Esther 2

1 : 1 Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus, (this is Ahasuerus which reigned, from India even unto Ethiopia, over an hundred and seven and twenty provinces :) that in those days, when the king Ahasuerus sat on the throne of his kingdom, which was in Shushan the palace, in the third year of his reign, he made a feast unto all his princes and his servants ; the power of Persia and Media, the nobles and princes of the provinces, being before him : when he shewed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the honour of his excellent majesty many days, even an hundred and fourseore days. And when these days were fulfilled, the king made a feast unto all the people that were present in Shushan the palace, both great and small, seven days, in the court of the garden of the king’s palace ; there were hangings of white cloth, of green, and of blue, fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble : the couches were of gold and silver, upon a pavement of red, and white, and yellow, and black marble. And they gave them drink in vessels of gold, (the vessels being diverse one from another,) and royal wine in abundance, according to the bounty of the king. And the drinking was according to the law ; none could compel : for so the king had appointed to all the officers of his house, that they should do according to every man’s pleasure. Also Vashti the queen made a feast for the women in the royal house which belonged to king Ahasuerus. On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, and Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcas, the seven chamberlains that ministered in the presence of Ahasuerus the king, to bring Vashti the queen before the king with the crown royal, to shew the peoples and the princes her beauty : for she was fair to look on. But the queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s commandment by the chamberlains : therefore was the king very wroth, and his anger burned in him. Then the king said to the wise men, which knew the times, (for so was the king’s manner toward all that knew law and judgement ; and the next unto him was Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucan, the seven princes of Persia and Media, which saw the king’s face, and sat first in the kingdom :) What shall we do unto the queen Vashti according to law, because she hath not done the bidding of the king Ahasuerus by the chamberlains ? And Memucan answered before the king and the princes, Vashti the queen hath not done wrong to the king only, but also to all the princes, and to all the peoples that are in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus. For this deed of the queen shall come abroad unto all women, to make their husbands contemptible in their eyes, when it shall be reported, The king Ahasuerus commanded Vashti the queen to be brought in before him, but she came not. And this day shall the princesses of Persia and Media which have heard of the deed of the queen say the like unto all the king’s princes. So shall there arise much contempt and wrath. If it please the king, let there go forth a royal commandment from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes, that it be not altered, that Vashti come no more before king Ahasuerus ; and let the king give her royal estate unto another that is better than she. And when the king’s decree which he shall make shall be published throughout all his kingdom, (for it is great,) all the wives shall give to their husbands honour, both to great and small. And the saying pleased the king and the princes ; and the king did according to the word of Memucan : for he sent letters into all the king’s provinces, into every province according to the writing thereof, and to every people after their language, that every man should bear rule in his own house, and should publish it according to the language of his people.

2 : 1 After these things, when the wrath of king Ahasuerus was pacified, he remembered Vashti, and what she had done, and what was decreed against her. Then said the king’s servants that ministered unto him, Let there be fair young virgins sought for the king : and let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom, that they may gather together all the fair young virgins unto Shushan the palace, to the house of the women, unto the custody of Hegai the king’s chamberlain, keeper of the women; and let their things for purification be given them: and let the maiden which pleaseth the king be queen instead of Vashti. And the thing pleased the king; and he did so. There was a certain Jew in Shushan the palace, whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite; who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captives which had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away. And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle’s daughter: for she had neither father nor mother, and the maiden was fair and beautiful; and when her father and mother were dead, Mordecai took her for his own daughter. So it came to pass, when the king’s commandment and his decree was heard, and when many maidens were gathered together unto Shushan the palace, to the custody of Hegai, that Esther was taken into the king’s house, to the custody of Hegai, keeper of the women. And the maiden pleased him, and she obtained kindness of him; and he speedily gave her her things for purification, with her portions, and the seven maidens, which were meet to be given her, out of the king’s house: and he removed her and her maidens to the best place of the house of the women. Esther had not shewed her people nor her kindred: for Mordecai had charged her that she should not shew it. And Mordecai walked every day before the court of the women’s house, to know how Esther did, and what should become of her. Now when the turn of every maiden was come to go in to king Ahasuerus, after that it had been done to her according to the law for the women, twelve months, (for so were the days of their purifications accomplished, to wit, six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet odours, and with the things for the purifying of the women,) then in this wise came the maiden unto the king, whatsoever she desired was given her to go with her out of the house of the women unto the king’s house. In the evening she went, and on the morrow she returned into the second house of the women, to the custody of Shaashgaz, the king’s chamberlain, which kept the concubines: she came in unto the king no more, except the king delighted in her, and that she were called by name. Now when the turn of Esther, the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her for his daughter, was come to go in unto the king, she required nothing but what Hegai the king’s chamberlain, the keeper of the women, appointed. And Esther obtained favour in the sight of all them that looked upon her. So Esther was taken unto king Ahasuerus into his house royal in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign. And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained grace and favour in his sight more than all the virgins; so that he set the royal crown upon her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti. Then the king made a great feast unto all his princes and his servants, even Esther’s feast; and he made a release to the provinces, and gave gifts, according to the bounty of the king. And when the virgins were gathered together the second time, then Mordecai sat in the king’s gate. Esther had not yet shewed her kindred nor her people; as Mordecai had charged her: for Esther did the commandment of Mordecai, like as when she was brought up with him. In those days, while Mordecai sat in the king’s gate, two of the king’s chamberlains, Bigthan and Teresh, of those which kept the door, were wroth, and sought to lay hands on the king Ahasuerus. And the thing was known to Mordecai, who shewed it unto Esther the queen; and Esther told the king thereof in Mordecai’s name. And when inquisition was made of the matter, and it was found to be so, they were both hanged on a tree: and it was written in the book of the chronicles before the king.

