Esther 3:2

_AND ALL THE KING'S SERVANTS, THAT WERE IN THE KING'S GATE, BOWED, AND REVERENCED HAMAN: FOR THE KING HAD SO COMMANDED CONCERNING HIM. BUT MORDECAI BOWED NOT, NOR DID HIM REVERENCE._ All the king's servants, that were in the king's gate, bowed, and reverenced Haman. Large mansions in the East are entered by a spacious vestibule or gateway, along the sides of which visitors sit, and are received by the master of the house; because none, except the nearest relatives or special friends, are admitted further. There the officers of the ancient king of Persia waited until they were called, and did obeisance to the all-powerful minister of the day. BUT MORDECAI BOWED NOT, NOR DID HIM REVERENCE. [The Septuagint has: ou prosekunei autoo, did not prostrate before him (cf. Josephus, 'Antiquites,' b. 11:, ch. 6:, sec. 5)]. The obsequious homage of prostration, not entirely foreign to the manners o...

1-6 Mordecai refused to reverence Haman. The religion of a Jew forbade him to give honours to any mortal man which savoured of idolatry, especially to so wicked a man as Haman. By nature all are idolaters; self is our favourite idol, we are pleased to be treated as if every thing were at our disposal. Though religion by no means destroys good manners, but teaches us to render honour to whom honour is due, yet by a citizen of Zion, not only in his heart, but in his eyes, such a vile person as Haman was, is contemned, Psalms 15:4. The true believer cannot obey edicts, or conform to fashions, which break the law of God. He must obey God rather than man, and leave the consequences to him. Haman was full of wrath. His device was inspired by that wicked spirit, who has been a murderer from the beginning; whose enmity to Christ and his church, governs all his children....

Verse Esther 3:2. _THE KING'S SERVANTS, THAT WERE IN THE KING'S GATE_] By _servants_ here, certainly a higher class of _officers_ are intended than _porters_; and Mordecai was one of those officers, and came to the gate with the others who were usually there in attendance to receive the commands of the king. _MORDECAI BOWED NOT_] לאיכרע _lo yichra_. "He did not bow down;" _nor did him reverence_, ולא ישתחוה velo yishtachaveh, "nor did he prostrate himself." I think it most evident, from these two words, that it was not _civil reverence_ merely that Haman expected and _Mordecai_ refused; this sort of respect is found in the word כרע _cara_, to _bow_. This sort of reverence Mordecai could not refuse without being guilty of the most inexcusable _obstinacy_, nor did any part of the Jewish law forbid it. But Haman expe

Mordecai probably refused the required prostration, usual though it was, on religious grounds. Hence, his opposition led on to his confession that he was a Jew Esther 3:4....

EXPOSITION MORDECAI, BY WANT OF RESPECT, OFFENDS HAMAN, AHASUERUS' CHIEF MINISTER. HAMAN, IN REVENGE, RESOLVES TO DESTROY THE ENTIRE NATION OF THE JEWS (Esther 3:1). A break, probably of some years, separates Esther 2:1. from Esther 3:1. In the interval a new and important event has occurred a new character has made appearance upon the scene. Haman,

AND THE KING'S SERVANTS THAT WERE IN THE KING'S GATE,.... Or court, all his courtiers; for it cannot be thought they were all porters, or such only that BOWED AND REVERENCED HAMAN; gave him divine honours, as to a deity; for such were given to the kings of Persia k, and might be given to their favourites, and seems to be the case; for, though Haman might not erect a statue of himself, or have images painted on his clothes, as the Targum and Aben Ezra, for the Persians did not allow of statues and images l; yet he might make himself a god, as Jarchi, and require divine worship, with leave of the king, which he had, yea, an order for it: FOR THE KING HAD SO COMMANDED CONCERNING HIM; which shows that it was not mere civil honour and respect, for that in course would have been given him as the king's favourite and prime minister by all his servants, without an express order for it; this, t...

HAMAN AND HIS WICKED PLOT CHAPTER 3 _ 1. The promotion of Haman and Mordecai's faithfulness (Esther 3:1)_ 2. Haman's proposal and the King's assent (Esther 3:7) 3. The proclamation of death (Esther 3:12) Esther 3:1. How long after these things the history of this chapter came to pass is not definitely stated. It probably happened after a short interval. We are now introduced to Haman, the Son of Hammedatha the Agagite. Him the king promoted and set his seat above all the princes. The tracing of this man's name is of interest. Its meaning is “A magnificent one.” Philologists derive it from the Persian god Haoma or

ESTHER 3. HAMAN, TO AVENGE A SLIGHT PUT ON HIM BY MORDECAI, PERSUADES THE KING TO ORDER A MASSACRE OF THE JEWS. The Grand Vizier Haman, Heb. calls a descendant of that mysterious people, the Amalekites, and even of their king Agag (1 Samuel 15). To suppose that the word Agag really means Gog, and to gather that we have here a sting for the memory of the Scythians, is a rather helpless device. The Heb. writer seems to have wished to avoid saying that Haman was a Macedonian, _i.e._ a Syrian. In ch. 8 LXX says he was so. Perhaps that was dangerous politics: those were the nations of the bloodthirsty Alexander and Antiochus. Haman, in his jealousy of Mordecai, would murder every Jewish man, woman, and child. Here is horrible blood-thirst, but it is Gentile blood-thirst. It is not Jewish, and it passes comprehension why this ferocious character of Haman has been so often attributed to the Jew...

GATE. lofty porch. Hebrew. _sha'ar._ See note on Esther 2:21. BOWED. Hebrew. _kara', Kara'_, used of idols (1 Kings 19:18; 2 Chronicles 29:29). _Shahah_ is the word used of bowing to kings and others. COMMANDED. appointed or charged. Hebrew. _zavah._ MORDECAI. See note on Esther 2:5. BOWED NOT. He could not bow to an Amalekite, against whom Jehovah had declared perpetual war. See note on Exodus 17:16....

_bowed down_ The Heb. expresses a more profound salutation, after the Oriental fashion, than the A.V. -bow." _the king had so commanded_ Bowing down before a superior was such an established custom that one would have thought the king's command needless. It may have been that Haman's elevation was so strongly contrasted with his origin that there was occasion for the order to be issued. _But Mordecai bowed not down_ What was his reason? Although we have Greeks (Spartan ambassadors) refusing to bow down to the Persian monarch (Herod. vii. 136) on the ground that it was not their custom to worship men, yet the Jews had no objection to the act in itself (2 Samuel 14:4; 2 Samuel 18:28; 1 Kings 1:16), an