mh_parser/vol_split/17 - Esther/Chapter 7.xml

<div2 id="Esth.viii" n="viii" next="Esth.ix" prev="Esth.vii" progress="98.92%" title="Chapter VII">
<h2 id="Esth.viii-p0.1">E S T H E R</h2>
<h3 id="Esth.viii-p0.2">CHAP. VII.</h3>
<p class="intro" id="Esth.viii-p1">We are now to attend the second banquet to which
the king and Haman were invited: and there, I. Esther presents her
petition to the king for her life and the life of her people,
<scripRef id="Esth.viii-p1.1" osisRef="Bible:Esth.7.1-Esth.7.4" parsed="|Esth|7|1|7|4" passage="Es 7:1-4">ver. 1-4</scripRef>. II. She plainly
tells the king that Haman is the man who designed her ruin and the
ruin of all her friends, <scripRef id="Esth.viii-p1.2" osisRef="Bible:Esth.7.5-Esth.7.6" parsed="|Esth|7|5|7|6" passage="Es 7:5,6">ver. 5,
6</scripRef>. III. The king thereupon gave orders for the hanging
of Haman upon the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai, which
was done accordingly, <scripRef id="Esth.viii-p1.3" osisRef="Bible:Esth.7.7-Esth.7.10" parsed="|Esth|7|7|7|10" passage="Es 7:7-10">ver.
7-10</scripRef>. And thus, by the destruction of the plotter, a
good step was taken towards the defeating of the plot.</p>
<scripCom id="Esth.viii-p0.1_1" osisRef="Bible:Esth.7" parsed="|Esth|7|0|0|0" passage="Es 7" type="Commentary"/>
<scripCom id="Esth.viii-p0.2_1" osisRef="Bible:Esth.7.1-Esth.7.6" parsed="|Esth|7|1|7|6" passage="Es 7:1-6" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Esth.7.1-Esth.7.6">
<h4 id="Esth.viii-p1.6">Haman Accused by Esther. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Esth.viii-p1.7">b. c.</span> 510.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Esth.viii-p2">1 So the king and Haman came to banquet with
Esther the queen.   2 And the king said again unto Esther on
the second day at the banquet of wine, What <i>is</i> thy petition,
queen Esther? and it shall be granted thee: and what <i>is</i> thy
request? and it shall be performed, <i>even</i> to the half of the
kingdom.   3 Then Esther the queen answered and said, If I
have found favour in thy sight, O king, and if it please the king,
let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my
request:   4 For we are sold, I and my people, to be
destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had been sold for
bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my tongue, although the enemy
could not countervail the king's damage.   5 Then the king
Ahasuerus answered and said unto Esther the queen, Who is he, and
where is he, that durst presume in his heart to do so?   6 And
Esther said, The adversary and enemy <i>is</i> this wicked Haman.
Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Esth.viii-p3">The king in humour, and Haman out of
humour, meet at Esther's table. Now,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Esth.viii-p4">I. The king urged Esther, a third time, to
tell him what her request was, for he longed to know, and repeated
his promise that it should be granted, <scripRef id="Esth.viii-p4.1" osisRef="Bible:Esth.7.2" parsed="|Esth|7|2|0|0" passage="Es 7:2"><i>v.</i> 2</scripRef>. If the king had now forgotten that
Esther had an errand to him, and had not again asked what it was,
she could scarcely have known how to renew it herself; but he was
mindful of it, and now was bound with the threefold cord of a
promise thrice made to favour her.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Esth.viii-p5">II. Esther, at length, surprises the king
with a petition, not for wealth or honour, or the preferment of
some of her friends to some high post, which the king expected, but
for the preservation of herself and her countrymen from death and
destruction, <scripRef id="Esth.viii-p5.1" osisRef="Bible:Esth.7.3-Esth.7.4" parsed="|Esth|7|3|7|4" passage="Es 7:3,4"><i>v.</i> 3,
4</scripRef>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Esth.viii-p6">1. Even a stranger, a criminal, shall be
permitted to petition for his life; but that a friend, a wife,
should have occasion to present such a petition was very affecting:
<i>Let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my
request.</i> Two things bespeak lives to be very precious, and fit
to be saved, if innocent, at any expense:—(1.) Majesty. If it be
a crowned head that is struck at, it is time to stir. Esther's was
such: "<i>Let my life be given me.</i> If thou hast any affection
for the wife of thy bosom, now is the time to show it; for that is
the life that lies at stake." (2.) Multitude. If they be many
lives, very many, and those no way forfeited, that are aimed at, no
time should be lost nor pains spared to prevent the mischief. "It
is not a friend or two, but <i>my people,</i> a whole nation, and a
nation dear to me, for the saving of which I now intercede."</p>
<p class="indent" id="Esth.viii-p7">2. To move the king the more she suggests,
(1.) That she and her people were bought and sold. They had not
sold themselves by any offence against the government, but were
sold to gratify the pride and revenge of one man. (2.) That it was
not their liberty only, but their lives that were sold. "Had we
been sold" (she says) "into slavery, I would not have complained;
for in time we might have recovered our liberty, thought the king
would have made but a bad bargain of it, and not have increased his
wealth by our price. Whatever had been paid for us, the loss of so
many industrious hands out of his kingdom would have been more
damage to the treasury than the price would countervail." To
persecute good people is as impolitic as it is impious, and a
manifest wrong to the interests of princes and states; they are
weakened and impoverished by it. But this was not the case. <i>We
are sold</i> (says she) <i>to be destroyed, to be slain, and to
perish;</i> and then it is time to speak. She refers to the words
of the decree (<scripRef id="Esth.viii-p7.1" osisRef="Bible:Esth.3.13" parsed="|Esth|3|13|0|0" passage="Es 3:13"><i>ch.</i> iii.