1:1-9. The great feast at Susa. King Ahasuerus (Xerxes) in the third year of his reign, which was n.c. 484-483, entertained at a great feast in the royal palace of Susa all his princes and his servants, “the power of Persia and Media,” together with all the nobles and princes of the provinces (verses 2, 3). The hospitality was extended over a space of one hundred and eighty days (verse 4). At the end of this time there was a further entertainment for seven days, on even a more profuse scale, all the male inhabitants of Susa being feasted in the palace gardens (verses 5-8), while the queen received the women and made them a feast in her own private apartments. The special occasion of the entertainment seems to have been the summons to Susa of all the chief men of the kingdom, and particularly of the satraps, or “princes of provinces,” to advise upon the projected expedition against Greece, which

Herodotus mentions in his seventh book. Banquets on an enormous scale were not uncommon in Persia; and the profuseness and vainglory of Xerxes would naturally lead him to go to an extreme in this, as in other matters. P. C.

1. This is Ahasuerus. The writer assumes that more than one Ahasuerus is known to his readers, and seeks to make it clear to them which Ahasuerus he is speaking of. First, he notes that the subject of his narrative is a real king, and, therefore, not the Ahasuerus of Daniel (9:1); secondly, that he ruled “from India to Ethiopia,” and, therefore, belonged to the later portion of the Persian series, since it was well known that the earlier Persian monarchs were not masters of India. He thus sets aside the Ahasuerus of Ezra 4:6 (Cambyses), and points with sufficient clearness to Xerxes, the son of Darius Hystaspes. From India even unto Ethiopia. The empire of Xerxes is rightly described as lying between these extremes; for though Ethiopia was not regarded as a “province,” and is, therefore, absent alike from the Greek and the native lists, yet it paid a tribute (Herod. iii. 97), and, therefore, owned a certain degree of subjection. B. C.

