Bible Commentaries

Mordochai Advanced to Haman'sPosition. Counter-Edict for thePreservation of Jews - Esther 8

The king bestowed the house of Haman on Esther, and advancedMordochai to Haman's place of prime minister (vv. 1 and 2). Esther thenearnestly besought the king for the abolition of the edict published byHaman against the Jews, and the king permitted her and Mordochai tosend letters in the king's name to all the Jews in his kingdom, commandingthem to stand for their life, and to slay their enemies, on the dayappointed for their own extermination (Esther 8:3-14). These measures diffusedgreat joy throughout the kingdom (Esther 8:15-17).

By the execution of Haman, his property was confiscated, andthe king decreed that the house of the Jews' enemy should be given toEsther. The “house of Haman” undoubtedly means the house with all thatpertained to it. “And Mordochai came before the king, for Esther had toldhim what he was to her,” viz., her kinsman and foster-father, Esther 2:7. Thisinformation effected Mordochai's appearance before the king, i.e., hisreception into the number of the high dignitaries who beheld the face of theking, i.e., were allowed personal access to him; comp. Esther 1:10, Esther 1:14; Esther 7:9.

Esther 8:2

And the king took off his seal-ring which he had taken fromHaman (comp. Esther 3:10), and gave it to Mordochai. מן העביר, to cause to go from some one, i.e., to take away. By this actMordochai was advanced to the post of first minister of the king; comp. Genesis 41:42, 1 Macc. 6:15. The king's seal gave the force of law to royaledicts, the seal taking the place of the signature. See rem. on Esther 8:8 and Esther 3:10.

The chief enemy of the Jews was now destroyed; but the edict, written inthe king's name, sealed with the royal seal, and published in all theprovinces of the kingdom, for the destruction of all the Jews on the 13thday of the twelfth month, was still in force, and having been issued in duelegal form, could not, according to the laws of the Persians and Medes, berevoked. Queen Esther therefore entreated the king to annul the designs ofHaman against the Jews. Esther 8:3 and Esther 8:4. “Esther spake again before the king,and fell down at his feet, and wept, and besought him to do away with(העביר, to cause to depart) the mischief of Haman the Agagite,and his device that he devised against the Jews. And the king held out hisgolden sceptre towards Esther, and Esther arose and stood before theking.” This verse gives a summary of the contents of Esther's speech,which is reported verbally in Esther 8:5 and Esther 8:6, so that we must translate theimperfects ותּתחנּן ותּבך - ותּפּל: Shespoke before the king, falling at his feet and beseeching him with weeping,that he would do away with המן רעת, the evil thatHaman had done, and his device against the Jews. The king stretched outhis sceptre (comp. Esther 4:11) as a sign that he would graciously grant herpetition; whereupon she arose, stood before the king, and made known herrequest.

The introductory formula are in part similar to those used Esther 1:19; Esther 5:4, Esther 5:8; Esther 7:3; but the petition referring to a great and important matter, they arestrengthened by two new phrases: “If the thing is advisable (כּשׁר, proper, convenient, advantageous, a later word occurring againonly Ecclesiastes 11:6; Ecclesiastes 10:10, - in Ecclesiastes 2:21; Ecclesiastes 4:4-5, Ecclesiastes 4:10 of the same book, כּשׁרון) before the king, and if I be pleasing in his eyes, let it be written (leta writing be used, like Esther 3:9), to frustrate (להשׁיב, i.e., to putout of force) the letters, the device of Haman … which he wrote to destroythe Jews, who are in all the provinces of the king.” המן מחשׁבת, the device, the proposal of Haman, is added toהסּפרים, briefly to characterize the contents of the letters. Onthe matter itself, comp. Esther 3:8. and Esther 3:12. “For how shall I endure to see thedestruction of my people?” The verbs וראיתי אוּכל areso combined that the second is governed by the first, וראיתי standinginstead of the infinitive; comp. Ew. §285, c. ראה cons. בּ denotesan interested beholding, whether painful or joyous, of something; comp. Genesis 44:34. מולרת in parallelism with אם denotes thosewho are of like descent, the family, members of a tribe.

The king could not simply revoke the edict issued by Haman in due legalform, but, ready to perform the request of the queen, he first assures herof his good intentions, reminding her and Mordochai that he has given thehouse of Haman to Esther and hanged Haman, because he laid hand on theJews (תּלוּ אתו, him they have executed); and thengrants them permission, as he had formerly done to Haman, to send lettersto the Jews in the king's name, and sealed with the king's seal, and to writeבּעיניכם כּטּוב, “as seems good to you,” i.e., togive in writing such orders as might in Esther's and Mordochai's judgmentrender the edict of Haman harmless. “For,” he adds, “what is written in theking's name and sealed with his seal cannot be reversed.” Thisconfirmatory clause is added by the king with reference to the law ingeneral, not as speaking of himself objectively as “the king.” להשׁיב אין refers to Esther's request: להשׁיב יכּתב (Esther 8:5). ונחתּום, infin. abs. used instead of the perfect.

