Esther 4
Butler3:1 AFTER these things did king Ahasuerus promote Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all the princes that were with him. And all the king’s servants, that were in the king’s gate, bowed down, and did reverence to Haman: for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai bowed not down, nor did him reverence. Then the king’s servants, that were in the king’s gate, said unto Mordecai, Why transgressest thou the king’s commandment? Now it came to pass, when they spake daily unto him, and he hearkened not unto them, that they told Haman, to see whether Mordecai’s matters would stand: for he had told them that he was a Jew. And when Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not down, nor did him reverence, then was Haman full of wrath. But he thought scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone; for they had shewed him the people of Mordecai: wherefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews that were 7 throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even the people of Mordecai. In the first month, which is the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of king Ahasuerus, they cast Pur, that is, the lot, before Haman from day to day, and from month to month, to the twelfth 8 month, which is the month Adar. And Haman said unto king Ahasuerus, There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of thy kingdom; and their laws are diverse from those of every people; neither keep they 9 the king’s laws: therefore it is not for the king’s profit to suffer them. If it please the king, let it be written that they be destroyed: and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those that have the charge of the king’s business, to bring it into the king’s 10 treasuries. And the king took his ring from his hand, and gave it unto Haman the son of 11 Hammedatha the Agagite, the Jews’ enemy. And the king said unto Haman, The silver is 12 given to thee, the people also, to do with them as it seemeth good to thee. Then were the king’s scribes called in the first month, on the thirteenth day thereof, and there was written according to all that Haman commanded unto the king’s satraps, and to the governors that were over every province, and to the princes of every people; to every province according to the writing thereof, and to every people after their language; in the name of king 13 Ahasuerus was it written, and it was sealed with the king’s ring. And letters were sent by posts into all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to slay, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even upon the thirteenth day of 14 the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to take the spoil of them for a prey. A copy of the writing, that the decree should be given out in every province, was published 15 unto all the peoples, that they should be ready against that day. The posts went forth in haste by the king’s commandment, and the decree was given out in Shushan the palace: and the king and Haman sat down to drink; but the city of Shushan was perplexed.
4:1 Now when Mordecai knew all that was done, Mordecai rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and cried with a loud and a bit- 2 ter cry: and he came even before the king’s gate: for none might enter within the king’s 3 gate clothed with sackcloth. And in every province, whithersoever the king’s command- ment and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and 4 weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes. And Esther’s maidens and her chamberlains came and told it her; and the queen was exceedingly grieved: and she sent raiment to clothe Mordecai, and to take his sackcloth from off him: but he received it 5 not. Then called Esther for Hathach, one of the king’s chamberlains, whom he had ap- pointed to attend upon her, and charged him to go to Mordecai, to know what this was, and 6 why it was. So Hathach went forth to Mordecai unto the broad place of the city, which was 7 before the king’s gate. And Mordecai told him of all that had happened unto him, and the exact sum of the money that Haman had promised to pay to the king’s treasuries for the 8 Jews, to destroy them. Also he gave him the copy of the writing of the decree that was given out in Shushan to destroy them, to shew it unto Esther, and to declare it unto her; and to charge her that she should go in unto the king, to make supplication unto him, and 9 to make request before him, for her people. And Hathach came and told Esther the words 10 of Mordecai. Then Esther spake unto Hathach, and gave him a message unto Mordecai, 11 saying: All the king’s servants, and the people of the king’s provinces, do know, that whosoever, whether man or woman, shall come unto the king into the inner court, who is not called, there is one law for him, that he be put to death, except such to whom the king shall hold out the golden sceptre, that he may live: but I have not been called to come in 12, 13 unto the king these thirty days. And they told to Mordecai Esther’s words. Then Mor- decai bade them return answer unto Esther, Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in 14 the king’s house, more than all the Jews. For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall relief and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place, but thou and thy father’s house shall perish: and who knoweth whether thou art not come to the kingdom 15, 16 for such a time as this? Then Esther bade them return answer unto Mordecai, Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast in like manner; and so will 17 I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish. So Mor- decai went his way, and did according to all that Esther had commanded him.
