Esther 5 - Introduction
_ESTHER PRESENTS HERSELF BEFORE THE KING, WHOM SHE INVITES WITH HAMAN TO A BANQUET. HAMAN, INDIGNANT THAT MORDECAI REFUSES HIM RESPECT, COMMANDS A GALLOWS TO BE ERECTED FOR HIM._ _Before Christ 474._... [ Continue Reading ]
_ESTHER PRESENTS HERSELF BEFORE THE KING, WHOM SHE INVITES WITH HAMAN TO A BANQUET. HAMAN, INDIGNANT THAT MORDECAI REFUSES HIM RESPECT, COMMANDS A GALLOWS TO BE ERECTED FOR HIM._ _Before Christ 474._... [ Continue Reading ]
THE KING HELD OUT TO ESTHER THE GOLDEN SCEPTRE— A sceptre was the ensign of the highest and most absolute authority; therefore some have observed, that when Mordecai was advanced to the greatest dignity, next the king, having the royal robes on, and other ensigns of regal dignity, no mention is made... [ Continue Reading ]
LET THE KING AND HAMAN COME TO THE BANQUET, &C.— Esther's intention, in desiring to entertain the king twice at her banquet before she made known her petition, was, that thereby she might the more endear herself to him, and the better dispose him to grant her request; for which reason she thought it... [ Continue Reading ]
HAMAN SAID MOREOVER, YEA, ESTHER, &C.— Athenaeus mentions it as a peculiar honour, which no Grecian ever had before or after, that Artaxerxes vouchsafed to invite Timagoras the Cretan to dine even at the table where his relations ate, and to send sometimes a part of what was served up at his own; wh... [ Continue Reading ]
THE THING PLEASED HAMAN, AND HE CAUSED THE GALLOWS TO BE MADE— This gallows was to be fifty feet high, that men might at a greater distance see the object of Haman's indignation, to the increase of Mordecai's disgrace no doubt, as Haman and his friends thought, and that, struck with greater terror b... [ Continue Reading ]