Esther 7:8

_THEN THE KING RETURNED OUT OF THE PALACE GARDEN INTO THE PLACE OF THE BANQUET OF WINE; AND HAMAN WAS FALLEN UPON THE BED WHEREON ESTHER WAS. THEN SAID THE KING, WILL HE FORCE THE QUEEN ALSO BEFORE ME IN THE HOUSE? AS THE WORD WENT OUT OF THE KING'S MOUTH, THEY COVERED HAMAN'S FACE._ Haman was fallen upon the bed whereon Esther was. We do not know the precise form of the couches on which the Persians reclined at table. But it is probable that they were not very different from those used by the Greeks and Romans. Haman, perhaps, at first stood up to beg pardon of Esther; but driven in his extremity to resort to an attitude of the most earnest supplication, he fell prostrate on the couch where the queen was recumbent. The king returning that instant, was fired at what seemed like an outrage on female modesty. THEY COVERED HAMAN'S FACE. The import of this striking action is, that a crimina...

7-10 The king was angry: those that do things with self-will, reflect upon them afterward with self-reproach. When angry, we should pause before we come to any resolution, and thus rule our own spirits, and show that we are governed by reason. Those that are most haughty and insolent when in power and prosperity, commonly, like Haman, are the most abject and poor-spirited when brought down. The day is coming when those that hate and persecute God's chosen ones, would gladly be beholden to them. The king returns yet more angry against Haman. Those about him were ready to put his wrath into execution. How little can proud men be sure of the interest they think they have! The enemies of God's church have often been thus taken in their own craftiness. The Lord is known by such judgments. Then was the king's wrath pacified, and not till then. And who pities Haman hanged on his own gallows? w...

Verse Esther 7:8. _WILL HE FORCE THE QUEEN_] On the king's return he found him at the queen's knees; and, professing to think that he intended to do violence to her honour, used the above expressions; though he must have known that, in such circumstances, the thought of perpetrating an act of this kind could not possibly exist. _THEY COVERED HAMAN'S FACE._] This was a sign of his being devoted to death: for the attendants saw that the king was determined on his destruction. When a criminal was condemned by a Roman judge, he was delivered into the hands of the serjeant with these words: _I, lictor; caput obnubito, arbori infelici suspendito_. "Go, serjeant; cover his head, and hang him on the accursed tree....

Like the Greeks and Romans, the Persians reclined at their meals on sofas or couches. Haman, in the intensity of his supplication, had thrown himself upon the couch at Esther’s feet. THEY COVERED HAMAN’S FACE - The Macedonians and the Romans are known to have commonly muffled the heads of prisoners before executing them. It may have also been a Persian custom....

EXPOSITION AT THE SECOND BANQUET ESTHER DENOUNCES HAMAN, AND THE KING CONDEMNS HIM TO BE IMPALED ON THE CROSS PREPARED FOR HAMAN (Esther 7:1). Esther had promised to make her true petition at the second banquet (Esther 5:12), and now kept her word. When the king for the third time put the question, "What is thy petition, queen Esther? and what is thy request? It shall be performed, even to the half of the kingdom_,_"_ _she opened all

THEN THE KING RETURNED OUT OF THE PALACE GARDEN INTO THE PLACE OF THE BANQUET OF WINE,.... Being a little cooler, and more composed in his mind, see Esther 1:5 AND HAMAN WAS FALLEN UPON THE BED WHEREON ESTHER WAS; not the bed she lay on to sleep in the night, (for it cannot be thought that it was a bedchamber in which the banquet was,) but on the bed or couch on which she sat or reclined at the banquet, as was the custom in the eastern countries; now, "by", or "near" this, as the word may be rendered, Haman fell down, even at the feet of the queen, begging for mercy; and some think he might embrace her feet or knees, as was the custom of the Greeks and Romans as they were supplicating k; and so it seems to have been with the Jews, see 2 Kings 4:27, and being in this posture, it might appear the

THE SECOND BANQUET AND HAMAN'S MISERABLE END CHAPTER 7 _ 1. The second banquet and Esther's petition (Esther 7:1)_ 2. Haman's exposure (Esther 7:5) 3. Haman's miserable end (Esther 7:7) Esther 7:1. Esther at this second feast knew that the God of her fathers was at work and that all the hatred against her race came not from the heart of the king, but centered in Haman. In the events of the sleepless night and what followed she must have seen the display of the hand of God. And now she utters her delayed petition. Her petition is that her life may be spared as well as her people. How astonished the king must have look

ESTHER 7. ESTHER ACCUSES HAMAN, AND HE IS HANGED ON THE GIBBET HE HAD PREPARED FOR MORDECAI. On the same day, at her second drinking-feast, Esther suddenly bursts out in impassioned denunciation of Haman (Esther 7:6), and in cries for help from his murderous intent against her and ail she loves. A passage here (Esther 7:3 f.) has fretted students, but it is simple when simply translated. We are sold, cries Esther, I and my race, to death and utter ruin! Would that it had been for slaves and handmaids we were sold! Then had I been silent. But in our adversary there is lacking everything that will equal the king's loss. She means that slaves sold bring in cash, but murdered subjects bring none. The king's eyes are opened: in his rage at Haman he can scarce restrain himself. When the wretched Haman, in his terror, appeals

BED. couch. WILL HE FORCE... ? Figure of speech _Erotesis._...

_the word_ This seems to refer to the speech just preceding. It was clear to the attendants, without any more specific utterance on the king's part, that Haman was doomed to death. _they covered Haman's face_ Curtius in his history of Alexander the Great (vi. 8) speaks of this as done to Philotas, who had served with distinction under that monarch, when, on a confession of treason having been wrung from him by torture, he was about to be stoned to death. Livy also (i. 26) mentions it as a Roman custom. We have no authority beyond this passage for its practice among the Persians, and it is possible that, with a slight change in the Heb. word rendered -they covered," we should translate, _his face became flushed_(with dismay and shame). Cp. LXX. -he was utterly perturbed (confounded) in countenance." [77] [77] διετράπη τῷ προσώπῳ. 9 _Harbonah_ mentioned in the list of...