So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king’s wrath pacified.
The gallows that he had prepared; which stood in his own house, as was now said, and made the punishment more grievous and ignominious.
Then was the kings wrath pacified; judgment being now most justly executed upon this abominable criminal.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
10. So they hanged Haman on thegallows that he had prepared for MordecaiHe has not been theonly plotter of mischief whose feet have been taken in the net whichthey hid (Ps 9:15). But neverwas condemnation more just, and retribution more merited, than theexecution of that gigantic criminal.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai,…. Not within his house, Es 7:9, but more probably in his courtyard, in the sight of his family and friends; or, it may be, the gallows was taken from thence, and set up without the city, where he was hanged: for so it is said in the additions of the book of Esther,
“For he that was the worker of these things, is hanged at the gates of Susa with all his family: God, who ruleth all things, speedily rendering vengeance to him according to his deserts.” (Esther 16:18)
that he was hanged without the gates of Shushan; see Ps 7:15,
then was the king’s wrath pacified; having inflicted punishment on such a wicked counsellor of his, and the contriver of such mischief.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Est 7:10. So they hanged Haman, &c. I cannot pass over the wonderful harmony of Providence, says Josephus, Antiq. 50:11; 100:6 without a remark upon the Almighty power and admirable justice of the wisdom of God, not only in bringing Haman to his deserved punishment, but in entrapping him in the very snare which he had laid for another, and turning a malicious invention upon the head of the inventor. Well says the heathen poet,
Nec lex est justior ulla Quam necis artifices arte perire sua.
No law is more just, than that the workers of wickedness should perish by the means of their own subtilty.
Bishop Patrick observes on this wonderful deliverance of the Jewish nation, that though in the whole there was no extraordinary manifestation of God’s power, no particular cause or agent which was in its working advanced above the ordinary pitch of nature, yet the contrivance and suiting of these ordinary agents appointed by God, is in itself more admirable than if the same end had been effected by means which were truly miraculous. That a king should not sleep, is no unusual thing; nor that he should solace his waking thoughts by hearing the annals of his own kingdom, or the journals of his own reign, read to him: but that he should lie awake at that time, especially when Haman was watching to destroy the Jews; that in the chronicles of the kingdom they should light on that place where Mordecai’s unrewarded services were recorded; that the king should forthwith resolve thereupon to do him honour; that Haman should come in at the very moment when he was so disposed; should ignorantly determine what honour should be done him, and be himself appointed to that ungrateful office: all this, no doubt, was from the keeper of Israel, who neither slumbereth nor sleepeth, and was truly marvellous in his people’s eyes.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
REFLECTIONS
READER! do not let the history of this wretched man Haman pass away from thy mind, without leaving the suitable reflections the review of such an awful character ought to occasion. What our blessed Lord said of some in his days seems applicable to some in all the days of the Church; Ye are (said Jesus to them) of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do; he was a murderer from the beginning. And what a resemblance doth the character of Haman bear to such a stock? His hatred to poor Mordecai, stirred up by the evil spirit, disdained to show itself against an individual only; the whole race shall die. Inflamed by power, by pride, and a troop of evil passions, he prosecutes his implacable malice, and to the attainment of this one object he would sacrifice every other. Pause, Reader, as you contemplate the man. Recollect that the same depravity is every man’s by nature; and, but fur grace, the evil which one man feels disposed to do, all would feel disposed to do. Nothing makes the difference, but the sovereign, free, restraining, preventing, and renewing grace of God in Jesus. Oh! for a thorough sense of this upon the heart! Oh! for a more awakened knowledge of our infinite and eternal mercies in Jesus. Oh! forever blessed, blessed be God for Jesus Christ.
One word more before we quit this chapter. See, Reader, in Either’s suit obtained, after all the difficulties which seemed to lay in the way, that the cause of God’s people can never be overlooked, nor forgotten. Hence, then, let us gather a renewed evidence that in Jesus and his great salvation are everlastingly secured to his people all the blessings contained in redemption. Trials, and difficulties, and seemingly impossibilities of deliverance, may, and must indeed, beset the people of Jesus in their way: but never forget this; Jesus is everlastingly pursuing one invariable plan of happiness concerning them. Oh! for grace to love Jesus, and to know Jesus as a friend, even when in his providences he seems to frown as though he was an enemy. Oh! for grace to lean won one arm, when with the other he is correcting; to cleave to him, when we cannot take comfort from the darkness of his ways towards us. By and by (the soul saith) he will appear to my joy: I shall behold his face in righteousness. I know that all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth. Things are now dark; but the morning will come. Oh! for grace, then, to wait the Lord’s time, and to be convinced that all things must and do work together for good to them that love God, and are the called according to his purpose.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Est 7:10 So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king’s wrath pacified.