These letters were prepared in the same manner as those of Haman (Esther 3:12-15), on the 23rd day of the third month, the month Sivan, and sentinto all the provinces. “And it was written according to all that Mordochaicommanded.” They were sent to the Jews and to the satraps, etc., of thewhole wide realm from India to Ethiopia (see Esther 1:1), while those of Hamanhad been issued only to the satraps, etc. The rest coincides with Esther 3:12. ויּכתּב, and he (Mordochai) wrote. To show the speed withwhich the letters were despatched, (messengers) “on horseback, oncoursers, government coursers, the sons of the stud,” is added toהרצים בּיד. רכשׁ is a collective, meaningswift horses, coursers; comp. 1 Kings 5:8. אחשׁתּרנים (Esther 8:11 andEsther 8:14) answers to the Old-Persian (kschatrana), from (kschatra), government,king, and means government, royal, or court studs. So Haug in Ewald's bibl. Jahrb. v. p. 154. The older explanation, mules, onthe other hand, is founded on the modern Persian estar, which, to judgefrom the Sanscrit açvatara, must in ancient Persian have been açpatara. רמּכים, ἁπ. λεγ. from רמּך, answering to the Syriac(remakaa'), herd, especially a herd of horses, and to the Arabic (ramakastud,is explained by Bertheau as a superlative form for the animal who excelsthe rest of the herd of stud in activity, perhaps the breeding stallion, whileothers understand it of the stud in general. The contents of the edict followin Esther 8:11 and Esther 8:12: “that the king allows the Jews in every city to assembleand to stand for their life (i.e., to fight for their lives, comp. Daniel 12:1), todestroy, to slay, and to cause to perish all the power (חיל,military power) of the people and province that should assault them,children and women, and to plunder their property, upon a certain day,”etc. The appointed time is thus stated as in Esther 3:13. The Jews were thusauthorized to attack and destroy all enemies who should assault them onthe day appointed for their extermination. Esther 8:13 coincides with Esther 3:14 ,with this difference, that the Jews are to be ready on this day to avengethemselves on their enemies. Esther 8:14 also is similar to Esther 3:15, except thatthe expression is strengthened by an addition to הרצים as inEsther 8:10, and by that of דּחוּפים, urged on, to מבהלים,hastened, to point out the utmost despatch possible.

The joy experienced throughout the kingdom at these measures. Esther 8:15. After transacting with the king this measure so favourable to the Jews,Mordochai went out from the king in a garment of deep blue and whitematerial (comp. Esther 1:6), and with a great crown of gold, and a mantle ofbyssus and purple. תּכריך, ἁπ. λεγ. , in the Aramaean תּכריכא, awide mantle or covering. The meaning is not, as Bertheau remarks, that heleft the king in the garment which had been, according to Esther 6:8.,presented to him, nor that he left him with fresh tokens of his favour,clothed in a garment, crown, and mantle just bestowed on him, but that heleft him in a magnificent state garment, and otherwise festally apparelled,that he might thus show, even by his external appearance, the happinessof his heart. Of these remarks, the first and last are quite correct; thesecond, however, can by no means be so, because it affords no answer tothe question how Mordochai had obtained crown and mantle during hisstay with the king and in the royal palace. The garments in whichMordochai left the king are evidently the state garments of the firstminister, which Mordochai received at his installation to his office, and, assuch, no fresh token of royal favour, but only his actual induction in hisnew dignity, and a sign of this induction to all who saw him issue from thepalace so adorned. “The city of Susa rejoiced and was glad,” i.e., rejoicedfor gladness. The city, i.e., its inhabitants on the whole.

Esther 8:16

The Jews (i.e., in Susa, for those out of the city are not spokenof till Esther 8:17) had light and gladness, and delight and honour.” אורה (this form occurs only here and Psalm 109:12), light, is a figurativeexpression for prosperity. יקר, honour - in the joy manifested bythe inhabitants of Susa at the prevention of the threatened destruction.

Esther 8:17

And in every province and city … there was joy and a glad day, afeast day, comp. Esther 9:19, Esther 9:22, while Haman's edict had caused grief andlamentation, Esther 4:3. “And many of the people of the land (i.e., of theheathen inhabitants of the Persian empire) became Jews, for the fear of theJews fell upon them.” מתיהדים, to confess oneself a Jew, tobecome a Jew, a denominative formed from יהוּדי, occurs onlyhere. On the confirmatory clause, comp. Exodus 15:16; Deuteronomy 11:25. Thisconversion of many of the heathen to Judaism must not be explained only,as by Clericus and Grotius, of a change of religion on the part of theheathen, ut sibi hoc modo securitatem et reginae favorem pararent,metuentes potentiam Mardechaei. This may have been the inducementwith some of the inhabitants of Susa. But the majority certainly actedfrom more honourable motives, viz., a conviction, forced upon them bythe unexpected turn of affairs in favour of the Jews, of the truth of theJewish religion; and the power of that faith and trust in God manifested bythe Jews, and so evidently justified by the fall of Haman and thepromotion of Mordochai, contrasted with the vanity and misery ofpolytheism, to which even the heathen themselves were not blind. Whenwe consider that the same motives in subsequent times, when the Jews asa nation were in a state of deepest humiliation, attracted the more earnest-minded of the heathen to the Jewish religion, and induced them to becomeproselytes, the fact here related will not appear surprising.