Esther 6:8

_LET THE ROYAL APPAREL BE BROUGHT WHICH THE KING USETH TO WEAR, AND THE HORSE THAT THE KING RIDETH UPON, AND THE CROWN ROYAL WHICH IS SET UPON HIS HEAD:_ The royal apparel ... which the king useth to wear - made of purple interwoven with gold (Xenophon, 'Cyropaedia,' b. 8:, ch. 3, sec. 13; Quintus Curtius, b. 3:, ch. 3:, p. 27; Justin, 12: 3). A coat which has been on the back of a king or prince is reckoned a most honourable gift, and is given with great ceremony. THE HORSE THAT THE KING RIDETH UPON. Persia was a country of horses, and the high-bred charger the king rode upon, usually brought from Armenia, remarkable for beauty and symmetry (Herodotus, b. 7:, 40; cf. also b. 3:, 106; b. 4:, 189), acquired, in the eyes of his venal subjects, a sort of sacredness from that circumstance. AND THE CROWN ROYAL WHICH IS SET UPON HIS HEAD - either the royal turban, or, it may be, a tiara, w...

4-11 See how men's pride deceives them. The deceitfulness of our own hearts appears in nothing more than in the conceit we have of ourselves and our own performances: against which we should constantly watch and pray. Haman thought the king loved and valued no one but himself, but he was deceived. We should suspect that the esteem which others profess for us, is not so great as it seems to be, that we may not think too well of ourselves, nor trust too much in others. How Haman is struck, when the king bids him do honour to Mordecai the Jew, the very man whom he hated above all men, whose ruin he was now designing!...

Verse Esther 6:8. _LET THE ROYAL APPAREL BE BROUGHT_] _Pride_ and _folly_ ever go hand in hand. What he asked would have been in any ordinary case against his own life: but he wished to reach the pinnacle of honour: never reflecting that the higher he rose, the more terrible would be his fall. The _royal apparel_ was never worn but by the king: even when the king had lain them aside, it was death to put them on. The _Targum_ has _purple robes_. _AND THE HORSE - AND THE CROWN ROYAL_] Interpreters are greatly divided whether what is called here _the crown royal_ be not rather an _ornament_ worn on the _head of the horse_, than what may be called the _royal crown_. The original may be understood both ways; and our version seems to favour the former opinion; but I think it more likely that the royal crown is meant; for why

The honors here proposed by Haman were such as Persian monarchs rarely allowed to subjects. Each act would have been a capital offence if done without permission. Still, we find Persian monarchs allowing their subjects in these or similar acts under certain circumstances....

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

LET THE ROYAL APPAREL BE BROUGHT WHICH THE KING USETH TO WEAR,.... Not a whole suit of clothes, but a single garment; the purple robe, as both the Targums, such as kings wore; that which Cyrus appeared in public in was half purple, and half white, and no other person besides might wear such an one p; it was a capital crime with the Persians to wear any of the king's apparel; Trebazus, an intimate of Artaxerxes, having begged an old gown of him, it was granted, on condition that he would not wear it, it being contrary to the laws of Persia; but he, regardless of the order, appeared in it at court; which affront to the king was so resented by the Persians, that they were for punishing him rigorously, according to the law, had not Artaxerxes declared, that he had ordered him to appear in that dress as his fool q; hence Artabanus, though uncle to Xerxes, was very unwilling to obey his orders...

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...

AND. Note the Figure of speech _Polysyndeton_ (App-6) in verses: Esther 6:8; Esther 6:9, to emphasize the eagerness with which Haman enumerated the honours his heart desired....

Esther 6:1-11. Mordecai's elevation In this section we are shewn the strange concatenation of apparently trivial circumstances which collectively have the effect of bestowing the highest reward and most signal disgrace upon the humble and virtuous Israelite and the highly placed enemy of that people. It seems but a series of chances that the king was sleepless, that he adopted a particular method of alleviating his discomfort, that a certain section of the chronicles of the kingdom was read to him, that Haman was an early arrival at the palace on this occasion, and thus, through his haste to bring about Mordecai's destruction, was himself of all persons the one chosen to do him honour. Nevertheless it was from the combination of all these occurrences that there arose the most mighty issues, and this fact plainly looms large in the mind of the narrator, though he does not in so many word...