The name Xerxes is simply a less correct variant of the name Ahasuerus; and Esther’s husband was no other than the Xerxes whose exploits are so familiar to all students of Greek history. The Bible story fits at every point all that we know concerning this Xerxes, and does not fit the reign of any other Persian king. W. J. B.—Any later king is out of the question. Being thus brought back to Xerxes, whose name is the Greek form of Ahasuerus, it only remains to compare the dates of the Book of Esther with the history of his reign, the leading events of which are, his accession in B.C. 486 (December 23d), his expedition to Greece in his sixth year, B.C. 480, and his death at the end of his twenty-first year, B.C. 465 (December 17th). Now the great feast of Ahasuerus, at which Vashti refused to appear, was in the third year of his reign, B.C. 483, the very year in which Xerxes held a great assembly to arrange the Grecian war, and his marriage with Esther was in his seventh year, B.C. 479, the year after the expedition to Greece, when Xerxes might naturally seek in his harem some consolation for his repulse. But Amestris, who was the daughter of Otanes, the uncle of Xerxes, had been his wife long before the expedition to Greece, in which her sons were old enough to accompany him, and the eldest of them, Darius, married at the very time of his father’s marriage to Esther. For all these reasons Esther cannot be Amestris; and, considering the polygamy of the Persian kings, it is not surprising that Herodotus should mention only two of the wives of Xerxes, and the Book of Esther two others. The affairs of Xerxes after his flight from Greece are only noticed by the Greek historians as they affect the Hellenic race. P. S.—The synchronisms, remarked by Eichhorn, strongly confirm this view. In the third year of his reign, Ahasuerus summons a divan of all the great officers of the kingdom at Susa, whom he entertains and banquets one hundred and eighty days. In his third year, Xerxes, at a great assembly, deliberates and takes measures for the subjugation of Greece. In his seventh year (B.C. 479) Ahasuerus marries Esther. In his seventh year Xerxes returns, discomfited, to Susa, and abandons himself to the pleasures of his harem. The imbecile facility with which Xerxes, according to Herodotus, first gave up to his seductive mistress, Artaynta, a splendid robe, the present of his queen; and then, having made a rash promise at a banquet, yielded up the wife of his brother Masistes (the mother of his mistress) to the barbarous vengeance of his queen; so precisely resembles the conduct of Ahasuerus, that it is impossible not to suspect we are reading of the same person in the Grecian and Hebrew annalist. Milman.

3. Shushan. The great Persian, or, rather, Elamitic, city of Susa—“Shushan” in the Hebrew—was a city of a high antiquity, which for many centuries had been the capital of an important state, and had held a position little inferior to that of Nineveh or Babylon. It was situated between the Choaspes and Euleus rivers, in a fertile plain, within sight of the Bakhtiyari Mountains, about eighty miles east of the Tigris. The tract about it was clothed for a great part of the year with an abundant vegetation. In Susiana, “after the winter rains, which last from December till March, the entire surface of the ground puts on a livery of green, diversified with numerous brilliant flowers, and a rich pasturage is everywhere afforded to the flocks and herds of the inhabitants. The heat, though considerable, is not oppressive. In the distance can be seen the snow-clad range of the Bakhtiyari Mountains, rising to an elevation of from eight thousand to ten thousand feet above the level of the sea, in a continuous undulating line void of peaks or of any prominent features, while the breeze which blows from them is almost always cool and refreshing.”

Susa was a city of a considerable size. Its ruins at the present day consist of “four spacious artificial platforms, distinctly separated from each other.” The most elevated of these is toward the west, and is washed by the Shapur. It attains a height of one hundred and nineteen feet above the river, and is believed to represent the ancient acropolis or citadel. To the north of this is a square mass of ruins, about a thousand feet each way, which was certainly the site of the royal palace in Persian times. Southeast of these two mounds, and much exceeding in size both of them put together, is the third or “great central platform,” which attains an elevation of about seventy feet, and covers an area of sixty acres. These three together formed the Upper City, and appear to have been known as Shushan-ha-birah, “Susa the fortress,” or “Susa the palace.” Further eastward, and at a lower level, are various irregular groups of ruins, and one extensive platform of comparatively slight elevation, which constituted the Lower town, and was inhabited probably by the poorer classes of the population. There are considerable remains, even at the present day, of the ancient Persian palace. Its main feature was a great pillared hall, closely resembling, both in dimensions and ornamentation, the famous “Hall of Xerxes” at Persepolis, whereof it was perhaps the model. A central phalanx of thirty-six columns, arranged in six rows of six each, supported probably a solid roof, and formed a “throne room” or “hall of audience,” two hundred feet each way, “the largest interior of the ancient world, with the single exception of the great hall of Karnak, which covered 58,300 square feet, while this only extended to 40,000.” G. R.

3. In the third year of his reign he made a feast.** In this year (n.c. 483) Xerxes, according to Herodotus, assembled the governors of provinces at Susa, in connection with his contemplated expedition against Greece. Councils were held, speeches were made, and at last formal orders were issued to the satraps to prepare their several contingents. The governors would be guests at his table during their stay. Persia and Media. The position of Media, as second only to Persia under the Achaemenian princes, is clearly apparent both in the native monuments and in the accounts of the Greeks. Medes held many of the highest offices both under Darius and under Xerxes. B. C.