3:1-6. Mordecai, by want of respect, offends Haman, Ahasuerus’s chief minister. Haman, in revenge, resolves to destroy the entire nation of the Jews. A break, probably of some years, separates chap. 2 from chap. 3. In the interval a new and important event has occurred—a new character has made appearance upon the scene. Haman, the son of Hammedatha, an Agagite (whatever that may mean), has risen high in the favor of Ahasuerus, and been assigned by him the second place in the kingdom. He has in fact become “grand vizier,” or chief minister. In the East men are so servile that a new favorite commonly receives the profoundest homage and reverence from all classes, and royal orders to bow down to such an one are superfluous. But on the occasion of Haman’s elevation, for some reason that is not stated, a special command to bow down before him was issued by Ahasuerus (verse 2). All obeyed as a matter of course, excepting one man. This was Mordecai the Jew. He would not do as his fellows did, not even when they remonstrated with him and taxed him with disobedience to the royal order (verse 3). In the course of their remonstrances—probably in order to account for his reluctance—Mordecai stated himself to be a Jew (verse 4). It would seem to have been after this that Haman’s attention was first called by the other porters to Mordecai’s want of respect. Haman was violently enraged (verse 5); but instead of taking proceedings against the individual, he resolved to have the Jews exterminated (verse 6). P. C.
These events are dated in the twelfth year of his reign, at some time between the thirteenth day of the first month and the twenty-third day of the third month (Esth. 3:12; 8:9); probably nearer the latter date. This was 474 B.C., forty-two years after the dedication of Zerubbabel’s temple, and sixteen years before Ezra went to Jerusalem. W. J. B.
2. Mordecai bowed not.** It is most likely that Mordecai regarded the required prostration, usual though it was, as trenching on the reverence due to the Supreme Being, and refused on religious grounds. Hence his opposition led on to his confession that he was a Jew (verse 4). B. C.—And this trivial circumstance, this slight to the pride of the haughty noble, led to all that follows in the story. Though occupying the highest place to which a subject could aspire, treated by the monarch’s order with well-nigh the reverence due unto himself, Haman was yet sorely angered because one of the multitude beneath him dared to refuse personal homage. B.
6. Haman sought to destroy all the Jews.** In the West such an idea as this would never have occurred to a revengeful man; but in the East it is different. There massacres of a people, a race, a class, have at all times been among the incidents of history, and would naturally present themselves to the mind of a statesman. The Magophonia, or the great massacre of the Magi at the accession of Darius Hystaspes, was an event not fifty years old in the twelfth year of Xerxes, and was commemorated annually. A massacre of the Scythians had occurred about a century previously (Herod. i. 106). B. C.—Haman scorns to take up with the blood of Mordecai. This were but a vulgar amends. It is a Jew that hath despised him; all the whole nation of the Jews shall perish for the scorn of this one. The monarchy of the world was now in the hand of the Persian. As Judea was within this compass, so there was scarce a Jew upon earth without the verge of the Persian dominions. The generation, the name, shall now die at once. Neither shall there be any memory of them but this: “There was a people, which, having been famous through the world for three thousand four hundred and fourscore years, were in a moment extinct, by the power of Haman, for default of a courtesy.” Bp. H.
7. Haman casts lots to obtain a lucky day for his enterprise, and obtains a day in the month Adar, the last month of the year.** Having determined on a general massacre of the Jews on a given day, Haman thought it of supreme importance to select a fortunate day. By recourse to “the lot” he obtained, as the right day for his purpose, the 13th of Adar, which was more than ten months distant. P. C.
The practice of casting lots to obtain a lucky day obtains still in the East, and is probably extremely ancient. Assyrian calendars note lucky and unlucky days as early as the eighth century B.C. Lots were in use both among the Oriental and the classical nations from a remote antiquity. From day to day, and from month to month. A lot seems to have been cast, or a throw of some kind made, for each day of the month and each month of the year. The day and month which obtained the best throws were then selected. B. C.—By a comparison of dates we find that he had an interval of some eleven months previous to the day of massacre in which to prepare for the execution of his bloody purpose. We cannot suppose that so long a delay was agreeable to his vengeful disposition; but his superstitious mind did not venture to strike the blow previous to the arrival of the day supposed to have been designated by the gods which he worshipped. That the Divine hand, unknown to Haman, guided the lot, and arranged for the long interval in which the deliverance of the Jews might be wrought out, is certain. Haley.
