Bibelkommentare

When Mordecai perceived all that was done, Mordecai rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and cried with a loud and a bitter cry;

When Mordecai perceived all that was done — Mαθων το γινομενον , saith Josephus, when he had learned or fully informed himself, so that he knew it to be so, as the Hebrew text hath it (Jadang.). Solicitous he was of the Church’s welfare, and sat listening, as Eli did once, what would become of the ark, 1 Samuel 3:13 . Now therefore, as ill news is swift of foot, saith Sophocles, αι βλαβαι ποδωκεις , and comes like ill weather, before it be sent for, Mordecai taketh knowledge of that bloody decree, though Esther and those about her had not heard of it, Esther 4:4-5 . Neither sitteth he still at home, as desponding and despairing, or seeketh by sinister practices to help himself and his people, but applieth himself, first, to God, by hearty humiliation and prayer; and then to the king, by the intercession of Esther. A carnal heart would have taken other shifting courses, like as a dog that hath lost his master will follow after any other for relief.

Mordecai rent his clothes — To show that his very heart was rent with sorrow for Sion. This custom of rending their clothes in time and in token of greatest grief, was in use not among the Jews only, but Persians also, and other nations, as is noted by Herodotus and Curtius.

And put on sackcloth — The coarsest clothing he could get; as holding any clothes too good for so vile a captive, and showing that but for shame he would have worn none. So the Nine vites sat in sackcloth and ashes, for more humiliation. See Exodus 33:4 , …

And ashes — He put on ashes or dust, that is, a dusty garment sprinkled with ashes, saith Drusius, putting his mouth in the dust, as Lamentations 3:29 , acknowledging himself to be of the earth earthy, and fit fuel for hell fire, Non e foco, sed e terra desumptum pulverem notat (Merlin).

And went out into the midst of the city — That he might be a pattern to others. Si vis me flere, …

And cried with a loud and a bitter cry — More barbarico, after the manner of that country; but there was more in it than so. It was not his own danger that so much affected him (how gladly could he have wished, with Ambrose, that God would please to turn all the adversaries from the Church upon himself, and let them satisfy their thirst with his blood? Oτι μηδεν αδικησον εθνος αναιρειται , Joseph.) as that so many innocent people should perish. This made him lift up his voice unto God on high.

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And came even before the king’s gate: for none [might] enter into the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth.

And came even before the king’s gate — Which should have been always open to poor petitioners (as the gate of the Roman Aedilis was), but was now shut against such mourners as Mordecai. A night cap was an ill sight at Court; jolly spirits cannot endure sadness; so great enemies they are to it, that they banish all seriousness; like as the Nicopolites so hated the braying of an ass, that for that cause they would not abide to hear the sound of a trumpet.

For none might enter into the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth — Behold, they that wear softs are in king’s houses, Matthew 11:8 , and those that are altogether set upon the merry pin. Jannes and Jambres, those magicians, are gracious with Pharaoh when Moses and Aaron are frowned upon. Baal’s prophets are fed at Jezebel’s table when Elias is almost pined in the desert. The dancing damsel trippeth on the toe, Wρχησατο , Matthew 14:6 , and triumpheth in Herod’s hall, when the rough coated Baptist lieth in cold irons; and Christ’s company there is neither cared for, nor called for, unless it be to show tricks, and do miracles for a pastime, Luke 23:8 . The kings and courtiers of Persia must see no sad sight, lest their mirth should be marred, and themselves surprised with heaviness and horror. But if mourners might not be suffered to come to court, why did those proud princes so seclude up themselves, and not appear abroad for the relief of the poor oppressed? How much better the modern kings of Persia, whom I have seen, saith a certain traveller, to alight from their horses, to do justice to a poor body! How much better the Great Turk, who, whensoever he goeth forth by land, doth always ride on horseback, upon the Friday especially, which is their Sabbath, when he goeth to the temple. At which times they that go along by his stirrup have charge to take all petitions that are preferred to his Majesty, and many poor men, who dare not presume by reason of their ragged apparel to approach near, stand afar off with fire upon their heads, holding up their petitions in their hands; the which the Grand Signor seeing, who never despiseth, but rather encourageth the poor, sends immediately to take the petitions, and being returned home into his seraglio, harem and reads them all, and then gives order for redress as he thinks fit. By reason of which complaints, the king ofttimes taketh occasion suddenly to punish his greatest officers, either with death or loss of place, which maketh the bashaws and other great officers that they care not how seldom the Grand Signor stirs abroad in public, for fear lest in that manner their bribery and injustice should come to his ears. It is probable that Haman had got this also to be decreed, that none should enter into the king’s gate clothed in sackcloth; lest passion might be moved thereby in any of the courtiers, or that be a means to make a complaint to the king of his cruelty.

