Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Esther 7:7
And the king arising from the banquet of wine in his wrath [went] into the palace garden: and Haman stood up to make request for his life to Esther the queen; for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king.
7. arose in his wrath ] with the restlessness which accompanies strong passion, and brings him back again apparently at once to confront the object of his indignation.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Est 7:7-10
And the king, arising from the banquet.
Unexpected results
Mans calculation is always upon the result of his own forethought and skill. There is to be a sure success from the wisdom of his plans. The race is for the swift and the battle is for the strong. Napoleon said, Heaven is always on the side of the heaviest artillery. The history of human contests would give innumerable illustrations of the contrary. God vindicates His own right to rule by employing the weak things of the world to confound the mighty, and taking the wise in their own craftiness. Haman has illustrated this in a very clear and remarkable manner But Hamans course is not yet complete. The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman. Now Haman sees and feels the folly of his malice, however well contrived. He illustrates the ever-remarkable fact, that the boldest oppressor of others is the most cowardly suppliant in a returning danger upon himself. Then said the king, Hang him thereon. So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the kings wrath pacified. This closed his career of wickedness. Thus its folly and madness, as well as its guilt and certain ruin, were displayed. Who hath hardened himself against the Lord, and hath prospered? I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree; yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not. Yea, I sought him, but he could not be found. The prosperity of the wicked is short; the triumph of the ungodly is but for a moment. We see it thus displayed. Why shall we ever be tempted to test it for ourselves? Survey the whole course of this providence as it has passed.
1. It was a train of very trifling circumstances in each particular. There has been no event in the whole succession in itself of a remarkable or unusual character.
2. It was a very circuitous and remote process. The first step we have seen was very far off from the final result, and could not have been imagined to have any connection with it. Every succeeding step seemed equally independent and unlikely to produce the end designed. A wonderful plan was lately proposed for connecting New York and Brooklyn by a bridge, the foundation of which should be in the park. Who that saw men digging and laying stone in the middle of the park, with no knowledge of the plan proposed, could have imagined that it was the starting of a bridge over water so far distant, and to a shore so entirely out of sight? Yet such has been the course of this providence which we have considered. Stop at any point, and the connection is just as hidden, and the calculation of the future remains just as difficult. Known only unto God are all His works from the beginning. We may stand and ask, Why should the king have selected Esther at the very time of Hamans elevation? Yet every step is sure and leading forward to the result designed. Nothing is lost, and no error is committed upon the road. This is the wonderful skill of Divine providence. The wheels are full of eyes on every side.
3. It was a perfectly unexpected result. Haman had gone through his whole preliminary course with entire success. But how suddenly and wonderfully was he disappointed.
4. God overturns this whole scheme of wickedness without appearing directly to interfere with it in any step of the proceeding. The whole plan wrought out its own result as naturally as the seed of spring brings forth the summers plant and the autumns fruit. The sinner was entrapped in his own devices. The sinner was deluded, by his prosperity, to suppose the race was for the swift and the battle to the strong. And yet the whole scheme was overturned in a moment, without one violent interruption occurring in its process. This is a most important lesson to us. It must teach us never to doubt the constant presence of God in all our concerns, and His directing power over all events involved in them. A change of wind may turn the dreaded flame from our habitation, a sudden lull may break the force of the tempest, the very means of apparent death may be made the real instrument of security and protection. And all this may be with no remarkable interference of special Divine power. Thus remarkable in the simplicity of its arrangement, as well as in the perfection of its result, was this whole process of the Divine overthrow of the crafty wickedness of Haman. He was caught in the very pride of his power. Haman was made the instrument of exalting the very adversary he so much hated. The very sorrow which he had prepared for his victim he was himself required to endure. Dr. Mason of New York, describes a remarkable scene of which he was an unexpected witness. A butcher in this city, in his rage with his aged father who had offended him, knocked him down upon the floor, and was dragging him by his hair to throw him into the street. He had pulled him to the outer door, when the old man cried out, There, stop now, I did not drag him any further, and then confessed that he had abused his own father in the same manner, and dragged him to that very spot, with the same design. Such instances, in some shape, are constantly occurring, so that it is a familiar expectation that the wicked shall fall into the pit they have digged for others, and they who take the sword perish by the sword. The result of this whole providence was complete deliverance and exaltation to the oppressed, and complete destruction to the oppressor. This was the final result, and an illustration of that which will always be, and at last surely be, the final result. God will exalt those whom man oppresses. (S. H. Tyng, D. D.)
Retributive justice
An indestructible connection exists between the violation of Divine law and consequent suffering. A disregard to the conditions of health entails sickness. Poison destroys human life. He who thrusts his hand into the flame invites suffering. A like measure of changelessness marks the operations of moral law. Transgression is followed by suffering. Remorse is entailed by doing what one knows to be wrong. A sense of humiliation succeeds an unreasonable outbreak of anger. Loss of happiness and of self-restraint, and of the esteem of friends, is a portion of the legacy of self-indulgence. A knowledge of this law of retribution is not dependent on revelation. The conviction of its existence is inwoven with human nature. Graven on the conscience, it cannot be effaced. Of the examples of retribution few are more worthy of consideration than that of Haman. This illustrates–
I. The channel through which retribution comes. The harvest is garnered: how shall the grain reach the seaboard? Along iron rails laid down by man. The rice-fields are gleaned: how shall the product be conveyed to its destination? Through canals cut by mans agency. The fruits of malice, of cruelty, of ambition, and of tyranny are perfected: how shall they be delivered to him for whom they are designed? Through agencies he himself has prepared–by some human hand to which a higher power has consigned them. Retribution though prepared in heaven, in coming to earth traverses the road which man has made ready for it. The lightning-bolt, though forged in the clouds, may make as it comes to earth a pathway of the tree planted by human hands. Hamans wickedness is so conspicuous that the shafts of retributive justice are certain to strike him, miss whom else they may. Oppression and heartlessness, cherished hatred and the spirit of revenge, are towering upward to such heights that their summits are hidden in clouds already black with fury. The particular person commissioned of Heaven to mete out retributive justice to Haman was Ahasuerus. This is in accordance with Gods usual method of dealing. Though bearing the seal of the invisible kingdom, retribution comes through some agency with which we are familiar. The king showed good judgment in the earlier stages of his anger. In his wrath he went into the palace garden. Anger which speedily vents itself in harsh words is less harmful to its object than that which is repressed till a settled purpose is formed. Fear the man who can so far control his resentment as to be able to exercise good judgment in deciding upon measures which noiselessly bring the results of deeds home to their author. The steam which is generated so speedily as to cause a violent explosion might have proved sufficient, if properly controlled, to convey a long train, freighted with the enginery of death, to some advantageous position whence every missile would have told with deadly effect upon the enemy.
II. A fruitless plea for deliverance. Haman stood up to make request for his life. Verily no man can tell what awaits him! A few days, a few hours, may suffice to cloud the most brilliant prospects. The question, What new requisition is possible? may be suddenly converted into the anxious inquiry, Can I save anything from the common wreck, even life itself? Hamans prayer, though importunate, was fruitier. The arrival of retribution chronicles the departure of mercy. In the presence of the king even the queen is powerless to rescue the culprit. He is now before the judge whose will is Esthers law. At the day of final adjudication it will no doubt be evident that mercy is powerless to rescue those who have incurred the wrath of the Lamb. When mercy is driven to assume an attitude of vengeance, hope is for ever extinguished.
III. The signs of coming doom. Hamans sinful career must be checked, or the queen must perish. Wickedness unchecked would ultimately extinguish goodness. Thistles and grass cannot continuously occupy the same soil, nor is it doubtful which would gain the mastery. As the word went out of the kings mouth they covered Hamans face. Guilt is left to bear the penalty alone. Alas, the heartlessness of those who are comrades in iniquity! No ingratitude surpasses that of those who have been associated in wickedness. To be deserted in the critical hour is the fate of those who have violated Divine commands. So they hanged Haman on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. He is snared in his own devices. The arrow he directed at another has rebounded, causing his own death. The cannon which, loaded to the muzzle, was to annihilate his enemy, has recoiled, crushing him beneath its ponderous wheels. As Haman brewed, so he drank. He made his bed, and he lay in it. Cruelty displayed can have but one issue–cruelty endured. With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. (J. S. Van Dyke, D. D.)
The fear, the folly, and the doom of the evil-doer
I. The evil-doer receives warning. Haman saw that there was evil determined against him by the king. He clearly heard the sound of the avenging deity though his feet might be shod with wool. Evil-doers receive warning. Nature gives warning. Revelation gives warning. History gives warning.
II. The foolish evil-doer works his own destruction. The very means Haman took to save his life was the means of bringing about his speedy execution.
III. The evil-doer raises striking evidence of his own guilt. Behold the gallows fifty feet high, etc.
IV. The evil-doer is practically his own executioner. So they hanged Haman on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. (W. Burrows, B. A.)
