Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Its contents are as follows: — Ahashverosh, king of Persia, gave, in the third year of his reign, a banquet to the grandees of his kingdom at Susa; and on the seventh day of this feast, when his heart was merry with wine, required the Queen Vashti to appear before his guests and show her beauty. When she refused to come at the king's commandment, she was divorced, at the proposal of his seven counsellors; and this divorce was published by an edict throughout the whole kingdom, lest the example of the queen should have a bad effect upon the obedience of other wives to their husbands (chap. i.). When the king, after his wrath was appeased, began again to feel a tenderness towards his divorced wife, the most beautiful virgins in the whole kingdom were, at the advice of his servants, brought to the house of the women at Susa, that the king might choose a wife at his pleasure. Among these virgins was Esther the Jewess, the foster-daughter and near relative of Mordocliai, a Benjamite living in exile, who, when brought before the king, after the customary preparation, so pleased him, that he chose her for his queen. Her intercourse with Mordocliai continued after her reception into the royal palace; and during Iiis daily visits in the gate of the palace, he discovered a conspiracy against the life of the king, and thus rendered him an important service (chap. ii.). Ahashverosh afterwards made Haman, an Agagite, his prime minister or grand vizier, and commanded all the king's servants to pay him royal honours, i.e. to bow down before him. When this was refused by Mordochai, Haman's indignation was so great, that he resolved to destroy all the Jews in the whole empire. For this purpose he appointed, by means of the lot, both the month and day; and obtained from the king permission to prepare an edict to all the provinces of the kingdom, appointing the thirteenth day of the twelfth month for the extermination of the Jews throughout the whole realm (chap, iii). Mordochai apprised Queen Esther of this cruel command, and so strongly urged her to apply to the king on behalf of her people, that she resolved, at the peril of her life, to appear before him unbidden. When she was so favourably received by him, that he promised beforehand to grant whatever she had to request, even to the half of his kingdom, she first entreated that the king and Haman should eat with her that day. During the repast, the king inquired concerning her request, and she answered that she would declare it on the following day, if the king and Haman would again eat with her (iv. 1-8). Haman, greatly elated at this distinction, had the mortification, on his departure from the queen, of beholding Mordochai, who did not rise up before him, in the gate of the palace; and returning to his house, formed, by the advice of his wife and friends, the resolution of hanging Mordochai next day upon a gallows; for which purpose he immediately caused a tree fifty cubits high to be prepared (v. 9-14). Next night, however, the king, being unable to sleep, caused the records of the kingdom to be read to him, and was thereby reminded of the obligation he was under to Mordochai. When, on this occasion, he learnt that Mordochai had as yet received no reward for this service, he sent for Hainan, who had resorted thus early to the court of the palace for the purpose of obtaining the royal permission for the execution of Mordochai, and asked him what should be done to the man whom the king desired to honour. Haman, thinking this honour concerned himself, proposed the very highest, and was by the king's command obliged, to his extreme mortification, himself to pay this honour to Mordochai, his wife and friends interpreting this occurrence as an omen of his approaching ruin (vi.). When the king and Haman afterwards dined with Esther, the queen begged for her life and that of her people, and pointed to Haman as the enemy who desired to exterminate the Jews. Full of wrath at this information, the king went into the garden of the palace; while Haman, remaining in the room, fell at the feet of the queen to beg for his life. When the king, returning to the banquet chamber, saw Haman lying on the queen's couch, he thought he was offering violence to the queen, passed sentence of death upon him, caused him to be hanged upon the gallows he had erected for Mordochai (vii.), and on the same day gave his house to the queen, and made Mordochai his prime minister in the place of Haman (viii. 1, 2). Hereupon Esther earnestly entreated the reversal of Hainan's edict against the Jews; and since, according to the laws of the Medes and Persians, an edict issued by the king and sealed with the seal-royal could not be repealed, the king commanded Mordochai to prepare and publish throughout the whole kingdom another edict, whereby the Jews were permitted, to their great joy and that of many other inhabitants of the realm (viii. 3-17), not only to defend themselves against the attacks of their enemies on the appointed day, but also to kill and plunder them. In consequence of this, the Jews assembled on the appointed day to defend their lives against their adversaries; and being supported by the royal officials, through fear of Mordochai, they slew in Susa 500, and in the whole kingdom 75,000 men, besides 300 more in Susa on the day following, but did not touch the goods of the slain. They then celebrated in Susa the fifteenth, and in the rest of the kingdom the fourteenth, day of the month Adar, as a day of feasting and gladness (ix. 1-10). Hereupon Mordochai and Queen Esther sent letters to all the Jews in the kingdom, in which they ordered the yearly celebration of this day, by the name of the feast of Purim, i.e. lots, because Hanian had cast lots concerning the destruction of the Jews (ix. 20-32). In conclusion, the documents in which are described the acts of Ahashverosh and the greatness of Mordochai, who had exerted himself for tire good of his people, are pointed out (chap. x.). From this glance at its contents, it is obvious that the object of this book is to narrate the events in remembrance of which the feast of Purim was celebrated, and to transmit to posterity an account of its origin. The aim of the entire contents of this book being; the institution of this festival, with which it concludes, there can be no reasonable doubt of its integrity, which is also generally admitted. Bertheau, however, after the example of J. D. Michaelis, has declared the sections ix. 20-28 and 29-32 to be later additions, incapable of inclusion in the closely connected narrative of chap, i.— ix. 19, and regards chap. x. as differing from it both in matter and language. The sections in question are said to be obviously distinct from the rest of the bopk. But all that is adduced in support of this assertion is, that the words ^% to institute (ix. 21, 27, 29, 31), ^D, to come to an end, to cease (ix. 28), the plural ni£i¥, fasts (ix. 31), and an allusion to the decree in a direct manner, occur only in these sections. In such a statement, however, no kind of consideration is given to the circumstance that there was no opportunity for the use of D*£ spD and the plur. T\\d\"i in the other chapters. Hence nothing remains but the direct introduction of the decree, which is obviously insufficient to establish a peculiarity of language. Still weaker is the proof offered of diversity of matter between ix. 20-32 and chap, i.— ix. 19; Bertheau being unable to make this appear in any way, but by wrongly attributing to the word Ds£ the meaning: to confirm a lon^-existinij custom.

The feast of Purim is mentioned, 2 Mace. xv. 36, under the name of Map^o^aiKrj rjfjiepa, as a festival existing in the time of Nicanor (about 160 B.C.); and Josephus tells us, Ant. xi. 6. 13, that it was kept by the Jews during a whole week. Now the institution of this festival must have been based upon an historical event similar to that related in this book. Hence even this is sufficient to show that the assertion of Semler, Oeder, and others, that this book contains a fictitious parable (confictam esse universam pavabolarri), is a notion opposed to common sense. For if this festival has been from of old celebrated by the Jews all over the world, it must owe its origin to an occurrence which affected the whole Jewish people, and the names Purim and Mordochai's day are a pledge, that the essential contents of this book are based upon an historical foundation. The name Purim (i.,e. lots), derived from the Persian, can be suitably explained in no other manner than is done in this book, viz. by the circumstance that lots were cast on the fate of the Jews by a Persian official, who contemplated their extermination, for the purpose of fixing on a favourable day for this act; while the name, Mordochai's day, preserves the memory of the individual to whom the Jews were indebted for their deliverance. Hence all modern critics admit, that at least an historical foundation is thus guaranteed, while a few doubt the strictly historical character of the whole narrative, and assert that while the feast of Purim was indeed celebrated in remembrance of a deliverance of the Jews in the Persian empire, it was the existence of this festival, and the accounts given by those who celebrated it, which gave rise to the written narrative of the history of Esther (thus Bertheau). On the other hand, the historical character of the whole narrative has been defended not only by Havernick (EinL), M. Baumgarten (de fide libri Esther wy 1839), and others, but also, and upon valid grounds, by Staehelin {%pez. EinL in die kanon. BB. des A. T. § 51 sq.). The objections that have been raised to its credibility have arisen, first from the habit of making subjective probability the standard of historical truth, and next from an insufficient or imperfect attention to the customs, manners, and state of affairs at the Persian court on the one hand, or an incorrect view of the meaning of the text on the other. When, e.g., Bertheau as well as Bleek (Einleit. p. 286) says, "The whole is of such a nature that the unprejudiced observer cannot easily regard it as a purely historical narrative," Cleric, (dissert, de scriptoribus Librr. hist. § 10) far more impartially and correctly decides: Mirabilis sane est et 7rapaSo£o? (quis enim?ieget?) historia, sed multa mirabilia et a moribus nostris aliena olim apud orientates ut apud omnes alios populos contigerunt. The fact that King Ahashverosh should grant his grand vizier Haman permission to publish an edict commanding the extermination of the Jews throughout his empire, is not challenged by either Bleek or Bertheau; and, indeed, we need not go so far as the despotic states of the East to meet with similar occurrences; the Parisian massacre of St. Bartholomew beino; a sufficient proof that the apparently incredible may be actual reality.1 And all the other statements of this book, however seemingly unaccountable to us, become conceivable when we consider the character of King Ahashverosh, i.e., as is now generally admitted, of Xerxes, who is described by Greek and Roman historians as a very luxurious, voluptuous, and at the same time an extremely cruel tyrant. A despot who, after his army had been hospitably entertained on its march to Greece, and an enormous sum offered towards defraying the expenses of the war, by Pythius the rich Lydian, could be betrayed into such fury by the request of the latter, that of his

1 Kosenmiiller (bibl. Altertumsk. i. 1, p. 379) calls to mind Mithridates king of Pontus, who, when at war with the Romans, secretlyissued an order to all the satraps and local authorities of his realm, to assassinate all Romans, without distinction of age or sex, on an appointed day, in consequence of which 80,000 perished on one day; also the pasha of Zaid Mehmed in the sixteenth century, who surprised the nation of the Druses, and put to death all whom he met with (comp. Arvieux, merkw. Nadir, i. p. 391); and then continues: "It is almost more incredible that a ruler should, from the blindness of religious zeal, either execute or drive out of his realm 100,000 of his most diligent and prosperous subjects; yet the history of modern Europe offers us, in Ferdinand the Catholic, who chased 300,000 Jews from Spain, and IiOuis xiv., who, after putting some thousands of Protestants to death, banished hundreds of thousands from France, examples of such incredible events."

five sons who were in the army the eldest might be released, to be the comfort of his declining years, as to command this son to be hewn into two pieces, and to make his army pass between them (Herod, vii. c. 37-39; Seneca, de ira, vii. 17); a tyrant who could behead the builders of the bridge over the Hellespont, because a storm had destroyed the bridge, and command the sea to be scourged, and to be chained by sinking a few7 fetters (Herod, vii. 35); a debauchee who, after his return from Greece, sought to drive awray his vexation at the shameful defeat he had undergone, by revelling in sensual pleasures (Herod, ix. 108 sq.); so frantic a tyrant was capable of all that is told us in the book of Esther of Ahashverosh.