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And in every province, whithersoever the king’s commandment and his decree came, [there was] great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.

And in every province — Heb. In every province, and province, …, not only in Shushan, which, say the Hebrews, was called Elam Hammedina, but throughout the king’s dominions.

Whithersoever the king’s commandment and his decree — The latter was irrevocable, and therefore more dreadful.

There was great mourning among the Jews — Not murmuring or mutinying, or meditating revenge against the king and Haman. Not casting away their confidence in God, or committing all to fate and blind fortune. Not crying out of religion, as unhappy, to the professors, ( ω τλημων αρετη , said he in the story. Oh miserable virtue! Oh practice of no profit! …, Brutus apud Dion). Not taking up arms or betaking themselves to flight; (how should poor galley slaves at this day flee out of the middle of Turkey?) prayers and tears were the weapons of these condemned captives and prisoners. It troubled them exceedingly (as well it might), that through fearfulness and negligence they had not, before this, gone back to their own country, with Zerubbabel or some other, when they had good leave to have gone with their brethren; and God himself cried out unto them, "Ho, ho, come forth," …, Zechariah 2:6 . "Arise, depart; this is not your rest: because it is polluted, it shall destroy you, even with a sore destruction," Micah 2:10 . This was now a bodkin at their hearts; like as it shall be one day to those in hell, to think, we might have been delivered.

And fasting — The word signifieth an abstinence from food and sustenance, either a toto, totally, as 2 Samuel 12:16 , or at least a tanto eta tali, partially, as Daniel 10:2-3 . Hence, it is called a day of restraint, Nηστεια , Joel 2:15 . Hence, Zechariah 8:19 , they separated themselves, viz. from work, food, and delights, for the furtherance of their repentance, and the enforcing of their prayers. Preces nobis ieiuniis alendum, et quasi saginandum, saith one, our prayers must be pampered and grain fed with fasting. A practice in use, not among Jews and Christians only, but among Egyptian priests, Persian magi, and Indian wizards of old, and Turks to this day when they are in any great fear of pressure.

And weeping, and wailing — This was the way to get in with God, though they might not come crying to the court. Oh the divine rhetoric and omnipotent efficacy of penitent tears! Psalms 6:8 , Weeping hath a voice. Christ turned to the weeping women, when going to his cross, and comforted them. He showed great respects to Mary Magdalene, that weeping vine; she had the first sight of the revived Phoenix (though so bleared that she could scarce discern him), and held him fast by those feet which she had once washed with her tears, and wherewith he had lately trod upon the lion and adder, Psalms 91:13 .

And many lay in sackcloth and ashes — As many as were more deeply affected with their sins, and the sad consequents thereof. David lay on the bare ground, χαμαικοιτης , 2 Samuel 12:16 ; these, and those Joel 1:13 , lodged in sackcloth and ashes, that they might watch as well as fast. See how they go linked together, Mark 13:33 . See Esther 4:16 .

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So Esther’s maids and her chamberlains came and told [it] her. Then was the queen exceedingly grieved; and she sent raiment to clothe Mordecai, and to take away his sackcloth from him: but he received [it] not.

So Esther’s maids came and told it her — She herself (say interpreters) was kept in a closer place than they, not having the liberty of going abroad, as others had; because the Persians that were of highest quality used so to keep in their wives; and if they went forth at any time, they were carried in a close chariot, so as that none could see them.

Then was the queen exceedingly grieved — Dolens exhorruit. So Tremellius. The Hebrew is, She grieved herself, scil. for Mordecai’s heaviness; as our Saviour, when he heard of the death of his friend Lazarus, groaned in spirit, and troubled himself, John 11:33 . And here we see that of Plautus disproved,

that is, No woman can grieve heartily for anything. Holy Esther is here sick at heart of grief, as the word importeth; and yet (as one saith of the Lady Jane Grey) she made grief itself amiable; her night clothes becoming her as well as her day dressings, by reason of her gracious deportment.

And she sent raiment to clothe Mordecai — That he might be fit to come unto her, and make known the cause of his grief, for she yet knew nothing of the public calamity. And although she was so highly advanced above Mordecai, yet she condoleth with him, and honoureth him as much as ever. This was true friendship. Ego aliter amare non didici, said Basil, to one that disliked him for stooping so low to an old friend.

And to take away his sackcloth, … — To change his saccum in sericum, sackcloth into satin, … See Esther 4:2 .

But he received it not — Such was the greatness of his grief which he could not dissemble; such was his care of community, that he could not mind his own private concerns while it went ill with the public. Such also was his patient continuance in well doing, Romans 2:7 , that he would not give over asking of God till he had received, seeking till he had found, knocking till the gate of grace was open. His clothes were good enough, unless his condition were more comfortable.

