Esther 9:29

Then Esther the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, wrote with all authority,.... Strongly pressing the observance of this festival; before, Mordecai only recommended it, but now

Wrote with all authority: the former letter, , did only recommend, but this enjoins the observation of this solemnity; because this was not only Mordecai’ s act, who yet had by the king’ s grant a great power and authority over the subjects of that kingdom, and consequently over the Jews, but it was the act of all the Jews, binding themselves and posterity to it, . Or, with all might, or efficacy, as that word usually signifies; he pressed it with all earnestness and vehemency.

Esther 9:29 Then Esther the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, wrote with all authority, to confirm this second letter of Purim.Ver. 29. Then Esther the queen, &c.] See Esther 2:15. Mordecai had written thus before; now, for more authority’ sake, and to show her forwardness to further so good a work, Esther joineth with him, not for a name, or out of a humour of foolish forth-putting, but out of a holy zeal for God and a godly jealousy over her people, lest they should hereafter slight or slack this service. And, indeed, the Jews’ chronicle (called by them Sedar olam Rabbah) telleth us, that this letter of Esther was not written till a year after Mordecai’ s first letter; when those days of Purim haply began to be neglected and intermitted, Anno sequenti contigit quod scriptum est, The next year it happened as it was written, Esther 9:29. She might, therefore, well say, as St Peter did afterwards, "This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance," 2 Epist. iii. 1. True grace in the best heart is like unto a dull sea coal fire; which, if it be not sometimes righted up, will of itself go out, though there be fnel enough about it. This good queen was no less active in her generation than before had been Miriam, Deborah, Bathsheba, &c., and after her were Serena, the empress, Sophia, queen of Bohemia, a Hussite, Queen Catherine Parr, the doctress, as her husband merrily called her sometimes, and that matchless Queen Elizabeth, whose sunny days are not to be passed over slightly, saith one, without one touch upon that string, which so many years sounded so sweetly in our ears, without one sigh breathed forth in her sacred memory. Oh what a happy time of life had that famous light of our Church, Mr William Perkins, who was born in the first year of her reign, and died in her last year. And Mordecai the Jew] These two joined together to add the more force to the ordinance. Wrote with all authority Heb. With all strength, viz. of spirit and of speech, of affection and expression. To confirm the second letter] Lest, for fear of the friends of such as they had slain, the Jews should be slack in observing this feast of lots.

(29) This second letter.—It seems to us that the first letter must be that extracted from the king by Esther (Esther 8:8), and consequently this “second letter “is Mordecai’s (Esther 9:20), which is now confirmed in a more authoritative way.

Verse 29. Esther - wrote with all authority] Esther and Mordecai had the king's license so to do: and their own authority was great and extensive.

29–32. Further injunctions on the part of Esther and Mordecai The Jews having readily agreed to the directions which Mordecai had given in the first letter, and expressed their readiness (Esther 9:28) to accept the obligation of keeping the annual festival as a perpetual one, a second communication is sent out to them, viz. a joint letter of Esther and Mordecai. An increased weight is given to it, as compared with the former, by the addition of the name of the queen who is also the heroine of the story. Moreover, in it the Jews are bidden to remember as well the duty of the preceding fast, even as Mordecai and Esther themselves fasted in the time of peril. But see note on Esther 9:31.

This second letter of Purim - Mordecai’s first letter Esther 9:20 was to some extent tentative, a recommendation.

29. Wrote with all authority — With all the royal prestige and official dignity that would attach to a document proceeding from the queen and the grand vizier, and with all the binding force that it