Esther 7

Es 7:1-6.

ESTHER

PLEADS FOR

HER

OWN

LIFE AND THE

LIFE OF

HER

PEOPLE.

4. we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed--that is, by the

cruel and perfidious scheme of that man, who offered an immense sum of

money to purchase our extermination. Esther dwelt on his contemplated

atrocity, in a variety of expressions, which both evinced the depth of

her own emotions, and were intended to awaken similar feelings in the

king's breast.

But if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my

tongue--Though a great calamity to the Jews, the enslavement of that

people might have enriched the national treasury; and, at all events,

the policy, if found from experience to be bad, could be altered. But

the destruction of such a body of people would be an irreparable evil,

and all the talents Haman might pour into the treasury could not

compensate for the loss of their services.

Es 7:7-10.

THE

KING

CAUSES

HAMAN TO

BE

HANGED ON

HIS

OWN

GALLOWS.

7. he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king--When

the king of Persia orders an offender to be executed, and then rises

and goes into the women's apartment, it is a sign that no mercy is to

be hoped for. Even the sudden rising of the king in anger was the same

as if he had pronounced sentence.

8. Haman was fallen upon the bed whereon Esther was--We do not know

the precise form of the couches on which the Persians reclined at

table. But it is probable that they were not very different from those

used by the Greeks and Romans. Haman, perhaps, at first stood up to beg

pardon of Esther; but driven in his extremity to resort to an attitude

of the most earnest supplication, he fell prostrate on the couch where

the queen was recumbent. The king returning that instant was fired at

what seemed an outrage on female modesty.

they covered Haman's face--The import of this striking action is, that

a criminal is unworthy any longer to look on the face of the king, and

hence, when malefactors are consigned to their doom in Persia, the

first thing is to cover the face with a veil or napkin.

9. Harbonah, one of the chamberlains, said before the king, Behold

also, the gallows--This eunuch had probably been the messenger sent

with the invitation to Haman, and on that occasion had seen the

gallows. The information he now volunteered, as well it may be from

abhorrence of Haman's cold-blooded conspiracy as from sympathy with his

amiable mistress, involved with her people in imminent peril.

10. So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for

Mordecai--He has not been the only plotter of mischief whose feet have

been taken in the net which they hid

(Ps 9:15).

But never was condemnation more just, and retribution more merited,

than the execution of that gigantic criminal.