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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Esther 6:1 - 6:1
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An unexpected turn of affairs. Est 6:1. On that night between Esther's first and second banquet, the king's sleep fled, and he commanded to bring the book of records of the chronicles and to read therefrom. On הַזִּכְרֹנֹות סֶפֶר, comp. Ezr 4:15. The title is here more particularly stated than in Est 2:23, where the book is briefly called: The book of the chronicles. נִקְרָאִים וַיּהְיוּ, and they (the chronicles) were read before the king. The participle denotes the long continuance of this reading.
Est 6:2
And it was found written therein among other matters, that Mordochai had given information concerning the two courtiers who were plotting against the king's life. This is the conspiracy related Est 2:21-23. The name Bigthana is in Est 2:21 written Bigthan.
Est 6:3
On this occasion the king asked: What honour and greatness hath been done to Mordochai for this? עַל־זֶה, for giving this information. And the king's servants answered: Nothing has been shown him. עִם עָשָׂה, to show any one something, e.g., favour; comp. 2Sa 2:6; 2Sa 3:8, and elsewhere. גְּדוּלָה, greatness, i.e., promotion to honour.
Est 6:4
To repair this deficiency, and to do honour to the man who had done good service to the king - as the Persian monarchs were accustomed, comp. Brisson, de reg. Pers. princ. i. c. 135 - he asked, “who is in the court?” i.e., whether some minister or state functionary were there with whom he might consult concerning the honour due to Mordochai. Those who desired an audience with the king were accustomed to appear and wait in the outer court, until they were summoned into the inner court to present themselves before the monarch. From this question of the king it appears that it was already morning. And Haman, it is parenthetically remarked, was come into the outer court to speak to the king, to hang Mordochai on the tree which he had prepared.
Est 6:5
The attendants inform the king that Haman is in the court; whereupon the king commands: יָבֹוא, let him come in.
Est 6:6-9
As soon as he enters the king asks: What is to be done to the man in whose honour the king delighteth? i.e., whom he delights to honour. And Haman, thinking (בְּלִבֹּו אָמַר, to say in one's heart, i.e., to think) to whom will the king delight to show honour more than to me (מִמֶּבִּי יֹותֵר, projecting before me, surpassing me, hence adverbially, beyond me, e.g., Ecc 12:12, comp. Ecc 2:15; Ecc 7:11, Ecc 7:16)? votes immediately for the greatest possible mark of honour, and says, Est 6:7.: “As for the man in whose honour the king delighteth, let them bring the royal apparel with which the king has been clothed, and a horse on which the king has ridden, and the king's crown upon his head, and let them deliver this apparel and horse to one of the chief princes of the king, and let them array (i.e., with the royal apparel) the man in whose honour the king delighteth, and cause him to ride upon the horse through the streets of the city, and proclaim before him: Thus shall it be done to the man in whose honour the king delighteth.” וגו אֲשֶׁר אִישׁ, Est 6:7, precedes absolutely, and the predicate does not follow till וְהִלְבִּישׁוּ, Est 6:9, where the preceding subject is now by an anacoluthon taken up in the accusative (אֶת־הָאִישׁ). Several clauses are inserted between, for the purpose of enumerating beforehand all that appertains to such a token of honour: a royal garment, a royal steed, a crown on the head, and one of the chief princes for the carrying out of the honour awarded. The royal garment is not only, as Bertheau justly remarks, such a one as the king is accustomed to wear, but, as is shown by the perf. לָבַשׁ, one which the king has himself already put on or worn. Hence it is not an ordinary state-robe, the so-called Median apparel which the king himself, the chief princes among the Persians, and those on whom the king bestowed such raiment were wont to appear in (Herod. 3.84, 7.116; Xenoph. Cyrop. 8.3.1, comp. with the note of Baehr on Her. 3.84), but a costly garment, the property of the sovereign himself. This was the highest mark of honour that could be shown to a subject. So too was the riding upon a horse on which the king had ridden, and whose head was adorned with a royal crown. נִתַּן is perf. Niph., not 1st pers. pl. imperf. Kal, as Maurer insists; and בְּרֹאשֹׁו אֲשֶׁר refers to the head of the horse, not to the head of the man to be honoured, as Clericus, Rambach, and most ancient expositors explain the words, in opposition to the natural sense of - בְּרֹאשֹׁו נִתַּן אֲשֶׁר. We do not indeed find among classical writers any testimony to such an adornment of the royal steed; but the circumstance is not at all improbable, and seems to be corroborated by ancient remains, certain Assyrian and ancient Persian sculptures, representing the horses of the king, and apparently those of princes, with ornaments on their heads terminating in three points, which may be regarded as a kind of crown. The infin. absol. וְנָתֹון is a continuation of the preceding jussive יָבִיאוּ: and they shall give, let them give the garment - to the hand of a man, i.e., hand or deliver to him. The garment and horse are to be delivered to one of the noblest princes, that he may bring them to the individual to be honoured, may array him in the garment, set him on the horse, and proclaim before him as he rides through the city, etc. On הַפַּרְתְּמִים, comp. Est 1:4, and on the matter itself, Gen 41:43. רְחֹוב is either an open square, the place of public assemblage, the forum, or a collective signifying the wide streets of the city. יֵעָשֶׂה כָּכָה as in Deu 25:9 and elsewhere.
Est 6:10-11
This honour, then, the haughty Haman was now compelled to pay to the hated Jew. The king commanded him: “Make haste, take the apparel and the horse, as thou hast said,” i.e., in the manner proposed by thee, “and do even so to Mordochai the Jew, that sitteth at the king's gate; let nothing fail of all that thou hast spoken,” i.e., carry out your proposal exactly. How the king knew that Mordochai was a Jew, and that he sat in the king's gate, is not indeed expressly stated, but may easily be supplied from the conversation of the king with his servants concerning Mordochai's discovery of the conspiracy, Est 6:1-3. On this occasion the servants of the king would certainly give him particulars concerning Mordochai, who by daily frequenting the king's gate, Est 2:19; Est 5:9, would certainly have attracted the attention of all the king's suite. Nor can doubt be case upon the historical truth of the fact related in this verse by the question: whether the king had forgotten that all Jews were doomed to destruction, and that he had delivered them up to Haman for that purpose (J. D. Mich.). Such forgetfulness in the case of such a monarch as Xerxes cannot surprise us.