Bible Commentaries

Mordochai's Mourning on accountof the Decree for the Assassination ofthe Jews, and His Admonition to Estherto Intercede for Her People - Esther 4

When Mordochai heard what had happened, he went mourning andlamenting about the city, and even to the king's gate; and the decree ofHaman occasioned great lamentations among the Jews in all the provincesof the kingdom (Esther 4:1-3). When Queen Esther heard through her maids andcourtiers of Mordochai's mourning, she sent him raiment that he might putoff his mourning garb, but he refused to do so. She then sent an eunuch tohim to inquire more particularly as to its cause. Mordochai informed himof all that had happened, giving him a copy of the decree to show toEsther, and charging her to entreat the king's favour for her people (Esther 4:4-8). The queen, however, expressed her hesitation to go in unto the kingunsummoned, but upon Mordochai's repeated admonition, resolved tomake the desired attempt, at the peril of her life (Esther 4:9-17).

Mordochai learnt all that was done, - not only what had beenopenly proclaimed, but, as is shown by Esther 4:7, also the transaction betweenthe king and Haman. Then he rent his garments, put on sackcloth andashes, and went out into the midst of the city, making loud and bitterlamentation. Comp. on the last words, Genesis 27:34. The combination ofאפר with שׂק ילבּשׁ is an abbreviation for: put ona hairy garment and spread ashes upon his head, in sign of deep grief;comp. Daniel 9:3; Job 2:12, and elsewhere.

Esther 4:2

And came even before the king's gate, i.e., according to Esther 4:6, theopen space before the entrance to the royal palace; for none might enterwearing mourning. לבוא אין, there is no entering, i.e.,none may enter; comp. Ewald, §321, c.

Esther 4:3

Also in every province whither the king's decree arrived, therearose a great mourning among the Jews. אשׁר מקום is anadverbial accusat. loci in apposition to בּכל־מדינה: in every place towhich the word of the king and his decree reached, i.e., arrived. “Sackclothand ashes were spread for many,” i.e., many sat in hairy garments uponthe earth, where ashes had been spread; comp. Isaiah 58:5. The meaning is:All the Jews broke out into mourning, weeping, and lamentation, whilemany manifested their grief in the manner above described.

The matter was made known to Esther by her maids and eunuchs, i.e., byher attendants. The Chethiv תּבואינה does not elsewhere occur afterו consecutive, hence the substitution of the Keri תּבואנה. Theobject of יגּידוּ: what they told her, is evidently, from whatfollows, the circumstance of Mordochai's appearance in deep mourningbefore the gate of the palace. On receiving this information the queen fellinto convulsive grief (תּתחלחל, an intensive form of חוּל, to be seized with painful grief), and sent to Mordochai raiment toput on instead of his sackcloth, evidently for the purpose of enabling himto enter the palace and give her the particulars of what had happened. ButMordochai did not accept the raiment.

Esther 4:5-7

Then Esther sent Hatach, one of the eunuchs whom the kinghad set before her, i.e., appointed to attend her, to Mordochai to learn”what this, and why this,” i.e., what was the meaning and the cause of histhus going about in mourning. When Hatach came forth to him in the openplace of the city before the king's gate, Mordochai told him all that hadhappened, and the amount of the money which Haman had promised toweigh to the king's treasures (i.e., to pay into the royal treasury) for theJews, to destroy them, i.e., that it might be permitted him to destroy theJews. פּרשׁה, properly a determined, accurate statement, fromפּרשׁ in the sense of to determine clearly (see rem. on Leviticus 24:12); here, according to the context: amount, sum. This promise ofHaman is here emphatically mentioned as the chief point, not so much forthe purpose of raising the indignation of Esther to the highest pitch(Bertheau), as to show the resentment and eagerness with which Hamanhad urged the extermination of the Jews. The Chethiv יהוּדיּים is therarer form for יהוּדים, and is repeated Esther 8:1, Esther 8:7; Esther 8:13; Esther 9:15, Esther 9:18.

Esther 4:8

Mordochai also gave Hatach a copy of the decree published inSusa (בּשׁוּשׁן נתּן, like Esther 3:15) to show it to thequeen. The להּ וּלהגּיד following is more correctlydrawn towards the subsequent וּלצוּות, as by Bertheau, thanconnected according to the accentuation with what precedes. Before thisinfinitive must be supplied from the context, especially from Esther 4:7: andMordochai commissioned him or told him (Hatach): to declare unto herand to command her (Esther) to go in unto the king, to entreat him and tomake request before him for her people. על בּקּשׁ, to beg,to make request for something, like Ezra 8:23, and Esther 7:7. עמּהּ על, concerning her people, i.e., in this connection: for them.

