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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Esther 6:10 - 6:14
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Mordecai Honored
v. 10. Then the king said to Haman, who himself was a prince of the realm, Make haste and take the apparel and the horse, as thou hast said, and do even so to Mordecai, the Jew, that sitteth at the king's gate, whose nationality was hereby openly stated, in spite of the decree which looked toward the destruction of the Jews, the hand of Providence thus appearing throughout the story. Let nothing fail of all that thou hast spoken, not a single point was to be omitted in all the excessive show of honor which Haman had sought for his own person.
v. 11. Then took Haman the apparel and the horse, surely with inexpressible bitterness in his heart, and arrayed Mordecai, and brought him on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaimed before him, Thus shall it be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honor. The humiliation was all the greater, so far as Haman was concerned, because he now had to act as servant to the despised and hated Jew.
v. 12. And Mordecai came again to the king's gate, the entire city knowing of the honor which had been bestowed upon him. But Haman hasted to his house mourning and having his head covered, in token of the deep shame and disgrace which, he felt, was resting upon him.
v. 13. And Haman told Zeresh, his wife, and all his friends, the men who usually hover about a powerful person while he is in the good graces of the sovereign, everything that had befallen him, the report differing materially from that made the day before. Then said his wise men and Zeresh, his wife, unto him, if Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews before whom thou hast begun to fall, namely, by being obliged to act as his servant, thou shalt not prevail against him, but shalt surely fall before him. This conclusion they drew from the trend of circumstances, for they could not be blind to the fact that the Jews were under special divine protection.
v. 14. And while they were yet talking with him, came the king's chamberlains and hasted to bring Haman unto the banquet that Esther had prepared, for the Oriental custom required a special message to be sent to the guests just before the hour appointed for a feast to announce that all things were now ready. Cf Mat_22:3-4; Luk_14:17. That is the final reward of the unbelievers, particularly of those who persecute the Church of God: they fall before His might and will finally sink into everlasting destruction.