Bleek's objections to the credibility of the narrative consist of the following points: a. That it is inconceivable that if the Persian despot had formed a resolution to exterminate all the Jews in his kingdom, he would, even though urged by a favourite, have proclaimed this by a royal edict published throughout all the provinces of his kingdom twelve months previously. In advancing this objection, however, Bleek has not considered that Haman cast lots for the appointment of the day on which his project was to be carried into execution; the Persians being, according to Herod, iii. 128, Cyrop. i. 6. 46, frequently accustomed to resort to the lot; while not only m Strabo's time, but to the present day also, everything is with them decided according to the dicta of soothsayers and astrologers. If, then, the lot had declared the day in question to be a propitious one for the matter contemplated, the haughty Haman would not reflect that the premature publication of the edict would afford a portion of the Jews the opportunity of escaping destruction by flight. Such reflections are inconsistent with absolute confidence in the power of magical decisions; and even if what was possible had ensued, he would still have attained his main object of driving the Jews out of the realm, and appropriating their possessions. — b. That at this time Judea, which was then almost wholly reinhabited by Jews, was among the provinces of Persia, and that hence the king's edict commanded the extermination of almost all the population of that country. This, he says, it is difficult to believe; and not less so, that when the first edict was not repealed, the second, which granted the Jews permission to defend themselves against their enemies, should have resulted everywhere in such success to the Jews, even though, from fear of Mordochai the new favourite, they were favoured by the royal officials, that all should in all countries submit to them, and that they should kill 75,000 men, equally with themselves subjects of the king. To this it may be replied: that Judea was, in relation to the whole Persian realm, a very unimportant province, and in the time of Xerxes, as is obvious from the book of Ezra, by no means " almost wholly," but only very partially, inhabited by Jews, who were, moreover, regarded with such hostility by the other races dwelling among them, that the execution of the decree cannot appear impossible even here. With regard to the result of the second edict, the slaughter of 75,000 men, this too is perfectly comprehensible. For since, according to Medo-Persian law, the formal repeal of a royal edict issued according to legal form was impracticable, the royal officials wTould understand the sense and object of the second, and not trouble themselves much about the execution of the first, but, on the contrary, make the second published by Mordochai, who was at that time the highest dignitary in the realm, their rule of action for the purpose of ensuring his favour. Hound numbers, moreover, of the slain are evidently given; i.e. they are given upon only approximate statements, and are not incredibly high, when the size and population of the kingdom are considered. The Persian empire, in its whole extent from India to Ethiopia, must have contained a population of at least 100,000,000, and the number of Jews in the realm must have amounted to from two to three millions. A people of from two to three millions would include, moreover, at least from 500,000 to 700,000 capable of bearing arms, and these might in battle against their enemies slay 75,000 men. Susa, the capital, would not have been less than the Stamboul of the present day, and would probably contain at least half a million of inhabitants; and it by no means surpasses the bounds of probability, that in such a town 500 men should be slain in one day, and 300 more on the following, in a desperate street fight. Nor can the numbers stated be looked upon as too high a computation. The figures are only rendered improbable by the notion, that the Jews themselves suffered no loss at all. Such an assumption, however, is by no means justified by the circumstance, that such losses are unmentioned. It is the general custom of the scriptural historians to give in their narratives of wars and battles only the numbers of the slain among the vanquished foes, and not to mention the losses of the victors. We are justified, however, in supposing that the war was of an aggravated character, from the fact that it bore not only a national, but also a religious character. Haman's wrath against Mordochai was so exasperated by the information that he was a Jew, that he resolved upon the extermination of the people of Mordochai, i.e. of all the Jews in the realm (iii. 4— G). To obtain the consent of the king, he accused the Jews as a scattered and separated people, whose laws were different from the laws of all other nations, of not observing the laws of the king. This accusation was, u from the standpoint of Parseeism, the gravest which could have been made against the Jews'* (Haev. Einl. ii. 1, p. 348). The separation of the Jews from all other people, a consequence of the election of Israel to be the people of God, has at all times inflamed and nourished the hatred of the Gentiles and of the children of this world against them. This hatred, which was revived by the edict of Haman, could not be quenched by the counter-edict of Mordochai. Though this edict so inspired the royal officials with fear of the powerful minister, that they took part with, instead of against the Jews, yet the masses of the people, and especially the populations of towns, would not have paid such respect to it as to restrain their hatred against the Jews. The edict of Mordochai did not forbid the execution of that of Haman, but only allowed the Jews to stand up for their lives, and to slay such enemies as should attack them (viii. 11). The heathen were not thereby restrained from undertaking that fight against the Jews, in which they wTere eventually the losers. — When, however, c. Bleek finds it a utterly unnatural " that, after the Jews had slain 500 of their foes in one day in Susa, the king should, at the request of Esther, whose vengeance and thirst of blood were not yet appeased, have granted an edict that the slaughter should be renewed on the following day, when no attack upon the Jews was permitted, his objection rests upon a sheer misunderstanding of the whole affair. The queen only requested that u it should be granted to the Jews in Susa to do to-morrow also, according to the decree of to-day" (ix. 13), i.e. "to stand for their lives, and slay all who should assault them " (viii. 11). This petition presupposes that the heathen population of Susa would renew the attack upon the Jews on the next day. Hence it is evident that Bleek's assertion, that the heathen were not allowed on that day to renew their attack upon the Jews, is an erroneous notion, and one at variance with the text. Together with this erroneous assumption, the reproach of vengeance and bloodthirstiness raised against Esther is also obviated. Her foresight in securing the lives of her people against renewed attacks, betrays neither revenge nor cruelty. Unless the heathen population had attacked the Jews on the second day, the latter would have had no opportunity of slaying their foes. How little, too, the Jews in general were influenced by a desire of vengeance, is shown by the fact so repeatedly brought forward, that they laid not their hand on the spoil of the slain (ix. 9, 15), though this was granted them by the royal edict (viii. 11). — d. Bleek's remaining objections are based partly upon misrepresentations of the state of affairs, and partly upon erroneous notions of Eastern customs.1

1 E.g. the remark that, though all Susa was thrown into consternation by the edict of Haraan, it rejoiced greatly at the second; where Bleek has inserted all to make the matter appear incredible by exaggeration. In the text we only read " the city of Susa was perplexed " (iii. 15), " the city of Susa rejoiced and was glad " (viii. 15); i.e., in the city of Susa there was in the one instance perplexity, in the other rejoicing. Also that the king published a special decree in all the provinces of his kingdom, that every man should be master in his own house, — a misin-

If, then, all the objections raised against the credibility of the narrative may be thus disposed of, we are perfectly justified in adhering to a belief in the historical character of the whole book, since even Bleek cannot deny, that some at least of "the customs and arrangements of the Persian court are both vividly and faithfully depicted." To this must be added the statement of the names of the individuals who take part in the narrative, e.g. the courtiers, i. 10; the seven princes of Persia, i. 14; the keeper of the women's houses, ii. 8 and 14; the ten sons of Haman, ix. 7-9, and others; and the reference to the book of the chronicles of the Medes and Persians, as the documents in which not only the acts of Ahashverosh, but also the greatness of Mordochai, were written (x. 2). As the numerous and otherwise wholly unknown names could not possibly be invented, so neither can the reference to the book of the chronicles be a mere literary fiction. When, therefore, Bertheau thinks, that the writer of this book, by thus bringing forward so many small details, by stating the names of otherwise unknown individuals, and especially by giving so much accurate information concerning Persian affairs and institutions, — the correctness of which is in all respects confirmed both by the statements of classical authors and our present increased knowledge of Oriental matters, — certainly proves himself acquainted with the scene in which the narrative takes place, with Persian names and affairs, but not possessed also of an historical knowledge of the actual course of events; we can perceive terpretation of the passage i. 22; see the explanation of this verse. Finally, the difficulty that Esther, as queen-consort, should have concealed her nationality so long as is stated in the narrative, can exist only for those unacquainted with the state of affairs in the harem of an Oriental prince. The Persian monarchs, who had a fresh concubine for each day, would certainly be ignorant of the descent of each; and though, according to Herod, iii. 84, the queens were generally of the race of the Achsemenides, yet the same historian also relates (iii. 31) of Cambyses, that the royal ZixccaTcti declared to him, with respect to his marriage with a sister, that: tw fiocothivovri Tiipaiuv i%thett nztuknv to uv (iov^nroct. The case, too, of a concubine being raised to the rank of queen by a Persian monarch is not inconceivable.

in this last inference only the unsupported decision of a subjectivistic antipathy to the contents of the book.

No certain information concerning the author of this book is obtainable. The talmudic statement in Baba bathr. 15. 1, that it was written by the men of the Great Synagogue, is devoid of historical value; and the opinion of Clem. AL, Aben Ezra, and others, that Mordochai was its author, as is also inferred from ix. 20 and 23 by de Wette, is decidedly a mistaken one, — the writer plainly distinguishing in this passage between himself and Mordochai, who sent letters concerning the feas't of Purim to the Jews in the realm of Persia. Other conjectures are still tnore unfounded. The date, too, of its composition can be only approximately determined. The opinion that in ix. 19 the long existence of the feast of Purim is presupposed, cannot be raised to the rank of a certainty. Nor does the book contain allusions pointing to the era of the Greek universal monarchy. This is admitted by Stahelin, who remarks, p. 178: aThe most seemingly valid argument in support of this view, viz. that Persian customs are explained in this book, i. 1, 13 (for vii. 8, usually cited with these passages, is out of the question, and is the king's speech in answer to viii. 5), is refuted by the consideration, that the book was written for the information of Palestinian Jews; while Havernick, ii. 1, p. 361, refers to a case in Bohaeddin, in which this biographer of Saladin, p. 70, though writing for Arabs, explains an Arabian custom with respect to prisoners of war." On the other hand, both the reference to the chronicles of the Medes and Persians (x. 2), and the intimate acquaintance of the writer with Susa and the affairs of the Persian monarchy, decidedly point to the fact, that the date of its composition preceded the destruction of the Persian empire, and may perhaps have been that of Artaxerxes I. or t)arius Nothus, about 400 B.C. The omission, moreover, of all reference to Judah and Jerusalem, together with the absence not only of tTieo- cratic notions, but of a specially religious view of circumstances, favour the view that the author lived not in Palestine, but in the more northern provinces of the Persian realm, probably in Susa itself. For though his mode of representing events, which does not even once lead him to mention the name of God, is not caused by the irreligiousness of the author, but rather by the circumstance, that he neither wished to depict the persons whose acts he was narrating as more godly than they really were, nor to place the whole occurrence — which manifests, indeed, the dealings of Divine Providence with the Jewish people, but not the dealings of Jahve with the nation of Israel — under a point of view alien to the actors and the event itself, yet a historian acquainted with the theocratic ordinances and relations of Judah would scarcely have been capable of so entirely ignoring them.