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Then called Esther for Hatach, [one] of the king’s chamberlains, whom he had appointed to attend upon her, and gave him a commandment to Mordecai, to know what it [was], and why it [was].

Then called Esther for Hatach — She snuffeth not at Mordecai’s refusal of her courtesy. She saith not, Let him choose, the next offer shall be worse, Rerum suarum satagat, si velit, et valeat, … Solomon reckoneth among those four things that the earth cannot bear, a handmaid advanced to the state and place of a mistress, Proverbs 30:23 . But Esther was none such. In her you might have seen magnitudinem cum mansuetudine, as Seneca hath it, singular humility in height of honours. She calleth here for Hatach, a faithful servant, and perhaps a Jew, a Jew inwardly. Honesty flows from piety.

One of the king’s chamberlains — Heb. Eunuchs, or gelded men, such as used to keep their women in king’s courts. The Chaldees call them rabrebanim, that is, nobles. The Persians call them spadones, saith Stephanus. The Greeks, eunuchs; either because they were princes’ chamberlains, and had the custody of their beds: or because they were egregie cordati homines, well-minded men ( Pαρα το ευνην εχειν παρα το ευ νουν εχειν ): for they generally proved (as likewise now they do among the Turks) subjects, though not of great courage, yet of the greatest judgment and fidelity, their minds being set on business rather than on pleasure.

Whom he had appointed to attend upon her — Heb. Whom he had set before her, in obsequium et servitium, to be at her beck and obedience: probably he was happy in such a service, for goodness is communicative, and of a spreading nature. Plutarch saith of the neighbour villages of Rome in Numa’s time, that sucking in the air of that city, they breathed δικαιοσυνη , righteousness and devotion; so it might very well be here. It was so with Abraham’s servants, and Solomon’s, and Cornelius’s, Acts 10:7 . Nero complained (and no wonder) that he could never find a faithful servant. What could they learn from him but villany and cruelty?

And gave him a commandment to Mordecai — i.e. She commanded him to deliver her mind to Mordecai. A servant is not to be inquisitive, John 15:15 , he knoweth not what his Lord doth but executive, ready to do what is required of him. He is the master’s instrument, and wholly his, Oλως εκεινου , saith Aristotle. The hands must take counsel of the head, and bestir them.

To know what it was, and why it was — Some great matter she well knew it must needs be that put him to those loud laments. Wise men cry not till they are sorely hurt. Job’s stroke was heavier than his groaning, Job 23:2 . He was not of those that are ever whining: like some men’s flesh, if their skin be but razed with a pin, it presently rankleth and festereth; or like rotten boughs, if a light weight be but hung on them, they presently creak and break. Mordecai she knew was none such. She therefore sendeth to see what was the matter, that she might help him, if possible. The tears and moans of men in misery are not to be slighted, as if they were nothing to us. Who is afflicted, and I burn not? saith Paul, 2 Corinthians 11:29 . Weep with those that weep, else you add to their grief, Romans 12:15 , as the priest and Levite did, by passing by the wounded man. Is it nothing to you, O ye that pass by the way? Lamentations 1:12 . Are not ye also in the body, Hebrews 13:3 , that is, in the body of flesh and frailty, subject to like afflictions? And may not your sins procure their sufferings, as a vein is opened in the arm to ease the pain of the head?

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So Hatach went forth to Mordecai unto the street of the city, which [was] before the king’s gate.

So Hatach went forth to Mordecai — He was obedient to his queen mistress, pleasing her in all things, not answering again, Titus 2:10 , unless it were, I will, or the like. Servus sit monosyllabum Domino. Let the servant be the word of his master. Apelles painted a servant with hinds’ feet, to run on his master’s errands; with ass’s ears, and with his mouth made fast with two locks, to signify that he should be swift to hear, slow to speak.

Unto the street of the city — The broad street, as the word signifieth; Rechob, πλατεια : there Mordecai kept him, and might not come nearer the court, because a mourner. See Esther 4:2 . Tiberius the emperor, counterfeiting grief at the funeral of Drusus, there was a veil laid between the dead and him, because being high priest forsooth, he might not see any mournful object. The statues of the gods were transported or covered (for like cause) in those places where any punishment was inflicted. But what saith the wise man? "The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning" (whereby we must understand any place or object which occasioneth mourning), "but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth," Ecclesiastes 7:4 .

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And Mordecai told him of all that had happened unto him, and of the sum of the money that Haman had promised to pay to the king’s treasuries for the Jews, to destroy them.