The wicked overthrown
This great fact of Divine government we constantly forget. The person of the Deity is invisible. His ways and plans are not governed by the principles or the expectations of men. But the government is still on His shoulders, and He upholdeth all things by the word of His power. The history of Haman shows us how completely God controls the wicked and makes their crafty and malicious plans result in their own overthrow and ruin. But we come now to consider the peculiar method which God adopted for his overthrow. It is a wonderful illustration of the Divine providence in its minuteness of application. The successive steps in this scheme of counteraction are very minute. It is a regular arrangement of mining and countermining, as in military assaults and sieges. Each successive step is taken in direct reference to the previous motion of the antagonist, and as secretly as possible from him.
1. God lays up in store for His future use Esthers unexpected relation to the king. It was a fearful trial of Mordecais faith and Esthers piety. It seemed an unaccountable and dark proceeding. Their broken hearts both grieved in bitterness over the dispensation. But God was mercifully preparing for the evil to come. The hold which was allowed upon the affections, and the influence which was thus exercised upon the character of Ahasuerus, were very important in the train of results which was to be brought out.
2. God prepared a special obligation from the king to Mordecai. Two of the kings chamberlains, of those which kept the door, were wroth, and sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus, etc.
3. God interposed in the settling of Hamans lot. They cast the lot from day to day, and from month to month to the twelfth month. This was a very peculiar interposition. It gave nearly a years delay to the executing of the plan.
4. God gave great ease and apparent prosperity to Hamans plan. The king granted his request at once, and gave him unlimited power to fulfil his purpose. Thus Haman was enticed forward to Perfect security. His success was so flattering to his own power that it led him to an immediate publication of his whole scheme. There was written according to all that Haman commanded, to the governors that were over every province, etc.
5. God endowed Esther with singular wisdom in arranging her scheme of argument and defence.
6. God awakens the slumbers of the king. On that night the king could not sleep. What trifling incidents does God employ to accomplish His great results! You will sometimes hear of His providence as if it were only concerned in what men call great events; but there are no distinctions of great and little in human events before God. Never be deluded by any false schemes of men. Not a sparrow falleth to the ground without the notice of your heavenly Father, and the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
7. God remarkably employs the waking king. The king could not sleep, and he commanded to bring the book of records of the chronicles; and they were read before the king., This was a singular step. He might as readily have called for any other book.
8. God furnished the very agent desired for the accomplishment of His plan. And the kings servants said unto him, Behold Haman standeth in the court. And the king said, Let him come in. Every step appears to be propitious to Haman. He enters instantly, perfectly secure of the triumphant attainment of his purpose. But God had now perfectly prepared the way for Mordecais exaltation, and Haman, who had planned his death, must be the instrument of his honour. God shall judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work. There is providence, and this was its course thus far. Every step is natural, voluntary, trifling in itself. No single step had any apparent earthly connection with the others, in the mind of the one who took it. The threads all seemed perfectly separate and unconnected. But it was a single hand which wove them all. How perfect is the scheme! How indispensable is every part! How clear the wisdom which has ordered the whole! With what confidence we may rely on such a Protector. The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. His eyes are over the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers. (S. H. Tyng, D. D.)
The precarious position of princes favourites
Thus empty vessels swim aloft; rotten posts are gilt with adulterate gold; the worst weeds spring up bravest; and when the twins strive in Rebekahs womb Esau comes forth first, and hath the primogeniture. But while they seek the greatest dignities they most meet with the greatest shame; like apes, while they be climbing they the more show their deformities. They are lifted up also that they may come down again with the greater poise. It was, therefore, well and wisely spoken by Alvarer de Luna, when he told them that admired his fortune and favour with the King of Castile, You do wrong to commend the building before it is finished, and until you see how it will stand. Princes favourites should consider with themselves that honour is but a blast, a glorious fancy, a rattle to still mens ambition; and that as the passenger looketh no longer upon the dial than the sun shineth upon it, so it is here. (J. Trapp.)
For he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king.
Esteem changed to hatred
How easily does he appear to have taken off his regards from his favourite! There was nothing lasting in the bond which united them. The esteem of yesterday was changed into hatred to-day. All their convivial meetings and merry-making, when the city of Shushan was perplexed, were forgotten, and the mans destruction was determined upon with as much zest and zeal as his elevation had been promoted. Such is largely the characteristic of the friendship of worldly men. Close and ardent for a time, but liable at any moment to be turned into enmity. How different from the tie which ought to bind together Christian hearts in the common love of the same Saviour. (T. McEwan.)
Unexpected peril
The wicked know not the moment that the mine is to be sprung under their feet. (T. McEwan.)
Will he force the queen also before me in the house.–
Suspicions
It is the misery of those who have been detected in the commission of great crimes, and it is a just part of their punishment, to be suspected or accused of that of which they were guiltless. But yesterday, all that Haman said or did was viewed with a favourable aye; now, the most innocent actions are construed to his disadvantage. (T. McCrie, D. D.)
And Harbonah, one of the kings chamber-laths, said before the king, Behold also, the gallows fifty cubits high.–
The falling man
When a great man is going down, the meanest will give him a push. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)
Fickle courtier
s:–Courtiers are very clever persons, and turn with wonderful agility. (A. M. Symington, B. A.)
Reverses
But how terrible are the reverses of princes, and how sudden the fall of statesmen. Wolsey, Raleigh, Essex and Louis Phillippe, are only a few out of many that illustrate how slippery are the steps of thrones and the standings around them. (W. A. Scott, D. D.)
So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai.–
Moral retribution
We all remember the ballad of Southey which tells how Sir Ralph the Rover, who cut away Inch Cape Bell, perished with all his crew upon the Inch Cape Rock; and even secular historians have been constrained to remark on illustrations of the fulfilment of this law of providence. Thus Macaulay reminds us that no man ever made a more unscrupulous use of the legislative power for the destruction of his enemies than Thomas Cromwell, and that it was by the unscrupulous use of the legislative power that he was himself destroyed. And Alison recognises in the death of Murat a memorable instance of the moral retribution which often attends upon great deeds of iniquity, and by the instrumentality of the very acts that appeared to place them beyond its reach. He underwent, in 1815, the very fate to which, seven years before, he had consigned a hundred Spaniards of Madrid, guilty of no other crime than of defending their country, and this, as the historian adds, by the application of a law to his own case which he himself had introduced to check the attempts of the Bourbons to regain a throne which he had usurped. Thus, often, in the words of the great dramatist, the engineer is hoist with his own petard; and we see that even in this life there is retribution. But it may be said that, though this is observable in great matters and with great people, it is not found in small. And to that I reply that there is nothing small in the providence of God. But others may say that this law is not absolutely universal, and that there have been cases in which it has not been fulfilled. To that I reply that there are such anomalies in Gods providence on earth, but the existence of these is only a reason for our believing that the retribution which has not overtaken the sinner here will surely come upon him hereafter; for then God shall render to every man according to his works. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)
Haman confounded
1. Oh, how great are the vicissitudes of life! When Haman thought himself secure, then he was nearest to his ruin.
2. How sudden and astonishing the change that takes place in the feelings of those about the court. Yesterday, everybody envied Haman for his prosperity, but hated him for his insolence. Yesterday, they bowed the knee, and did him homage, but now that they see he has fallen, they are just as hearty in their rejoicings at his downfall. If Haman be going down, they all cry, Down with him! And as Mordecai is now the favourite, all are ready to exalt him. The old Louis, dead in Versailles, may rot or bury himself, while the courtier and countesses are making fair weather with the rising sun.
3. Haman pleading at Esthers feet is a proof that the heathen are sent down in the pit that they made: in the net which they hid is their own foot taken. The Jews enemy, and the adversary of the Hebrew orphan, a suppliant at the queens feet, illustrates how God regarded the low estate of his handmaiden, and scattered the proud in their imagination.
4. Another lesson learned from Hamans gallows, perhaps, better than from any other standpoint of this history, is to beware of the first risings of evil passions.
5. We see again that human prosperity is wholly unavailing in the hour of calamity. The glory of Haman yesterday only enhances his disgrace to-day.
6. It is then an unfair, limited, and partial view of providence to say that Gods favours are not wisely and equitably distributed among men. The purposes of God are not to be judged of by the events of a moment, nor by the occurrences that are near together. The chain of providence has many links; some are so high, and some are so far away, that at present we cannot see them, nor can we judge correctly of it till we see the whole chain together.
7. You must learn to discriminate between real and apparent happiness. (W. A. Scott, D. D.)
A warning to ambitious men
Let all ambitious men read the story of Haman and take warning. Hie story may not be repeated in all its Oriental details; yet there remains enough in the tale to remind us that we too are ambitious, that we too may have ignoble thoughts towards our fellow-men, and that even we are not above resorting to the foulest practices to get rid of the Mordecai who stands in our way as a stumbling-block. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The law of retribution
A proverb says, Harm watch, harm catch, and it is a true saying. Haman:—In the character of Haman there is a singular exhibition of ambition and envy. He was a man without benevolence, justice, or mercy. From the one external act in respect to Mordecai, we infer the fearful depth of depravity within. It does not appear but that his character might have been without reproach previous to his promotion. Exemplary conduct, however, previous to an open act of sin, must not be taken as a proof of purity of character at any time, for the external sots of sin may be compared to the eruptions of a volcano, which sometimes occur only after intervals embracing centuries, while the internal depravity is like those pent fires which lie couched beneath the base of the mountain, where in secret the lava wave is in perpetual motion. From the life and death of Haman learn–
1. That the wicked man cannot go unpunished.
2. That the wicked man will be punished when he least expects it.
3. That the wicked man will be punished by means of his own devising. (O. T. Lanphear, D. D.)
Gallows for Haman
Here is an Oriental courtier, about the most offensive man in Hebrew history.