13</scripRef>), which aimed at nothing short of their destruction;
this would touch in a tender part if there were any such in the
king's heart, and would bring him to relent.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Esth.viii-p8">III. The king stands amazed at the
remonstrance, and asks (<scripRef id="Esth.viii-p8.1" osisRef="Bible:Esth.7.5" parsed="|Esth|7|5|0|0" passage="Es 7:5"><i>v.</i>
5</scripRef>) "<i>Who is he, and where is he, that durst presume in
his heart to do so?</i> What! contrive the murder of the queen and
all her friends? Is there such a man, such a monster rather, in
nature? <i>Who is he, and where is he, whose heart has filled him
to do so?</i>" Or, Who hath <i>filled his heart.</i> He wonders, 1.
That any one should be so bad as to think such a thing; Satan
certainly filled his heart. 2. That any one should be so bold as to
do such a thing, should have his heart so fully set in him to do
wickedly, should be so very daring. Note, (1.) It is hard to
imagine that there should be such horrid wickedness committed in
the world as really there is. Who, where is he, that dares,
presumes, to question the being of God and his providence, to
banter his oracles, profane his name, persecute his people, and yet
bid defiance to his wrath? Such there are, to think of whom is
enough to make <i>horror take hold of us,</i> <scripRef id="Esth.viii-p8.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.119.53" parsed="|Ps|119|53|0|0" passage="Ps 119:53">Ps. cxix. 53</scripRef>. (2.) We sometimes startle at
the mention of that evil which yet we ourselves are chargeable
with. Ahasuerus is amazed at that wickedness which he himself is
guilty of; for he consented to that bloody edict against the Jews.
<i>Thou art the man,</i> might Esther too truly have said.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Esth.viii-p9">IV. Esther plainly charged Haman with it
before his face: "Here he is, let him speak for himself, for
therefore he is invited: <i>The adversary and enemy is this wicked
Haman</i> (<scripRef id="Esth.viii-p9.1" osisRef="Bible:Esth.7.6" parsed="|Esth|7|6|0|0" passage="Es 7:6"><i>v.</i> 6</scripRef>); it
is he that has designed our murder, and, which is worse, has basely
drawn the king in to be <i>particeps criminis—a partaker of his
crime,</i> ignorantly agreeing to it."</p>
<p class="indent" id="Esth.viii-p10">V. Haman is soon apprehensive of his
danger: <i>He was afraid before the king and queen;</i> and it was
time for him to fear when the queen was his prosecutor, the king
his judge, and his own conscience a witness against him; and the
surprising operations of Providence against him that same morning
could not but increase his fear. Now he has little joy of his being
invited to the banquet of wine, but finds himself in straits when
he thought himself <i>in the fulness of his sufficiency. He is cast
into a net by his own feet.</i></p>
</div><scripCom id="Esth.viii-p0.3" osisRef="Bible:Esth.7.7-Esth.7.10" parsed="|Esth|7|7|7|10" passage="Es 7:7-10" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Esth.7.7-Esth.7.10">
<h4 id="Esth.viii-p10.2">The King Incensed Against Haman; Haman
Hanged upon His Own Gallows. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Esth.viii-p10.3">b.
