Esther 8:15

_AND MORDECAI WENT OUT FROM THE PRESENCE OF THE KING IN ROYAL APPAREL OF BLUE AND WHITE, AND WITH A GREAT CROWN OF GOLD, AND WITH A GARMENT OF FINE LINEN AND PURPLE: AND THE CITY OF SHUSHAN REJOICED AND WAS GLAD._ Mordecai went out ... in royal apparel. He was invested with the khelaat of official honour. A dress of blue and white was held in great estimation among the Persians: so that Mordecai, whom the king delighted to honour, was in fact arrayed in the royal dress and insignia. The variety and the kind of insignia worn by a favourite at once makes known to the people the particular dignity to which he has been raised....

15-17 Mordecai's robes now were rich. These things are not worth notice, but as marks of the king's favour, and the fruit of God's favour to his church. It is well with a land, when ensigns of dignity are made the ornaments of serious piety. When the church prospers, many will join it, who will be shy of it when in trouble. When believers have rest, and walk in the fear of the Lord, and the comfort of the Holy Ghost, they will be multiplied. And the attempts of Satan to destroy the church, always tend to increase the number of true Christians...

Verse Esther 8:15. _BLUE AND WHITE_] Probably stripe interchanged with stripe; or _blue_ faced and bordered with _white_ fur. _A GREAT CROWN OF GOLD_] A large _turban_, ornamented with gold, jewels, c. _FINE LINEN AND PURPLE_] See on Genesis 41:42. The בץ _buts_, here mentioned, is most probably the same with the _byssus_ of the ancients supposed to be the beautiful _tuft_ or _beard_, growing out of the side of the _pinna longa_, a very large species of _muscle_, found on the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea, of which there are a pair of gloves in the British Museum. This _byssus_ I have described elsewhere. _SHUSHAN - WAS GLAD._] Haman was too _proud_ to be pop

See the Esther 1:6 note. The “crown” was not a crown like the king’s, but a mere golden band or coronet. A GARMENT - Or, “an inner robe.” The tunic or inner robe of the king was of purple, striped with white....

EXPOSITION HAMAN'S HOUSE GIVEN TO ESTHER, AND THE KING'S SIGNET MADE OVER.TO MORDECAI (Esther 8:1, Esther 8:2). Two consequences followed immediately on Haman's execution. His property escheating to the crown, Ahasuerus made the whole of it over to Esther, either simply as a sign of favour, or in compensation of the alarm and suffering which Haman had caused her. Further, Haman's office being vacant, and Mordecai's close relationship to Esther having become known to the king, he transferred to Mordecai the confidence which he had been wont to repose in Haman, and gave him the custody of

AND MORDECAI WENT OUT FROM THE PRESENCE OF THE KING,.... And walked or rode about in the city to show himself to his friends: IN ROYAL APPAREL OF BLUE AND WHITE; such as the Persian kings wore, and were not allowed to any other, as Xenophon writes g: AND WITH A GREAT CROWN OF GOLD; a coronet, such as princes and nobles wear; the latter Targum calls it a great golden chain, and such the eastern kings used to give to their favourites; see Daniel 5:29, AND WITH A GARMENT OF FINE LINEN AND PURPLE; this must be an inner garment, since it is distinct from the royal robe before mentioned; though as the word signifies a wrap, or roll, it may design a turban, which was a roll of linen wrapped about the head; and such was the Persian diadem, according to Curtius h, which was of a purple colour, mixed with white; and so the Septuagint version is,

MORDECAI'S EXALTATION AND THE SECOND PROCLAMATION CHAPTER 8 _ 1. Mordecai's exaltation (Esther 8:1)_ 2. Esther's second petition (Esther 8:3) 3. The second proclamation (Esther 8:9) 4. The joy of the Jews (Esther 8:15) Esther 8:1. Esther the Queen receives from the king the possessions of Haman, the enemy of the Jews. Then she revealed what Mordecai was to her, her uncle and foster-father. The king had taken the signet-ring of authority from the hand of Haman. The same ring Mordecai received. Esther honoured her uncle by plac

ESTHER 8. THE KING DECREES THAT THE JEWS MAY DEFEND THEMSELVES. We come now to one of the most important parts of the tale. Esther has seen Haman pass out to death not, be it noted, at her request. Now, what does she seek further? Many have accused her of cruelty, her and her race. Not so the reality. She implores that the bloody decree be annulled (Esther 8:5), and thus, had she been heard, no blood at all would have been shed. But the Gentile mind is not of this kindly sort. Oh no. The king likes to see blood: he is a sportsman. No, no, Esther, the king answers, blood must flow. Ye Jews, defend yourselves. Fight! So they are forced to take arms, directly against their own mind. LXX gives a supposed form of the new royal order, fanciful, perhaps, but based on fact. Away out the fast posts speed, to order this anti-massaore ...

_in royal apparel of blue and white_ by way of indicating externally the revulsion of feeling. The Persian king's own robe was purple, or purple embroidered with gold over another garment of purple striped or mixed with white. See Rawlinson's _Anc. Mon._(2nd ed.), iii. 203. _crown_ not _kether_, that of the monarch, but _-aṭârâh_, which may have been a less rich one. _a robe of fine linen and purple_ The LXX. erroneously translate -a diadem" etc. The king wore a diadem consisting of a blue and white band or fillet, encircling the lower part of the crown. The description as regards the sentiments both of Mordecai and the city is worded so as to present a sharp contrast with that of the earlier condition of affairs (Esther 3:15; Esther 4:1). _shouted_ The Heb. verb

AND WITH A GREAT CROWN OF GOLD— The word _royal_ is not added here, as in the 8th verse of the sixth chapter; nor is the horse mentioned, as there, because no extraordinary honours are here spoken of, but only that honour and that habit which immediately belonged to the keeper of the royal signet. Houbigant. REFLECTIONS.—Just execution having been performed on the person of the wicked Haman, we have here, 1. The disposal of his estate, which, as forfeited, the king bestows on the queen. The ten thousand talents which were offered as the price of blood, become the property of those whose lives were marked out for a prey. 2. Mordecai is highly advanced. Though the queen had before concealed her kindred, she thinks it a proper season now to own her relation and obligations to Mordecai, whose good services had already so highly recommended him to the king; but this more especially engaged...