I. That when the heart is wrong things very insignificant will destroy our comfort. Who would have thought that a great prime minister, admired and applauded by millions of Persians, would have been so nettled and harassed by anything trivial? The silence of Mordecai at the gate was louder than the braying of trumpets in the palace. Thus shall it always be if the heart is not right. Circumstances the most trivial will disturb the spirit. It is not the great calamities of life that create the most worriment. I have seen men, felled by repeated blows of misfortune, arising from the dust, never desponding. But the most of the disquiet which men suffer is from insignificant causes; as a lion attacked by some beast of prey turns easily around and slays him, yet runs roaring through the forests at the alighting on his brawny neck of a few insects. You meet some great loss in business with comparative composure; but you can think of petty trickeries inflicted upon you, which arouse all your capacity for wrath, and remain in your heart an unbearable annoyance. If you look back upon your life you will find that the most of the vexations and disturbances of spirit which you felt were produced by circumstances that were not worthy of notice. If you want to be happy you must not care for trifles. Do not be too minute in your inspection of the treatment you receive from others. Who cares whether Mordecai bows when you pass or stands erect and stiff as a cedar? That woodman would not make much clearing in the forest who should stop to bind up every little bruise and scratch he received in the thicket; nor will that man accomplish much for the world or the Church who is too watchful and appreciative of petty annoyances.
II. Again, I learn from the life of this man that worldly vanity and sin are very anxious to have piety bow before them. Haman was a fair emblem of entire worldliness, and Mordecai the representative of unflinching godliness. When, therefore, proud Haman attempted to compel a homage which was not felt, he only did what the world ever since has tried to do, when it would force our holy religion in any way to yield to its dictates. Paul might have retained the favour of his rulers and escaped martyrdom if he had only been willing to mix up his Christian faith with a few errors. His unbending Christian character was taken as an insult. Faggot and rack and halter in all ages have been only the different ways in which the world has demanded obeisance. Why was it that the Platonic philosophers of early times, as well as Toland, Spinoza, and Bolingbroke of later days, were so madly opposed to Christianity? Certainly not because it favoured immoralities, or arrested civilisation, or dwarfed the intellect. The genuine reason, whether admitted or not, was because the religion of Christ paid no respect to their intellectual vanities. Blount, and Boyle, and the host of infidels hatched out during the reign of Charles II., could not keep their patience, because, as they passed along, there were sitting in the gate of the church Christian men who would not bend an inch in respect to their philosophies. Reason, scornful of Gods Word, may foam and strut with the proud wrath of a Haman, and attempt to compel the homage of the good, but in the presence of men and angels it shall be confounded. When science began to make its brilliant discoveries there were great facts brought to light that seemed to overthrow the truth of the Bible. The archaeologist with his crowbar, and the geologist with his hammer, and the chemist with his batteries, charged upon the Bible. Thus it was that the discoveries of science seemed to give temporary victory against God and the Bible, and for awhile the Church acted as if she were on a retreat; but when all the opposers of God and truth had joined in the pursuit, and were sure of the field, Christ gave the signal to His Church, and, turning, they drove back their foes in shame. There was found to be no antagonism between nature and revelation. The universe and the Bible were found to be the work of the same hand, strokes of the same pen, their authorship the same God.
III. Again, learn that pride goeth before a fall. Was any man ever so far up as Haman, who tumbled so far down? Yes, on a smaller scale every day the world sees the same thing. Against their very advantages men trip into destruction. When God humbles proud men, it is usually at the moment of their greatest arrogancy. If there be a man in your community greatly puffed up with worldly success, you have but to stand a little while and you will see him come down. You say, I wonder that God allows that man to go on riding over others heads and making great assumptions of power. There is no wonder about it. Haman has not yet got to the top. The arrows from the Almightys quiver are apt to strike a man when on the wing.
IV. Again, this Oriental tale reminds us that wrongs we prepare for others return upon ourselves. The gallows that Haman built for Mordecai became the prime ministers strangulation. Robespierre, who sent so many to the guillotine, had his own head chopped off by the horrid instrument. The evil you practise on others will recoil upon your own pate. Slanders come home. Oppressions and cruelties come home. When Charles I., who had destroyed Stratford, was about to be beheaded, he said, I basely ratified an unjust sentence, and the similar injustice I am now to undergo is a sensible retribution for the punishment I inflicted on an innocent man. Hamans gallows came a little late, but it came. Opportunities fly in a straight line, and just touch us as they pass from eternity to eternity; but the wrongs we do others fly in a circle, and however the circle may widen out, they are sure to come back to the point from which they started. They are guns that kick! Furthermore, let the story of Haman teach us how quickly turns the wheel of fortune. So we go up, and so we come down. You seldom find any man twenty years in the same circumstances. Of those who, in political life, twenty years ago were the most prominent, how few remain in conspicuity! Of those who were long ago successful in the accumulation of property, how few have not met with reverses! while many of those who then were straitened in circumstances now hold the bonds and the bank-keys of the nation. Of all fickle things in the world, Fortune is the most fickle. Every day she changes her mind, and woe to the man who puts any confidence in what she promises or proposes! She cheers when you go up, and she laughs when you come down.
V. Again, this Hamans history shows us that outward possessions and circumstances cannot make a man happy. There are to-day more aching sorrows under crowns of royalty than under the ragged caps of the houseless. Much of the worlds affluence and gaiety is only misery in colours. Many a woman seated in the street at her apple-stand is happier than the great bankers. The mountains of worldly honour are covered with perpetual snow. Tamerlanc conquered half the world, but could not subdue his own fears. Ahab goes to bed sick because Naboth will not sell him his vineyard. The souls happiness is too large a craft to sail up the stream of worldly pleasure. As ship-carpenters say, it draws too much water. This earth is a bubble, and it will burst. This life is a vision, and it will soon pass away. Time! It is only a ripple, and it breaketh against the throne of judgment. Mordecai will only have to wait for his day of triumph. It took all the preceding trials to make a proper background for his after successes. The scaffold built for him makes all the more imposing and picturesque the horse into whose long white mane he twisted his fingers at the mounting. You want at least two misfortunes, hard as flint, to strike fire. Heavy and long-continued snows in winter are signs of good crops next summer. So many have yielded wonderful harvests of benevolence and energy because they were for a long while snowed under. We must have a good many hard falls before we learn to walk straight. It is on the black anvil of trouble that men hammer out their fortunes. Sorrows take up men on their shoulders and enthrone them. Tonics are nearly always bitter. Men, like fruit-trees, are barren unless trimmed with sharp knives. They are like wheat–all the better for the flailing. It required the prison darkness and chill to make John Bunyan dream. Mordecai despised at the gate is only predecessor of Mordecai exalted. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
Retribution
A bishop said to Louis XI. of France, Make an iron cage for all those who do not think as we do–an iron cage in which the captive can neither lie down nor stand straight up. It was fashioned–the awful instrument of punishment. After a while the bishop offended Louis XI., and for fourteen years he was in that same cage, and could neither lie down nor stand up. It is a poor rule that will not work both ways. With that measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
The purpose of God
The wheels in a watch or a clock move contrary one to another, some one way, some another, yet all serve the intent of the workman, to show the time, or to make the clock to strike. So in the world the providence of God may seem to run cross to His promises. One man takes this way, another runs that way. Good men go one way, wicked men another. Yet all in conclusion accomplish the will, and centre in the purpose of God, the great creator of all things. (R. Sibbes.)
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Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 7. Haman stood up] He rose from the table to make request for his life, as soon as the king had gone out; and then he fell on his knees before the queen, she still sitting upon her couch.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Went into the palace garden; partly, as disdaining the company and sight of so ungrateful and audacious a person; partly, to cool and allay his troubled and inflamed spirits; and partly, to consider within himself the heinousness of Hamans crime, and the mischief which himself had done by his own rashness, and what punishment was fit to be inflicted upon so great a delinquent.
He saw, by the violent commotion of the kings mind and passions.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
7. he saw that there was evildetermined against him by the kingWhen the king of Persiaorders an offender to be executed, and then rises and goes into thewomen’s apartment, it is a sign that no mercy is to be hoped for.Even the sudden rising of the king in anger was the same as if he hadpronounced sentence.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And the king, arising from the banquet of wine in his wrath, went into the palace garden,…. Not being able to bear the sight of Haman, who had done such an injury both to himself and to the queen; as also that his wrath might subside, and he become more composed and sedate, and be able coolly to deliberate what was fitting to be done in the present case:
and Haman stood up to make request for his life to Esther the queen; hoping that her tender heart might be wrought upon to show mercy to him, and be prevailed on to entreat the king to spare his life; and this request he made in the most submissive manner:
for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king; he perceived it both by the king’s countenance, by the rage he went out in, and by the threatening words which he very probably uttered as he went out.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The king in his wrath arose from the banquet of wine, and went into the garden of the house ( is here a pregnant expression, and is also combined with ); but Haman remained standing to beg for his life to Queen Esther ( as in Est 4:8), “for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king” ( , completed, i.e., determined; comp. 1Sa 20:7, 1Sa 20:9; 1Sa 25:17, and elsewhere); and hence that he had no mercy to expect from him, unless the queen should intercede for him.
