Esther 4:1

_WHEN MORDECAI PERCEIVED ALL THAT WAS DONE, MORDECAI RENT HIS CLOTHES, AND PUT ON SACKCLOTH WITH ASHES,_ _ AND WENT OUT INTO THE MIDST OF THE CITY, AND CRIED WITH A LOUD AND A BITTER CRY;_ When Mordecai perceived all that was done. Relying on the irrevocable nature of a Persian monarch's decree (Daniel 6:15), Haman made it known as soon as the royal sanction had been obtained, and Mordecai was doubtless among the first to hear of it. On his own account, as well as on that of his countrymen, this astounding decree must have been indescribably distressing. The acts described in this passage are, according to the Oriental fashion, expressive of the most poignant sorrow; and his approach to the gate of the palace, under the impulse of irrepressible emotions, was to make an earnest though vain appeal to the royal mercy. Access, however, to the king's presence was, to a person

1-4 Mordecai avowed his relation to the Jews. Public calamities, that oppress the church of God, should affect our hearts more than any private affliction, and it is peculiarly distressing to occasion sufferings to others. God will keep those that are exposed to evil by the tenderness of their consciences....

CHAPTER IV _On hearing the king's decree to exterminate the Jews, Mordecai_ _mourns, and clothes himself in sackcloth_, 1, 2. _The Jews are filled with consternation_, 3. _Esther, perceived Mordecai in distress at the palace gate, sends_ _her servant Hatach to inquire the reason_, 4-6. _Hatach returns with the information, and also the express desire_ _of Mordecai that she should go instantly to the king, and make_ _supplication in behalf of her people_, 7-9. _Esther excuses herself on the ground that she had not been_ called b

EXPOSITION MOURNING OF MORDECAI, AND OF THE JEWS GENERALLY, ON HEARING OF THE DECREE (Esther 4:1 Esther 4:1). Haman had no doubt kept his intentions secret until the king's consent to them was not only granted, but placed beyond his power to recall The Jews first heard of the terrible blow impending over them by the publication of the edict. Then they became acquainted with it quickly enough. The edict was for a while the talk of the town. Placarded openly in some conspicuous and frequented place, every loiterer read it, every gossip spoke of it, every one whom it threatened could

WHEN MORDECAI PERCEIVED ALL THAT WAS DONE,.... By the king, at the instigation of Haman, against the Jews; which he came to the knowledge of, either by some of the conflicts or by common fame, or on the sight of the edicts which were published in Shushan; though the Jews think it was made known to him in a supernatural way, either by Elijah, as the former Targum x, or by the Holy Ghost, as the latter: MORDECAI RENT HIS CLOTHES: both behind and before, according to the same Targum; and this was a custom used in mourning, not only with the Jews, but with the Persians also, as Herodotus y relates: AND PUT ON SACKCLOTH WITH ASHES; upon his head, as the former Targum; which was usual in mourning, even both; Job 2:12 AND WENT OUT INTO THE MIDST OF THE CITY; not Elam the province, as Aben Ezra, but the city Shushan: and cried with a

THE CONSTERNATION OF THE JEWS -- MORDECAI AND ESTHER CHAPTER 4 _ 1. The great lamentations of the Jews (Esther 4:1)_ 2. Esther's discovery (Esther 4:4) 3. Esther's helplessness (Esther 4:10) 4. Mordecai's answer (Esther 4:13) 5. Esther's decision (Esther 4:15) Esther 4:1. When Mordecai heard of what had been done and the plan to exterminate his people became known to him he rent his clothes. This and the putting on of sackcloth and

ESTHER 4. THE DISMAY OF THE JEWS. MORDECAI OVERCOMES ESTHER'S RELUCTANCE TO INTERCEDE WITH THE KING. And now the gloom spreads. At this point, the LXX has a pathetic message from Mordecai to his niece, the queen. Surely the original had a passage of this kind: here the Heb. scribes have probably excised something that was very fitting because it spoke of Yahweh's omnipotence and His certain care for Israel. Such a passage would be true to Israelitish character, as we know it, from the time of Amos down to Jesus. The omission is unnatural, and is therefore the work of an editing hand. Mordecai cries, O Esther, pray thou too to Yahweh for help, and plead with thy husband to save us. Mordecai says that Providence has set her in the queenly place to the end that she may now do nobly and stay the disaster; therefore she must undertake the sacred, though dangerous, task. It is probable, from t...

DONE. being done. BITTER CRY. Not (we may be sure) without confession and prayer, as with Nehemiah (Esther 1), and Daniel 9)....

_rent his clothes_ So e.g. Reuben, when his brother Joseph was sold to the Midianites (Genesis 37:29), and Jacob, when he thought that his son had perished (Genesis 37:34). Cp. 2 Kings 18:37; Matthew 26:65. _put on sackcloth with ashes_ the two things together constituting an expression of the deepest grief. So Daniel (Daniel 9:3) and the king of Nineveh (Jonah 3:6). _went out into the midst of the city_ Utterances and other signs of mourning not being permi

MORDECAI RENT HIS CLOTHES, &C.— The latter Targum, upon the book of Esther, gives us the following account of Mordecai's behaviour upon this sad occasion: "He made his complaint in the midst of the streets, saying, What a heavy decree is this, which the king and Haman have passed, not against a part of us, but against us all, to root us out of the earth! Whereupon all the Jews flocked about him, and, having caused the book of the law to be brought to the gate of Shushan, he, being covered with sackcloth, read the words of Deuteronomy 4:30 and then exhorted them to fasting, humiliation, and repentance, after the example of the Ninevites....