Esther 4:16

_GO, GATHER TOGETHER ALL THE JEWS THAT ARE PRESENT IN SHUSHAN, AND FAST YE FOR ME, AND NEITHER EAT NOR DRINK THREE DAYS, NIGHT OR DAY: I ALSO AND MY MAIDENS WILL FAST LIKEWISE; AND SO WILL I GO IN UNTO THE KING, WHICH IS NOT ACCORDING TO THE LAW: AND IF I PERISH, I PERISH._ I also and my maidens. It is probable that she had surrounded herself with Jewish maidens, or women who were proselytes to that religion. SO WILL I GO IN UNTO THE KING, WHICH IS NOT ACCORDING TO THE LAW. The queen could take certain liberties, such as going unexpectedly into the royal presence, inviting him to a banquet, and employing his guards to carry out her discipline on female delinquents (Herodotus, b. 9:, 112). But she had to humbly ask and obtain the king's sanction; and an intrusion into the royal presence was liable to be punished as a capital crime, unless the king extended the royal sceptre as a token o...

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 Esther 4:16. _FAST YE FOR ME, AND NEITHER EAT NOR DRINK THREE DAYS_] What a strange thing, that still we hear nothing of _prayer_, nor of _God_! What is the ground on which we can account for this total silence? I know it not. She could not suppose there was any _charm_ in fasting, sackcloth garments, and lying on the ground. If these were not done to turn away the displeasure of God, which seemed now to have unchained their enemies against them, what were they done for? _IF I PERISH, I PERISH._] If I lose my life in this attempt to save my people, I shall lose it cheerfully. I see it is my duty to make the attempt; and, come what will, I am resolved to do it. She must, however, have depended much on the efficacy of the humiliations she prescribed....

Again the religious element shows itself. Esther’s fast could have no object but to obtain God’s favor and protection in the dangerous course on which she was about to enter....

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

GO, GATHER TOGETHER ALL THE JEWS THAT ARE PRESENT IN SHUSHAN,.... To acquaint them with what follows; but not to continue in a body together, which might cause suspicion of an ill design in them; according to the latter Targum, 12,000 chosen priests were found in it; but that must be an exaggeration of their number; it can hardly be thought there were so many Jews in all there: AND FAST YE FOR ME; that is, pray for her, that she might have courage to go in to the king, and meet with success; for prayer was the principal thing, fasting only an accessory to it, and as fitting for it, and expressive of affliction and humiliation of soul: AND NEITHER EAT NOR DRINK THREE DAYS, night nor day; it was to be a continued fast unto the third day; as Aben Ezra interprets it, they were not to eat at evening, but fast two whole days, and two whole nights, until the third day came, on which Esther we...

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...

FAST FOR ME, AND NEITHER EAT NOR DRINK FOR THREE DAYS, NIGHT OR DAY. Esther had made up her mind. She would intrude herself upon the king and ask the salvation of her race, even if she perished. Conscious of her danger in breaking the law, filled with anxiety over the effect of confessing that she belonged to. captive race, she asks. rigid and solemn fast for three days, accompanied by prayer in her behalf, and proposes to keep the fast herself with her maidens. She felt that her success depended upon the favor of God and shows that she had profound faith in prayer. At the close of the fast she would leave all to God, would seek the king's presence, and would succeed or die. There is something peculiarly pathetic in her words, "And so will. go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if. perish,. perish....

THREE DAYS, NIGHT OR DAY. The Jerusalem Talmud says "a day and night together make up. _nulctke-meron,_ and that any part of such period is counted as. whole". Compare 1 Samuel 30:12; 1 Samuel 30:13. Jon 1:17. Matthew 12:40. I PERISH. See note on Esther 3:13....