And Mordecai told him all that had happened unto him — Not by fate or blind fortune, κατα συγκυριαν (and yet time and chance happeneth to all, Ecclesiastes 9:11 , and it was by chance to the wounded man, that the priest and the Levite came down that way, Luke 10:31 ), but by the providence of God, which hath a hand in ordering the most casual and fortuitous events, to the execution of his righteous counsels; neither is there ever a providence but we shall once see a wonder or a mercy wrapt up in it.

And of the sum of money — See Esther 3:9 . Money is the monarch of this present world. Money is to many dearer than their heart blood, yet, to gratify their lusts, they lavish silver out of the bag, and care not to purchase revenge or sensual delights with misery, beggary, discredit, damnation.

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Also he gave him the copy of the writing of the decree that was given at Shushan to destroy them, to shew [it] unto Esther, and to declare [it] unto her, and to charge her that she should go in unto the king, to make supplication unto him, and to make request before him for her people.

Also he gave him the copy of the writing — That she might see it, and rest assured that it was even so, and no otherwise; and that therefore now or never she must bestir herself for the labouring Church.

That was given at Shushan — Which if ever it were full of judgment, and white as a lily (according to the name), is now stained with blood of innocents; if ever righteousness did lodge in it, yet now murderers, as Isaiah 1:21 .

To show it unto Esther — That her eye might affect her heart, Lamentations 3:51 , and her heart set all awork for her people; that is, herself, according to that, "Physician, heal thyself"; that is, thine own countrymen, Luke 4:23 .

And to declare it unto her — In the cause, viz. his refusing to bow to Haman against his conscience (whereof it no whit repented him); and in the several circumstances laid forth in the liveliest colours, for her thorough information.

And to charge her that she should go in unto the king — Hoc perquam durum est, sed ita lex scripta est, This was extremely hard, but so the law was written, saith the civilian. This Mordecai knew would hardly be done; he, therefore, makes use of his ancient authority, and sets it on with greatest earnestness. So St Paul, "I charge you by the Lord," 1 Thessalonians 5:27 . And, again, "I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ," …, 2 Timothy 4:1 . So St Austin to his hearers, Per tremendum Dei iudicium vos adiuro, I require and charge you by that dreadful day of judgment, when that doom’s day book shall be opened, … It is a weakness to be hot in a cold matter, but it is a wickedness to be cold in a hot matter. He that is earnest in good, though he may carry some things indiscreetly, yet is he far better than a time server, and a cold friend to the truth; like as in falling forward is nothing so much danger as in falling backward. Eli was to blame with his - Do no more so, my sons. And so was Jehoshaphat with his - Let not the king say so. And the people in Ahab’s time, who, when they were pressed to express whom they were for, God or Baal? they answered not a word, 1 Kings 18:21 . And yet how many such cold friends hath the truth today! lukewarm Laodiceans, neuter passive Christians! … When Callidus once declared against Gallus with a faint and languishing voice, Oh, saith Cicero, Tu nisi fingeres, sic ageres? Wouldest thou plead on that manner if thou wert in good earnest? Men’s faint appearing for God’s cause shows they do but feign; their coldness probably concludeth they do but counterfeit. Mordecai plays the man, and chargeth Esther to improve her interest in the king, her husband, for the Church’s deliverance. See here how he turneth every stone, tradeth every talent, leaveth no means unused, no course unattempted for the saints’ safety. And this the Spirit of God hath purposely recorded, that all may learn to lay out themselves to the utmost for the public; to be most zealous for the conservation and defence of the Church when it is afflicted and opposed by persecutors; seeing they cannot be saved unless she be in safety; neither can they have God for their Father unless they love and observe this their dear mother. Utinam, iterum autem utinam diligentius a cunctis ordinibus haec hodie considerarentur, saith one. Oh that these things were duly considered by all sorts today!

To make supplication unto him — Heb. To deprecate displeasure and mischief, as 1 Kings 8:28 Zechariah 12:10 .

And to make request before him — Ad quaerendum a facie eius; so Pagnine from the Hebrew, to seek for good from his face, an effectul smile, a gracious aspect, that they may live in his sight. For, "in the light of the king’s countenance is life; and his favour is as a cloud of the latter rain," Proverbs 16:15 . The ancient Persian kings were most fond of their wives, doing them all the honour possible in court, as partakers of all their fortunes, and carried them and their children into their farthest wars; by the presence of so dear pledges, the more to encourage their minds in time of battle. Now, therefore, Esther (whom Herodotus also witnesseth to have been Xerxes’ best beloved) is to try what she can do with him for her people, who were haply grown too secure upon Esther’s preferment; as the French Churches also were upon the queen of Navarre’s greatness, and the promise of peace by that match. God, therefore, shortly after shook them up, not by shaking his rod only at them, as here at these Jews, but by permitting that bloody massacre.

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