Est 7:8
The king returned to the house, and found Haman falling ( as in Jos 8:10; Deu 21:1, and elsewhere) at or on the couch on which Esther was (sitting), i.e., falling as a suppliant at her feet; and crediting Haman in the heat of his anger with the worst designs, he cried out: “Shall also violence be done to the queen before me in the house?” The infin. after the interrogatory particle signifies: Is violence to be done, i.e., shall violence be done? as in 1Ch 15:2 and elsewhere; comp. Ewald, 237, c. , to tread under foot, to subdue, used here in the more general sense, to offer violence. Without waiting for an explanation, the king, still more infuriated, passes sentence of death upon Haman. This is not given in so many words by the historian, but we are told immediately that: “as the word went out of the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face.” is not the speech of the king just reported, but the judicial sentence, the death warrant, i.e., the word to punish Haman with death. This is unmistakeably shown by the further statement: they covered Haman’s face. The subject is indefinite: the attendants present. To cover the face was indeed to begin to carry the sentence of death into execution. With respect to this custom, expositors appeal to Curtius, vi. 8. 22: Philetam – capite velato in regiam adducunt ; and Cicero, pro C. Rabirio iv. 13: I lictor, colliga manus, caput obnubito, arbori infelici suspendito .
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
The King Incensed Against Haman; Haman Hanged upon His Own Gallows. | B. C. 510. |
7 And the king arising from the banquet of wine in his wrath went into the palace garden: and Haman stood up to make request for his life to Esther the queen; for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king. 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. 9 And Harbonah, one of the chamberlains, said before the king, Behold also, the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman had made for Mordecai, who had spoken good for the king, standeth in the house of Haman. Then the king said, Hang him thereon. 10 So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king’s wrath pacified.
Here, I. The king retires in anger. He rose from table in a great passion, and went into the palace garden to cool himself and to consider what was to be done, v. 7. He sent not for his seven wise counsellors who knew the times, being ashamed to consult them about the undoing of that which he had rashly done without their knowledge or advice; but he went to walk in the garden awhile, to compare in his thoughts what Esther had now informed him of with what had formerly passed between him and Haman. And we may suppose him, 1. Vexed at himself, that he should be such a fool as to doom a guiltless nation to destruction, and his own queen among the rest, upon the base suggestions of a self-seeking man, without examining the truth of his allegations. Those that do things with self-will reflect upon them afterwards with self-reproach. 2. Vexed at Haman whom he had laid in his bosom, that he should be such a villain as to abuse his interest in him to draw him to consent to so wicked a measure. When he saw himself betrayed by one he had caressed he was full of indignation at him; yet he would say nothing till he had taken time for second thoughts, to see whether they would make the matter better or worse than it first appeared, that he might proceed accordingly. When we are angry we should pause awhile before we come to any resolution, as those that have a rule over our own spirits and are governed by reason.
II. Haman becomes a humble petitioner to the queen for his life. He might easily perceived by the king’s hastily flying out of the room that there was evil determined against him. For the wrath of a king, such a king, is as the roaring of a lion and as messengers of death; and now see, 1. How mean Haman looks, when he stands up first and then falls down at Esther’s feet, to beg she would save his life and take all he had. Those that are most haughty, insolent, and imperious, when they are in power and prosperity, are commonly the most abject and poor-spirited when the wheel turns upon them. Cowards, they say, are most cruel, and then consciousness of their cruelty makes them the more cowardly. 2. How great Esther looks, who of late had been neglected and doomed to the slaughter tanquam ovis–as a sheep; now her sworn enemy owns that he lies at her mercy, a d begs his life at her hand. Thus did God regard the low estate of his handmaiden and scatter the proud in the imagination of their hearts,Luk 1:48; Luk 1:51. Compare with this that promise made to the Philadelphian church (Rev. iii. 9), I will make those of the synagogue of Satan to come and to worship before thy feet and to know that I have loved thee. The day is coming when those that hate and persecute God’s chosen ones would gladly be beholden to them. Give us of your oil. Father Abraham, send Lazarus. The upright shall have dominion in the morning.
III. The king returns yet more exasperated against Haman. The more he thinks of him the worse he thinks of him and of what he had done. It was but lately that every thing Haman said and did, even that which was most criminal, was taken well and construed to his advantage; now, on the contrary, what Haman did that was not only innocent, but a sign of repentance, is ill taken, and, without colour of reason, construed to his disadvantage. He lay in terror at Esther’s feet, to beg for his life. What! (says the king) will he force the queen also before me in the house? Not that he thought he had any such intention, but having been musing on Haman’s design to slay the queen, and finding him in this posture, he takes occasion from it thus to vent his passion against Haman, as a man that would not scruple at the greatest and most impudent piece of wickedness. “He designed to slay the queen, and to slay her wish me in the house; will he in like manner force her? What! ravish her first and then murder her? He that had a design upon her life may well be suspected to have a design upon her chastity.”
IV. Those about him were ready to be the instruments of his wrath. The courtiers that adored Haman when he was the rising sun set themselves as much against him now that he is a falling star, and are even glad of an occasion to run him down: so little sure can proud men be of the interest they think they have. 1. As soon as the king spoke an angry word they covered Haman’s face, as a condemned man, not worthy any more either to see the king or to be seen by him; they marked him for execution. Those that are hanged commonly have their faces covered. See how ready the servants were to take the first hint of the king’s mind in this matter. Turba Romae sequitur fortunam, et semper et odit damnatos–The Roman populace change as the aspects of fortune do, and always oppress the fallen. If Haman be going down, they all cry, “Down with him.” 2. One of those that had been lately sent to Haman’s house, to fetch him to the banquet, informed the king of the gallows which Haman had prepared for Mordecai, v. 9. Now that Mordecai is the favourite the chamberlain applauds him–he spoke good for the king; and, Haman being in disgrace, every thing is taken notice of that might make against him, incense the king against him, and fill up the measure of his iniquity.
V. The king gave orders that he should be hanged upon his own gallows, which was done accordingly, nor was he so much as asked what he had to say why this judgment should not be passed upon him and execution awarded. The sentence is short–Hang him thereon; and the execution speedy–So they hanged Haman on the gallows, v. 10. See here, 1. Pride brought down. He that expected every one to do him homage is now made an ignominious spectacle to the world, and he himself sacrificed to his revenge. God resists the proud; and those whom he resists will find him irresistible. 2. Persecution punished. Haman was upon many accounts a wicked man, but his enmity to God’s church was his most provoking crime, and for that the God to whom vengeance belongs here reckons with him, and, though his plot was defeated, gives him according to the wickedness of his endeavours, Ps. xxviii. 4. 3. Mischief returned upon the person himself that contrived it, the wicked snared in the work of his own hands,Psa 7:15; Psa 7:16; Psa 9:15; Psa 9:16. Haman was justly hanged on the very gallows he had unjustly prepared for Mordecai. If he had not set up that gallows, perhaps the king would not have thought of ordering him to be hanged; but, if he rear a gallows for the man whom the king delights to honour, the thought is very natural that he should be ordered to try it himself, and see how it fits him, see how he likes it. The enemies of God’s church have often been thus taken in their own craftiness. In the morning Haman was designing himself for the robes and Mordecai for the gallows; but the tables are turned: Mordecai has the crown, Haman the cross. The Lord is known by such judgments. See Pro 11:8; Pro 21:18.
Lastly, The satisfaction which the king had in this execution. Then was the king’s wrath pacified, and not till then. He was as well pleased in ordering Haman to be hanged as in ordering Mordecai to be honoured. Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to take vengeance on. God saith of wicked men (Ezek. v. 13), I will cause my fury to rest upon them, and I will be comforted.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Haman Executed, Verses 7-10
What raised the wrath of Ahasuerus to such a high pitch? Was not he himself involved in the plot against the Jews which now, he finds, threatens his beautiful queen? Perhaps that is the very thing which made him so angry. Haman had made a fool of him. The king had trusted his prime minister too far, and had not investigated the massive consequences involved. True, Haman probably never suspected the queen was a Jewess. He may never have realized the effects of Haman’s proposed genocide before. He had his own naivete to blame, and Haman had taken advantage of it.
In his anger Ahasuerus rushed outside to the palace garden to consider what should be done. Suddenly his chief minister is his enemy. A critical decision must be made promptly and he needed to get alone to think. Haman was desperately afraid, and took advantage of the time to appeal to Esther for his life. He prostrated himself on the couch where she was, hoping for her mercy. There he lay when the king came in again. Suddenly the evilness of the man must have registered on the king also. Certainly he did not believe Haman was attempting to seduce the queen, but he now realized the utter depravity of one who could consign hundreds of thousands of innocent people to obliteration. The king’s charge was in keeping with Haman’s character, and its utterance was the sentence of death.
