Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Esther 6:7
And Haman answered the king, For the man whom the king delighteth to honor,
7. For the man etc. ] lit. The man etc., the broken character of the sentence shewing Haman’s eagerness and excitement.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And Haman answered the king,…. At once, being very prompt to suggest the honours he hoped to have done to himself:
for the man whom the king delighteth to honour; let the following things be done.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Est 6:7 And Haman answered the king, For the man whom the king delighteth to honour,
Ver. 7. And Haman answered the king ] After a short pause, he had his answer ready; but making a bridge of his own shadow, he soon fell into the brook. Ambition rideth without reins, and like those horses, Amo 6:11 runneth upon the rocks, where first she breaks her hoofs, and then her neck. It seemeth, by that which followeth, that Haman aspired to the kingdom: why, else did he ask the crown royal, and the kings horse? &c. When David would declare Solomon his successor in the kingdom, he set him upon his own mule, 1Ki 1:33 . But Haman little thought that his high hopes should end in a rope. So did Hanno’s, the Carthaginian, and Roger Mortimer’s in King Edward II’s time, and the false Edric in King Canute’s days; and lastly, Hadrian de Castello, an Italian legate, made by King Henry VII bishop of Hereford, who conspired with Alphonso Petruccio, and other sacred cardinals, to murder Pope Leo X, induced thereunto by the suggestion of a witch, who foretold to him, that one Hadrian, an old man of mean parentage, of great learning and wisdom, should succeed in the Papacy, the man, Haman-like, thought it must needs be himself; but another Hadrian, schoolmaster to Charles V, proved to be the man: and this our Hadrian lost by deprivation all his promotions whatsoever (for his life could not be come at) for his nefarious attempt (Paul Jovius).
For the man whom the king delighteth to honour
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Est 6:7-9
Est 6:7-9
HAMAN’S ADVICE ON HOW TO HONOR THE MAN
“And Haman said unto the king, For the man whom the king delighteth to honor, let royal apparel be brought which the king useth to wear, and the horse that the king rideth upon, and on the head of which a crown royal is set: and let the apparel and the horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king’s most noble princes, that they may array the man therewith whom the king delighteth to honor, and cause him to ride on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaim before him, Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honor.”
None of the writers we have consulted has dealt with the possibility that Ahasuerus might have discerned Haman’s supposition that such honors would be done to himself, and that he detected in that egocentric minister the ambition to sieze the crown itself. Certainly, a man’s riding on a horse with a royal crown on his head was a very powerful symbol of royal authority. Such would most certainly have been an effective way of reminding Haman that he was not the most noble prince, but one of the most noble princes.
“On the head of which a crown royal is set” (Est 6:8). “The practice of setting crown-like head-dresses on horses is attested by Assyrian reliefs.”
Only the king seems to have been ignorant of the feud between Mordecai and Haman; certainly everybody in Shushan must have been aware of it. “Thus the king had no idea of the irony of the situation in which he placed his favorite minister.” However, the whole city of Shushan would have been astounded at this development.
E.M. Zerr:
Est 6:7-9. With the impression just described as his motive, Haman would naturally make the scene as dignified as possible. The procedure he suggested would place a man about second to the king in the point of show and pomp. There are no less than six items in the formula that he prescribed for the man to be honored. I shall briefly note the items from the text: Royal apparel, crown royal, arrayed by the most noble prince, on horseback through the city, proclaim before him, horse the king rideth, etc. What a display of glory that Haman thought he was arranging for himself!
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
whom the king: etc. Heb. in whose honour the king delighteth, Est 6:9, Est 6:11
Reciprocal: Gen 41:42 – his ring
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Est 6:7-8. Haman answered, Let the royal apparel, &c. Concluding he himself was the favourite intended, he prescribes the highest instances of honour that could for once be bestowed upon a subject; nay, he names honours too great to be conferred on any subject. Which the king useth to wear, &c. Namely, the kings outward garment, which was made of purple, interwoven with gold, as Justin and Curtius relate. To form a notion of that height of pride and arrogance at which Haman, who thought all the honours he specified were designed for himself, was arrived, we may observe, that for any one to put on the royal robe without the privity and consent of the king was among the Persians accounted a capital crime. And the horse that the king rideth upon Namely, usually; which was well known, both by his excellence, and especially by his peculiar trappings and ornaments. And the crown royal which is set upon his head Upon the kings head. Thus he wished him to appear in all the pomp and grandeur of the king himself, only not to carry the sceptre, the emblem of power.