Bible Commentaries

Esther 8:1. On that day did the king give. The LXX read, “In that day king Artaxerxes gave to queen Esther all the substance of the diabolical Haman;” that is, all his estates, and servants, and cattle.

Esther 8:2. The king took off his ring, which elevated Mordecai to the royal confidence, and equally so to that which Haman had enjoyed.

Esther 8:10. Young dromedaries. On these the king’s messengers usually rode. There are two species of the camel, the Bactrian camel, and the Arabian camel or dromedary. The chief thing that distinguishes these two races is, that the camel has two bunches on his back, and the dromedary but one. The latter is somewhat weaker than the camel. The camel is preferred, because having two bunches on his back, he is more proper to receive a load. But these animals can travel three or four days without water, and can live seven days without what is so essential to animal life. Their proper climate is the north of Africa, Arabia, and Persia. Indeed, were it not for these, the sandy deserts could not be traversed. The Arabians regard their dromedaries as a gift from heaven, without which they could neither carry on trade nor subsist. They eat their flesh, and drink their milk. Nor have they any thing to fear from their foes; in one day they can perform a journey of fifty leagues. Hence all the cavalry in the world would perish in the pursuit of a troop of Arabs. These animals can travel nine or ten days with one hour’s rest daily, and be fed with one ball of paste. They carry their own and their rider’s food and water; and they scent a brook at a distance of half a league. Their height is sometimes twelve feet six inches, they kneel to receive their burden, and live forty or fifty years. Buffon, Pennant, Shaw, &c.

REFLECTIONS.

With the sudden and instructive fall of Haman, all the dark clouds suspended over the Jews vanished away; and the sunshine of glory and peace burst forth in a very unexpected flood of day. This wicked man had intended to turn his sword against the Jews and their children; and now the Jews slew his children. He offered the substance of the Jews as a reward to the murderers; and behold, all his offices, his mansion, his money, his lands, fall to the lot of Esther! So it is, that one day or other, God calls both the great and the small to a strict account for abusing his favours.

The next grand point is the supplication of Esther, that the plot for exscinding the Jews might be turned against their foes, who were waiting with a bloody enmity in their hearts to cut them off. It was granted, and in words conformably to the wishes of Mordecai. So this woman, acting by the prudent counsel of her near relative and guardian, prevailed for her people; and in that view, she is a worthy model for us. We should often say to the king of glory, that we cannot endure to see the evil which shall come upon them, if placed out of his protection, and abandoned to their foes. They are our flesh and our bone, we cannot bear to see them perish. Let us therefore frequently kneel, and implore for them pardon and protection.

Haman was not only cut off, the Jews were not only commissioned to defend themselves, but Mordecai was arrayed in Haman’s robes, received his ring, and occupied his offices and house. So God gave him beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness. And so he promised to do for his poor and afflicted christian church. Isaiah 61:3. Luke 4:12. And as the heathen then partook of the joy, or feared, so it shall be when the Lord undertakes the cause of his people, and when his name shall be great among the heathen, from the rising to the going down of the sun. Happy then, secure and happy are all those who stand in the divine counsel, and suffer in his spirit.