The feast made in his third year synchronizes with the great assembly which Herodotus says

Xerxes held to consider his plans for conquering Greece. As long as Xerxes was busy and self-conscious with that greatest military expedition of history, he probably did not miss Vashti very much. But three years later, after his defeat at Salamis, in September of his sixth year, and his sudden return home without any millions of soldiers following him, he was less self-sufficient, and “remembered Vashti.” He consoled himself for the disasters that had befallen him by his magnificent plans for securing a new queen. W. J. B.

The Persian court under the later Achaemenian monarchs was organized on a scale of extraordinary splendor and magnificence. Cyrus and Cambyses had been comparatively simple in their habits; even Darius, the son of Hystaspes, had not launched out into much extravagance; but from the time of Xerxes, the son of this Darius, to the close of the empire, a profusion and prodigality prevailed scarcely equalled either before or since in any other Oriental monarchy. The centre and culminating point of the magnificence was, of course, the person of the king. Glorious in his apparel, clothed in robes of richest silk, purple or crimson in hue, and adorned with embroidery in gold, wearing the kidaris, or tall, stiff cap, encircled with the diadem—a fillet or band, blue, spotted with white—the great king was the cynosure of all eyes, the centre of attraction, the principal luminary around which all the minor lights of the court revolved. We are shown him in the Persepolitan sculptures seated upon his throne, with his feet resting upon a footstool, and with his sceptre in his right hand, receiving those who prostrate themselves before him, or again advancing in procession, followed by the parasol-bearer and other attendants, passing through the royal apartments on his way to the throne room or the banquet chamber. Other officers of the court were the steward of the household; the groom or master of the horse; the chief eunuch or keeper of the women; the king’s “eyes” and “ears,” or persons whose business it was to keep him informed on all matters of importance; his scribes, or secretaries, who wrote his letters and his edicts; his messengers, who went his errands; his “ushers,” who introduced strangers to him; his “tasters,” who tried the various dishes set before him, lest they should be poisoned; his cupbearers, who handed him his wine and tasted it; his chamberlains, who assisted him to bed; and his musicians, who entertained him with singing and instruments of music. Besides these the court comprised, among its inferior officers, various classes of guards, and also doorkeepers, huntsmen, grooms, cooks, and other domestic servants in great abundance, together with a vast multitude of visitors and guests—prices, nobles, captives of high rank, foreign refugees, ambassadors, travellers. We are assured that the Persian king fed daily within the precincts of his palace as many as fifteen thousand persons. G. R.

4. For six months Xerxes kept “open house,” and, with the ostentation which was one of his chief characteristics, displayed his wealth and luxury in prodigal hospitality to thousands of the officers of government, who doubtless came and went as they had occasion. Alcott.

The feast of Ahasuerus was a wonderful scene. There is nothing morally great about it. There never can be about mere feasting, and splendor, and eating and drinking, and outward show. Neither, so far as we can see, is there anything morally wrong in this, at least when kept in due moderation. It was kept in moderation in this instance. There is the most prodigal abundance, and yet there is a royal wisdom in the dispensation of it. For we read that “the drinking was according to the law,” and that law means “no compulsion.” If we embody the principle of moderation in our life, and walk by faith, and not by sight, then, and only then, we surmount the poor pageant in which outwardly we are moving figures; then, and only then, we cast anchor within the veil, and lay up treasure where it can never be lost. Raleigh.

5. An especial closing banquet is now given to all the men who are dwelling or visiting in the royal town. Literally it is a drinking, the word being the same as in 1:3.

7. The remaining expression describes the free abundance of this costly drink, as worthy of so rich and magnificent a king. “With a liberal hand,” or “in right royal fashion,” would be a correct interpretation. Alcott.