10. So they hanged Haman on the gallows ] Heb. tree. Neither hanged they him only to death; but crucified or nailed his dead body to the tree, for greater ignominy. So some gather from Est 8:5 . The Septuagint also render it, So they crucified him. And here hanged the greatness of Haman, who now is fallen from the palace to the gallows, from the highest stage of honour to the lowest stair of disgrace, and lies wrapped up in the sheet of perpetual infamy. “So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord,” &c. A like end befell Bonosus, the drunken emperor; Amasis, that insolent king of Egypt; Joan, that libidinous queen of Naples; our Roger Mortimer, that troubler of the realm, hanged at Tyburn; Oliver, that proud prefect, advanced to highest honours and offices by Louis, king of France, but hanged up by his son and successor upon a new and large gallows, set up for the purpose, and not without his desert. High places are not more uneasy than slippery. Even height itself maketh men’s brains to swim, and when they fall they come down with a poise.
That he had prepared for Mordecai
Quam bene dispositum terris, ut dignus iniqui
Fructus consilii primis authoribus instet, &c.
See those sacred similes to the same sense,
Then was the king’s wrath pacified] Harbonah had helped to kindle it, Est 7:9 , and by executing Haman, whom he had accused, he now helpeth to quench it. For it was not unusual of old, that men of greatest rank and quality should execute malefactors; as Gideon did Zeba and Zalmunnah; as Samuel did Agag; as Benaiah did Adonijah, Joab, and Shimei, by the command of Solomon, Sententiam ocyus dicto exequuntur oculici (Merl.). The holy angels delight in such an office, as at Sodom, and in Sennacherib’s army; and how active shall they be at the last day, but chiefly against such as walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government, 2Pe 2:10 . So shall God’s wrath be pacified, as once it was at the time when Phineas, the high priest, had done execution upon that unclean couple. The saints have another way of pacifying him, of preventing his judgments, and disarming his indignation; and that is by remembering their sins, and being confounded in his presence, never opening their mouths any more, Eze 16:63 , unless it be in a humble confession, which is the Christian’s best apology, as the apostle calleth it, 2Co 7:11 . This will quiet God’s Spirit (as the phrase is, Zec 6:8 ), and cause him to say, as Job 33:24 , I have found a reconciliation. Surely, if we judge ourselves, he will not judge us, 1Co 11:31 . God shall be prevented, and the accuser of the brethren put out of office; our Hamans also shall be hanged up before the sun, our sturdy corruptions crucified, and the Lord shall as little repent him of any good he hath done us as Ahasuerus did of gratifying his wife Esther, and kinsman Mordecai; who were now all the doers, seeking the wealth of Israel, and speaking peace to that whole people, as appeareth in the following chapters. As for the king, he never so much as once lamented the loss of Haman, nor said se properantius quam prudentius egisse, that he had been more hasty than wise in doing him to death; but was very well pleased with what he had done; his wrath rested, saith the text, as the sea doth in a calm; it lay and slept, as the word signifieth; for anger is an eager desire of revenge, and rendereth a man restless till that be done, Ira est libido puniendi eius qui videtur laesisse iniuria (Cicero).
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
they hanged Hainan. See note on “Benjamite” (Est 2:5).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Then was the king’s: Jdg 15:7, Eze 5:13, Zec 6:8
Reciprocal: Num 24:20 – his latter end Num 25:4 – and hang Deu 25:19 – thou shalt Jos 8:29 – the king Jos 10:26 – hanged 1Sa 17:51 – his sword 1Sa 25:39 – hath returned 1Ki 21:19 – In the place Ezr 6:11 – timber Est 2:23 – hanged Est 5:14 – he caused Est 8:7 – him they have hanged Job 5:13 – taketh Job 18:8 – he is cast Job 20:5 – the triumphing Psa 5:10 – let Psa 7:15 – and is Psa 35:8 – into Psa 37:10 – thou Psa 37:15 – sword Psa 49:20 – Man Psa 94:3 – the wicked Psa 94:23 – And he Psa 140:9 – let the mischief Psa 141:10 – the wicked Psa 146:9 – the way Pro 1:18 – General Pro 11:8 – General Pro 11:27 – he that seeketh Pro 16:18 – General Pro 24:16 – but Pro 25:5 – away Pro 26:27 – diggeth Ecc 6:3 – and also Ecc 10:8 – that Isa 51:13 – where is Jer 34:17 – behold Dan 6:24 – and they brought Joe 3:7 – and will Luk 6:38 – with 1Co 3:19 – He Gal 3:13 – for
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE BITER BIT
So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai.
Est 7:10
I. Though Haman was punished, the royal decree still stood; and when the day came, the Jews would still be massacred. Esther had been signally successful so far; but her work for her nation was not accomplished yet. Emboldened by her victory, she approached her lord again, urging him to countermand the sad decree. But what could be done? Xerxes himself was powerless. The word of a Persian king once passed was passed for ever. Darius had been helpless to effect the release of Daniel, and now Xerxes was as impotent as he. It was then that a device suggested itself. There are few laws that cannot be somehow evaded. Let Mordecai be made grand-vizier, with full powers. Could he not possibly devise some counter-movement? The kings word could not be broken, that was clear; but its execution might have unlooked-for issues. So once again the couriers went galloping. The clatter of hoofs was heard in the still night, and wakened the sleepers in many a lonely hamlet. Riders covered with dust and spent with travel spurred into distant market-places as the sun was setting. In an incredibly short space of time there was not a Jewish colony in the kingdom but had got news of how the tide had turned. They were not to let themselves be massacred like sheep; they were to gird on their armour and defend themselves. The moment that a blow was struck at them they were to combine and strike a counter-blow. That was the tenor of the royal mandate. But I have no doubt that the courtiers eked it out. They told how Haman was hanged and Esther honoured. They hinted that no one would be very angry if they went a little beyond the written word. And the Jews freely interpreted their liberty, and used the wild justice of revenge.
