invariable accompaniment of capital punishment, and they are forfeited to the crown. At first sight the words seem to mean that the king declines Haman's offer, and gives him free leave to massacre the Jews, and plunder them for his own benefit. But probably... [ Continue Reading ]
_scribes secretaries_, such as attended Xerxes in his expedition against Greece. [70] [70] Herodotus says that "seated beneath a golden awning [in a Sidonian galley] he sailed along the prows of all his vessels … while he made enquiries again, as he had done when he reviewed the land-force, and cau... [ Continue Reading ]
_And letters were sent by posts_ Xenophon tells us (_Cyr._viii. 6. 17) that these were carefully organised by Cyrus in the Persian Empire, and continued after his time. Stations were established at convenient distances apart, and supplied relays of horses and men, that the transmission of letters mi... [ Continue Reading ]
_A copy_ The word in the original is of Persian origin, and occurs again in Esther 4:8; Esther 8:13. _that the decree should be given out_ The marg. _to be given out for a decree_, is probably better, the writing and the decree being one and the same. _unto all the peoples_ See on Esther 1:11. _th... [ Continue Reading ]
_went forth in haste_ Haman fearing lest the king should change his mind and forbid the decree to be published. _the king and Haman sat down to drink_ We are reminded of Gloucester's words to Buckingham (_Richard III._Act iii. Sc. 1, end), "Come, let us sup betimes, that afterwards We may digest... [ Continue Reading ]