The lot was made to fix the time to the remotest possible period to be within the year, so that the execution was delayed for almost a complete year, affording time not only for the subversion of the plot at court, but for the arrival of the messengers who were despatched with the counteracting decree. That the name of God does not once occur here is a remarkable fact. But God Himself is there, though His name be absent. We trace Him at every step through this wonderful book, and everywhere behold the leadings of His providence. God not in the Book of Esther! If not there, where is He? To our view, His glory—the glory of His goodness, in caring for and shielding from harm His afflicted Church, shines through every page. Kitto.
8-15. Haman persuades Ahasuerus to publish a decree commanding the destruction of all the Jews in his kingdom on the ensuing thirteenth day of Adar. It remained for Haman to bring his proposal before Ahasuerus in such a shape as should secure his acquiescence in it. For this purpose he sought, first, to raise a prejudice against the Jews by representing them as bad subjects, causing trouble through the peculiarity of their own laws, and still more through their unwillingness to render obedience to the Persian laws (verse 8). He also appealed to the king’s cupidity, which constituted his main reliance. If the king gave his consent to the destruction of the Jewish nation, Haman undertook to pay into the royal treasuries, out of his private means, a sum which cannot be estimated at much less than two millions and a quarter of pounds sterling, and which may have amounted to a much higher figure (verse 9). Ahasuerus at once took his signet-ring from his finger and made it over to his minister (verse 10), thus enabling him to promulgate any decree that he pleased, and he openly declared that he gave over the Jewish nation, their lives and properties, into Haman’s hands (verse 11). The king’s scribes were put in requisition—a decree was composed, numerous copies of it made, the royal seal affixed to each (verse 12), and a copy despatched forthwith to each governor of a province by the royal post, ordering the complete destruction of the Jews within his province, young and old, men, women, and children, on the thirteenth day of the month Adar, and the confiscation of their property (verse 13). The posts started off with all speed, “being hastened by the king’s commandment” (verse 15); and the two men who had plotted a nation’s extermination, as if they had done a good day’s work, and deserved refreshment, “sat down to drink.” But the Persians generally were less satisfied with the decree than their monarch and his minister; it surprised and startled them; “the city Shushan was perplexed.” P. C.
8. “That they have laws of their own were not so unsufferable, if they did observe thine, O king; but these Jews, as they are unconformable, so they are seditious. They keep not the king’s laws.” Thou slanders, Haman. They could not keep their own laws if they kept not the king’s; for their laws call them to obedience unto their sovereigns. In all those hundred and seven and twenty provinces, King Ahasuerus hath no subjects but them. They obey out of conscience; others, out of fear. Bp. H
Haman says they were dispersed among all the provinces of the empire. This dispersion must have been in a great part voluntary, as they had the same liberty, both civil and religious, as the other nationalities of the empire. The predicted misery of their doom of expatriation had been hard to bear while the power of Babylon remained unbroken, but almost immediately afterward their status was essentially changed. The conquerors were naturally their deliverers and friends. Wherever the Medes and Persians found disaffection or hatred of the Babylonish power, there they found their allies and helpers, and were predisposed to favor them. The Jewish people have always shown a marked ability to make the best of the most adverse circumstances, and still more to turn to account every change that has been made in their favor. Street.
9. Now, when all these are laid together, the baseness and dispersedness of the people, the diversity of the laws, the irregularity of their government, the rebellion of their practice, the inconvenience of their toleration, the gain of their extirpation, what could the wit or art of man devise more insinuative, more likely to persuade? How could it be but Ahasuerus must needs think, since he could not suspect the ground of this suit, “What a zealous patriot have I raised, that can be content to buy off the incommodity of the state at his own charge! How worthy is he rather of the aid, both of my power and purse!” “The silver is given to thee, the people also, to do with them as seemeth good to thee.” Bp. H.
10. The employment by the Persian monarchs of a signet, by which they authenticated decrees and other documents, is strongly marked in Esther, where the royal signet is mentioned no fewer than five times. The late researches in Mesopotamia, which have brought to light signets of several earlier monarchs, have yielded one such memorial of a Persian king. This is the signet cylinder of Darius Hystaspes. It represents the monarch as engaged in the chase of the lion amid a palm-grove, seated in a chariot, driven by an unarmed charioteer. On the left side of the pictorial representation is a bi-lingual inscription (Persian and Scythic) which tells us that the monarch represented is “Darius, the great king.” Whether the signet of Ahasuerus which he took from Haman and gave to Mordecai (8:2) was a cylinder or a ring is perhaps doubtful; but, on the whole, probability is in favor of its having resembled the signet of Darius. G. R.
