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That night the king, not being able to sleep,
orders the chronicles of the kingdom to be read
to him; and finds there the record concerning the
discovery of the treason of the two eunuchs, made
by Mordecai, 1, 2.
He inquires whether Mordecai
had been rewarded, and was answered in the
negative, 3.
At this time Haman arrives, in order
to request the king's permission to hang
Mordecai; and being suddenly asked what should be
done to the man whom the king delighted to honour,
supposing that himself must be meant, presented the
ceremonial, 4-9.
The king orders him to give
Mordecai those honours; which he performs, to his
extreme mortification, 10, 11.
He informs his wife
Zeresh of these transactions, who predicts his
downfall, 12-13.
He is hurried by the eunuchs to
the queen's banquet, 14.
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Verse 1 . On that night could
not the king sleep
The Targum
says the king had a dream, which was as follows:-"And
the king sat one in the similitude of a man who spoke
these words to him: Haman desireth to slay thee, and to
make himself king in thy stead. Behold, he will come
unto thee early in the morning, to ask from thee the man
who rescued thee from death, that he may slay him: but
say thou unto Haman, What shall be done for the man
whose honour the king studieth? And thou wilt find that
he will ask nothing less from thee than the royal
vestments, the regal crown, and the horse on which the
king is wont to ride."
The records of the
chronicles
It may be well asked, Why
should the king, in such a perturbed state of mind, wish
such a dry detail, as chronicles afford, to be
read to him? But the truth is, as chronicles were
composed among the Persians, he could not have
brought before him any work more instructive, and more
entertaining; because they were all written in verse,
and were generally the work of the most eminent poets in
the empire. They are written in this way to the present
time; and the famous epic poem of the finest Persian
poet, Ferdusi, the Homer of India, is
nothing else than a collection of chronicles brought
down from the creation to the reign of Mohammed Ghezny,
in the beginning of the tenth century. After
thirty years' labour, he finished this poem,
which contained one hundred and twenty thousand
lines, and presented it to the Sultan Mahmoud, who had
promised to give him a dinar (eight shillings
and sixpence) for every line. The poem was finished
A.D. 984; and was formed out of compositions of a
similar nature made by former poets. This
chronological poem is written in all the harmony,
strength, and elegance of the most beautiful and
harmonious language in the universe; and what adds
greatly to its worth is, that it has few Arabic
words, with which the beautiful Persian tongue was
loaded, and in my opinion corrupted, after the
conquest of the major part of Asia by the Mohammedans.
The pedants of Hindoostan, whether they speak or
write, in prose or in verse, affect
this commixture of Arabic words; which, though they
subjugate them to Persian rules, are producing a
ruggedness in a language, which in Ferdusi, flows
deep and strong like a river of oil over every kind of
channel. Such, I suppose, was the chronicle that
was read to Ahasuerus, when his distractions prevented
his sleep, and his troubled mind required that soothing
repose which the gentle though powerful hand of poetry
is alone, in such circumstances, capable of affording.
Even our rough English ancestors had their
poetic chronicles; and, among many, the
chronicle of Robert of Gloucester is proof in
point. I need not add, that all that is real in
Ossian is of the same complexion.
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Verse 3 . What honour and
dignity hath been done to Mordecai
It
is certain he found nothing in the record; and had any
thing been done, that was the most likely place to find
it.
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Verse 4 . Who is in the
court?
This accords with the
dream mentioned by the Targum; and given above.
Now Haman was
come
This must have been very
early in the morning. Haman's pride and revenge
were both on the tenters to be gratified.
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Verse 6 . The king said unto
him
He did not give him time to make
his request; and put a question to him which, at the
first view, promised him all that his heart could wish.
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Verse 8 . Let the royal apparel
be brought
Pride and
folly ever go hand in hand. What he asked would
have been in any ordinary case against his own life: but
he wished to reach the pinnacle of honour: never
reflecting that the higher he rose, the more terrible
would be his fall. The royal apparel was never
worn but by the king: even when the king had lain them
aside, it was death to put them on. The Targum
has purple robes.
And the horse-and the crown
royal
Interpreters are greatly
divided whether what is called here the crown
royal be not rather an ornament worn on the
head of the horse, than what may be called the
royal crown. The original may be understood both
ways; and our version seems to favour the former
opinion; but I think it more likely that the royal crown
is meant; for why mention the ordinary trappings of the
royal steed?
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Verse 9 . One of the king's
most noble princes
Alas, Poor Haman!
Never was the fable of the dog and shadow more
literally fulfilled. Thou didst gape at the
shadow, and didst lose the substance.
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Verse 10 . Make haste, and
take the apparel-and do even so to
Mordecai
O mortifying reverse of
human fortune! How could Haman bear this? The
Targumist might speak according to nature
when he said that "Haman besought the king to kill him
rather than degrade him so." How astonishing is the
conduct of Divine providence in all this business! From
it we plainly see that there is neither counsel nor
wisdom against the Lord; and that he who digs a pit for
his neighbour, is sure to fall into it himself.
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Verse 12 . Mordecai came again
to the king's gate
He resumed his
former humble state; while Haman, ashamed to look up,
covered his face, and ran home to hide
himself in his own house. Covering the head
and face was a sign of shame and
confusion, as well as of grief, among most
people of the earth.
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Verse 13 . But shalt surely
fall before him.
The
Septuagint adds, (οις ),
for the
living God is with him. But this is a sentiment that
could scarcely be expected to proceed from the mouth of
heathens, such as these were.
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Verse 14 . Hasted to bring
Haman
There was a dreadful banquet
before him, of which he knew nothing: and he could have
little appetite to enjoy that which he knew was prepared
at the palace of Esther.
ONE grand design of this history is, to show that he
who lays a snare for the life of his neighbour, is most
likely to fall into it himself: for, in the course of
the Divine providence, men generally meet with those
evils in life which they have been the means of
inflicting on others: and this is exactly agreeable to
the saying of our Lord: "With what measure ye mete it
shall be measured to you withal."
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Copyright Statement
The Adam Clarke Commentary is a derivative
of an electronic edition prepared by GodRules.net.
Bibliography
Information
Clarke, Adam.
"Commentary on Esther 6". "The Adam Clarke Commentary".
<http://www.studylight.org/com/acc/view.cgi?book=es&chapter=006>.
1832.
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