The book of Esther has always formed a portion of the Hebrew canon. It is included also among the twenty-two books which, according to Josephus, c. Ap. i. 8, were acknowledged by the Jews as Strata)? 7T67rcaT6Vfiei/a. For Josephus, who repeatedly asserts, that the history of the Hebrews from Moses to Artaxerxes was written by the prophets and worthy to be believed, relates also in his Jewish Antiquities (1. xi. c. 6) the history of Esther, Mordochai, and Haman. Certain critics have indeed desired to infer, from the statement in the Talmud, Jerush. MegilL 70. 4, that " among the eighty elders who contended against the institution of the feast of Purim by Esther and Mordochai as an innovation in the law, there were more than thirty prophets," that the JewTs did not formerly attribute the same authority to the book of Esther as to the other Scriptures (Movers, loci quidam historice canonis V. T. p. 28; Bleek, Einl. p. 404); but even Bertheau doubts whether this passage refers to the whole book of Esther. For it treats unambiguously only of the fact chap. ix. 29-32, which is very specially stated to have been an institution of Esther and Mordochai, and concerning which differences of opinion might prevail among the Rabbis. The further remark of Movers, I.e., that the oldest patristic testimonies to the inclusion of this book in the canon are of such a nature, ut ex Us satis verisimiliter ejfici possit, eum tunc recens canoni adjectum esse, because it occupies the last place in the series of O. T. writings given by Origen, Epiphanius, and Jerome, according to Jewish authority, and because the canons of the Greek Church, which more accurately enumerate the books received by the synagogue, do not contain the book of Esther, is also incorrect. For (1.) the lists of the canonical books of the O. T. given by Origen (in Euseb. hist. eccl. vi. 25) and Epiphanius give these books not according to their order in the Hebrew canon, but to that of the Alexandrinian version, while only Jerome places the book of Esther last. (2.) In the lists of the Greek Church this book is omitted only in that given in Euseb. hist. eccl. iv. 26, from the eclogce of Melito, Bishop of Sardis, and in that of Gregory of Nazianzen, while it is included in those of Origen and Cyril of Jerusalem; a circumstance which leads to the supposition that it might have been omitted by an oversight in transcription in those of Origen and Epiphanius. Only Athanasius (in his epist. fest.)y Amphilochius (in the Jambi ad Seleuc), and the author of the Synopsis Athanasius, who is supposed not to have lived till the tenth century, reckon it among the apocryphal books; while Junilius (of the sixth century) remarks that there were many in his days who doubted the canonicity of the book of Esther. From this it is sufficiently obvious, that these doubts were not founded upon historical tradition, but proceeded only from subjective reasons, and were entertained because offence was taken, first at the non-mention of the name of God in this book, and then at the confessedly apocryphal additions mingled with this book in the Alexandrinian translation. The author of the Synopsis Ath., moreover, expressly says that the Hebrews regarded this book as canonical. The wellknown harsh judgments of Luther in his work de servo ar- hitrio: liber Esther, quamvis hunc habent in canone, dignior omnibus, me judice, qui extra canonem haberetur, and in his Table Talk, are purely subjective.1 Luther could never reconcile himself to this book, because he felt that the saving truths of Scripture were absent from it. The later Jews, on the contrary, exalted it even far above the Thorah and the prophets.2

Later Protestant theologians, too, have, in their efforts to justify the canonicity of this book, over-estimated its canonical value, and attributed to the history therein related, Messianic references which are foreign to its meaning (comp. the verdict given upon it in Carpzov's Introd, in V. T. p. 369 sq.). The moderate opinion of Brentius is: hie liber utilis est ad docendam Jidem et timorem Dei, ut pii non frangantur adversis, sed invocantes nomen Domini ex fide, accipiant spem salutis; impii vero alieno supplicio terreantur et ad pietatem convertantur. This opinion is one far better founded than the depreciatory decision of modern critics, that this book breathes a spirit of revenge and pride (de Wette-Schrader);

or of Bertheau, that " Esther and Mordochai are full of a spirit of revenge and hostility not to Gentile ways, but to the Gentiles themselves, of cruelty, and of ungodly confidence in a victory over the world, by worldly power and the employment of worldly means," and that this book " belongs to the historical records of the revelation made to Israel, only in so far as it helps to fill up the chasm between the times of the prophets and the days of our Lord." " The book itself and its position in the canon plainly testify, that the people to whom the victory over the world was promised, separated themselves farther and farther from communion with the holy God, trusted to their own arm and to worldly power, and could not, therefore, but be worsted in their contest

1 " And while the Doctor was correcting the second book of Maccabees he said: I am so hostile to this book and that of Esther, that I wish they did not exist; they are too Judaizing, and contain many heathenish improprieties."

with the empire of the times." Such a verdict is justified

neither by the circumstance, that the Jews, who reject Christ's redemption, understand and over-estimate this book in a carnal manner, nor by the fact, that the name of God does not once occur therein. With respect to the first point, the book itself is not to blame for being misused by Jews who have not accepted the redemption which is by Christ, to nourish a fanatical hatred of all Gentiles. Even if Esther and Mordochai were filled with a spirit of revenge toward the Gentiles, no reproach could in consequence be cast on the book of Esther, which neither praises nor recommends their actions or behaviour, but simply relates what took place without blame or approval. But neither are the accusations raised against Esther and Mordochai founded in truth. The means they took for the deliverance and preservation of their people were in accordance with the circumstances stated. For if the edict promulgated by Haman, and commanding the extermination of the Jews, could not, according to the prevailing law of the Medo-Persians, be repealed, there was no other means left to Mordochai for the preservation of his countrymen from the destruction that threatened them, than the issue of a counter-edict permitting the Jews to fight for their lives against all enemies who should attack them, and conceding to them the same rights against their foes as had been granted to the latter against the Jews by the edict of Haman. The bloodshed which might and must ensue would be the fault neither of Mordochai nor Esther, but of Haman alone. And though Mordochai had irritated the haughty Haman by refusing him adoration, yet no Jew who was faithful to the commands of his God could render to a man that honour and adoration which are due to the Lord only. Besides, even if the offence of which he was thereby guilty against Haman might have incited the latter to punish him individually, it could offer no excuse for the massacre of the entire Jewish nation. As for the second point, viz. the non-mention of the name of God in this book, we have already remarked, § 3, that this omission is not caused by a lack of devoutness or reverence, the narrative itself presenting features which lead to an opposite conclusion.

In the answer which Mordocliai sends to Esther's objection to appear before the king unbidden, " If thou boldest thy peace, there shall arise help and deliverance for the Jews from another place," is expressed the assured belief that God would not leave the Jews to perish. To this must be added, both that the Jews express their deep sorrow at the edict of

Haman by fasting and lamentation (iv. 1-3), and that

Queen Esther not only prepares for her difficult task of appearing before the king by fasting herself, but also begs to be assisted by the fasting of all the Jews in Susa (iv. 16).

Now fasting was a penitential exercise, and the only form of common worship practised by Jews dwelling among

Gentiles; and this penitential exercise was always combined with prayer even among the heathen (comp. Jon. iii. 5 sq.), though prayer and calling upon God might not be expressly mentioned. Finally, the occasion of this conflict between

Jews and Gentiles was a religious one, viz. the refusal of adoration to a man, from fear of transgressing the first commandment. All these things considered, we may with

Stahelin appropriate what Lutz in his bill. Ilermeneutikj p. 386, says concerning this book: "A careful survey will suffice to show, that the religious principle predominates in the the view taken of the occurrence. For it is represented as providential, as an occurrence in which, although the name of God is unmentioned, a higher Power, a Power on the side of Israel, prevails. Even in single features a closer inspection will plainly recognise a religious tone of feeling, while the whole book is pervaded by religious moral earnestness." It is this religious foundation which has obtained and secured its position in the canon of the inspired books of the O. T.

people, during their subjection to a universal empire, by means of a special and providential disposition of secular events, and forms in this respect a supplement to the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, which relate the restoration of the Jewish community to the land of their fathers.

On the additions to the book of Esther in the Alexandrinian version, which Luther, after the example of Jerome, excluded from the book and relegated to the Apocrypha under the title of Stilcke in Esther, comp. my Lehrb. der Einleitung, § 237, and O. F. Fritzsche's&w?'^/. exeget. Hdb. zu den Apohryphen des JV. T. p. 68 sq.

HASHVEROSH, king of Persia, gave, in the third year of his reign, a banquet to the grandees of his kingdom then assembled in Susa, for the purpose of showing them the greatness and glory of his kingdom; while the queen at the same time made a feast for the women in the royal palace (vers. 1-9). On the seventh day of the feast, the king, " when his heart was merry with wine," sent a message by his chief courtiers to the queen, commanding her to appear before him, to show the people and the princes her beauty, and on her refusal to come, was greatly incensed against her (vers. 10-12). Upon inquiring of his astrologers and princes what ought in justice to be done to the queen on account of this disobedience, they advised him to divorce Vashti by an irrevocable decree, and to give her dignity to another and better; also to publish this decree throughout the whole kingdom (vers. 13-20). This advice pleasing the king, it was acted upon accordingly (vers. 21 and 22).