11. The silver is given thee, the people also.** Not “the silver which thou hast given me is given back to thee,” for the ten thousand talents had not been given, but only offered. Rather, “the silver of the people is given thee, together with the people themselves, to do with both as it pleases thee.” Confiscation always accompanies execution in the East, and the goods of those who are put to death naturally escheat to the crown, which either seizes them or makes a grant of them. Compare chap. 8:11, where the property of those of the Jews’ enemies who should suffer death is granted to those who should slay them. P. C.
The people also. It has been said to be “incredible” that any king should thus sacrifice a whole people to the offended dignity of a minister; but even De Wette allows that such an act is in keeping with the character of Xerxes, and, being told of him, is credible. In fact, it is on a par with many acts of Oriental despots. B. C.
12. The satrap, or supreme civil governor of each department, was “charged with the collection and transmission of the revenue, the administration of justice, the maintenance of order, and the general supervision of the territory.” Each satrap was appointed by the king, and removable at pleasure, but while in office was despotic, as being the representative of the great king. Haley.
13. Xenophon says: “I find that Cyrus set on foot another contrivance beneficial to his vast empire, by means of which he gained early information of what was doing in remote parts of his dominions. He formed establishments of stables, horses, and attendants, as far distant from each other as a horse could travel with ease in one day; and at each of these stations he appointed a person to receive and transmit the letters brought by the messengers, and to see that the men and horses were taken care of after their journey, and that fresh ones were sent forward. Sometimes these journeys were not intermitted during the night; the messenger to whose turn it fell to travel at night proceeding as he who had travelled during the day.” Parkhurst.
The thirteenth day of the twelfth month. There are full eleven months betwixt the first sending forth of the bloody edict and the time of executing the same. Herein, on the one side, his folly is discovered; and, on the other side, God’s wise providence is manifested. His folly in putting off the execution to so long a time; for he might have suspected that something or other might have intervened to hinder so cruel a design, which was so long made known before it was executed. God’s wise providence was manifested in ordering a means to prevent that plot before the time of executing it. Ainsworth.
The Jews at present keep three days—the 13th, the 14th, and the 15th of Adar—as connected with “the feast of Purim,” but make the 13th a fast, commemorative of the fast of Esther (chap. 4:16), and keep the feast itself on the 14th and 15th. B. C.
15. Perplexed.** The Jews no doubt had shown themselves a quiet, industrious, well-disposed people. They had gained many friends. Besides, the extermination of a whole people by such arbitrary slaughter must have seemed, as it was in reality, a dangerous precedent. Who could tell what people or race would next fall under the king’s ban? No wonder that the capital was “perplexed.” And how terribly laconic the latter word!
Chap. 4:1. Knew. The matter may have transpired through the publication of the edict; or possibly the king’s scribes had mentioned it to other officials of the court, and so it had become known throughout the palace before the edict appeared. Haley.
11. Clearly Esther sees and calmly she tells Mordecai the tremendous risk which following his counsel would bring. Note that she does not refuse. She simply puts the case plainly, as if she invited further communication. “This is how things stand. Do you still wish me to run the risk?” That is poor courage which has to shut its eyes in order to keep itself up to the mark. Unfortunately, the temperament which clearly sees dangers and that which dares them are not often found together in due proportion, and so men are over-rash and over-cautious. This young queen with her clear eyes saw and with her brave heart was ready to face peril to her life. Unless we fully realize difficulties and dangers beforehand, our enthusiasm for great causes will ooze out at our fingers’ ends at the first rule assault of these. So let us count the cost before we take up arms, and let us take up arms after we have counted the cost. Cautious courage, courageous caution, are good guides. Either alone is a bad one.
