• Key
Verses
|-1-
|-2-
|-3-
|-4-
|-5-
|-6-
|-7-
|-8-
|-9-
|-10-
|-11-
|-12-
|-13-
|-14-|
Esther presents herself before the king, and finds
favour in his sight, 1,2.
He asks what her
request is, and promises to grant it, 3.
She
invites him and Haman to a banquet, which they
accept, 4,5.
He then desires to know her request;
and she promises to make it known on the morrow,
if they will again come to her banquet, 6-8.
Haman, though overjoyed at the manner in which he was
received by the queen, is indignant at the
indifference with which he is treated by
Mordecai, 9.
He goes home, and complains of this
conduct to his friends, and his wife Zeresh,
10-13.
They counsel him to make a gallows of fifty
cubits high, and to request the king that
Mordecai may be hanged on it, which they take for
granted the king will not refuse; and the gallows is
made accordingly, 14.
• AC Top â € ¢
SRB
JFB
OU
Verse 1 . On the third
day
Most probably the third day of
the fast which she has prescribed to Mordecai and
the Jews.
• AC Top â € ¢
SRB
JFB
OU
Verse 2 . She obtained favour
in his sight
The Septuagint
represents "the king as being at first greatly enraged
when he saw Esther, because she had dared to appear
before him unveiled, and she, perceiving this, was so
terrified that she fainted away; on which the king,
touched with tenderness, sprung from his throne, took
her up in his arms, laid the golden sceptre on her neck,
and spoke to her in the most endearing manner." This is
more circumstantial than the Hebrew, but is not
contrary to it.
The golden sceptre that was
in his hand.
That the kings of Persia
did wear a golden sceptre, we have the following
proof in Xenophon:
(οις ),
See Cyrop., lib. viii., p. 139, edit.
Steph. 1581. It is not, said Cyrus to his
son Cambyses, the GOLDEN SCEPTRE that saves
the kingdom; faithful friends are the truest and
safest sceptre of the empire.
• AC Top â € ¢
SRB
JFB
OU
Verse 4 . Let the king and
Haman come this day unto the banquet
It was necessary to invite Haman to prevent his
suspicion, and that he might not take any hasty step
which might have prevented the execution of the great
design.
• AC Top â € ¢
SRB
JFB
OU
Verse 6 . The banquet of
wine
At that part of the banquet when
the wine was introduced.
• AC Top â € ¢
SRB
JFB
OU
Verse 8 . I will do
to-morrow
She saw she was gaining on
the king's affections; but she was not yet sufficiently
confident; and therefore wished another interview, that
she might ingratiate herself more fully in the king's
favour, and thus secure the success of her design. But
Providence disposed of things thus, to give time for the
important event mentioned in the succeeding chapter.
• AC Top â € ¢
SRB
JFB
OU
Verse 9 . That he stood not up,
nor moved for him
This was certainly
carrying his integrity or inflexibility to the highest
pitch. But still we are left to conjecture that some
reverence was required, which Mordecai could not
conscientiously pay.
• AC Top â € ¢
SRB
JFB
OU
Verse 11 . The multitude of his
children
The Asiatic sovereigns
delight in the number of their children; and this is one
cause why they take so many wives and concubines.
• AC Top â € ¢
SRB
JFB
OU
Verse 13 . Yet all this
availeth me nothing
Pride will
ever render its possessor unhappy. He has such a high
opinion of his own worth, that he conceives himself
defrauded by every one who does not pay him all the
respect and homage which he conceives to be his due.
The soul was made for God, and nothing but God can
fill it and make it happy. Angels could not be
happy in glory, when they had cast off their
allegiance to their Maker. As soon as his heart had
departed from God, Adam would needs go to the
forbidden fruit, to satisfy a desire which was only an
indication of his having been unfaithful to his God.
Solomon, in all his glory, possessing every thing
heart could wish, found all to be vanity and
vexation of spirit; because his soul had
not God for its portion. Ahab, on the throne of
Israel, takes to his bed, and refuses to eat bread, not
merely because he cannot get the vineyard of
Naboth, but because he had not God in his heart, who
could alone satisfy its desires. Haman, on the
same ground, though the prime favourite of the king, is
wretched because he cannot have a bow from that
man whom his heart even despised. O, how distressing are
the inquietudes of vanity. And how wretched is the man
who has not the God of Jacob for his help, and in whose
heart Christ dwells not by faith!
• AC Top â € ¢
SRB
JFB
OU
Verse 14 . Let a gallows be
made of fifty cubits high
The word
ets, which we translate gallows, signifies
simply wood, a tree, or pole; and
this was to be seventy-five feet high, that he
might suffer the greater ignominy, and be a more public
spectacle. I believe impaling is here also meant.
See Clarke on Esther
2:23.
IN former times the Jews were accustomed to burn
Haman in effigy; and with him a wooden cross,
which they pretended to be in memory of that which he
had erected for the suspension of Mordecai; but which
was, in fact, to deride the Christian
religion. The emperors, Justinian and
Theodosius, abolished it by their edicts; and the
practice has ceased from that time, though the principle
from which it sprang still exists, with the same
virulence against Christianity and its glorious Author.
• AC Top
----- A WORK IN PROGRESS
NOTE: If your reference search placed you here it is indication that there are no Outline References for your search on this page. To return . . . click the link on the Key
above ~ Or
CLICK
- Esther 5:1.
• Key
• AC Top
Copyright Statement
The Adam Clarke Commentary is a derivative
of an electronic edition prepared by GodRules.net.
Bibliography
Information
Clarke, Adam.
"Commentary on Esther 5". "The Adam Clarke Commentary".
<http://www.studylight.org/com/acc/view.cgi?book=es&chapter=005>.
1832.
|