Vers. 1-8. The banquet. Vers- 1-3 mark a period. nri^p n^y? which belongs to Wj does not follow till ver. 3, and even then the statement concerning the feast is again interrupted by a long parenthesis, and not taken up again and completed till ver. 5. On the use of W in historical narratives at the beginning of relations having, as in the present instance and Ruth i. 1, no reference to a preceding narrative, see the remark on Josh. i. 1. Even when no express reference to any preceding occurrence takes place, the historian still puts what he has to relate in connection with other historical occurrences by an u and it came to pass." Ahashverosh is, as has already been remarked on Ezra iv. (p. 73), Xerxes, the son of Darius Hystaspis. Not only does the name BTnE'riK point to the Old-Persian name Ks'ayar/a (with X prosthetic), but the statements also concerning the extent of the kingdom (chap. i. 1, x. 1), the manners and customs of the country and court, the capricious and tyrannical character of Ahashverosh, and the historical allusions are suitable only and completely to Xerxes, so that, after the discussions of Justi in Eichhorn's Repert. xv. pp. 3- 38, and Baumgarten, de fide, etc., pp. 122—151, no further doubt on the subject can exist. As an historical background to the occurrences to be delineated, the wide extent of the kingdom ruled by the monarch just named is next described: " He is that Ahashverosh who reigned from India to Ethiopia over 127 provinces." *\yn$... V^f is not an accusative dependent on 1j?to, he ruled 127 provinces, for ■^E>> t0 re^gn? *s construed with pV or 3, but is annexed in the form of a free apposition to the statement: " from India to Cush;" as also in chap. viii. 9. Wil is in the Old-Persian cuneiform inscriptions, Hidhu; in Zend, Hendu; in Sanscrit, Sindhu, i.e. dwellers on the Indus, for Sindhu means in Sanscrit the river Indus; comp. Rcediger in Gesenius, Thes. Append, p. 83, and Lassen, Ihdische Alterthumsk. i. p. 2. fc**3 is Ethiopia. This was the extent of the Persian empire under Xerxes. Mardonius in Herod, vii. 9 names not only the Sakers and Assyrians, but also the Indians and Ethiopians as nations subject to Xerxes. Comp. also Herod, vii. 97, 98, and viii. $5, 69, where the Ethiopians and Indians are reckoned among the races who paid tribute to the Persian king and fought in the army of Xerxes. The 127 nfaHD? provinces, are governmental districts, presided over, according to chap. viii. 9, by satraps, pechahs, and rulers. This statement recalls that made in Dan. vi. 2, that Darius the Mede set over his kingdom 120 satraps. We have already shown in our remarks on Dan. vi. 2 that this form of administration is not in opposition to the statement of Herod, iii. 89 sq., that Darius Hystaspis divided the kingdom for the purpose of taxation into twenty ap^au which were called (jaTpairrjiat. The satrapies into which Darius divided the kingdom generally comprised several provinces. The first satrapy, e.g., included Mysia and Lydia, together with the southern part of Phrvgia; the fourth, Syria and Phoenicia, with the island of Cyprus. The Jewish historians, on the other hand, designate a small portion of this fourth satrapy, viz. the region occupied by the Jewish community (Judah and Benjamin, with their chief city Jerusalem), as »"!J*!P, Ezra ii. 1, Neh. i. 3, vii. 6, xi. 3. Consequently the satrapies of Darius mentioned in Herodotus differ from the medinoth of Dan. vi. 2, and Esth. i. 1, viii. 9. The 127 medinoth are a division of the kingdom into geographical regions, according to the races inhabiting the different provinces; the list of satrapies in Herodotus, on the contrary, is a classification of the nations and provinces subject to the empire, determined by the tribute imposed on them. — Ver. 2. The words: in those days, take up the chronological statement of ver. 1, and add thereto the new particular: when King Ahashverosh sat on the throne of his kingdom in the citadel of Susa. mw does not involve the notion of quiet and peaceable possession after the termination of wars (Clericus, Rambach), but that of being seated on the throne with royal authority. Thus the Persian kings are always represented upon a raised seat or throne, even on journeys and in battle. According to Herod, vii. 102, Xerxes watched the battle of Thermopylae sitting upon his throne. And Plutarch {Themistocl. c. 13) says the same of the battle of Salamis. Further examples are given by Baumg. I.e. p. 85 sq. On the citadel of Susa, see Neh. i. 1, and remarks on Dan. viii. 2. — Ver. 3. a In the third year of his reign he made a feast to all his princes and his servants, when the forces of Persia and Media, the nobles and princes of the provinces, were before him." nri£'p n^y? to make, to prepare, i.e. to give, a feast; comp. Gen. xxi. 8. The princes and the servants are, all who were assembled about him in

Susa. These are specified in the words which follow as W 'd. We might supply ^ before >*fl from the preceding words, (viz.) the forces, etc.; but this would not suit the Vjap at the end of the verse. For this word shows that an independent circumstantial clause begins with 5^{J, which is added to call attention to the great number of princes and servants assembled at Susa (Bertheau): the forces of Persia... were before him: when they were before him. By W, the host, the forces, Bertheau thinks the body-guard of the king, which, according to Herod, vii. 40, consisted of 2000 selected horsemen, 2000 lancers, and 10,000 infantry, is intended. There is, however, no adequate reason for limiting ^n to the bodyguard. It cannot, indeed, be supposed that the whole military power of Persia and Media was with the king at Susa; but 7[n without bb can only -signify an elite of the army, perhaps the captains and leaders as representing it, j ust as " the people " is frequently used for " the representatives of the people." The Persians and Medes are always named together as the two kindred races of the ruling nation. See Dan. vi. 9, who, however, as writing in the reign of Darius the Mede, places the Medes first and the Persians second, while the contrary order is observed here when the supremacy had been transferred to the Persians by Cyrus. On the form D"]3, see rem. on Ezra 1. i. After the mention of the forces, the Parternim, i.e. nobles, magnates (see on Dan. i. 3), and the princes of the provinces are named as the chief personages of the civil government. — Ver. 4. "When he showed the glorious riches of his kingdom and the excellent honour of his greatness many days, one hundred and eighty days." This verse has been understood by most expositors as stating that the king magnificently and splendidly entertained all the grandees mentioned in ver. 3 for a full halfyear, and gave them a banquet which lasted 180 days. Clericus supposes proceedings to have been so arranged, that the proceres omnium provinciarum were not entertained at one and the same time, but alii post alios, because all could not be absent together per sex menses a suis provinciis. Bertheau, however, thinks that the historian did not purpose to give an exact and graphic description of the proceeding, but only to excite astonishment, and that they who are astonished will not inquire as to the manner in which all took place. The text, however, does not say, that the feast lasted 180 days, and hence offers no occasion for such a view, which is founded on a mistaken comprehension of ver. 4, which combines 'm iriNinn with nnwv nfoy of ver. 3, while the whole of ver. 4 is but a further amplification of the circumstantial clause: when the forces, etc., were before him; the description of the banquet not following till ver. 5, where, however, it is joined to the concluding words of ver. 4: " when these (180) days were full, the king made a feast to all the people that were found in the citadel of Susa, from great to small, seven days, in the court of the garden of the king's house." This verse is thus explained by Bertheau: after the soldiers, nobles, and princes of the district had been entertained for six months, all the mule inhabitants of Susa were also entertained in a precinct of the palace garden, the women being feasted by Vashti the queen in the palace (ver. 9). It is, however, obvious, even from ver. 11, which says that on the seventh day of this banquet the king commanded the queen to appear ato show the people and the princes her beauty," that such a view of the occurrence is inadmissible. For this command presupposes, that the people and princes were assembled at the king's banquet; while, according to the view of Bertheau and older expositors, who insist on two banquets, one lasting 180 days, the other seven, the latter was given to the male inhabitants of Susa only. The princes and people of the whole kingdom did not, however, dwell in Susa. These princes and people, to whom the queen was to show her beauty, are undoubtedly the princes and servants of the king, the forces of Persia and Media, and the nobles and princes of the provinces enumerated in ver. 3. With this agrees also the description of the guests invited to the seven days feast. |^3 D'WflMn Dyrrb does not signify " all the inhabitants of Susa," but all then present, i.e. then assembled in the citadel of Susa. DWJpan used of persons means, those who for some purpose are found or present in any place, in distinction from its usual inhabitants; comp. 1 Chron. xxix. 17, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 32, Ezra viii. 25; and Dyn does not here signify people in the sense of population, but people who are met in a certain place, and is used both here and Neh. xii. 38 of an assembly of nobles and princes. i?i? ^F! "*U9o moreover, does not mean old and young, but high and low, the greater and lesser servants (D'HZiy) of the king, and informs us that of those assembled at Susa, both princes and servants participated without exception in the banquet. — This view of 3-5 is confirmed by the consideration, that if the seven days banquet were a different one from that mentioned in ver. 3, there could be no reason for naming the latter, which would then be not only entirely unconnected with the narrative, but for which no object at all would be stated; for inxnnn cannot be translated, as in the Vulgate, by ut cstenderet, because, as Bertheau justly remarks, 2 cannot indicate a purpose. From all these reasons it is obvious, that the feast of which further particulars are given in 5-8 is the same nntm which the kincr according to ver. 3, £ave to his D'HK' and ^1^ and that the text, rightly understood, says nothing of two consecutive banquets. The sense of vers. 3-5 is accordingly as follows: King Ahasuerus gave to his nobles and princes, when he had assembled them before him, and showed them the glorious riches of his kingdom and the magnificence of his greatness for 180 days, after these 180 days, to all assembled before liim in the fortress of Susa, a banquet which lasted seven days. The connection of the more particular description of this banquet, by means of the words: when these (the previously named 180) days were over, following upon the accessory clause, ver. 4, is anacoluthistic, and the anacoluthon has given rise to the misconception, by which ver. 5 is understood to speak of a second banquet differing from the HWD of ver. 3. The purpose for which the king assembled the grandees of his kingdom around him in Susa for a whole half-year is not stated, because this has no connection with the special design of the present book. If, however, we compare the statement of Herod, vii. 8, that Xerxes, after the re-subjection of Egypt, summoned the chief men of his kingdom to Susa to take counsel with them concerning the campaign against Greece, it is obvious, that the assembly for 180 days in Susa, of the princes and nobles mentioned in the book of Esther, took place for the purpose of such consultation. When, too, we compare the statement of Herod, vii. 20, that Xerxes was four years preparing for this war, we receive also a corroboration of the particular mentioned in ver. 3, that he assembled his princes and nobles in the third year of his reign. In this view "the riches of his kingdom," etc., mentioned in ver. 4, must not be understood of the splendour and magnificence displayed in the entertainment of his guests, but referred to the greatness and resources of the realm, which Xerxes descanted on to his assembled magnates for the purpose of showing them the possibility of carrying into execution his contemplated campaign against Greece. The banquet given them after the 180 days of consultation, was held in the court of the garden of the royal palace. JTP3 is a later form of IV3, which occurs only here and vii. 7, 8. *Wfn, court, is the space in the park of the royal castle which was prepared for the banquet. The fittings and furniture of this place are described in ver. 6. " White stuff, variegated and purple hangings, fastened with cords of byssus and purple to silver rings and marble pillars; couches of gold and silver upon a pavement of malachite and marble, mother-of-pearl and tortoise-shell." The description consists of mere allusions to, or exclamations at, the splendour of the preparations. In the first half of the verse the hangings of the room, in the second, the couches for the guests, are noticed. TH from "Ml means a white tissue of either linen or cotton. Bertheau supposes that the somewhat larger form of n is intended to denote, even by the size of letter employed, the commencement of the description. D#"}3, occurring in Sanscrit, Persian, Armenian, and Arabic, in Greek Kapiraao^, means originally cotton, in Greek, according to later authorities, a kind of fine flax, here undoubtedly a cotton texture of various colours. ImSR, deep blue, purple. The hangings of the space set apart were of these materials. Blue and white were, according to Curtius vi. 6. 4, the royal colours of the

