Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Esther 3:10

And the king took his ring from his hand, and gave it unto Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the Jews’ enemy.

10. his ring ] The possession of the king’s signet ring gave the holder full power to issue edicts in his name, since the sealing of them with his signet gave them validity. Alexander the Great is said to have intimated in this way that he desired his general Perdiccas to succeed him. Cp. for the use of a signet ring in this connexion Est 8:2; Gen 41:42; 1Ma 6:15 ; see also Josephus, Ant. xx. 2. 2.

Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the Jews’ enemy ] This full description lays stress upon the terrible plight in which the Jews were placed by the delegation of unlimited powers for their destruction into the hands of their hereditary foe.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Verse 10. The king took his ring] In this ring was no doubt included his privy seal, and he gave this to Haman, that when he had formed such a decree as he thought fit, he might seal it with this ring, which would give it its due force and influence among the rulers of the provinces. The privy seal of many of our sovereigns appears to have been inserted in their rings; and the seals of Eastern potentates were worn in rings upon their fingers. One such seal, once the property of the late Tippoo Sultan, lies before me; the inscription is deeply cut in silver, which is set in a massy carriage of gold. This, as fitted to the finger, he probably kept always on his hand, to be ready to seal despatches, &c., or it might be carried by a confidential officer for the same purpose, as it seems to refer to one of the chief cutcheries, or military officers.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Gave it unto Haman; that he might keep it as a badge of his supreme authority under the king, and that he might use it for the sealing of this decree which now he desired, or of any other, as hereafter he should see fit. Compare Est 8:2,8; Ge 41:42.

The Jews enemy; so he was, both by inclination, as he was an Amalekite, and especially by this malicious and destructive design and resolution.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

10. the king took his ring from hishand, and gave it unto HamanThere was a seal or signet in thering. The bestowment of the ring, with the king’s name and that ofhis kingdom engraven on it, was given with much ceremony, and it wasequivalent to putting the sign manual to a royal edict.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

And the king took his ring from his hand, and gave it unto Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the Jews’ enemy. As a token of his affection for him, and a mark of honour to him; with the Persians w for a king to give a ring to anyone was a token and bond of the greatest love and friendship imaginable; and it may be this was given to Haman, to seal with it the letters that were or should be written, giving order for the destruction of the Jews. It seems as if as yet Esther had not acquainted the king who her kindred and people were; or it can hardly be thought he would have so easily come into such a scheme, or so highly favoured an enemy of her people.

w Alex. ab. Alex. Genial. Dier. l. 1. c. 26. & l. 2. c. 19.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

10. Took his ring and gave it unto Haman This was done for the purpose of sealing with irrevocable authority the letters which Haman designed (see Est 3:12) to send to all the rulers of the provinces; “for the writing which is written in the king’s name, and sealed with the king’s ring may no man reverse.” Est 8:8. Many ancient signet rings have been discovered, some made of gold, others of various kinds of stone. Those made of stone are usually cylindrical. The signet cylinder of Darius Hystaspes bears a trilingual inscription which reads, “Darius the Great King,” and also a picture of the king hunting lions in a palm grove.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

(10) And the king took his ring from his hand, and gave it unto Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the Jews’ enemy. (11) And the king said unto Haman, The silver is given to thee, the people also, to do with them as it seemeth good to thee.

Was there ever so foolish, as well as worthless, a monarch, as this poor unthinking Persian, to consent to an act so cruel. Reader! remark it, wherever the gratification of corrupt lusts reign in the body, the mind will be also under the dominion of cruelty.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Est 3:10 And the king took his ring from his hand, and gave it unto Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the Jews’ enemy.

Ver. 10. And the king took his ring from his hand ] And thereby gave him power to do what he pleased, Gen 41:42 1Ki 21:8 , En regis huius inertiam et impcritiam. How weak (weak as water, Gen 49:4 ) was the heart of this brutish barbarian, skilful to destroy! Eze 21:31 , seeing he did all these things, the work of an imperious whorish woman, Eze 16:30 , rather than of an able man, such as every magistrate should be, Exo 18:21 , just, and ruling in the fear of God, 2Sa 23:3 . In the case of Vashti he could refer the matter to the consideration of a council. In the case of the two eunuchs that had conspired against his life he made inquisition of the matter, and did all things deliberately. In the case of Haman after this, though deeply displeased, yet he did nothing rashly, till he had gone into the palace garden, and considered with himself what was best to be done. But here upon the very first motion (without hearing them speak for themselves, or admonishing them to do their duty better, &c.) he gives order for the slaying of so many thousand innocents, never considering that every drop of their blood had a voice in it to cry for vengeance against him and his, Gen 4:10 Mat 22:7 . And when the king heard it; for blood cries aloud to God; 2Ki 9:26 , “Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth.” Murder ever bleeds fresh in the eye of Almighty God. To him many years, yea, that eternity that is past, is but yesterday. He will give such blood again to drink, for they are worthy, Rev 16:6 . Dealt he not so by Herod, Julian, Attilas, Felix of Wurtemburg, Farnesius, Minerius, Charles IX, king of France, who died by exceeding bleeding at sundry parts of his body, soon after the Parisian Massacre, whereof he was the author, giving as large and as bloody a commission to the duke of Guise to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish all the French Protestants, as Ahasuerus did here to Haman? Neither was he slack to execute it with greatest inhumanity, crying out to those of his party (after that he had slain the admiral), Courage, my fellows, fall on, the king commands it, it is his express pleasure, he commands it (The Hist. of French Mass., by Mr Clark). But what followed shortly after?

Quem sitiit vivens scelerata mente cruorem,

Perfidus hunc moriens Carolus ore vomit.

Ergo Dei tandem verbo subscribite, Reges;

Ne rapiant Stygiae vos Acherontis aquae.

And gave it unto Haman ] Who now being his favourite, might have anything of him, like as it is said of Sejanus, that in all his designs he found in Tiberius the emperor so great facility and affection to his desire, that he needed only to ask and give thanks. He never denied him anything, and ofttimes anticipated his request, and avowed that he deserved much more. It was not, therefore, without cause that the primitive Christians prayed so hard for the emperor, that God would send him good counsellors, and deliver him from flatterers and slanderers, those pests of the court (Tertull. Apol.).

The Jews’ enemy] That was his style, or rather his brand and mark of ignominy, worse than that of Cain, Gen 4:15 , that of Dathan, Num 26:9 , of Ahaz, 2Ch 28:22 . It may be he affected this title, and gloried in it; as we read of John Oneal, father to the earl of Tyrone, that rebel 1598, that he inscribed himself in all places, I, great John Oneal, cousin to Christ, friend to the queen of England, and foe to all the world besides (Camden).

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)