When Hatach brought this information to Esther, she sent word by him toMordochai, that she might not go in unto the king unsummoned. אל מ תּצוּהוּ, she ordered or commissioned him to Mordochai, viz., to tellhim what follows, Esther 4:11: “All the king's servants and the people of theking's provinces (i.e., all the officers and subjects of the king) know, thatwith respect to every man or woman that shall come in unto the king, intothe inner court, that is not called - one (the same) law (is) for him: to put(him) to death, except him to whom the king shall hold out the goldensceptre, that he may live.” לואשּׁה כּל־אישׁ precede as nominativiabsol.; these are followed by two relative clauses, which are succeeded bythe anacoluthic predicate דּתו אחת: one and the samelaw is for him (דּתו, the law concerning him, the unsummonedappearer, the matter of which is briefly stated by להמית). In the inner court dwelt the king, seated on his throne (comp. Esther 5:1). Thelaw, that every one entering unbidden should be put to death, was subjectto but one exception: וגו מאשׁר לבד, except him towhom the king stretches out, etc. הושׁיט from ישׁט,appearing only in the present book (Esther 5:2; Esther 8:4), but frequently in Chaldeeand Syriac, signifies to hold out, to extend, with לו, to ortowards him. שׁרביט, the Aramaic form for שׁבט,sceptre. Access to the royal presence had been already rendered difficultby an edict issued by Dejokes the Mede, Herod. 1:9; and among thePersians, none, with the exception of a few individuals (Herod. iii. 118),were permitted to approach the king without being previously announced(Herod. iii. 140; Corn. Nepos, Conon, 3). Any one entering unannouncedwas punished with death, unless the king, according to this passage, gave itto be understood by stretching forth his sceptre that he was to remainunpunished. It is, however, self-evident, and the fact is confirmed by Herod. iii. 140,that any who desired audience were allowed to announce themselves. Esther might, it seems, have done this. Why, then, did she not make theattempt? The answer lies in her further message to Mordochai: “and I havenot been called to come in unto the king these thirty days.” From thesewords it appears, that formerly she had been more frequently summonedbefore the king. Now, however, a whole month had passed without anyinvitation. Hence she concluded that the king did not much wish to see her,and for this reason dared not go unto him unbidden. Evidently, too, shewas unwilling to be announced, because in that case she would have beenobliged immediately to make known to the king the cause of her desiringthis interview. And this she would not venture to do, fearing that,considering the great favour in which Haman stood with the king, shemight, if she did not provoke his displeasure against herself through herintercession for her people, at least meet with a rejection of her petition. To set aside an irrevocable decree sealed with the king's seal, must haveappeared to Esther an impossible undertaking. To have asked such a thingof the king would have been indeed a bold venture.

When what Esther said was reported to Mordochai, he sent word back toher (השׁיב): “Think not in thy soul (with thyself) to be saved inthe house of the king above all the Jews; for if thou holdest thy peace atthis time, recovery and deliverance will arise from another place, but thouand thy father's house shall be destroyed. And who knows if thou hastattained to royalty for a time such as this?” By the words: “Think not thatthou wilt be saved in the king's house above all the Jew,” i.e., alone of allthe Jews, Mordochai does not reproach Esther with being indifferent tothe fate of her fellow-countrymen, but rather calls her attention to the factthat her own life is in danger. This is evident from the clause: if thou holdthy peace, will not intercede with the king for thy people, help will comefrom some other quarter. רוח = רוחה, Exodus 8:11, ἀναψύξις , deliverance from oppressive restraint. יעמוד, rise up,arise, used according to later custom for קוּם, as in 1 Chronicles 20:4. The thought is: the Jewish nation cannot perish, its continuance isguaranteed by the divine promise. If thou wilt venture nothing for itssafety, God will bring deliverance, but destruction will come upon theeand thy family. Though Mordochai neither speaks of God, nor alludesdirectly to His assistance, he still grounds his hopes of the preservation ofhis people upon the word and promise of God, and Brentius pertinentlyremarks: habes hic excellentem ac plane heroicam Mardochaei fidem, qua inpraesentissimo ac periculosissimo discrimine videt futuram liberationem. The last clause of Esther 4:14 is by most expositors understood as saying: andwho knows whether thou hast not for a time like this attained to royalty?This agrees with the sense, but cannot be verbally justified, for אם does not mean whether not. The sentence contains an aposiopesis. Theclause depending on the conditional אם is unspoken, butunderstood. Besides, הגּעתּ is not in the imperfect. Hence it canonly be translated: Who knows, if thou hadst not attained to royalty at orfor such a time? Then the clause omitted would be: what thou thenwouldst have done. יודע מי more frequently has themeaning of perhaps; and Mordochai says: perhaps thou hast attained toroyalty (to the dignity of queen) for a time like this, sc. to use thyposition for the deliverance of thy people. In the turn thus given to thesentence it contains the most urgent injunction to Esther to use her highposition for the preservation of her fellow-countrymen.

This pressing monition produced its result. Esther returned answer toMordochai: “Go, gather together all the Jews that are found in Susa, andfast ye for me: I also and my maidens will fast; and so will I go to the kingagainst the law; and if I perish, I perish.” Esther resolves to go to the kingunsummoned, but begs Mordochai and all the Jews to unite in a threedays' fast, during which she and her maidens will also fast, to seek byearnest humiliation God's gracious assistance in the step she proposes totake, for the purpose of averting the threatened destruction of her people. “Though 'God' and 'prayer' are not here mentioned, it is yet obviouslyassumed that it was before God that the Jews were to humble themselves,to seek His help, and to induce Him to grant it. 1 Kings 21:27-29; Joel 1:14; Jonah 3:5.” (Berth.). To designate the strictness of this fasting, thewords: “neither eat nor drink,” are added. The “three days, night and day,”are not to be reckoned as three times twenty-four hours, but to beunderstood of a fast which lasts till the third day after that on which itbegins; for according to Esther 5:1, Esther goes to the king on the third day. Comp. the similar definition of time, Jonah 2:1. The addition “day andnight” declares that the fast was not to be intermitted. וּבכן,and in thus, i.e., in this state of fasting. כּדּת לא אשׁר: which is not according to law. לא אשׁר is used, likethe Aramaean form לא דּי, in the sense of without (comp. Ewald, §222, c): without according to law = contrary to law. The lastwords: “if I perish, I perish,” etc., are the expression not of despair, but ofresignation, or perfect submission to the providence of God; comp. Genesis 43:14.

And Mordochai went his way, i.e., from the place before the court of theking, to do what the queen had commanded him to do.