Persians; comp. M. Duncker, Gesch. des AlterfJiums, ii. pp. 891 and 951 of the third edition, in which is described also the royal table, p. 952. The hangings were fastened (finx) with cords of white byssus and purple to rings and pillars of white marble. rrittD, couches (divans) of gold and silver, i.e. covered with cloth woven of gold and silver thread, were prepared for the guests at the feast. These couches were placed upon a tesselated, mosaic-like floor; the tesselation being composed of stones of various colours. BH3, in Arabic a mock stone, in LXX. <TfMipa<y&iT7)sJ a spurious emerald, i.e. a green-coloured stone resembling the emerald, probably malachite or serpen- irivvivos \i0o$, a pearl-like stone, perhaps mother-of-pearl. rnnb, a kind of dark-coloured stone (from "inp — "int^ to be dark), black, black marble with shield-like spots (all three words occur only here). — Ver. 7. The entertainment: a And drinks poured into vessels of gold! and vessels differing from vessels, and royal wine in abundance, according to the hand of a king. (Ver. 8) And the drinking was according to law; none did compel: for so the king had appointed to all the officers of his house to do according to every one's pleasure." niptsfn, inf. Hiph., to give to drink, to hand drinks, is used substantively. The golden drinking vessels were of various kinds, and each differing in form from another. Great variety in drinking vessels pertained to the luxury of Persians; comp. Xenoph. Cyrop, viii. 8, 18. JTDpD ]" is wine from the royal cellar, therefore costly wine. Many interpreters understand it of the Chalybonian wine, which the Persian kings used to drink. See rem. on Ezek. xxvii. 18. "^L1 75?j according to the hand of the king, i.e. according to royal bounty; comp. 1 Kings x. 13. The words: "the drinking was according to law, none did compel," are generally understood to say, that the king abolished for this banquet, the prevailing custom of pledging his guests. According to Grecian information (see Baumgarten, p. 12 sq.), an exceedingly large quantity of wine was drunk at Persian banquets. This sense of the words is not, however, quite certain. The argument of Baumgarten, Si hie mos vulgaris fuisset in epulis regiis, sine dubio hcec omnia non commemorata essent, no more holds good than his further remark: formulam Mam D3N px ni3 non puto adhibitam fuisse, nisi jam altera contraria DJK T)13 solemnis esset facta. The historian can have noticed this only because it was different from the Jewish custom. Bertheau also justly remarks: u We are not

told in the present passage, that the king, on this occasion, exceptionally permitted moderation, especially to such of his guests as were, according to their ancestral customs, addicted to moderation, and who would else have been compelled to drink immoderately. For the words with which this verse concludes, while they imply also a permission to each to drink as little as he chose, are specially intended to allow every one to take much.?y *H3*j to appoint concerning, i.e. to enjoin,

Vers. 9-12. Vashti the queen also gave a banquet to the women in the royal house (palace) which belonged to King Ahashverosh, probably in the royal apartments of the palace, which were placed at her disposal for this great feast to be given to the women. The name Vashti may be compared means a beautiful woman. This statement serves as an introduction to the scene which follows. Vers. 10 and 11. On the seventh, i.e. the last day of the banquet, when the king's heart was merry with wine, he commanded his seven chamberlains to bring Vashti the queen before him, with the royal crown, to show her beauty to the people and princes. *\X\ y> 2iLD3, when the heart of the king was merry through wine, i.e. when the wine had made him merry, comp. 2 Sam. xiii. 28, Jud. xvi. 25. It was the office of the seven eunuchs who served before the king (VB"flK n?.^P like 1 Sam. ii. 18) to be the means of communication between him and the women, and to deliver to them messages on the part of the monarch. Their number, seven, was connected with that of the Amshaspands; see rem. on ver. 14. The attempts made to explain their several names are without adequate foundation; nor would much be gained thereby, the names being of no significance with respect to the matter in question. In the LXX. the names vary to some extent. The queen was to appear with the crown on her head (*tt)3, tciSapis or /cirapis, a high turban terminating in a point), and, as is self-evident, otherwise royally apparelled. The queen was accustomed on ordinary occasions to take her meals at the king's table; com p. Herod, ix. 110. There is, however, an absence of historical proof, that she was present at great banquets. The notice quoted from Lucian in Brissonius, de regio Pers. princ. i. c. 103, is not sufficient for the purpose. — Ver. 12. The queen refused to appear at the king's command as delivered by the eunuchs, because she did not choose to stake her dignity as a queen and a wife before his inebriated guests. The audacity of Persians in such a condition is evident from the history related Herod, v. 18.

Vers. 13-15. The king, greatly incensed at this disobedience to his behest, inquired of his wise men what was to be done to Queen Vashti according to law. These wise men are ver. 13 designated as those " who knew the times," i.e. astrologers and magi, who give counsel according to celestial phenomena; comp. the wise men of Babylon, Dan. ii. 27, v. 15; Isa. xliv. 25, xlvii. 13; Jer. 1. 35. Of these he inquires, " for thus was the business of the king conducted before all that knew law and judgment." "OT here does not signify word or speech, but matter, business; and the meaning of this parenthetical sentence is, that in every matter, the king, before deciding, applied to those who were skilled in law and judgment to hear their opinions concerning it. With this is joined a second explanatory parenthetical sentence, ver. 14: " And those next him were Carshena, etc., the seven princes of the Persians and Medes, who behold the king's countenance, who hold the first seat in his kingdom." *?¥ -1"1!?- is indefinite, and may be understood as expressing the plural. It is perhaps questionable how this clause should be combined with what precedes, whether with H] rrc *?!* *?, before all that knew law and judgment and those next him, or with tftBTJb9 ver. 13: he spoke to the wise men... and those next him. In any case the sense is, that the seven princes of the Persians and Medes were also numbered either among the wise men who knew the times, or those who were skilled in the law. These seven princes are the seven king's counsellors of Ezra vii. 14, and by their number of seven form a counterpart to the seven Amshaspands. They who see the face of the king i.e. are allowed direct intercourse with him. Herod, iii. 84 relates of the seven princes who conspired the overthrow of the pretended Smerdis, that they resolved, that it should be permitted them to present themselves unannounced before the future king. Hence many expositors identify these seven princes with the authorities called the seven counsellors, but without sufficient grounds. The number seven frequently recurs, — comp. the seven eunuchs, ver. 5, the seven maidens who waited on Esther, ii. 9, — and refers in the present case to the seven Amshaspands, in others to the days of the week, or the seven planets. FUfekri D'lltWj who sit first, i.e. in the highest place, i.e. constitute the highest authority in the realm. What the king said (ver. 13) does not follow till ver. 15: u According to law, what is to be done to Queen Vashti, because she has not done the word of the king," i.e. not obeyed his command by the eunuchs? rfJ3, according to law, legally, is placed first because it is intended emphatically to assert that the proceeding is to be in conformity with the law. nc'y with 3, to inflict something on any one.

Vers. 16-20. The counsel of the wise men. Ver. 16. Memucan, who was the last mentioned in ver. 14, comes forward as spokesman for the rest, and declares before the king and the princes, i.e. in a solemn assembly, and evidently as the result of a previous joint consultation: Vashti the queen has not done wrong to the king alone, but also to all the princes and all the people, because the example of the queen will lead all the Median and Persian wives to despise their husbands. Therefore an irrevocable edict is to be published decreeing the divorce of Queen Vashti, and this law published throughout the whole realm, that all wives may show honour to their husbands. Vashti has not transgressed against the king alone (ver. 16), but against all the princes and people in all the provinces of King Ahashverosh (ver. 16.) In what respect, then, is the latter assertion true? We are told vers. 17 and 18. "For the deed of the queen will come abroad to (/V for?K) all women, to bring their husbands into contempt in their eyes (the infin. niDn? stating the result), while they will say," etc. (the suffix of cn*?N2 relates to the women, who will appeal to the disobedience of the queen). Ver. 18. " And this day (i.e. already) the princesses of the Persians and Medians, who hear of the act of the queen ("OT, not the word, but the thing, i.e. her rejection of her husband's command), will tell it to all the princes of the king, and (there will be) enough contempt and provocation. *)Vp is an outburst of anger; here, therefore, a provocation to wrath. Bertheau makes the words p\ 'D vjD1 the object of njipKfl, which, after the long parenthesis, is united to the copula by 1, and for, " to speak contempt and wrath," reads: to speak contemptuously in wrath. But this change cannot be substantiated. The expression, to speak wrath, is indeed unexampled, but that is no reason for making *]Vg stand for *]Vj53, the very adoption of such an ellipsis showing, that this explanation is inadmissible. The words must be taken alone, as an independent clause, which may be readily completed by HW: and contempt and wrath will be according to abundance. s13 is a litotes for: more than enough. The object of nr]Dfc<n must be supplied from the context: it — that is, what the queen said to her husband. In the former verse Memucan was speaking of all women; here (ver. 18) he speaks only of the princesses of the Persians and Medes, because these are staying in the neighbourhood of the court, and will immediately hear of the matter, and "after the manner of the court ladies and associates of a queen will quickly follow, and appeal to her example" (Berth.). — Ver. 19. After this argument on the queen's conduct, follows the proposal: "If it please the king (?V 3iD like Neh. ii. 5), let there go from him a word of the kingdom (i.e. a royal edict), and let it be written (entered) in the laws of the Persians and the Medes, and not pass away, that Vashti come no more before King Ahashverosh; and let the king give her queenship (her royal rank) to another who is better than she." An edict issued by the king, entered among the laws of the Persians and Medes, and sealed with the rcyal signet (viii. 8), does not pass away, i.e. remains in force, is irrevocable (comp. Dan. vi. 9). The counsellors press for the issue of such an edict, for the purpose of making it impossible to the king to take Vashti again into favour, lest they should experience her vengeance on the restoration of her influence. nmy~) her companion, is any other woman, Vashti being here regarded merely as a woman. rnten includes both beauty and good behaviour (Berth.). By this means, add the counsellors in ver. 20, all the ill effects of Vashti's contumacy will be obviated. " And when the king's decree, which he shall make, is heard in his whole kingdom, for it is great, all wives shall give honour to their husbands, from great to small." D2HQ is according to the Keri to be pointed as the constructive state, Dans. The expression *wy Djns is explained by the circumstance, that DJfiD signifies not only edict, decree, but also thing (see on Dan. iii. 16): to do a thing. In the present verse also it might be so understood: when the thing is heard which the king will do in his whole kingdom. The parenthetical clause, for it is great, is intended to flatter the king's vanity, and induce an inclination to agree to the proposal. u From great to small " signifies high and low, old and young. Vers. 21 and 22. The saying pleased the king and the princes, and the king carried it into execution. He sent letters into all his provinces to make known his commands, and to let all husbands know, that they were to bear rule in their own houses. " In every province according to its writing, and to every people according to their speech" (comp. viii. 9), that his will might be clearly understood by all the subjects of his wide domain, who spoke different languages and used different alphabetical characters. The contents of these letters follow in 'X2\ rriw, that every man should be master in his own house. These words state only the chief matter and object of the edict; but they presuppose that the fact which gave rise to the decree, viz. the refusal of Vashti, and her consequent deposition, were also mentioned. The last words: " and that he shall speak according to the language of his people," are obscure. Older expositors understand them to mean, that everv man was to speak only his native language in his house, so that in case he had a foreign wife, or several who spoke other languages, they might be obliged to learn his language, and to use that alone. Bertheau, on the other hand, objects that such a sense is but imported into the words, and in no wTise harmonizes with the context. Both these assertions are, however, unfounded. In the words, the man shall speak according to the language of his people, i.e. he shall speak his native tongue in his house, it is implied that no other language was to be used in the house, and the application of this law to foreign wives is obvious from the context. The rule of the husband in the house was to be shown by the fact, that only the native tongue of the head of the house was to be used in the family. Thus in a Jewish family the Ashdodite or any other language of the wife's native land could not have been used, as we find to have been the case in Judaea (Neh. xiii. 23). All other explanations are untenable, as has been already shown by Baumgarten, p. 20; and the conjecture set up after Hitzig by Bertheau, that instead of toy p£?3 we should read toy nib^73j every one shall speak what becomes him, gives not only a trivial, and not at all an appropriate thought, but is refuted even by the fact that not Dy nj^ but only? njp (comp. iii. 8) could bear the meaning: to be becoming to any one. Such a command may, indeed, appear strange to us; but the additional particular, that every man was to speak his native tongue, and to have it alone spoken, in his own house, is not so strange as the fact itself that an edict should be issued commanding that the husband should be master in the house, especially in the East, where the wife is so accustomed to regard the husband as lord and master. Xerxes was, however, the author of many strange facts besides this.

