_A.M. 3494. B.C. 510._ Esther petitions for her life, and the lives of her people, Esther 7:1. She tells the king that Haman is the man who designed her ruin, Esther 7:5; Esther 7:6. By the king's order he is hanged on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai, Esther 7:7. NOTES ON CHAPTER 7.... [ Continue Reading ]
_The king said again to Esther, What is thy petition, Queen Esther?_ &c. If the king had now forgot that Esther had an errand to him, and had not again asked what it was, she could scarce have known how to renew it herself; but he was mindful of it, and now was bound with the three-fold cord of a pr... [ Continue Reading ]
_Then Esther the queen answered and said_, &c. Esther, at length, surprises the king with a petition, not for wealth, or honour, or the preferment of some of her friends to some high post, which the king expected, but for the preservation of herself and her countrymen from death and destruction. _O... [ Continue Reading ]
_For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed_, &c. By the cruelty of that man, who offered a great sum to purchase our destruction. We have not forfeited our lives by any offence against the government, but are sold to gratify the pride and revenge of one man. _If we had been sold for bond-men... [ Continue Reading ]
_Then the king said, Who is he, and where is he, that durst presume in his heart to do so?_ What! contrive the murder of the queen and all her friends? Is there such a man, or such a monster, rather, in nature? The expressions are short and doubled, as proceeding from a discomposed and enraged mind.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Esther said, The enemy is this wicked Haman_ It is he that has designed our murder, and I charge him with it before his face: here he is; let him speak for himself, for therefore he was invited. _Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen_ It was time for him to fear, when the queen was hi... [ Continue Reading ]
_And the king arising from the banquet in his wrath_ As disdaining the company and sight of so ungrateful and audacious a person; _went into the palace-garden_ To cool and allay his troubled and inflamed spirits, being in a great commotion by a variety of passions boiling and struggling within him;... [ Continue Reading ]
_Then the king returned out of the palace garden_ Yet more exasperated than when he went into it. The more he thought of Haman's conduct, the more enraged he was against him. _Haman was fallen upon the bed whereon Esther was_ Or _by_, or _beside the bed_, on which the queen sat at meat, after the ma... [ Continue Reading ]
_And Harbonah said_ The courtiers that adored Haman when he was rising, set themselves as much against him now he is falling, and are glad of an opportunity to sink him lower: so little sure can proud men be of the interest they think they have in others. _Behold also the gallows, &c., standeth in t... [ Continue Reading ]
_So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai_ As the sentence was short, so the execution was speedy, and he that expected every one to do him reverence is now made an ignominious spectacle to the world on a gallows fifty cubits high: and himself is sacrificed to justice, w... [ Continue Reading ]