Esther 6:13

_AND MORDECAI CAME AGAIN TO THE KING'S GATE. BUT HAMAN HASTED TO HIS HOUSE MOURNING, AND HAVING HIS HEAD COVERED._ NO JFB COMMENTARY ON THESE VERSES....

12-14 Mordecai was not puffed up with his honours, he returned to his place and the duty of it. Honour is well bestowed on those that do not think themselves above their business. But Haman could not bear it. What harm had it done him? But that will break a proud man's heart, which will not break a humble man's sleep. His doom was, out of this event, read to him by his wife and his friends. They plainly confessed that the Jews, though scattered through the nations, were special objects of Divine care. Miserable comforters are they all; they did not advise Haman to repent, but foretold his fate as unavoidable. The wisdom of God is seen, in timing the means of his church's deliverance, so as to manifest his own glory...

Verse Esther 6:13. _BUT SHALT SURELY FALL BEFORE HIM._] The _Septuagint_ adds, ὁτι ὁ Θεος ὁ ζων μετ' αυτου, _for the living God is with him_. But this is a sentiment that could scarcely be expected to proceed from the mouth of _heathens_, such as these were....

EXPOSITION AHASUERUS, BEING WAKEFUL DURING THE NIGHT, HAS THE BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES READ TO HIM, AND FINDS THAT MORDECAI HAS RECEIVED NO REWARD. HE MAKES HAMAN NAME A FITTING REWARD, AND THEN DEPUTES HIM TO CONFER IT ON MORDECAI (Esther 6:1). I

AND HAMAN TOLD ZERESH HIS WIFE, AND ALL HIS FRIENDS, EVERY THING THAT HAD BEFALLEN HIM,.... How he was prevented speaking to the king on this errand he went; instead of which, he had the mortification of being obliged to do the honour to Mordecai which he thought would never have been given to any but himself, and so related the whole affair as above: THEN SAID HIS WISE MEN; before called his friends; perhaps they were magicians and soothsayers he kept in his house, to advise with about the proper methods and times of advancing himself, and destroying his enemies: AND ZERESH HIS WIFE UNTO HIM; who joined with the wise men in giving her opinion, and who set up for a knowing woman, and of whom Haman thought highly: IF MORDECAI BE OF THE SEED OF THE JEWS; as it was said he was; and therefore Haman had vowed and plotted revenge on the people of the Jews for his sake: before whom thou has...

THE SLEEPLESS NIGHT AND MORDECAI'S EXALTATION CHAPTER 6 _ 1. The sleepless night (Esther 6:1)_ 2. The exaltation of Mordecai (Esther 6:4) 3. Haman anticipates his doom (Esther 6:12) Esther 6:1. A sleepless night is the next event. The king wanted to sleep but sleep refused to come. What was the cause of his insomnia? Some say too much excitement and anxiety in connection with his kingdom; others that he was speculating on the petition the queen would make on the morrow. The ancient Jewish expositors say that God took his sleep away from him. And this is the correct answer. His wakefulness was ordered by God. Next

ESTHER 6. HAMAN IS COMPELLED TO DO PUBLIC HONOUR TO MORDEEAI. Now comes a dramatic scene. Providence is at work, and the clouds are opening. In the night between Esther's two drinking-feasts, the king cannot get sleep (Esther 6:1). Evidently the story-writer means to point thus to the care of the ever-watchful Yahweh, and His management of all things. The court annalist is brought with his records, to read the royal soul to slumber. Why did this reader choose the record about the regicides? Did he sympathise with the Jews, for some hidden reason? The king listens: he is startled and cries, What reward did we give to Mordecai? Naught, is the reply. Then do it now! What officer is near? says the king. With that, lo! in the dim hour of dawn the hungry hyena Haman, is prowling at the gates, awaiting admissior to get his death-warrant for Mordecai. Entering, he is commanded to perform the hig...

ZERESH. See note on Esther 5:14....

THEN SAID HIS WISE MEN, &C.— As Mordecai had declared himself a Jew, to satisfy the people at court that he could not with a good conscience comply with the king's command relating to the reverence which was to be paid to Haman; and as the interposition of Providence in behalf of the Jewish nation, even during their captivity, had been very conspicuous; the wise men about Haman might from experience form a conjecture, that if their God was become their friend, as seemed to be the case by this strange turn of affairs in favour of Mordecai, no weapon forged against them would prosper; because they had seen so many plots, which would have crushed any other nation, turn to their advancement as well as to their enemies' destruction. See Jdt 5:20-21. Considering, then, that Mordecai was of the seed of the Jews, a people whom God had wonderfully raised from great oppressions, and that at this t...

C. Abasement TEXT: Esther 6:10-14 10 Then the king said to Haman, Make haste, and take the apparel and the horse, as thou hast said, and do even so to Mordecai the Jew, that sitteth at the king's gate: let nothing fail of all that thou hast spoken. 11 Then took Haman the apparel and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and caused him to ride through the street of the city, and proclaimed before him, Thus shall it be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honor. 12 And Mordecai came again to the king's gate. But Haman hasted to his house, mourning and having his head covered. 13 And Haman recounted unto Zeresh his wife and all his friends every thing that had befallen him. Then said his wise men and Zeresh his wife unto him, If Mordecai, before whom thou hast begun to fall, be of the seed of the Jews, thou shalt not prevail against him,