10-22. The disgrace of Vashti. On the seventh day of the feast “to all in Shushan” (verse 5), the king having excited himself with drink, sent a message to Vashti, requiring her to make her appearance in the banquet of the men, since he desired to exhibit her beauty to the assembled guests, as “she was fair to look on” (verse 11). Such a proceeding was a gross breach of Persian etiquette, and a cruel outrage upon one whom he above all men was bound to protect. Vashti, therefore, declined to obey (verse 12). Preferring the risk of death to dishonor, she braved the anger of her despotic lord, and sent him back a message by his chamberlains that she would not come. To an absolute monarch such a rebuff, in the face of his whole court and of some hundreds or thousands of assembled guests, must have been exasperating in the extreme. “Therefore was the king very wroth, and his anger burned in him.” But he so far restrained himself as to refer the matter to the judgment of others, and ask the “seven princes” the question, “What is to be done according to law unto Queen Vashti, for not performing the commandment of the king?” (verse 15.) The advice of the princes, uttered by one of their body (verses 16-20), and assented to by the remainder (verse 21), was, that Vashti should be degraded from the position of queen, and her place given to another. This sentence was supported by specious arguments based upon expediency, and ignoring entirely the outrageous character of the king’s command, which was of course the real, and sole, justification of Vashti’s disobedience. It was treated as a simple question of the wife’s duty to obey her husband, and the husband’s right to enforce submission. Ahasuerus, as might be expected, received the decision of his obsequious counsellors with great satisfaction, and forthwith sent letters into all the provinces of his vast empire, announcing what had been done, and requiring wives everywhere to submit themselves unreservedly to the absolute rule of their lord (verse 22). P. C.

14. The seven princes which saw the king’s face. According to Herodotus, there were seven families of the first rank in Persia, from which alone the king could take his wives. Their chiefs were entitled to have free access to the monarch’s person. The Behistun inscription, which gives Darius six coadjutors in his conspiracy, confirms the Greek writer. B. C.

16. And Memucan answered. We gather from Memucan’s reply that the Persian law had provided no penalty for the case in hand. He first argues the matter on general grounds of morality (verse 16) and expediency (verses 17, 18), and then proposes the enactment of a new law—a privilegium—assigning Vashti a special punishment for her contempt of the king’s order. The “decree” (verse 20) would not have been necessary had there already existed a law on the point. Memucan throws himself wholly on the king’s side—insinuates no word of blame against his royal master, on whom in justice the whole blame rested; but sets himself to make the worst he can of Vashti’s conduct. P. C.—Memucan’s words are shrewd, bespeaking one wise in human nature, and in the peculiar variety thereof found in an Oriental despot. He first artfully exaggerates the offence of the queen into an evil which it was for the interest of every husband in the empire to have at once checked. He then suggests a decree which would have this effect, and finally describes the beneficial results to be expected from its enactment.

18-19. Persia is placed before Media because it had now assumed the precedence; while in Daniel the order of the names is adapted to the Median viceroy then upon the throne. Alcott.

20. The idea here is that the women will come to regard their husbands as peculiarly valuable and rather precarious possessions, against the alienation of which they need to guard with peculiar care. W. J. B.

22. Besides publishing the decree, Ahasuerus sent letters prescribing certain things—viz.: 1. That every man should bear rule in his own house. 2. That every man should speak his own language in his family, and not that of his wife if it were different. This is the plain meaning of the existing text. P. C.

That every man should bear rule in his own house. This decree has been called “absurd” and “quite unnecessary in Persia.” But it may be questioned whether the decree was unnecessary. The undue influence of women in domestic, and even in public, matters is a feature of the ancient Persian monarchy. Herodotus tells us that Atossa “completely ruled” Darius. Xerxes himself was, in his later years, shamefully subject to Amestris. The example of the court would naturally infect the people. The decree therefore would seem to have been not so much an idle and superfluous act as an ineffectual protest against a real and growing evil.

Chap. 2:1. After these things. The events here related (verses 1-11) must belong to the time between the great assembly held at Susa in Xerxes’ third year, B.C. 483, and the departure of the monarch on his expedition against Greece in his fifth year, B.C. 481. It is impossible to fix their date more exactly. B. C.

5,6. One of God’s chosen people now comes upon the scene—a man, a Jew—as we should say, “a certain Jew.” The name Mordecai is probably connected with Marduk or Merodach, the Assyrian god. “It may have been given to his son by a Babylonian Jew without thought of heathen derivation and meaning, or out of compliment to some Babylonian friend or master.”

7. Uncle.** An uncle on the father’s side, literally, a friend. Esther’s father, Abihail (verse 15), and Mordecai’s father, Jair, were brothers. Esther was probably twenty years old, and Mordecai could not have been less than thirty or forty, since it appears that he adopted his cousin when she was young. Alcott.