They placed the hood of condemnation over the face of Haman. Harbonah, the chamberlain there, told Ahasuerus of the seventy-five foot gallows erected but the night before to hang Mordecai, who had done good to the king. Haman had digged a pit, and fallen into it himself. The king ordered the culprit hanged on his own gallows. (Cf. Pro 28:10.) So they hanged Haman on his gallows he had prepared for Mordecai, to suffer the slow, torturous death of a Persian crucifixion, and the king’s wrath was cooled.
Would it not have been gracious for Esther to spare Haman’s life? One might think so, but ft may not have been possible had she desired to do so. His offense was now against the king, who may not have been so forgiving even had Esther requested it. His condemnation was in keeping with ancient law. Even the law of Moses required the punishment of one with the penalty his false charges would have provoked on his intended victim (Deu 19:15-21). But in the present age of grace mercy is more apt to be applied as a demonstration of God’s mercy on men by Christ (Rom 11:29-32).
A few lessons to be gleaned: 1) in the end swift judgment will befall the wicked (Heb 10:26-27); 2) it is a dramatic moment when God gives His people victory over Satan; 3) listening to the wicked will make even great leaders appear fools; 4) only God can grant fullness of mercy, and only He can forgive the guilty.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.]
Est. 7:7.] The king went into the palace garden in order to recover from the first burst of anger, and to consider what was to be done with Haman. He stood up and besought Esther to shield him from the kings fury.
Est. 7:8. Haman was fallen upon the bed] In the wild emotion and alarm of the moment he had thrown himself upon the couch or divan on which Esther reclined at the banquet, and was supplicating for his life. Will he force the queen] Of course the king did not believe his own words. But he meant to tax Haman with a further offence in not sufficiently respecting the person of the queen, and he thereby suggested to the attendants his instant execution.Rawlinson. Covered Hamans face] The covering of the face was probably the beginning of the execution of the death sentence. (Compare Curtius: They brought Philetas with covered head into the palace.) Even old interpreters remind us of the sentence in Cicero: Lictor, bind his hands, veil his head, hang him on the hapless tree. However, only mentioned here as a Persian custom.
Est. 7:9. Harbonah said] This eunuch had been many years in Xerxes service. Behold also, the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman had made for Mordecai, &c.] may not imply that the other servants, or even Harbonah himself, had already brought accusations against Haman, and, in addition, would also reproach him with the erection of this gallows; but, from Harbonahs views, it points out the most appropriate means at hand offered by the prepared gallows for the fate of Haman. This is more significant against Haman. In giving prominence to the fact that Mordecai was the one who spoke well for the king by revealing the plot against the kings life, he intimates that it was more fit for Haman to grace the gallows than the one for whom it was originally erected.Lange. In all the range of literature we find no more signal display of righteous retribution than in the death of Haman.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH. Est. 7:7; Est. 7:10
THE FEAR, THE FOLLY, AND THE DOOM OF THE EVIL-DOER
After Ahasuerus had heard Esthers accusation, he went out into the palace garden. Wrath was in his countenance; wrath in his hasty tread. The sweet air of the palace garden, laden with rich odours, did not allay his anger. No soft music was found strong enough to drive away the evil spirit. Angry he went forth, and angry he returned. The offence was of too grave a character to be thus easily forgotten. It is not for us here to conjecture how far Ahasuerus might have gone on the line of forgiveness. Perhaps it was needful for the interests of his government that this bad man (Haman) should be at once brought to judgment. In human codes the boundary line of forgiveness is soon reached. In the Divine administration there is the exercise of forgiveness on a vast scale. But even there we seem to find a limit. If men reject all the Divinely-appointed means for obtaining pardon, there only remaineth a certain fearful looking for of judgment. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? Men must not trifle with the Divine nature. God is merciful, but God is just. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found.
I. The evil-doer receives warning. Haman saw that there was evil determined against him by the king. At present Haman had not ascertained the extent and the nature of the evil; but he clearly heard the sound of the avenging deity, though his feet might be shod with wool. The wrath on the kings countenance and the guilt in Hamans soul both tended to give him awful warning. Evil-doers receive warning. Nature gives warning. She declares that evil-doing must bring damage sooner or later. She is stern, and will not suffer her great laws to be violated with impunity. Revelation gives warning. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The wages of sin is death. History gives warning. The warnings too are given long before it is too late. The evil-doer when meeting the doom of his crimes will not be able justly to say, Had I known only in time! had some voice only spoken early enough to arrest me in the career of crime! The voices do speak, but the evil-doer turns a deaf ear. Oh, let us listen to every warning voice; let us be wise in time. Haman now heard the warning voice, but it was almost too late. But it may not yet be too late for us. Hear, and your soul shall live.
II. The foolish evil-doer works his own destruction. Perhaps anything that Haman could have done at this crisis would not have been efficacious to avert his awful doom. May we not suppose, however, that if Esther had seen the signs of genuine repentance in Haman, and had heard from his lips a sincere confession of his baseness and of his guilt, she would have done something for his pardon? But he did not take this course. He was found by the king in a position that tended to excite still more the kings wrath. The very means that Haman took to save his life was the means of bringing about his speedy execution. All through this history Haman is seen working for his own destruction, though he thought he was working for the destruction of his enemies. Sinners work their own destruction, and bring upon themselves their own awful doom. In this connection we may rightly speak of the inexorable nature of law. It is a dreadful thing to sin against the great laws of nature and of revelation. Our God is a consuming fire. We bring upon ourselves our own punishment. In this sense we are the dread arbiters of our own fearful fate.
III. The evil-doer raises striking evidence of his own guilt. Behold also, the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman had made for Mordecai, who had spoken good for the king, standeth in the house of Haman. Crafty as Haman might be, he was not crafty enough to keep his vile purpose a secret. It was evidently well known for whom the gallows was intended. Haman in raising the gallows was preparing a terrible and irresistible evidence against himself. Facts are stubborn things, and whatever poor Haman might attempt to say in his own defence, he could not talk down the gallows raised fifty cubits high. There it was to speak for itself, and to condemn the guilty Haman. How often in life do we see the evil-doer making a gallows fifty cubits high! The sinner unwittingly writes bitter things against himself, and the writing is brought forth in an evil hour to his condemnation. Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow: wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury?
IV. The evil-doer is practically his own executioner. So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. We must pity Haman in his direful doom; still we feel as if there was a certain fitness in the case. Our natures approve the law of retribution. We seem to feel that unblushing crime should not go unpunished. The course and the doom of Haman may not be the exact counterpart of every evil-doers course and doom; yet there is here portrayed a great general law which we would do well to note with all seriousness. When we come to harm on account of our sins, we are too apt to blame our fellows, to blame our circumstances, to blame the devil. We ought to blame ourselves. We only get hung on the gallows we ourselves have erected. Be sure your sin will find you out. Let us at once proceed, by repenting of our pride, our hate, and our jealousy, to destroy the gallows. Let us look by faith to the cross, and all that is signified thereby, and then any other cross raised by sinful folly will be diverted of its power to do us lasting damage.
Then was the kings wrath pacified. The flattering minion was removed out of his sight. The projector of wholesale murder was himself destroyed. Ahasuerus himself was not safe so long as Haman was allowed to exist. Wrath, however, is cruel, and nothing but Hamans death could pacify the angry king. If it must needs be that capital punishment be the portion of certain transgressors, the sentence should not be carried out in order to pacify wrath, but to meet the demands of justice, as a deterrent to crime, and to promote the public safety. Well were it if we could dispense with the gallows. Well were it if strict justice tempered by mercy always administered the law to transgressors. Gods laws are always wisely and righteously administered. Never yet can it be said that Gods wrath was pacified by the execution of any sinner. The crucifixion of Jesus Christ was not an exhibition of Divine wrath, but of Divine love. It was the method by which God could be just, and yet the Justifier of the believer. It may be a mystery, but there is in the remedial scheme of the gospel more mercy than mystery.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Est. 7:7-10
The king indeed is unjust in fixing this calumny upon Haman; but God is just, who permits the righteous penalty to fall upon him for his lies and calumnies, inasmuch as he would have brought violence upon other virgins or matrons and would have plunged the whole people of God into ruin. Accordingly, it is written, By what one sinneth, by that also shall he be punished; and again, With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured unto you again.Feuardent.
It must also so happen in the just judgment of God, that since the highest minister of state had caused the highest gallows to be erected, in accordance with his greatness of feeling and state position and honours, before which all bowed in adoration to the earth, he should himself be elevated above all other people that were hung.Starke.
Said before the king.] Not a man opens his mouth to speak for Haman, but all against him. Had the cause been better, thus it would have been. Every cur is ready to fall upon the dog that he seeth worried; every man ready to pull a branch from the tree that is falling. Cromwell had experience of this when once he fell into displeasure by speaking against the kings match with Lady Catherine Howard, in defence of Queen Anne of Cleve, and discharge of his conscience, for the which he suffered death, Stephen Gardiner being the chief engineer. Had Hamans cause been like his, albeit he had found as few friends to intercede for him as Cromwell, yet he might have died with as much comfort as he did. But he died more like to the Lord Hungerford, of Hatesby, who was beheaded together with the noble Cromwell; but neither so Christianly suffering nor so quietly dying for his offence committed against nature, viz., buggery. Cromwell exhorted him to repent, and promised him mercy from God; but his heart was hardened, and so was this wicked Hamans. God, therefore, justly set off all hearts from him in his greatest necessity; and now, to add to his misery, brings another of his foul sins to light, that he might be the more condignly cut off.Trapp.