When the wrath of King Ahashverosh was appeased, and he remembered his harsh treatment of Vashti, his courtiers proposed that he should send to fetch fair young virgins from all parts of his realm to the house of the women in Susa, that he might choose a new queen from among them. This proposal pleasing the king, was acted upon (vers. 1-4). In the fortress of Susa, however, there dwelt one of the Jews who had been carried into captivity from Jerusalem, and whose name was Mordochai. This man had brought up Esther, his uncle's daughter, as his own child (vers. 5—7). When, then, in pursuance with the king's commands, many maidens were gathered together in Susa, Esther also was brought into the king's house, and found favour with the keeper of the women while, according to order, she was going through a course of purification and anointing (vers. 8—14). When her turn came to be brought before the king, she found favour in his sight above all the other maidens, and was chosen by him to be queen in the place of Vashti. By Mordochai's command, however, she disclosed her race and lineage to no one (vers. 15-20). At the same time two courtiers conspired against the life of the sovereign. Their conspiracy being discovered by Mordochai, was by him revealed to Esther, who gave information of it to the king, whereupon the matter was investigated, and found to have been correctly stated. The offenders were punished, and the event duly registered in the chronicles of the kingdom.

Vers. 1-4. When, after these things, the wrath of King Ahashverosh was laid (7]b>, from:]?£>, to be sunk, spoken of wrath to be laid), he remembered Vashti and what she had done, and what was decreed against her ("»]2, to determine, to decree irrevocably; comp. rntf, Dan. iv. 14); a desire for reunion with her evidently making itself felt, accompanied perhaps by the thought that she might have been too harshly treated. To prevent, then, a return of affection for his rejected wife ensuing, — a circumstance which might greatly endanger all who had concurred in effecting her repudiation,— the servants of the king, i.e. the court officials who were about him, said: " Let there be young maidens, virgins fair to look on, sought for the king." rri7iri2, virgins, is added to J"li"ii^, the latter word signifying merely young women of marriageable age. Yer. 3. aAnd let the king appoint (IgB?. is the continuation of 5^i?3'!) officers in all the provinces of his kingdom, that they may gather together every virgin who is fair to look on to the citadel of Susa, to the house of the women, unto the hand of Hega the king's eunuch, the keeper of the women, and let them appoint their things for purification; and let the maiden which pleaseth the king be queen instead of Vashti." To the hand of Hega, i.e. to his care and superintendence, under which, as appears from ver. 12, every maiden received into the house of the women had to pass a year before she was brought before the king. Hega (called Hegai, vers. 8 and 15) was an eunuch, the keeper of the women, i.e. superintendent of the royal harem, jinjl is the in/in. abs., used instead of the verb. fin. to give prominence to the matter: let them appoint. D^iPfl, from P"]E, to ru0> to polish, signifies purification and adornment with all kind of precious ointments; comp. ver. 12. This speech pleased the king, and he acted accordingly.

Vers.\5-7. Before relating how this matter was carried into execution, the historian introduces us to the two persons who play the chief parts in the following narrative. Ver. 5. There was (dwelt) in the citadel of Susa a Jew of the name of Mordochai (WIO-, in more correct editions

N?J1?)> tne son °f Ja'r> tne son °f Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite (*yoj t^K like 1 Sam. ix. 1). Jair, Shimei, and Kish can hardly mean the father, grandfather, and greatgrandfather of Mordochai. On the contrary, if Jair were perhaps his father, Shimei and Kish may have been the names of renowned ancestors. Shimei was probably the son of Gera, well known to us from the history of David, 2 Sam. xvi. 5 sq. and 1 Kings ii. 8, 36 sq., and Kish the father of Saul, 1 Chron. viii. 33, 1 Sam. ix. 1; for in genealogical series only a few noted names are generally give/i; comp., e.g., 1 Chron. ix. 19, vi. 24 sq. Upon the ground of this explanation, Josephus (Ant. xi. 6) makes Esther of royal descent, viz. of the line of Saul, king of Israel; and the Targum regards Shimei as the Benjamite who cursed David. The name Mordochai occurs in Ezra ii. 2 and Neh. vii. 7 as that of some other individual among those who returned from captivity with Zerubbabel, but can hardly be connected with the Persian ^J^c, little man.

Aben Ezra, Lightfoot, and others, indeed, are of opinion that the Mordochai of the present book really came up with Zerubbabel, but subsequently returned to Babylon. Identity of name is not, however, a sufficient proof of identity of person. The chronological statement, ver. 6: who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captives who had been carried away with Jeconiah, king of Judah, etc., offers some difficulty. For from the captivity of Jeconiah in the year 599 to the beginning of the reign of Xerxes (in the year 486) is a period of 113 years; hence, if the "1KW is referred to Mordochai, he would, even if carried into captivity as a child by then, have reached the age of from 120 to 130 years, and as Esther was not made queen till the seventh year of Xerxes (ii. 16), would have become prime minister of that monarch at about the age of 125. Rambach, indeed, does not find this age incredible, though we cannot regard it as probable that Mordochai should have become minister at so advanced an age.1 On this account Clericus, Baumgarten, and others refer the relative "IE*K to the last name, Kish, and understand that he was carried away with Jeconiah, while his great-grandson Mordochai was born in captivity. In this case Kish and Shimei must be regarded as the great-grandfather and grandfather of Mordochai. We grant the possibility of this view; nevertheless it is more

1 Baumg. aptly remarks, I.e., p. 125: Etsi concedendum est, non esse contra naturam, si Mordecliseus ad Mam setatem pervenerit, et summa liac constitutes senectute gravissimis negotiis perficiendis par fuerit, tamcn est hoc rarissimum et nmaccedit certuni testimonium, difficile ad crcdendum.

in accordance with the Hebrew narrative style to refer IK'K to the chief person of the sentence preceding it, viz. Mordochai, who also continues to be spoken of in ver. 7. Hence we prefer this reference, without, however, attributing to Mordochai more than 120 years of age. For the relative clause: who had been carried away, need not be so strictly understood as to assert that Mordochai himself was carried away; but the object being to give merely his origin and lineage, and not his history, it involves only the notion that he belonged to those Jews who were carried to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar with Jeconiah, so that he, though born in captivity, was carried to Babylon in the persons of his forefathers. This view of the passage corresponds with that formerly presented by the list of the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Jacob who went down with him to Egypt; see the explanation of the passage in question.1 Ver. 7. Mordochai was fOK, keeper, bringer up, i.e. fosterfather, to Hadassah (JpN constructed as a participle with fiS). riDin means a myrtle (Cin in the Shemitish), like the Greek name Mvpria, Mvpplvrj. u That is Esther," the queen known by the name of Esther. The name "^pK is the Old-Persian stara with K prosthetic, and corresponds with the Greek a<j7rjp, star, in modern Persian sitareh. She was faVTO, daughter of his father's brother, and adopted by Mordochai after the death of her parents; we are told, moreover, that she had a fine figure and beautiful countenance. Her father, whose name, according to ver. 15, was Abihail, was uncle to Mordochai, and hence Esther was his cousin.