11. Mordecai walked every day before the court of the women’s house.** Mordecai occupied, apparently, a humble place in the royal household. He was probably one of the porters or doorkeepers at the main entrance to the palace. This position separated him from his adopted daughter, and some effort was needed to keep up communication with her. B. C.

15. It was the mark of unusual wisdom and self-restraint, if not of even nobler qualities, that Esther in this supreme hour manifested no self-will concerning her adornments, but left it to those whose judgment was better than her own. Alcott.

16. Four years after the disgrace of Vashti, probably in January, B.C. 479. Xerxes had recently returned from the Grecian expedition defeated and disgraced. He was glad to dismiss warlike matters from his thoughts, and to console himself for his failure by the pleasures of the seraglio.

19-23. Mordecai’s discovery of a plot against Ahasuerus’ life. Some time after Esther had been made queen, there was a second collection of virgins at Susa (verse 19), under circumstances which are not related, and which were probably of small importance. At this time (verse 21) Mordecai, still serving in his humble office at the palace gate, from which he had not been advanced since Esther had told no one that he was her relation (verse 20), happened to detect a conspiracy against the king’s life which had been formed by two of the palace eunuchs, Bigthan and Teresh, whom Ahasuerus had somehow offended (verse 21). Being still in the habit of holding communication with Esther, Mordecai was able to make her acquainted with the facts, of which she then informed the king, telling him how she had obtained her knowledge (verse 22). There was nothing surprising or suspicious in a eunuch of the palace having had speech with the queen, especially when he had intelligence of such importance to impart to her. On inquiry, the king found that Mordecai’s information was correct; the conspiracy was laid bare, and the conspirators put to death (verse 23)—the facts being, as was sure to be the case, entered in the court chronicle, a daily record of the life of the court and of the circumstances that befell the king. It was to have been expected that Mordecai would have been rewarded for his zeal; but somehow or other it happened that his services were overlooked—he was neither promoted from his humble office, nor did he receive any gift (chap. 6:3). This was quite contrary to ordinary Persian practice. P. C.

21. Sought to lay hand on the king.** Conspiracies inside the palace were ordinary occurrences in Persia. Xerxes was ultimately murdered by Artabanus, the captain of the guard, and Aspamitras, a chamberlain and eunuch. B. C.

19. Gate of the king.** The gate of an Oriental palace is not a mere entrance, but is ordinarily flanked at least by recesses for guards, sometimes by towers containing rooms below and overhead. It was often a place for holding courts, and even for royal audience. Hence Sublime Porte (gate), which originally meant the chief entrance of the Sultan’s palace, has come to denote the government of the Turkish Empire. Alcott.

20. Esther’s silence accounts for Mordecai’s low estate; Mordecai’s command (see verse 10) accounts for Esther’s silence. The royal dignity did not change Esther’s heart. She was still the dutiful child she had been so many years. Mordecai had forbidden her to tell her kindred; he had not removed his prohibition, so she had kept silence. P. C.—That mind is truly great and noble that is not changed with the highest prosperity; and such was the disposition of Queen Esther, whom even the splendor of royalty could not induce to disregard her kinsman and friend, or to depart from a dutiful observance of his directions.

21-23. Mordecai overhears the whispering of these wicked conspirators, and reveals it to Esther. She, as glad of such an opportunity to commend unto Ahasuerus the loyalty of him whom she durst but secretly honor, reveals it to the king. The circumstances are examined; the plot is discovered; the traitors executed; the service recorded in the Persian annals. Bp. H.

Mordecai sets before us the example of a faithful subject, in counteracting the treasonable designs of these men; he showed this loyalty toward a heathen sovereign and one under whom he lived as a captive, true religion and loyalty being inseparable; and herein he exemplified the injunction of the Lord by the prophet Jeremiah, “Seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives” (Jer. 29:7). Mordecai discreetly communicated his discovery not to indifferent persons, but to the queen: Esther, in laying it before the king, dutifully remembered Mordecai, and commended him to the royal favor by mentioning him as the author of her information. Bp. Andrews.

23. It was written in the book of the chronicles before the king.** Mordecai was thus registered in the public annals as the author of this service done to the crown: the circumstance of his name being so recorded became afterward the occasion of his advancement, and of great events treated of in the sequel of this book. Pyle.