Esther 6:11

Then took Haman the apparel, and the horse,.... The one out of the wardrobe, the other out of the stable, and the crown also no doubt, though no mention is made of it, since the king made no

Then took Haman the apparel and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and brought him on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaimed before him, Thus shall it be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour.

He proclaimed this either himself, or by the officer.

Esther 6:11 Then took Haman the apparel and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and brought him on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaimed before him, Thus shall it be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour.Ver. 11. Then took Haman the apparel, &c.] Full sore against stomach be sure, but how could he help it? Thus God compelleth the devil and his limbs sometimes, though against their wills, to serve him as his servants. Canes lingunt ulcers Lazari. Dogs licked the sores of Lazarus, Saul pronounceth David more righteous than he. Judas and Pilate gave testimony to Christ’ s innocency. These are the servants of the High God, which show unto us the way of salvation, said the Pythoness concerning Paul and his companions, Acts 16:17. And arrayed Mordecai] Whose heart he could rather have torn out, and eaten it with salt. But courtiers are usually notable dissemblers, cunning politicians, &c. How busy is Haman now about Mordecai to array him, to mount him, and to attend upon him, whom yet he hated, and inwardly cursed to the pit of hell! Cavete ab osculo Iscariotico, ab officio Hamanitico. Beware of the eys of Judas and the office of hamen. Beware of men, Matthew 10:17 Josephus telleth us, that when Haman came to do those things to Mordecai, he (thinking that he had mocked him) answered with indignation, Thou most wicked man, dost thou thus insult over the miserable? But when he had told him, that indeed it was the king’ s pleasure, he suffered him to do it. But what shall we say to reconcile those cross passions in Ahasuerus? Before he signed that decree of killing all the Jews, he could not but know that a Jew had saved his life; and now, after that he had enacted the slaughter of all the Jews as rebels, he giveth order to honour a Jew as his preserver. It were strange (saith a right reverend writer hereupon, Dr Hall) if great persons, in the multitude of their distractions, should not let fall some incongruities. And brought him on horseback] Whom before he could not endure to see sitting at the court’ s gate. A great trouble it was to Haman to lead Mordecai’ s horse, which another man would not have thought so: the moving of a straw troubleth proud flesh, &c. Through the streets of the city] Where all men were now in an amazement at that sudden glory of Mordecai, and study how to reconcile this day with the thirteenth of Adar. And proclaimed before him] Not without an honourable mention made of his loyalty and fidelity to the king, the cause of that great honour. This Haman was forced to proclaim, and that on foot, as a servant; when Mordecai, as a prince in his state, was on horseback.

(11) Then took Haman . . .—It would be a grim and curious study to analyse Hainan’s feelings at this juncture. Various thoughts were mingled there. Self-reproach, perhaps, that he had so thoughtlessly been the cause of the present display, bitter hatred of his rival now multiplied a thousandfold, and the evident knowledge that the game was played out, and that he was ruined. The more subtle the brain, the more truly must he have known this.

11. Then took Haman etc.] Haman, as the most prominent man in the king’s court, was compelled, through the irony of fate, to carry out to the letter in his enemy’s case the proposals which he had made on his own behalf.