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Esther 5:2. The king held out to Esther the golden sceptre— A sceptre was the ensign of the highest and most absolute authority; therefore some have observed, that when Mordecai was advanced to the greatest dignity, next the king, having the royal robes on, and other ensigns of regal dignity, no mention is made of any sceptre, for that was proper and peculiar to the king; and the queen's touching, or, as some say, kissing it, was a token of her subjection and thankfulness for his favour. Josephus has mightily improved upon this story, as the reader will see by referring to his Antiquities, lib. 11: cap. 6.

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Esther 5:8. Let the king and Haman come to the banquet, &c.— Esther's intention, in desiring to entertain the king twice at her banquet before she made known her petition, was, that thereby she might the more endear herself to him, and the better dispose him to grant her request; for which reason she thought it a piece of no bad policy to invite his first favourite to come with him. But in the whole matter the singular providence of God is not a little conspicuous; which so disposed her mind, that the high honour which the king bestowed upon Mordecai the next day might fall out in the mean time, and so make way for her petition, which would come in very seasonably at the banquet of wine. For, as it was then most likely for the king to be in a pleasant humour, so also it was most usual for the Persians to enter upon business of state when they began to drink. See Prid. Connect. An. 453.

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Esther 5:12. Haman said moreover, yea, Esther, &c.— Athenaeus mentions it as a peculiar honour, which no Grecian ever had before or after, that Artaxerxes vouchsafed to invite Timagoras the Cretan to dine even at the table where his relations ate, and to send sometimes a part of what was served up at his own; which some Persians looked upon as a diminution of his majesty, and a prostitution of their nation's honour. Plutarch, in his Life of Artaxerxes, tells us, that none but the king's mother and his real wife were permitted to sit at his table; and therefore he mentions it as a condescension in that prince that he sometimes invited his brothers; so that this particular favour was a matter which Haman had some reason to value himself upon.

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