Esther 3:9

If it please the king, let it be written, that they may be destroyed,.... That is, a law made, signed and sealed, for their destruction, and letters written and sent everywhere, ordering it to be put

If it please the king, let it be written that they may be destroyed: and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver to the hands of those that have the charge of the business, to bring it into the king's treasuries.

Let it be written; let there be a written edict from the king. Ten thousand talents of silver; whether these were Hebrew, or Babylonish, or Grecian talents we cannot certainly know; but whichsoever they were, it was a vast sum to be paid out of his own estate, which he was willing to sacrifice to his revenge. The charge of the business; either, 1. Of this business, to wit, of destroying the Jews; which as soon as they have procured to be done, I will pay the money into their hands, that by them it may be paid into the king’ s exchequer. Or rather, 2. Of the king’ s business, or of the treasures, as is implied in the following words. I will pay it to the king’ s receivers, that they may put it into the king’ s treasures.

Esther 3:9 If it please the king, let it be written that they may be destroyed: and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver to the hands of those that have the charge of the business, to bring [it] into the king’ s treasuries.Ver. 9. If it please the king] Here he showeth himself a smooth courtier, and speaketh silken words, the sooner to insinuate. But if Solomon had been by he would have said, "When he speaketh fair, believe him not: for there are seven abominations in his heart," Proverbs 26:25. Let it be written that they may be destroyed] As Mithridates, king of Pontus, by writing one bloody letter only, destroyed eighty thousand citizens of Rome, dispersed up and down Asia for traffic’ s sake (Val. Max.). That was bad, but this was worse that Haman motioned, and well near effected. And surely never did the old red dragon, saith Rupertus, lift up his head so fiercely and furiously against the woman, that is, against the Church of God, as in this place. Therefore is Haman to be reckoned among those cruel enemies, who said, Come, and let us destroy them from being a nation, that the name of Israel may be no more remembered, Psalms 83:4. But let them rage and kill up the saints as much as they can, the sheep will still be more in number than the wolves, the doves than the hawks. Plures efficimur quoties metimur, saith Tertullian, the more you crop us the faster we grow. And I shall pay ten thousand talents of silver] A vast sum, three thousand seven hundred fifty thousand pounds sterling. At so great charge would this butcher be, to satisfy his lust, and to have his pennyworths upon God’ s poor people. So, in the gunpowder treason (besides their pains, digging like moles in their vault of villany), Digby offered to bring in fifteen hundred pounds, Tresham two thousand, Piercy four thousand, out of the earl of Northumberland’ s rents; besides ten swift horses to steed them when the blow was past. But where should Haman have all this money, may some say? I answer, First, if he were of the seed royal of Amalek, as it is thought, he might have much left him by his ancestors. Secondly, being so great a favourite to the king of Persia, he had, doubtless, many profitable offices, and so might lay up gold as dust, and silver as the stones of the brooks, Job 22:24. Did not Wolsey so here in Henry VIII’ s time? Thirdly, he had already devoured in his hopes the goods and spoils of all the slain Jews, which he doubted not but the king would bestow upon him for his good service. Like as Henry II of France gave his mistress, Diana Valentina, all the confiscations of goods made in the kingdom for cause of heresy. Hereupon many good men were burned for religion, as it was said, but, indeed, it was to satiate her covetousness (Hist. of Counc. of Trent, 387).

(9) Ten thousand talents of silver.—This would be about two and a half millions sterling, being indeed more than two-thirds of the whole annual revenue of the Empire (Herod. iii. 95). Haman may have been a man of excessive wealth (like the Pythius who offered Xerxes four millions of gold darics (Herod. vii. 28), or he probably may have hoped to draw the money from the spoils of the Jews.

Verse 9. Let it be written that they may be destroyed] Let it be enacted that they may all be put to death. By this he would throw all the odium off himself, and put it on the king and his counsellors; for he wished the thing to pass into a law, in which he could have but a small share of the blame. I will pay ten thousand talents of silver] He had said before that it was not for the king's profit to suffer them; but here he is obliged to acknowledge that there will be a loss to the revenue, but that loss he is willing to make up out of his own property. Ten thousand talents of silver is an immense sum indeed; which, counted by the Babylonish talent, amounts to two millions one hundred and nineteen thousand pounds sterling; but, reckoned by the Jewish talent, it makes more than double that sum. Those who cavil at the Scriptures would doubtless call this one of the many absurdities which, they say, are so plenteously found in them, supposing it almost impossible for an individual to possess so much wealth. But though they do not believe the Bible, they do not scruple to credit Herodotus, who, lib. vii., says that when Xerxes went into Greece, Pythius the Lydian had two thousand talents of silver, and four millions of gold darics, which sums united make near five millions and a half sterling. Plutarch tells us, in his life of Crassus, that after this Roman general had dedicated the tenth of all he had to Hercules, he entertained the Roman people at ten thousand tables, and distributed to every citizen as much corn as was sufficient for three months; and after all these expenses, he had seven thousand one hundred Roman talents remaining, which is more than a million and a half of English money. In those days silver and gold were more plentiful than at present, as we may see in the yearly revenue of Solomon, who had of gold from Ophir, at one voyage, four hundred and fifty talents, which make three millions two hundred and forty thousand pounds sterling; and his annual income was six hundred and sixty-six talents of silver, which make four millions seven hundred and ninety-five thousand two hundred pounds English money. In addition to the above I cannot help subjoining the following particulars: - Crassus, who was mentioned before, had a landed estate valued at one million six hundred and sixty-six thousand six hundred and sixty-six pounds thirteen shillings and four pence. C. Coecilius Ridorus, after having lost much in the civil war, left by will effects amounting to one million forty-seven thousand one hundred and sixty pounds. Lentullus, the augur, is said to have possessed no less than three millions three hundred and thirty-three thousand three hundred and thirty-three pounds six shillings and eight pence.

9. that they be destroyed] lit. to destroy them. Let an edict be issued for their destruction. I will pay ten thousand talents of silver] about £3,750,000 sterling. Xerxes, unscrupulous though we know him to have been, might well be staggered by the request that he should direct this wholesale massacre on such slender grounds as had hitherto been adduced. Hence Haman at once supports his petition by the offer of enormous pecuniary gains to follow, meaning apparently that he will pay the amount, if he has leave to plunder the Jews. The king at an earlier period of his reign had declined a gift from a subject, the value of which was much beyond four and a half million pounds of our money[69] (Herod. vii. 28). His resources, however, had not then been exhausted by the war with Greece. The condition of the imperial treasury was doubtless now very different, and if any such offer as Haman’s was now made, so tempting a measure for replenishing it, and thus supplying Xerxes with the means of gratifying his love of ostentation and excess, might well prove irresistible. [69] The offer was made by Pythius of Celaenae (see note on Esther 1:4) to Xerxes when visiting that town in connexion with his expedition against Greece. Rawlinson (Herod. vol. iv. 30) calculates the amount to have been “little short of five millions of our money (£4,827,144).” Grote, however (Hist. of Greece, Esther 3:36 note), considers the sum an incredible one.those that have the charge of the king’s business] i.e. the royal treasurers. The A.V. ‘those that have the charge of the business’ would rather suggest the business of the massacre. But the word ‘king’s,’ though it is not indeed expressed, is implied in the Hebrew.

Ten thousand talents of silver - According to Herodotus, the regular revenue of the Persian king consisted of 14,560 silver talents; so that, if the same talent is intended, Haman’s offer would have

9. Ten thousand talents of silver — Nearly $1,700,000. Haman doubtless expected to pay this amount from the Jewish spoils. Compare Esther 3:13.