4 For we are sold, H4376 I and my people, H5971 to be destroyed, H8045 to be slain, H2026 and to perish. H6 But if H432 we had been sold H4376 for bondmen H5650 and bondwomen, H8198 I had held my tongue, H2790 although the enemy H6862 could not countervail H7737 the king's H4428 damage. H5143
And Judah H3063 said H559 unto his brethren, H251 What profit H1215 is it if we slay H2026 our brother, H251 and conceal H3680 his blood? H1818 Come, H3212 and let us sell H4376 him to the Ishmeelites, H3459 and let not our hand H3027 be upon him; for he is our brother H251 and our flesh. H1320 And his brethren H251 were content. H8085 Then there passed H5674 by Midianites H4084 merchantmen; H582 H5503 and they drew H4900 and lifted up H5927 Joseph H3130 out of the pit, H953 and sold H4376 Joseph H3130 to the Ishmeelites H3459 for twenty H6242 pieces of silver: H3701 and they brought H935 Joseph H3130 into Egypt. H4714
And Mordecai H4782 told H5046 him of all that had happened H7136 unto him, and of the sum H6575 of the money H3701 that Haman H2001 had promised H559 to pay H8254 to the king's H4428 treasuries H1595 for the Jews, H3064 to destroy H6 them. Also he gave H5414 him the copy H6572 of the writing H3791 of the decree H1881 that was given H5414 at Shushan H7800 to destroy H8045 them, to shew H7200 it unto Esther, H635 and to declare H5046 it unto her, and to charge H6680 her that she should go in H935 unto the king, H4428 to make supplication H2603 unto him, and to make request H1245 before H6440 him for her people. H5971
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Esther 7
Commentary on Esther 7 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 7
Es 7:1-6. Esther Pleads for Her Own Life and the Life of Her People.
4. we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed—that is, by the cruel and perfidious scheme of that man, who offered an immense sum of money to purchase our extermination. Esther dwelt on his contemplated atrocity, in a variety of expressions, which both evinced the depth of her own emotions, and were intended to awaken similar feelings in the king's breast.
But if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my tongue—Though a great calamity to the Jews, the enslavement of that people might have enriched the national treasury; and, at all events, the policy, if found from experience to be bad, could be altered. But the destruction of such a body of people would be an irreparable evil, and all the talents Haman might pour into the treasury could not compensate for the loss of their services.
Es 7:7-10. The King Causes Haman to Be Hanged on His Own Gallows.
7. he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king—When the king of Persia orders an offender to be executed, and then rises and goes into the women'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 had pronounced sentence.
8. Haman was fallen upon the bed whereon Esther was—We do not know the precise form of the couches on which the Persians reclined at table. But it is probable that they were not very different from those used by the Greeks and Romans. Haman, perhaps, at first stood up to beg pardon of Esther; but driven in his extremity to resort to an attitude of the most earnest supplication, he fell prostrate on the couch where the queen was recumbent. The king returning that instant was fired at what seemed an outrage on female modesty.
they covered Haman's face—The import of this striking action is, that a criminal is unworthy any longer to look on the face of the king, and hence, when malefactors are consigned to their doom in Persia, the first thing is to cover the face with a veil or napkin.
9. Harbonah, one of the chamberlains, said before the king, Behold also, the gallows—This eunuch had probably been the messenger sent with the invitation to Haman, and on that occasion had seen the gallows. The information he now volunteered, as well it may be from abhorrence of Haman's cold-blooded conspiracy as from sympathy with his amiable mistress, involved with her people in imminent peril.
10. So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai—He has not been the only plotter of mischief whose feet have been taken in the net which they hid (Ps 9:15). But never was condemnation more just, and retribution more merited, than the execution of that gigantic criminal.