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Est_6:6 So Haman came in. And the king said unto him, What shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour? Now Haman thought in his heart, To whom would the king delight to do honour more than to myself?
Ver. 6. So Haman came in] Merry and pleasent, but went out sad and heavy hearted. These hosts (profit, pleasure, and preferment), though they welcome us into our inn with smiling countenances, yet, if we watch them not, they will cut our throats in our beds. It is observed of Edward III, that he had always fair weather at his passage into France, and foul upon his return. Pharaoh had fair weather till he was in the heart of the Red Sea. The sun shone fair upon the earth that morning that Lot came out of Sodom, but ere night there was a dismal change. He that lives in the height of the world’s blandishments is not far from destruction.
And the king said unto him, What shall be done, &c.] Though the king knew of no difference between Haman and Mordecai (saith a grave interpreter, Mr Jackson), yet he suppresseth Mordecai’s name: and thus the Lord by his providence brought it about, that even Haman himself should, to his greater vexation, appoint the honours that should be done to Mordecai, and that at a time when he was come to desire of the king that he might be hanged, and with full assurance that he should have obtained his desire.
Now Haman thought in his heart] Heb. Said in his heart; the language whereof God very well understood, and here uttereth, to the perpetual shame of this monstrous ambitionist.
To whom would the king delight to do honour more than to myself?] Ambition (as they say of the crocodile) groweth as long as it liveth; and self-love, like to a good stomach, draws to itself what nourishment it liketh, and casts off that which offends it. It maketh men unreasonable, and teacheth them to turn the glass to see themselves bigger, others lesser, than they are. Herodotus reporteth, that after the Greeks had got the better of this Xerxes and his Persians, and came together to divide the spoil, when it was put to the question who of all the commanders had deserved the best and chief reward? none would yield to other, but every man thought himself best deserving, and second to none. In the battle at Belgrade, where Mahomet, the Great Turk, was beaten and driven out of the field, Capistranus and Huniades were the chieftains there. And whereas both of them wrote the relation of that day’s work, neither of them so much as once mentioned the other (though both of them had done their parts gallantly), but each one took the whole praise of it to himself. Haman, though altogether unworthy of the least respect, yet holds himself best worthy of the greatest honours, and therefore will be sure to be no niggard in advising those ceremonies of honour, which he presumes meant to his own person.