Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary

on the Whole Bible

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Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708)

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E S T H E R

CHAP. VII.

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We are now to attend the second banquet to which the king and Haman

were invited: and there,

I. Esther presents her petition to the king for her life and the life

of her people,

ver. 1-4.

II. She plainly tells the king that Haman is the man who designed her

ruin and the ruin of all her friends,

ver. 5, 6.

III. The king thereupon gave orders for the hanging of Haman upon the

gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai, which was done accordingly,

ver. 7-10.

And thus, by the destruction of the plotter, a good step was taken

towards the defeating of the plot.

Haman Accused by Esther.	B. C. 510.

     

1 So the king and Haman came to banquet with Esther the queen.

  2 And the king said again unto Esther on the second day at the

banquet of wine, What is thy petition, queen Esther? and it

shall be granted thee: and what is thy request? and it shall be

performed, even to the half of the kingdom.

  3 Then Esther the queen answered and said, If I have found

favour in thy sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my

life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request:

  4 For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be

slain, and to perish. But if we had been sold for bondmen and

bondwomen, I had held my tongue, although the enemy could not

countervail the king’s damage.

  5 Then the king Ahasuerus answered and said unto Esther the

queen, Who is he, and where is he, that durst presume in his

heart to do so?

  6 And Esther said, The adversary and enemy is this wicked

Haman. Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen.

     

The king in humour, and Haman out of humour, meet at Esther’s table.

Now,

     

I. The king urged Esther, a third time, to tell him what her request

was, for he longed to know, and repeated his promise that it should be

granted,

v. 2.

If the king had now forgotten that Esther had an errand to him, and had

not again asked what it was, she could scarcely have known how to renew

it herself; but he was mindful of it, and now was bound with the

threefold cord of a promise thrice made to favour her.

     

II. Esther, at length, surprises the king with a petition, not for

wealth or honour, or the preferment of some of her friends to some high

post, which the king expected, but for the preservation of herself and

her countrymen from death and destruction,

v. 3, 4.

     

1. Even a stranger, a criminal, shall be permitted to petition for his

life; but that a friend, a wife, should have occasion to present such a

petition was very affecting: Let my life be given me at my petition,

and my people at my request. Two things bespeak lives to be very

precious, and fit to be saved, if innocent, at any expense:–

(1.) Majesty. If it be a crowned head that is struck at, it is time to

stir. Esther’s was such: “Let my life be given me. If thou hast

any affection for the wife of thy bosom, now is the time to show it;

for that is the life that lies at stake.”

(2.) Multitude. If they be many lives, very many, and those no way

forfeited, that are aimed at, no time should be lost nor pains spared

to prevent the mischief. “It is not a friend or two, but my

people, a whole nation, and a nation dear to me, for the saving of

which I now intercede.”

     

2. To move the king the more she suggests,

(1.) That she and her people were bought and sold. They had not sold

themselves by any offence against the government, but were sold to

gratify the pride and revenge of one man.

(2.) That it was not their liberty only, but their lives that were

sold. “Had we been sold” (she says) “into slavery, I would not have

complained; for in time we might have recovered our liberty, thought eh

king would have made but a bad bargain of it, and not have increased

his wealth by our price. Whatever had been paid for us, the loss of so

many industrious hands out of his kingdom would have been more damage

to the treasury than the price would countervail.” To persecute good

people is as impolitic as it is impious, and a manifest wrong to the

interests of princes and states; they are weakened and impoverished by

it. But this was not the case. We are sold (says she) to be

destroyed, to be slain, and to perish; and then it is time to

speak. She refers to the words of the decree

(ch. iii. 13),

which aimed at nothing short of their destruction; this would touch in

a tender part if there were any such in the king’s heart, and would

bring him to relent.

     

III. The king stands amazed at the remonstrance, and asks

(v. 5)

“Who is he, and where is he, that durst presume in his heart to do

so? What! contrive the murder of the queen and all her friends? Is

there such a man, such a monster rather, in nature? Who is he, and

where is he, whose heart has filled him to do so?” Or, Who hath

filled his heart. He wonders,

1. That any one should be so bad as to think such a thing; Satan

certainly filled his heart.

2. That any one should be so bold as to do such a thing, should have

his heart so fully set in him to do wickedly, should be so very daring.

Note,

(1.) It is hard to imagine that there should be such horrid wickedness

committed in the world as really there is. Who, where is he, that

dares, presumes, to question the being of God and his providence, to

banter his oracles, profane his name, persecute his people, and yet bid

defiance to his wrath? Such there are, to think of whom is enough to

make horror take hold of us,
Ps. cxix. 53.

(2.) We sometimes startle at the mention of that evil which yet we

ourselves are chargeable with. Ahasuerus is amazed at that wickedness

which he himself is guilty of; for he consented to that bloody edict

against the Jews. Thou art the man, might Esther too truly have

said.

     

IV. Esther plainly charged Haman with it before his face: “Here he is,

let him speak for himself, for therefore he is invited: The

adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman

(v. 6);

it is he that has designed our murder, and, which is worse, has basely

drawn the king in to be particeps criminis–a partaker of his

crime, ignorantly agreeing to it.”

     

V. Haman is soon apprehensive of his danger: He was afraid before

the king and queen; and it was time for him to fear when the queen

was his prosecutor, the king his judge, and his own conscience a

witness against him; and the surprising operations of Providence

against him that same morning could not but increase his fear. Now he

has little joy of his being invited to the banquet of wine, but finds

himself in straits when he thought himself in the fulness of his

sufficiency. He is cast into a net by his own feet.

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,
Luke i. 48, 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,
Ps. vii. 15, 16; ix. 15, 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

Prov. xi. 8; xxi. 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.

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Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708)

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