It was an excellent saying of Ambrose, If thou canst not hide thyself from the sun, which is Gods minister of light, how impossible will it be to hide thyself from him, whose eyes are ten thousand times brighter than the sun! You know what Ahasuerus, that great monarch, said concerning Haman: What, saith he, will he force the queen before me in the house? There was killing emphasis in the words before me. Will he force the queen before me? What, will he dare to commit such villany, and I stand and look on? O sirs, to sin in the sight of God is a thing that he looks upon as the greatest affront, and as the highest indignity that can possibly be done unto him.Brooks.
The thought which is at once suggested to our minds in connection with Hamans execution on the gallows which he had himself prepared for Mordecai, is that of a righteous retribution in providence, a subject which cannot be too delicately handled, nor too cautiously and reservedly applied. There are some who are always ready to interpret calamity as a retribution in providence, with the greatest self-blindness as to their own sins. Let a terrible accident happen to a railway train travelling on sabbath day, and some will be found to describe it as a retribution in providence against sabbath desecration. Alas! Do they never desecrate the sabbath, that they should be so ready to give a stone for bread to the wounded and mourning? Let a theatre, or some other place of public resort not generally approved of, be destroyed by fire, and many lives lost, and some will discourse upon it, in like manner, as a retribution in providence. Do they not reflect that buildings devoted to useful manufacture, and even to the worship of God, have been destroyed in the same way, and with similar disastrous results? If they would not venture to apply the rule in the one case, why should they do it in the other? Cowper has put the doctrine of a universal providence in two lines, with which we must all agree:
Happy the man who sees a God employed
In all the good and ill that chequer life.
But when men sit in judgment upon Gods judgments, and apply the law of retribution in particular cases, according to their own notions of things, they are in danger, like Jobs friends, of mistaking the chastisement of Gods children for signal marks of his disapprobation, or, like the barbarians on the island of Melita, who conceived that Paul must be a murderer when the viper had come out of the fire and fastened on his hand, but who, when he had shaken it off and suffered no harm, changed their minds, and said that he must be a god. Better for us rather to make the personal application of all the calamities which occur in the providence of God recommended in the Gospel by Luke, and read therein these words of solemn warning:Nay; but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
But whilst we cannot consent to men becoming the interpreters of Gods judgments in particular cases, we have a great law of retribution clearly indicated as well in the Bible as in profane history. We may call the illustrations of it which might be adduced simply coincidences; but the sin is so conspicuously stamped on the punishment that we can hardly avoid connecting the one with the other in providence. The guilty Agagite takes the place of the unoffending Jew, and bears the punishment which he had prepared for him. Josephs brethren sold Joseph into Egypt, and by-and-by they were themselves carried down into Egypt. Adoni-bezek had the thumbs and great toes of threescore and ten kings cut off, and when he himself was taken in battle Judah and Simeon had his own thumbs and great toes cut off, moving him to make this confession: As I have done, so God hath requited me. Herod the Great massacred the innocent little children of Bethlehem, and he himself was overwhelmed with agonizing physical disease, and his numerous family was extinct in a hundred years. Pontius Pilate, who condemned Christ to death; Judas, who betrayed him; and Nero, who slew thousands of early believers, committed suicide, though the last had to call in the aid of others to complete what he had begun. Almost all the prominent persecutors of the Church have died deaths of violence. Maximum put out the eyes of thousands of Christians, and afterwards he himself died of a fearful disease of the eyes, in great agony. And Valens, who caused fourscore presbyters to be sent to sea in a ship and burnt alive, himself, defeated by the Goths, fled to a cottage where he was burnt alive. Still more comprehensively we have the Apostle Paul declaring, with reference to those who received not the love of the truth that they might be saved, that they would be smitten with judicial blindness; and for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie.
In avoiding Scylla we must beware of falling into Charybdis; in refusing to become interpreters of particular calamitous providences, we must be on our guard against denying a retributive providence altogether. No doubt this specialty in providence comprehends both nations and individuals, noiselessly overtaking evil-doers and causing them to reap as they had sown, according to the proverbThe feet of the avenging deity are shod with wool. Without commotion or tumult the punishment grows out of the sin, and the transgressor is visited according to his iniquity. In most instances it requires no direct interference of the Almighty, but follows, surely and directly, from the operation of great natural and spiritual laws. Fret not thyself because of evil-doers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity; for they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.
Then a reflection of a different kind is suggested by the feelings of the king after the execution of Haman: Then was the kings wrath pacified. Modern theology is apt to drift away into mere sentimental views of the character of God. It may be a reaction from the harsh and terrible aspects in which the Divine character was presented in a former age, giving to childhood and youth such an idea of God as was fitted rather to excite terror than inspire with reverence and love. From one extreme, however, we must be careful not to dart to another, equally false and dangerous. We must not conceive of God as simply all love and mercy. We cannot indeed exalt too highly these perfections of his nature, but we must not allow them to shut out from view other attributes of his being. Let these alone have possession of our minds, and we might suppose that there was no need for God being reconciled to sinners, but only of them being reconciled to him; that he is all love and mercy toward them if they would only return to him, and that he will be their Father if they will only submit to be his children. There is a measure of truth in this kind of reasoning, but it is only a half-truth; and a half-truth is sometimes more perilous than unmitigated error. He assures us that he is angry with the wicked every day; that he is a consuming fire; and that he will by no means clear the guilty. Though his wrath against the wicked has nothing of vindictiveness or revenge in it, yet is it none the less, but the more, wrathtremendous wrath. If a king is merciful and loving, as well as just and righteous, his wrath is all the more to be dreaded; and whilst God is infinitely loving and merciful, he cannot allow his love and mercy to overreach his justice, righteousness, and truth. So long as we keep in view only the paternal aspects of the Divine character, we might see in the cross of Christ nothing more than an exhibition of love and mercy, to attract, if possible, the regards of mankind sinners; no real satisfaction offered for sinthe just for the unjustbut only a proof and pledge that God was kindly disposed toward them if they would only return to him. How defective and misleading would be such a contemplation of the cross of Christ! Besides the expression of love, it is the endurance by One who was able to bear it, because he had no sin, of the penalty and curse of sin in the room of all who believe. So that only when we come to God, presenting in faith the atonement for sin which Christ made on Calvary, is Gods wrath pacified, and the sinner not simply reconciled to him, but he also to the sinner. The claims of his law and the demands of his righteous government are only and fully satisfied in Christ. Accordingly, we cannot tell the sinner that Gods wrath is pacified towards him so long as he has not accepted Christ, and is not to be found in him. It is true that God is all loving and merciful; but his love and mercy cannot reach him so long as he is outside of Christ. Apart from Christ, through unbelief, he cannot be otherwise surveyed than as exposed to wratha wrath which shall find its full manifestation in the decisions and allotments of the final day. But in Christ, received by faith, that wrath has already emptied itself and been exhausted in him, and for the true believer there are only love and mercylove and mercy, the fulness of which can be measured only by the greatness of the sacrifice made, in order that they might rest with him for ever. He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Then was the kings wrath pacified.McEwan.
As of one crucified, whose visage spake
Fell rancour, malice deep, wherein he died;
And round him Ahasuerus the great king;
Esther his bride; and Mordecai the just,
Blameless in word and deed.
Careys Dante.
Thus Pharaoh drowns the Hebrew males in a river; therefore is drowned himself with his army in a sea. He had laid insupportable burdens on Israel; God returns them with full weight, number, measure. When Israel cut off the thumbs and great toes of Adoni-bezek, hear the maimed king confess the equity of this judgment: Threescore and ten kings, having their thumbs and great toes cut off, gathered their meat under my table; as I have done, so God hath requited me. As proud Bajazet threatened to serve Tamerlane, being conquered,to imprison him in a cage of iron, and carry him about the world in triumph,so the Scythian, having took the bragging Turk, put him to the punishment himself had lessoned; carrying and carting him through Asia, to be scorned of his own people. Thus Haman is hanged on his own gallows. Perillus tries the trick of his own torment.Adams.
When Haman desires the ruin of the Jews, procures the kings commission, sends despatches to all the governors of the provinces, sets up a gibbet for Mordecai, and wants nothing but an opportunity to request the execution, he tumbles down to exchange his princes favours for an exaltation on the gallows. When the serpent increased his malicious cruelty, and cast out a flood against the Church, God makes the earth, the carnal world, to give her assistance, and repel the force that Satan used against her. The earth helped the woman. When multitudes shall gather together in the valley of decision, then shall the Lord roar out of Sion, and be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel. And when spiritual Egypt shall make a war against Christ, who sits upon the white horse, and combine all their force for the destruction of his people, then shall the beast and the false prophet be taken, and brought to their final ruin, and their force be broken in a lake of fire, as that of Egypt was in a sea of water. The time of their greatest fierceness shall be the time of Christs fury.Charnock.