Vers. 8-11. When, then, the king's commandment and decree was heard, i.e. proclaimed throughout the kingdom, and many maidens gathered together in Susa, Esther also

1 Baumgarten also considers this view admissible, rightly remarking, p. 127: Scripturibus sacris admodum familiare est singulos homines non per se et sepositos spectare, sed familias etgentes ut corpora quasi individua complccti, ita ut posteri majorum personis quasi contenti et inclusi, majores vero inposteris ipsi subsistere et vivere existimentur. Ex hac ratione Mordechseus captus esse did potest, quamvis ipse satis diu post Jechonix tempora ex iis, qui a Nebucadnezaro abducti suntt natusfuerit.

was received into the royal harem, under the keeping of Hegai. The maiden pleased him and won his favour (N£0 "Wrij to bear away love, i.e. to obtain favour, synonymous with jn NKOj ver. 15 and chap. v. 2). 'ttl 'D?5j and he hastened to give her her ointments for purification, and the seven maidens appointed to her from the king's house. The infinitives fij T\n? are, according to the Aramaean idiom, placed after their objects and dependent on /H3*. On D^IDJjJ, see on ver. 3. ni:o? portions, are here portions of food, as in chap. ix. 19, 22, and 1 Sam. i. 4. The seven maidens (ni"U?3n with the article) are the maids appointed to wait upon a young virgin selected for the king. The participle rti'^1: chosen for a particular purpose, — in the Talmud and rabbinical Hebrew ^&n, dignus, decens, conveniens, — occurs only here. HjiBfr, ne changed her and her maids into the best of the house of the women, i.e. he took them out of the ordinary rooms and placed them in the best apartments, probably in the state-rooms, where those who were accustomed to be brought to the king used to dwell. — Ver. 10 contains a supplementary remark. This kind and respectful treatment was shown to Esther, because, in obedience to Mordochai's command, she had not shown her people nor her kindred, i.e. her Jewish extraction; for a Jewish maiden would hardly have experienced such friendly usage. Ver. 11 also contains an additional notice, prefixed here to enable what follows to be rightly understood, and repeated in another connection ver. 19, and on several other occasions: Mordochai walked every day before the court or enclosure of the women's house, to know the welfare (°W) of Esther and what became of her (nil n^y, properly, what was done to her). Hence Mordochai was in constant communication with Esther. HowT this communication was effected is not more particularly stated; probably by means of the maids appointed to wait on her. Jewish expositors are of opinion, that Mordochai held high office, and that having consequently free access to the roya[ palace, he could easily find the means of communicating with his relative.

Vers. 12-18. Before relating the appearance of Esther before the king, the narrator more particularly describes in vers. 12-14 the preparations for this event, and how Esther behaved with respect to them. — Vers. 12 and 13. "When every maid's turn came (i.e. at every time that any maid's turn came) to go in to King Ahashverosh, after the time when it had been done to her twelve months according to the law of the women — for thus were the days of their puri«- fication accomplished: six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with balsam and ointments of purification for women — and the maiden came to the king, all that she desired was given her to go with her out of the women's house unto the king's house." "lin, turn in succession, used only here and ver. 15. The turn to go in unto the king 'olid not come to any maid until 'til nvn p$D, at the end of the time when it had been done to her accordisg to the law.... This time lasted twelve months after her reception into the house of the women; and the law of the women, according to which it was done to her, was, that she should be purified for six months with oil of myrrh, and as long with DsJ?j?3, sweet odours and other ointments. ntfli ^V^\} HD} (ver. 13) forms the continuation of the antecedent clause commencing with JPana, or, to speak more correctly, of a second antecedent with which the conclusion "H5>K"v3 DX is connected. Some expositors understand HD, witli the LXX., of the time: illo sc. tempore; others of the condition: hoc modo ornata or ea lege (Cler.), and therefore as parallel in meaning with the |3 of chap. iv. 16. Either view is admissible and suits the sense, but the latter is more in harmony with the parallel passage chap. iv. 16, and therefore preferable. All that was to be given her, can only relate to ornaments and jewels, which were to be given that each might appear before the king adorned and dressed after her own taste. — Ver. 14. In the evening she went (to the king), and on the morrow she returned to the women's house, a second (time) to the hand (under the keeping of) Shaashgaz, the king's chamberlain, who kept the concubines; she came no more to the king, except the king delighted in her and she were called by name, i.e. specially. 'Jtf instead of JTOtf, like Neh. iii. 30. —

Ver. 15. When Esther's turn came to go in unto the king, she required nothing (to take with her, see ver. 13) but what Hegai the king's chamberlain appointed (hence was not concerned to please the king by special adornment), and she obtained favour in the sight of all them that looked upon her, namely, by her modesty and humility. On |n Kb^,see remarks on ver. 9. — Ver. 16. She was taken into the king's house (pOTD TV1 instead of ^®H JV^ the palace of the kingdom, the royal residence) in the tenth month, i.e. the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign. — Ver. 17. And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained grace and favour in his sight more than all the virgins; and he set the royal crown upon her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti. The meaning evidently is, that the king, immediately after their first meeting, bestowed his affections upon Esther in preference to all the women and maidens, and chose her queen. — Ver. 18. To celebrate Esthers elevation to the crown, the king made a great feast, called Esther's feast, to all his princes and servants, and granted release to the provinces. The verbale Hiph. nrnn is translated in the LXX. afaais, Vulg. requieSj and understood either of a remission of taxes or a remission of labour, a holiday. Although the Chald. understands it of a remission of taxes, yet the use of the verb nfe>y rather favours the latter meaning, viz. the appointment of a holiday, on which there would be a resting from labour. Finally, he gave gifts with royal munificence nx^Dlike Amos v. 11, Jer. xl. 5;?|^?n T| like chap. i. 7.— It seems strange that a period of four years should intervene between the repudiation of Vashti in the third year of Ahashverosh and the elevation of Esther in the seventh, an interval whose length cannot be adequately accounted for by the statements of the present book. Only a few days could have elapsed between the disgrace of Vashti and the time when the king remembered her; for this took place, we are told, when the king's wrath was appeased. The proposal to collect virgins from all parts of his kingdom to Susa was then immediately made. Now, if the carrying out of this proposal took half a year, and the preparation of the virgins by anointing, etc., lasted a year, Esther, even if her turn to go in unto the king had not come for six months, might have been made queen two years after the repudiation of Vashti. As she obtained the favour of Hegai immediately upon her reception into the women's house, so that he hastened her purifications (ver. 9), she would not be brought before the king among the last, but would rather be one of the first to go in. The long interval which elapsed between the repudiation of Vashti and the elevation of Esther, can only be satisfactorily explained by the history of the reign of Xerxes; in fact, by the circumstance that his campaign against Greece took place during this time.

Vers. 19-23 relate the intervention of an incident of great importance in the subsequent development of the narrative. When virgins were for the second time gathered together, two courtiers were incensed with the king, and sought to lay hands upon him. This thing was known to Mordochai, who sat in the gate of the palace and kept up a constant communication with Esther even after she became queen, and by him communicated to her, that she might bring it to the knowledge of the king. The matter being investigated and found to have been truly reported, the offenders were punished, and an entry of the particulars made in the chronicles of the kingdom. The words " when virgins were assembled for the second time," which serve to define the time when the conspiracy of the two courtiers took place, as is obvious from the circumstance that Enr\ D*DJ3, ver. 21, refers to 'nn f^nn, ver. 19, are obscure. The obscurity lies in the fact that no reason for assembling virgins can be perceived, after the choice of Ahashverosh had fallen upon Esther. The sentence TVM nwia ^ijro* unmistakeably corresponds with ^V? r?l?!?^ of ver. 8. This was already rightly perceived by Grotius, who, however, wrongly infers: est irrdvo&os (retro- <jressio), referendum enim hoc ad ilia quce supra, ii. 2. This is, however, not only incompatible with AW, but also with the circumstance that, according to the correct understanding of the sentences in vers. 21 and 22, Esther was then already queen, and Mordochai was sitting in the gate of the king's palace, and thence keeping up communication with her; while as long as Esther was in the women's house preparing for her interview with the king, under the guardianship of Hegai, he walked day by day before the court of the women's house (ver. 11). Still less admissible is the view of Drusius, received by Bertheau, that the gathering of the virgins for the second time is to be understood from the circumstance, that after going in to the king, they had to go into the second house of the women, under the stricter guardianship of Shaashgaz (ver. 14). For, being no longer TOWS, but D^T'Q (ver. 14), their reception into the house of the concubines could not be called a second gathering together, since as virgins they were formerly in a different house. The only explanation of the HW left us is the view, that even after the choice of Esther to be queen, a second gathering together of virgins actually took place; for this, as C. a Lapide remarks, is what the words undoubtedly declare. The matter itself was in accordance with the prevailing custom of polygamy, which kings carried to such an extent, that, as C a Lapide points out, Solomon, e.g., had 700 wives and 300 concubines, i.e. secondarias uxores. From WTJttj ver. 19, onwards, explanatory circumstantial clauses follow: "Then Mordochai sat in the king's gate " introduces the parenthetical sentence, " Esther had not yet showed her kindred and her people (comp. ver. 10), as Mordochai had charged her; for Esther did the commandment of Mordochai as when she was under his care;" i.e. Esther obeyed, after her elevation to be queen, the command of Mordochai not to make her Jewish descent known, as she had formerly done while she was yet his foster-daughter. nJP*t, care, education, is a substantive derived from \ok. — Ver. 21. The definition of time in ver. 19 is again taken up by the words: in those days; then the explanatory clause, ver. 20, is repeated; and after this we are informed what it was that had then occurred. In those days Bigthan and Teresh, two of the king's courtiers, who were the threshold-keepers (palace-watchers, LXX. apyKrcofjLdTO(f)6\afC€<;), were wroth, and sought to lay hands on Kino- Ahashverosh, i.e. to slay him. Ver. 22. This thing was known to Mordochai, and by him communicated to Esther, who told it, in Mordochai's name, to the king. Ver. 23. The matter was investigated {sc. by the king), and found out, sc. as Mordochai had testified. The two criminals were hanged on a tree, i.e. impaled on a stake, a sort of crucifixion, — see rem. on chap. vi. 11, — and the circumstance entered in the book of the chronicles, i.e. the chronicles of the kingdom. ^t?.^ *?.P?j before the king, i.e. in his presence, immediately after sentence had been passed by a court over which the monarch presided.

King Ahashverosh promoted Ham an the Agagite above all the princes about him, and commanded all his servants to fall down before him. This mark of reverence was refused by Mordochai the Jew from religious scruples. When intelligence of this was brought to Haman, he sought to obtain the extermination of the Jews throughout the kingdom (1-6). The twelfth month was appointed by the casting of lots for this purpose; and Haman, by exciting the suspicion of the king against the Jews as an exclusive and law-opposing people, obtained from him an edict to this effect (7-11), and sent it, by letters sealed with the king's seal, by the hand of messengers into all the provinces of the kingdom in the first month, that they might be ready to carry it into execution in the twelfth month; whereat the city of Susa was much perplexed (12-15).