II. The darkest hour is that before the dawn.We have seen what a pitiable plight the Jews were in. We have heard their cry when the mandate of Xerxes reached them. Exile was sore, but now their case was terrible. Their outlook had never been darker than at this hour. Yet it was then, in the darkness as of midnight, that the second message from the palace reached them. And the writer is at pains to let us see the exultant joy and gladness that they felt. How dark all was to Joseph in the prison, yet the sun was just then on the point of breaking! How dark all was to Jesus on the cross, yet the cross was the very threshold of the glory! All through the Bible God has a message for us when the worst comes to the worst. He enforces on us, by a score of instances, that morning is nearer midnight than we thought.
III. Lastly, there is something nobler than revenge.After the murder of Rizzio, an old historian tells us, Queen Mary said, No more tearsI will think on a revenge. And that, too, was the spirit of the Jews when the news came of the change in their affairs. But after the Indian Mutiny, with all its horrors, do you know the revenge that Lord Shaftesbury took? He founded the Christian Literature Society to spread the knowledge of Jesus throughout India. Try to live in that same spirit. Jesus has come, and revenge is banished now. We serve One Who taught us something nobler when He said, Father! forgive them; they know not what they do.
Illustrations
(1) The obsequious ministers of despotism, disposed about the chamber and in the anteroom, well understood that the minister was fallen, and in pitiless haste they gagged and pinioned the man, waiting for the kings pleasure. And then one of the vile wretches who live by watching the veering vane of a despots favour artfully suggested that there was a gallows in Hamans garden, ready for Mordecai. Hang him on it! cried the king. At once, without trial or defence, the miserable creature was carried to the gallows in his garden and hanged. To us it appears melodrama. To those who are only too well acquainted with the habits of despotic rulers it all appears grimly probable.
(2) Learn the universal truth under this story. Be sure of it that in ways we cannot see, the evil we do will come back upon ourselves. The weapons of sin are not so much like arrows, they are rather like Australian boomerangs. Others must suffer whenever we do wrong, and that alone should make us hate all wrong-doing; but in a weakened will, and in debased affections, in a coarser manhood, and in a loveless and lightless future, we shall yet be the great sufferers ourselves.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Est 7:10. So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai As the sentence was short, so the execution was speedy, and he that expected every one to do him reverence is now made an ignominious spectacle to the world on a gallows fifty cubits high: and himself is sacrificed to justice, who disdained that less than a whole nation should be sacrificed to his revenge. Thus does God resist the proud, and those whom he resists will find him irresistible! Thus did mischief return on the person that contrived it, and the wicked was snared in the work of his own hands. If he had not set up that gallows, the king probably would not have thought of ordering him to be hanged; but as he had unjustly prepared it for a good man, he was justly condemned to suffer on it himself. The enemies of Gods church have often been thus taken in their own craftiness. In the morning, Haman designed himself for the robes, and Mordecai for the gallows: but the tables are now turned, and Mordecai has the crown and Haman the cross. The Lord is known by the judgments which he executeth. I cannot pass over this wonderful harmony of providence, says Josephus, (Antiq., 50:2, c. 6,) without a remark upon the almighty power, and admirable justice of the wisdom of God; not only in bringing Haman to his deserved punishment, but in trapping him in the very snare which he had laid for another, and turning a malicious invention upon the head of the inventor. Bishop Patrick observes, on this wonderful deliverance of the Jewish nation, that though, in the whole, there was no extraordinary manifestation of Gods power; no particular cause, or agent, which was in its working advanced above the ordinary pitch of nature; yet the contrivance, and suiting these ordinary agents appointed by God, is in itself more admirable than if the same end had been effected by means which were truly miraculous. That a king should not sleep, is no unusual thing, nor that he should solace his waking thoughts by hearing the annals of his own kingdom, or the journals of his own reign, read to him: but that he should be awake at that time, especially when Haman was watching to destroy the Jews, and that, in the chronicles of the kingdom, they should light on that place where Mordecais unrewarded services were recorded; that the king should resolve, thereupon, forthwith to do him honour; that Haman should come in at the very moment when he was so disposed; should ignorantly determine what honour should be done him, and be himself appointed to that ungrateful office: all this, no doubt, was from the Keeper of Israel, who neither slumbereth nor sleepeth, and was truly marvellous in his peoples eyes. See Dodd.