c.</span> 510.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Esth.viii-p11">7 And the king arising from the banquet of wine
in his wrath <i>went</i> into the palace garden: and Haman stood up
to make request for his life to Esther the queen; for he saw that
there was evil determined against him by the king.   8 Then
the king returned out of the palace garden into the place of the
banquet of wine; and Haman was fallen upon the bed whereon Esther
<i>was.</i> Then said the king, Will he force the queen also before
me in the house? As the word went out of the king's mouth, they
covered Haman's face.   9 And Harbonah, one of the
chamberlains, said before the king, Behold also, the gallows fifty
cubits high, which Haman had made for Mordecai, who had spoken good
for the king, standeth in the house of Haman. Then the king said,
Hang him thereon.   10 So they hanged Haman on the gallows
that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king's wrath
pacified.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Esth.viii-p12">Here, I. The king retires in anger. He rose
from table in a great passion, and <i>went into the palace
garden</i> to cool himself and to consider what was to be done,
<scripRef id="Esth.viii-p12.1" osisRef="Bible:Esth.7.7" parsed="|Esth|7|7|0|0" passage="Es 7:7"><i>v.</i> 7</scripRef>. He sent not for
his <i>seven wise counsellors who knew the times,</i> being ashamed
to consult them about the undoing of that which he had rashly done
without their knowledge or advice; but he went to walk in the
garden awhile, to compare in his thoughts what Esther had now
informed him of with what had formerly passed between him and
Haman. And we may suppose him, 1. Vexed at himself, that he should
be such a fool as to doom a guiltless nation to destruction, and
his own queen among the rest, upon the base suggestions of a
self-seeking man, without examining the truth of his allegations.
Those that do things with self-will reflect upon them afterwards
with self-reproach. 2. Vexed at Haman whom he had laid in his
bosom, that he should be such a villain as to abuse his interest in
him to draw him to consent to so wicked a measure. When he saw
himself betrayed by one he had caressed he was full of indignation
at him; yet he would say nothing till he had taken time for second
thoughts, to see whether they would make the matter better or worse
than it first appeared, that he might proceed accordingly. When we
are angry we should pause awhile before we come to any resolution,
as those that have <i>a rule over our own spirits</i> and are
governed by reason.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Esth.viii-p13">II. Haman becomes a humble petitioner to
the queen for his life. He might easily perceived by the king's
hastily flying out of the room that <i>there was evil determined
against him.</i> For <i>the wrath of a king,</i> such a king, <i>is
as the roaring of a lion</i> and as <i>messengers of death;</i> and
now see, 1. How mean Haman looks, when he stands up first and then
falls down at Esther's feet, to beg she would save his life and
take all he had. Those that are most haughty, insolent, and
imperious, when they are in power and prosperity, are commonly the
most abject and poor-spirited when the wheel turns upon them.
Cowards, they say, are most cruel, and then consciousness of their
cruelty makes them the more cowardly. 2. How great Esther looks,
who of late had been neglected and doomed to the slaughter
<i>tanquam ovis—as a sheep;</i> now her sworn enemy owns that he
lies at her mercy, and begs his life at her hand. Thus did God
<i>regard the low estate of his handmaiden</i> and <i>scatter the
proud in the imagination of their hearts,</i> <scripRef id="Esth.viii-p13.1" osisRef="Bible:Luke.1.48 Bible:Luke.1.51" parsed="|Luke|1|48|0|0;|Luke|1|51|0|0" passage="Lu 1:48,51">Luke i. 48, 51</scripRef>. Compare with this that
promise made to the Philadelphian church (<scripRef id="Esth.viii-p13.2" osisRef="Bible:Rev.3.9" parsed="|Rev|3|9|0|0" passage="Re 3:9">Rev. iii. 9</scripRef>), <i>I will make those of the
synagogue of Satan to come and to worship before thy feet and to
know that I have loved thee.</i> The day is coming when those that
hate and persecute God's chosen ones would gladly be beholden to
them. <i>Give us of your oil. Father Abraham, send Lazarus. The
upright shall have dominion in the morning.</i></p>
<p class="indent" id="Esth.viii-p14">III. The king returns yet more exasperated
against Haman. The more he thinks of him the worse he thinks of him
and of what he had done. It was but lately that every thing Haman
said and did, even that which was most criminal, was taken well and
construed to his advantage; now, on the contrary, what Haman did
that was not only innocent, but a sign of repentance, is ill taken,
and, without colour of reason, construed to his disadvantage. He
lay in terror at Esther's feet, to beg for his life. What! (says
the king) <i>will he force the queen also before me in the
house?</i> Not that he thought he had any such intention, but
having been musing on Haman's design to slay the queen, and finding
him in this posture, he takes occasion from it thus to vent his
passion against Haman, as a man that would not scruple at the
greatest and most impudent piece of wickedness. "He designed to
slay the queen, and to slay her <i>wish me in the house;</i> will
he in like manner force her? What! ravish her first and then murder
her? He that had a design upon her life may well be suspected to
have a design upon her chastity."</p>
<p class="indent" id="Esth.viii-p15">IV. Those about him were ready to be the
instruments of his wrath. The courtiers that adored Haman when he
was the rising sun set themselves as much against him now that he
is a falling star, and are even glad of an occasion to run him
down: so little sure can proud men be of the interest they think
they have. 1. As soon as the king spoke an angry word <i>they
covered Haman's face,</i> as a condemned man, not worthy any more
either to see the king or to be seen by him; they marked him for
execution. Those that are hanged commonly have their faces covered.