Haman missed of his plot; he fell into danger; he fell into the same danger which he contrived for Mordecai; and was the means of Mordecais advancement. It had been enough to have woven a spiders web, which is done with a great deal of art, and yet comes to nothing; but to hatch a cockatrices egg, that brings forth a viper which stings to death, this is a double vexation. Yet thus God delighteth to catch the wise in the imagination of their own hearts, and to pay them in their own coin. The wicked carry a lie in their right hand; for they trust in man, who is but a lie; and, being liars themselves too, no marvel if their hopes prove deceitful, so that, while they sow the wind, they reap the whirlwind.
Mischievous attempts are successless in the long run; for did ever any harden themselves against God and prosper long? Let Cain speak, let Pharaoh, Haman, Ahithophel, Herod; let the persecutors of the Church for the first two hundred years, let all that ever bore ill-will towards Sion, speak, and they will confess they did but kick against the pricks, and dash against the rooks. The greatest torment of the damned spirit is, that God turns all his plots for the good of those he hates most. He tempted man to desire to become like God, that so he might ruin him; but God became man, and so restored him. God serveth himself of this arch-politician and all his instruments; they are but executioners of Gods will while they rush against it. Josephs brethren sold him that they might not worship him, and that was the very means whereby they came at length to worship him. God delights to take the oppressed partys part. Wicked men cannot do Gods children a greater pleasure than to oppose them, for by this means they help to advance them.Sibbes.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 7
Est. 7:7. The French king. By imploring mercy perhaps you may be saved, but by justifying the injury you cannot but be lost. As the French king, Francis the First, said to a woman kneeling and crying to him for justice, Stand up, woman, for justice I owe thee; if thou beggest anything, beg mercy. So if you request anything of God, let it be mercy, for he owes you justice; and in this point, God be merciful to you all.
Judge Jeffreys. Very cruel people are sometimes very cowardly. Judge Jeffreys could go through his black assize in the west of England, the terror of the land, manifesting the fury of a wild beast; but when the tide turned, and he saw nothing before him but ignominy and disgrace, he sank into a state of abject fear which was pitiable to see. Haman was afraid before the king and the queen? As he well may be. It is an awful moment. His life trembles in the balance. If the king keeps his couch he may be spared. If he rises up abruptly, and withdraws, he is doomed. The kings retirement is like passing solemn judgment. The custom has descended to our times, and the Shah of Persia, or, if not he, certainly some of his immediate predecessors, have condemned men to death in this way.Dr. Raleigh.
Case of retribution. Tamerlane the Great, having made war on Bajazet, Emperor of the Turks, overthrew him in battle, and took him prisoner. The victor gave the captive monarch at first a very civil reception; and, entering into familiar conversation with him, said, Now, king, tell me freely and truly what thou wouldest have done with me, had I fallen into thy power? Bajazet, who was of a fierce and haughty spirit, is said to have thus replied: Had the gods given unto me the victory, I would have enclosed thee in an iron cage, and carried thee about with me as a spectacle of derision to the world. Tamerlane wrathfully replied, Then, proud man, as thou wouldest have done to me, even so shall I do unto thee. A strong iron cage was made, into which the fallen emperor was thrust; and thus exposed like a wild beast, he was carried along in the train of his conqueror. Nearly three years were passed by the once mighty Bajazet in this cruel state of durance; and at last, being told that he must be carried into Tartary, despairing of then obtaining his freedom, he struck his head with such violence against the bars of his cage, as to put an end to his wretched life.Dr. Cheever.
Innocence vindicated. It is stated as a singular circumstance in the history of the holy and devoted John Graham, of Ardclach, that he quoted these words not long before his death: If these men die the common death of all men, or if they be visited after the visitation of all men, then the Lord had not sent me. He had been a victim to the foulest accusations, and driven from his ministerial charge. The utterance was fulfilled in mysterious ways. Those who had persecuted and calumniated him died off long ere old age; by accident, by sudden and fatal sickness, or by their own hands. Thus it has pleased God, on some occasions, to vindicate the reputation of a faithful servant by providences which none can dispute. Mordecais innocence was vindicated. His triumph was complete. Poor Haman was humiliated, defeated, and executed. If the history of human lives could be rightly interpreted and correctly written, startling and triumphant revelations would be made. It would be seen that the wicked do not always triumph. They cannot; for surely eternity will adjust the false measures of time, if time itself does not so rectify.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
B. Minister Doomed
TEXT: Est. 7:7-10
7
And the king arose in his wrath from the banquet of wine and went into the palace garden: and Haman stood up to make request for his life to Esther the queen; for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king.
8
Then the king returned out of the palace garden into the place of the banquet of wine; and Haman was fallen upon the couch whereon Esther was. Then said the king, Will he even force the queen before me in the house? As the word went out of the kings mouth, they covered Hamans face.
9
Then said Harbonah, one of the chamberlains that were before the king, Behold also, the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman hath made for Mordecai, who spake good for the king, standeth in the house of Haman. And the king said, Hang him thereon.
10
So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the kings wrath pacified.
Todays English Version, Est. 7:7-10
The king got up in a fury, left the room, and went outside to the palace gardens. Haman could see that the king was determined to punish him for this, so he stayed behind to beg Queen Esther for his life. He had just thrown himself down on Esthers couch to beg for mercy, when the king came back into the room from the gardens. Seeing this, the king cried out, Is this man going to rape the queen right here in front of me, in my own palace?
The king had no sooner said this than the eunuchs covered Hamans head. Then one of them, who was named Harbonah, said, Haman even went so far as to build a gallows at his house so that he could hang Mordecai, who saved Your Majestys life. And its seventy-five feet tall!
Hang Haman on it! the king commanded.
So Haman was hanged on the gallows that he had built for Mordecai. Then the kings anger cooled down.
COMMENTS
Est. 7:7-8 Faux Pas: The text pictures the king rising with suddenness and anger from the banquet. The banquet is called mishetteh of yayin or drinking bout of wine. In the feasts of Mesopotamian aristocracy food was not the main course; the time was mainly spent in drinking and eating desserts (cf. Herodotus 1:133; and Dan. 1:5rich food RSV; Dan. 5:1-4). The king strode angrily into the palace garden. He had been duped by this Haman who lied to him about the Jews being disobedient to Persian laws (cf. Est. 3:8). He knew his queen was aware he had been duped. Not only so, but he had been tricked into issuing an order to kill his beloved Esther! The king probably felt like killing Haman himself, but he bolted out into the palace garden to cool his anger and consider what he would do about his dilemma. He has issued a Persian law; the law of the Persians cannot be revoked; Haman has tricked him to order the death of his queen along with all the Jews; but Haman is second in the kingdomhis chief of staff as it were. What to do?
Meanwhile Haman began discretely at first to request that the queen spare his life. The Hebrew word is baqesh and is not quite as intense as the TEV beg. Since, however, discrete requesting did not move Esther, Haman proceeds to fall upon Esthers couch and implore her to spare his life. Haman knew the king well enough to interpret his actions. When the king rose angrily and strode into the palace garden, Haman knew he was in trouble.
Haman committed a serious faux pas (error, blunder, mistake) when he fell upon Esthers feasting couch. Apparently his only intention was to beg Esther to spare his life. He had no sooner fallen down beside her than the king entered the room having returned from the garden. The kings evaluation of what he saw is described by the Hebrew word likebosh which means to subdue by conquest. Actually there is another Hebrew word, shagal (cf. Isa. 13:16), which is nearer the English word rape. Did the king think Haman was trying to rape her as the TEV translates, or did he think Haman was trying to assault her as if to kill her and thus force her to grant him his life? We think the latter more likely describes Hamans action. Whether the king innocently or deliberately misinterpreted Hamans posture on Esthers couch we may only conjecture. Some think he could plainly see that Haman was not beating or choking the queen and therefore the king deliberately misinterpreted Hamans posture to justify his decision to kill Haman. Whatever the case, the kings mighty eunuchs took it as a signal that Haman was a doomed man and that he should be taken into custody to await execution. According to Roman historians Livy (1:26) and Cicero (4:13) and some of the Greek historians, it was customary to place a hood or covering over the face of a condemned man who was no longer worthy to see the light. The Greeks and Romans must have copied the practice from the Persians.
Est. 7:9-10 Finished: Harbonah was one of the seven chamberlains that served in the presence of the king (Est. 1:10) and was one of those sent to bring in Vashti. He apparently was well informed of Hamans plot to have Mordecai executed because he knew all about the tree 50 cubits high upon which Mordecai was to be impaled. This is the first time we are told that Haman had put the tree in the courtyard of his own house. This information adds a touch of sadistic barbarity to the characterization of Haman. He wanted to personally witness the gruesome death of his enemy Mordecai. Harbonah also knew that Morcdecai had spoken good toward the king in the past. He knew Mordecais persecution by Haman was not justified.
