Esther 4:11

_ALL THE KING'S SERVANTS, AND THE PEOPLE OF THE KING'S PROVINCES, DO KNOW, THAT WHOSOEVER, WHETHER MAN OR WOMAN, SHALL COME UNTO THE KING INTO THE INNER COURT, WHO IS NOT CALLED, THERE IS ONE LAW OF HIS TO PUT HIM TO DEATH, EXCEPT SUCH TO WHOM THE KING SHALL HOLD OUT THE GOLDEN SCEPTRE, THAT HE MAY LIVE: BUT I HAVE NOT BEEN CALLED TO COME IN UNTO THE KING THESE THIRTY DAYS._ Whosoever, whether man or woman, shall come unto the king into the inner court, who is not called. The Persian kings surrounded themselves with an almost impassable circle of forms. The law alluded to was first enacted by Deioces, king of Media, and afterward, when the empires were united, adopted by the Persians, that all business should be transacted and petitions transmitted to the king through his ministers; and although the restriction was not intended, of course, to apply to the queen, yet from the strict and...

5-17 We are prone to shrink from services that are attended with peril or loss. But when the cause of Christ and his people demand it, we must take up our cross, and follow him. When Christians are disposed to consult their own ease or safety, rather than the public good, they should be blamed. The law was express, all knew it. It is not thus in the court of the King of kings: to the footstool of his throne of grace we may always come boldly, and may be sure of an answer of peace to the prayer of faith. We are welcome, even into the holiest, through the blood of Jesus. Providence so ordered it, that, just then, the king's affections had cooled toward Esther; her faith and courage thereby were the more tried; and God's goodness in the favour she now found with the king, thereby shone the brighter. Haman no doubt did what he could to set the king against her. Mordecai suggests, that it wa...

Verse 11. _INTO THE INNER COURT_] We have already seen that the Persian sovereigns affected the highest degree of _majesty_, even to the _assuming of Divine honours_. No man nor woman dared to appear _unveiled_ before them, without hazarding their lives; into the inner chamber of the _harem_ no person ever entered but the king, and the woman he had chosen to call thither. None even of his courtiers or ministers dared to appear there; nor the most beloved of his concubines, except led thither by himself, or ordered to come to him. Here was Esther's difficulty; and that difficulty was now increased by the circumstance of her not having been sent for to the king's bed for _thirty_ days. In the last verse of the preceding chapter we find that the _king and Haman sat down to_ _drink_. It is very likely that this wicked man had endeavoured to draw the king's attention from the queen, that his...

THE GOLDEN SCEPTER - In all the numerous representations of Persian kings at Persepolis the monarch holds a long tapering staff (probably the scepter of Esther) in his right hand. It was death to intrude on the privacy of the Persian king uninvited....

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

ALL THE KING'S SERVANTS AND THE PEOPLE OF THE KING'S PROVINCES DO KNOW,.... Not only the princes and courtiers, but all the king's subjects, the meanest of them; there is scarce a person throughout the whole empire, to whom the following law is not known; this is said, to show how notorious it was: THAT WHOSOEVER, WHETHER MAN OR WOMAN, SHALL COME UNTO THE KING INTO THE INNER COURT, WHO IS NOT CALLED, THERE IS ONE LAW OF HIS TO PUT HIM TO DEATH; according to the former Targum, Human got this law to be made now, to prevent any application to the king about this affair; but then it would not have been so universally known as before declared; and it appears that there was such a law among the Medes, made by Dejoces, that none should go into the king's presence, but all should be done by messengers b; and this was altered among the Persians, for the seven princes that slew Smerdis made an ag...

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...

THERE IS ONE LAW OF HIS TO PUT HIM TO DEATH. The person of. Persian king was held to be sacred, and none could intrude on his privacy under peril of death, unless invited. Even then etiquette required subjects to crawl prone upon the earth, concealing even their hands in their sleeves. Herodotus, the Greek historian who visited Persia, notes this custom and the penalty of intrusion into the king's presence. Esther declares that this law applies to every one, man or woman, even the queen. EXCEPT... SHALL HOLD OUT THE GOLDEN SCEPTRE. All the ancient representations of the Persian kings show them holding. long, tapering staff, the golden sceptre, the emblem of power. If one came into the royal presence and the sceptre was extended, it implied mercy and favor; if it was not extended, it was. signal of death. I HAVE NOT BEEN CALLED IN UNTO THE KING THESE THIRTY DAYS. Even the queen only s...

LAW. Imperial decree. Hebrew. _dath_. See note on Esther 1:8....