Vers. 1-6. The elevation of Haman above all the princes of the kingdom is said in a general manner to have taken place "after these things," i.e. after the matters related in chap. ii. 7HI, to make great, to make any one a great man; KtW, elevated, is more precisely defined by the sentence following: he set his seat above all the princes that were with him, i.e. above the seat of all the princes about the king; in fact, advanced him to the highest post, made him his grand vizier. Haman is called the son of Hammedatha *?}$?£, the Agagite, or of the Agamtes. ^X recalls J3N king of the Amalekites, conquered and taken prisoner by Saul, and hewn in pieces by Samuel, 1 Sam. xv. 8, 33. Hence Jewish and Christian expositors regard Haman as a descendant of the Amalekite king. This is certainly possible, though it can by no means be proved. The name Agag is not sufficient for the purpose, as many individuals might at different times have borne the name JJN, i.e. the fiery. In 1 Sam. xv., too, Agag is not the nomen propr. of the conquered king, but a general nomeu dignitatis of the kings of Amalek, as Pharaoh and Abimelech were of the kings of Egypt and Gerar. See on Num. xxiv. 7. We know nothing of Haman and his father beyond what is said in this book, and all attempts to explain the names are uncertain and beside the mark. — Ver. 2. All the king's servants that were in the gate of the king, i.e. all the court officials, were to kneel before Haman and bow themselves to the earth. So had the king commanded concerning him. This mark of reverence was refused by Mordochai. — Vers. 3 and 4. When the other officials of the court asked him from day to day, why he transgressed the king's commandment, and he hearkened not unto them, i.e. gave no heed to their words, they told it to Haman, u to see whether Mordochai's words would stand; for he had told them that he was a Jew." It is obvious from this, that Mordochai had declared to those who asked him the reason why he did not fall down before Haman, that he could not do so because he was a Jew, — that as a Jew he could not show that honour to man which was due to God alone. Now the custom of falling down to the earth before an exalted personage, and especially before a king, was customary among Israelites; comp. 2 Sam. xiv. 4, xviii. 28, 1 Kings i. 16. If, then, Mordochai refused to pay this honour to Haman, the reason of such refusal must be sought in the notions which the Persians were wont to combine with the action, i.e. in the circumstance that they regarded it as an act of homage performed to a king as a divine being, an incarnation of Oromasdes. This is testified by classical writers; comp. Plutarch, Themist. 27; Curtius, viii. 5. 5 sq., where the latter informs us that Alexander the Great imitated this custom on his march to India, and remarks, § 11:

Persas quidem non pie solunij sed etiam prudenter reges suos inter Deos colere; majestatem enim imperii salutis esse tutelam. Hence also the Spartans refused, as Herod, vii. 136 relates, to fall down before King Xerxes, because it was not the custom of Greeks to honour mortals after this fashion. This homage, then, which was regarded as an act of reverence and worship to a god, was by the command of the king to be paid to Haman, as his representative, by the office-bearers of his court; and this Mordochai could not do without a denial of his religious faith. — Ver. 5. When, then, Haman, whose attention had been called to the fact, saw, when next he went in unto the king, that Mordochai did not fall down before him, he was full of wrath, and (ver. 6) thought scorn, i.e. in his pride esteemed it too contemptible, to lay hands on Mordochai alone, i.e. to execute him alone, for this opposition to the royal commands; for they had showed him the people of Mordochai, i.e. had told him that as a Jew Mordochai had refused this act of worship, and that the whole Jewish nation thought and acted accordingly. Therefore he sought to destrov all the Jews that were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahashverosh, the people of Mordochai. The subject Haman is repeated before &\?2)) for the sake of clearness, because it was not expressly named with T2^1. W"]0 °V is in apposition to D^WWrfca: all the Jews as the people of Mordochai, because they were the people of Mordochai and shared his sentiments.

Vers. 7-11. To ensure the success of this great undertaking, viz. the extermination of all the Jews in the kingdom, Haman had recourse to the lot, that he might thus fix on a propitious day for the execution of his project. Astrology plays an important part among all ancient nations, nothing of any magnitude being undertaken without first consulting its professors concerning a favourable time and opportunity; comp. rem. on Ezek. xxi. 26. — Ver. 7. " In the first month, i.e. Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahashverosh, they cast Pur, i.e. the lot, before Haman from day to day, and from month to the twelfth month, i.e. the month Adar." The subject of ^sn is left indefinite, because it is self-evident that this was done by some astrologer or magician who was versed in such matters. Bertheau tries unnaturally to make Haman the subject, and to combine the subsequent Jon \)B? with Tjiin: " Haman cast Pur, i.e. the lot, before Haman," which makes Pur signify: the lot before Haman. jE>n 'oap means in the presence of Haman, so that he also might see how the lot fell. "ViS is an Old-Persian word meaning

Turco- Arabic and Persian Lexicon, pp. 162 and 229. The words " from day to day, from month to the twelfth month," must not be understood to say, that lots were cast day by day and month by month till the twelfth; but that in the first month lots were at once cast, one after the other, for all the days and months of the year, that a favourable day might be obtained. We do not know the manner in which this was done, "the way of casting lots being unknown to us." The words: from month to the twelfth month, are remarkable; we should expect from month to month till the twelfth month. Bertheau supposes that the words Twfaf DV hv Snian hh^ mrb "OT were omitted after BnniM through the eye of the transcriber passing on from the first &yv to the second. The text of the LXX. actually contains such words, and the possibility of such an oversight on the part of a transcriber must certainly be admitted. In the book of Esther, however, the LXX. translation is no critical authority, and it is just as possible that the author of the Hebrew book here expresses himself briefly and indefinitely, because he was now only concerned to state the month determined by lot for the undertaking, and intended to mention the day subsequently. — Ver. 8. Haman having by means of the lot fixed upon a favourable day for the execution of the massacre, betook himself to the king to obtain a royal decree for the purpose. He represented to the monarch: u There is a people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of thy kingdom, and their laws are different from all other people {i.e. from the laws of all other people), and they keep not the laws of the king, and it is not fitting for the king to leave them alone. Ver. 9. If it seem good to the king, let it be written {i.e. let a written decree be published) to destroy them; and I will weigh ten thousand talents of silver to those who do the business, that they may bring them into the treasuries of the king." This proposal was very subtilly calculated. First Haman casts suspicion on the Jews as a nation scattered abroad and dwelling apart, and therefore unsociable,— as refractory, and therefore dangerous to the state; then he promises the king that their extermination will bring into the royal treasury a very considerable sum of money, viz. the property of the slaughtered. Ten thousand talents of silver, reckoned according to the Mosaic shekel, are £3,750,000, according to the civil shekel £1,875,000; see rem. on 1 Chron. xxii. 14. rotoftn *fete those who execute a work, builders in 2 Kings xii. 12, are here and ch. ix. 3 the king's men of business, who carry on the king's business with respect to receipts and disbursements, the royal financiers. — Ver. 10. The king agreed to this proposal. He drew his signet ring from his hand, and delivered it to Haman, that he might prepare the edict in the king's name, and give it by the impression of the royal seal the authority of an irrevocable decree; see rem. on viii. 8. a To the enemy of the Jews" is added emphatically. — Ver. 11. Lest it should appear as though the king had been induced by the prospect held out of obtaining a sum of money, he awards this to Haman. " The silver be given to thee, and the people to do to them (let it be done to them) as seemeth good to thee." DOT precedes absolutely: as for the people of the Jews, etc.

Vers. 12-15. Haman, without delay, causes the necessary writings to be prepared, and sent into all the provinces of the kingdom. Ver. 12. a Then were called the king's scribes in the first month, on the thirteenth day of it (12, in it, in the said month); and there was written according to all that Haman commanded, to the satraps of the king, and to the governors who (were placed) over every province, and to the rulers of every people, to each several province according to its writing, and to each different people according to their language (comp. rem. on i. 22); in the name of King Ahashverosh was it written, and sealed with the king's seal." D^srn^nK and riinQ placed in juxtaposition, as in Ezra viii. 36, are the imperial officials. Beside these are also named the B'HE' of every people, the native princes of the different races. The writing was finished on the thirteenth day of the month, because this day of the month had been fixed upon as propitious by the lot. — Ver. 13. And the letters were sent (nw:? infin. abs. NipJi. instead of the verb, fin.) by posts. Eftnn are the post-riders, the aggaroi, who were stationed on the high roads of the realm, generally f our parasangs apart, to transmit with the more speed the royal letters and messages. Herod, v. 14, viii. 98 (Berth.), comp. Brisson. de reg. Pers. princ. i. c. 238 sq. 'ui *PBB*n?, to destroy, to kill, and cause to perish all Jews from the youth to the old man, children and women, in one day, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, and to deprive them of their spoil. The three verbs are combined to give strength to the expression. D?^' is their property, which is called spoil because, it was delivered up to plunder. Haman having held out the prospect of a large sum as the result of exterminating the Jews, and the king having bestowed this upon Haman, the plundering of the Jews, thus permitted to all the inhabitants of the kingdom who should assist in exterminating them, must be understood as implying, that they would have to deliver a portion of the booty thus obtained to Haman. — Ver. 14. The copy of the writing, that the law might be given in every province, was opened to all people, that they might be ready by this day. This verse does not announce a copy of the royal decree that had been prepared and sent by the posts, which would in that case be replaced by a mere allusion to its contents (Bertheau). The words contain no trace of an announcement such as we find in Ezra iv. 11, vii. 11, but the historical notice, that the copy of the writing which was sent as a law into the provinces was 'vJ, opened, i.e. sent unclosed or unsealed to all people, '•va is the predicate to the subject 'til P.btib (comp. on this word the note to Ezra iv. 14), and between the subject and predicate is inserted the infinitive clause 'M HT fn^np for the purpose of once more briefly mentioning the contents and destination of the 2ro: that a law might be given in every province. To attain this object the more certainly, the copy of the decree, which was brought into every province by the posts, was open or unsealed, that all people might read its contents, and keep themselves in readiness for the execution of what was therein commanded on the appointed day. W Dis<? is the thirteenth day of the twelfth month named in the letter. — Ver. 15. The posts went forth hastening (^rn like 2 Chron. xxvi. 20) at the king's commandment, and the decree was given (promulgated) in the citadel of Susa, — an explanatory clause; and the king and Haman sat down to drink while the messengers went forth with the decree, but the city of Susa, in which it was first published, was in perplexity (on nDi3j comp. Ex. xiv. 3, Joel i. 18). The cruel measure could not but fill all peace-loving citizens with horror and anxiety. — Here the question is forced upon us, why the decree should have been so prematurely published. The scribes were summoned to prepare it on the thirteenth day of the first month. For this purpose, even though many copies had to be made in different languages, no very long time would be required in a well-appointed government office. As soon as the scribes had finished their work, the decree was sent out by the posts into all quarters of the realm, and would arrive in even the most distant provinces in three weeks at furthest. This would place almost eleven, and in the remotest parts about ten months between the publication and execution of the decree. What then was the motive for such an interval? Certainly so long a time could not be required for preparing to carry it out, nor is this hinted at in the text, as Bertheau supposes. Nor could it be intended that the Jews should suffer a long period of anxiety. On the contrary, the motive seems to have been, as Clericus and others have already conjectured, to cause many Jews to leave their property and escape to other lands, for the sake of preserving their lives. Thus