The king cried out immediately, Hang him thereon! Haman did not get a trial by a jury of his peers. There were no other witnesses called to confirm his guiltnone were needed. Esther had described him for what he was and the king knew it was true for the king himself had been deceived by the wicked man. Harbonahs information indicated Haman had a special grudge against Mordecai and had intended to enjoy executing Mordecai before the date set by the decree to exterminate the Jews,
But what Haman had planned for an innocent man, turned out to be his own fateand that justifiably. The writer of Proverbs said, Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein: and he that rolleth a stone, it will return upon him (Pro. 26:27). How true! Listen also to the words of the Psalmist, I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree. Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found. Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace. (Psa. 37:35-37).
We may learn the following lessons from this chapter:
1.
A nations best resources are industrious, obedient citizens.
2.
Money cannot replace people.
3.
Evil and wicked people who would unjustly harm others must be identified.
4.
Our actions are not always what they appear to be to those who see them through eyes of anger.
5.
The wickedness that men do and the good that men do is often observed by those least expected to have observed it. (e.g. Harbonah)
6.
Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein . . .
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(7) Evil.Heb., the evil, the doom.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
7. The palace garden The adjoining park, where the great feast was held nine years before. Est 1:5.
Haman stood up He rose from the banquet table, and besought Esther to shield him from the king’s fury. He knew that “the wrath of a king is as messengers of death.” Pro 16:14.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Haman Hanged on his own Gallows
v. 7. And the king, arising from the banquet of wine in his wrath, went into the palace garden, v. 8. Then the king returned out of the palace garden, v. 9. And Harbonah, one of the chamberlains, said before the king, Behold also, the gallows, fifty cubits high, which Haman had made for Mordecai, who had spoken good for the king, v. 10. So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Est 7:7. The kingwent into the palace-garden Partly as disdaining the company of so infamous a person as Haman; partly to cool and allay his spirit, boiling and struggling with a variety of passions; and partly to consider within himself the heinousness of Haman’s crime, the mischief which himself had nearly done by his own rashness, and what punishment was fit to be inflicted on so vile a miscreant.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
(7) And the king arising from the banquet of wine in his wrath went into the palace garden: and Haman stood up to make request for his life to Esther the queen; for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king. (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.
What passed in the king’s mind is not known; but it should seem that he returned with more anger, and the situation of Haman, fallen down before Esther in a way of supplication, tended but to inflame his passion the more. All was graciously arranged by the providence of the Lord, to hasten on the ruin of Haman. Behold, Reader! how wisely and securely the Lord orders all things for the accomplishment of the sacred purposes of his will.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Est 7:7 And the king arising from the banquet of wine in his wrath [went] into the palace garden: and Haman stood up to make request for his life to Esther the queen; for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king.
Ver. 7. And the king arising from the banquet of wine in his wrath ] As not able to abide the sight of such a wretch, he flings away in a chafe. This wrath of the king was to Haman a messenger of death; and so he apprehended it, as appears by that which followeth. Ashamed the king was, and vexed, that his favour and power had been so much abused, to the hazarding of the queen’s life, and the taking away of the lives of so many innocents. It troubled him also to consider how he had lost his love upon so unworthy a wretch, and trusted him with his secrets whom now he findeth treacherous, and all for his own ends. This king should first have fallen out with himself for his rashness, and then have said, as Alphonsus, that renowned king, did in a speech to the pope’s ambassadors; he professed that he did not so much wonder at his courtiers’ ingratitude to him, who had raised sundry of them from mean to great estates, as at his own to God. This one consideration would have cooled him better than the repeating of the Greek alphabet, or his taking a turn in the palace garden, before he passed sentence upon the delinquent. Rex amici memor, paulisper cunctatur, deliberandique gratia modicum secessit, saith Severus; that is, the king, mindful of the friendship that had been between him and Haman, maketh a pause, and retireth for a while, that he may deliberate with himself what to do. If these were the reasons, it was a piece of prudence in the king, for anger is known to be an evil counsellor, and as smoke in a man’s eyes hindereth his sight, so doth rash anger the use of reason. Hence wise men have refrained the act when angry. Plutarch telleth of one Architas, that displeased with his servants for their sloth, he flung from them, saying, Valete, quoniam vobis irascor Farewell, for I am angry with you, and may not therefore meddle with you. Vapulares, nisi irascerer, I would pay thee, but that I am displeased at thee, said Plato to a servant of his. And of Alphonsus, king of Arragon, it is reported, that vexed at his cupbearer’s stubbornness, he drew his dagger and ran after him; but before he came at him he threw away his dagger, ne iam prehensum iratus feriret, lest he should catch him and kill him in the heat of his anger (Val. Max. Christ. 1. 5, c. 20). This was better than Saul’s casting a javelin at Jonathan, Alexander’s killing of his friend Clitus and others in his drink, Herod’s commanding the keepers of the prison to execution, Act 12:19 . Whether Ahasuerus went into the garden (as Jonathan took his weapons and went into the field) to divert and mitigate his anger is uncertain. Possibly he might do that to edge and increase it. Of Tiberius it is said, that the more he meditated revenge the more did time and delay sharpen it; and the farther off he threatened, the heavier the stroke fell: Lentus in meditando tristioribus dictis atrocia facta coniungebat (Tacit.). Most certain it is, that Haman got little by the king’s going into the garden; for upon his return he was the more enraged, Nempe impiis omnia ad malum cooperantur, saith Lavater, to the wicked all things work together for the worse.
And Haman stood up to make request for his life
Discite iustitiam moniti, et non temnere sanctos.
Haman hoped that Esther would have interceded for him to the king, but there was little reason for it: a drowning man will catch hold on any twig. Esther knew him too well to befriend him so far. Let him have judgment without mercy, thinks she, who showed no mercy.
Quisquam nec ipsum supplicem,
Quamvis iacentem sublevet. Psal. cix.
Let him lie for me, and die according to his deserts. “A man that doeth violence to the blood of any person shall flee to the pit; let no man stay him,” Pro 28:17
For he saw that there was evil determined against him
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
life = soul. Hebrew. nephesh. App-13.
THAT THERE WAS EVIL DETERMINED AGAINST HIM. This is the fourth, and last, of the four acrostics exhibiting the name Jehovah in this book. See App-60.
the king. Note the Figure of speech Epanadiplosis, the verse beginning and ending with the same word, marking and emphasizing its importance.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
in his wrath: Est 1:12
Haman: Pro 14:19, Isa 60:14, Rev 3:9
for he saw: 1Sa 20:7, 1Sa 20:9, 1Sa 25:17, Psa 112:10, Pro 19:12, Dan 3:19
Reciprocal: Est 7:3 – let my life Son 2:4 – banqueting house
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Est 7:7. And the king arising from the banquet in his wrath As disdaining the company and sight of so ungrateful and audacious a person; went into the palace-garden To cool and allay his troubled and inflamed spirits, being in a great commotion by a variety of passions boiling and struggling within him; and to consider with himself the heinousness of Hamans crime, the mischief which himself had like to have done by his own rashness, and what punishment was fit to be inflicted on so vile a miscreant. Haman stood up to make request for his life to Esther He first stood up, and then fell down at her feet, to beg she would save his life, and take all he had. They that are most haughty, insolent, and imperious, when they are in power and prosperity, are commonly the most abject and poor-spirited, on a reverse of condition and circumstances. Esthers sworn enemy now owns that he lies at her mercy, and begs his life at her hand. Thus did God regard the low estate of his handmaiden. For he saw that there was evil determined against him This he discerned by the violent commotion of the kings mind, apparent in his countenance, and by his going out of the room in a great rage.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
7:7 And the king arising from the banquet of wine in his wrath [went] into the palace garden: and Haman stood up to make request for his life to Esther the queen; for he saw that there was {c} evil determined against him by the king.
(c) His conscience accused him that as he had conspired the death of innocents, so the vengeance of God would fall on him for the same.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Ahasuerus’ decision 7:7-10
The fact that his enemy sat in his presence at that very moment evidently made the king pause before issuing his obvious verdict. He wanted to think about it and walked out into his garden to do so. Upon returning, what he saw confirmed his decision. Haman found himself trapped between an angry king and an offended queen. Ironically, this enemy of the Jews ended up pleading for his life with a Jewess! [Note: Breneman, p. 350.] Haman fell at Esther’s feet to beg as she reclined, but the king misunderstood his intentions when he reentered the banquet room unexpectedly (Est 7:8).
". . . one must remember that in antiquity very strong feelings and strict regulations centered on the harem. . . . Had Haman knelt as much as a foot away from the queen’s couch, the king’s reaction could still have been justified." [Note: Moore, Esther, p. 72.]
"A Targum adds that the angel Gabriel pushed Haman as the king entered the room!" [Note: Huey, p. 826.]
Esther’s words had so predisposed Ahasuerus against Haman that the king viewed Haman’s posture in the worst possible light. Covering the face of a condemned person was evidently customary in such cases (Est 7:8; cf. Est 6:12). [Note: Gordis, p. 56; Baldwin, p. 93.]
Harbonah’s suggestion that they hang Haman on the gallows he had built for Mordecai drove the final nail in Haman’s coffin (Est 7:9). Certainly Ahasuerus had not known of Haman’s plan to execute the king’s savior. We do not know if Esther asked for mercy for Haman or not. In either case, the king carried out his execution (Est 7:10). Thus ended the life of one of the most hostile anti-Semitic Jew-haters that ever walked the stage of history (cf. Psa 9:15-16).