See how ready the servants were to take the first hint of the
king's mind in this matter. <i>Turba Romae sequitur fortunam, et
semper et odit damnatos—The Roman populace change as the aspects
of fortune do, and always oppress the fallen.</i> If Haman be going
down, they all cry, "Down with him." 2. One of those that had been
lately sent to Haman's house, to fetch him to the banquet, informed
the king of the gallows which Haman had prepared for Mordecai,
<scripRef id="Esth.viii-p15.1" osisRef="Bible:Esth.7.9" parsed="|Esth|7|9|0|0" passage="Es 7:9"><i>v.</i> 9</scripRef>. Now that
Mordecai is the favourite the chamberlain applauds him—he <i>spoke
good for the king;</i> and, Haman being in disgrace, every thing is
taken notice of that might make against him, incense the king
against him, and fill up the measure of his iniquity.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Esth.viii-p16">V. The king gave orders that he should be
hanged upon his own gallows, which was done accordingly, nor was he
so much as asked what he had to say why this judgment should not be
passed upon him and execution awarded. The sentence is
short—<i>Hang him thereon;</i> and the execution speedy—<i>So
they hanged Haman on the gallows,</i> <scripRef id="Esth.viii-p16.1" osisRef="Bible:Esth.7.10" parsed="|Esth|7|10|0|0" passage="Es 7:10"><i>v.</i> 10</scripRef>. See here, 1. Pride brought down.
He that expected every one to do him homage is now made an
ignominious spectacle to the world, and he himself sacrificed to
his revenge. God resists the proud; and those whom he resists will
find him irresistible. 2. Persecution punished. Haman was upon many
accounts a wicked man, but his enmity to God's church was his most
provoking crime, and for <i>that</i> the God to whom vengeance
belongs here reckons with him, and, though his plot was defeated,
gives him <i>according to the wickedness of his endeavours,</i>
<scripRef id="Esth.viii-p16.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.28.4" parsed="|Ps|28|4|0|0" passage="Ps 28:4">Ps. xxviii. 4</scripRef>. 3. Mischief
returned upon the person himself that contrived it, the <i>wicked
snared in the work of his own hands,</i> <scripRef id="Esth.viii-p16.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.7.15-Ps.7.16 Bible:Ps.9.15-Ps.9.16" parsed="|Ps|7|15|7|16;|Ps|9|15|9|16" passage="Ps 7:15,16,9:15,16">Ps. vii. 15, 16; ix. 15, 16</scripRef>. Haman
was justly hanged on the very gallows he had unjustly prepared for
Mordecai. If he had not set up that gallows, perhaps the king would
not have thought of ordering him to be hanged; but, if he rear a
gallows for <i>the man whom the king delights to honour,</i> the
thought is very natural that he should be ordered to try it
himself, and see how it fits him, see how he likes it. The enemies
of God's church have often been thus taken in their own craftiness.
In the morning Haman was designing himself for the robes and
Mordecai for the gallows; but the tables are turned: Mordecai has
the crown, Haman the cross. <i>The Lord is known by such
judgments.</i> See <scripRef id="Esth.viii-p16.4" osisRef="Bible:Prov.11.8 Bible:Prov.21.18" parsed="|Prov|11|8|0|0;|Prov|21|18|0|0" passage="Pr 11:8,21:18">Prov. xi. 8;
xxi. 18</scripRef>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Esth.viii-p17"><i>Lastly,</i> The satisfaction which the
king had in this execution. <i>Then was the king's wrath
pacified,</i> and not till then. He was as well pleased in ordering
Haman to be hanged as in ordering Mordecai to be honoured. Thus
shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to take
vengeance on. God saith of wicked men (<scripRef id="Esth.viii-p17.1" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.5.13" parsed="|Ezek|5|13|0|0" passage="Eze 5:13">Ezek. v. 13</scripRef>), <i>I will cause my fury to rest
upon them, and I will be comforted.</i></p>
</div></div2>