13,14. Mordecai’s grand message is a condensed statement of the great reasons which always exist for self-sacrificing efforts for others’ good. His words are none the less saturated with devout thought because they do not name God. This porter at the palace gate had not the tongue of a psalmist or of a prophet. He was a plain man, not uninfluenced by his pagan surroundings, and perhaps he was careful to adapt his message to the lips of the Gentile messenger, and therefore did not more definitely use the sacred name. It is very striking that Mordecai makes no attempt to minimize Esther’s peril in doing as he wished. He knew that she would take her life in her hand, and he expects her to be willing to do it, as he would have been willing. It is grand when love exhorts loved ones to a course which may bring death to them, and lifelong loneliness and quenched hopes to it. Think of Mordecai’s years of care over and pride in his fair young cousin, and how many joys and soaring visions would perish with her, and then estimate the heroic self-sacrifice he exercised in urging her to her course.
His first appeal is on the lowest ground. Pure selfishness should send her to the king; for, if she did not go, she would not escape the common ruin. So, on the one hand, she had to face certain destruction; and, on the other, there were possible success and escape. The argument holds in reference to many forms of conflict with national and social evils. If Christian people allow vice and godlessness to riot unchecked, they will not escape the contagion in some form or other. How many good men’s sons have been swept away by the immoralities of great cities! How few families there are in which there is not “one dead,” the victim of drink and dissipation! How the godliness of the Church is cooled down by the low temperature around! At the very lowest, self-preservation tion should enlist all good men in a sacred war against the sins which are slaying their countrymen. Mordecai goes back to the same argument in the latter part of his answer, when he foretells the destruction of Esther and her father’s house. There he puts it, however, in a rather different light. The destruction is not now, as before, her participation in the common tragedy, but her exceptional ruin while Israel is preserved. The unfaithful one, who could have intervened to save, and did not, will have a special infliction of punishment. That is true in many applications. Certainly, neglect to do what we can do for others does always bring some penalty on the slothful coward; and there is no more short-sighted policy than that which shirks plain duties of beneficence from regard to self.
But higher considerations than selfish ones are appealed to. Mordecai is sure that deliverance will come. He does not know whence, but come it will. How did he arrive at that serene confidence? Certainly because he trusted God’s ancient promises, and believed in the indestructibility of the nation which a Divine hand protected. How does such a confidence agree with fear of “destruction”? The two parts of Mordecai’s message sound contradictory; but he might well dread the threatened catastrophe, and yet be sure that through any disaster Israel as a nation would pass, cast down, no doubt, but not destroyed. How did it agree with his earnestness in trying to secure Esther’s help? If he were certain of the issue, why should he have troubled her or himself? Just for the same reason that the discernment of God’s purposes and absolute reliance on these stimulates and does not paralyze devout activity in helping to carry them out. If we are sure that a given course, however full of peril and inconvenience, is in the line of God’s purposes, that is a reason for strenuous effort to carry it out. Since some men are to be honored to be His instruments, shall not we be willing to offer ourselves? There is a holy and noble ambition which covets the dignity of being used by Him. They who believe that their work helps forward what is dear to God’s heart may well do with their might what they find to do, and not be too careful to keep on the safe side in doing it. The honor is more than the danger. “Here am I; take me,” should be the Christian feeling about all such work.
The last argument in this noble summary of motives for self-sacrifice for others’ good is the thought of God’s purpose in giving Esther her position. It carries large truth applicable to us all. The source of all endowments of position, possessions, or capacities is God. His purpose in them all goes far beyond the happiness of the receiver. Dignities and gifts of every sort are ours for use in carrying out His great designs of good to our fellows. Esther was made queen, not that she might live in luxury and be the plaything of a king, but that she might serve Israel. Power is duty. Responsibility is measured by capacity. Obligation attends advantages. Gifts are burdens. All men are stewards, and God gives His servants their “talents,” not for selfish squandering or hoarding, but to trade with, and to pay the profits to Him. This penetrating insight into the source and intention of all which we have carries a solemn lesson for us all. A. M.
This is a day wherein great things are doing and grievous things are a suffering by many of our brethren; therefore you should be working this day. This is a day in which sons of Belial—men that will not have Christ’s yoke—are combining to break it and cast His cord from them. Then join this day to help Christ, else, as Mordecai said to Esther, so I may say to you in reference to the present opportunity: if you altogether hold your peace, hold your purses and hold your hand at this time, enlargement will come to the Church some other way, but you may be destroyed who think to hold and keep your peace, either by saying or doing nothing; if ever you will appear, this is a day to appear in to do good. Let us be wise to manage and improve our day, so that it may never be said of us as our Lord did of Jerusalem, “If ye had known, even in this your day, the things which belong unto your peace!” Caryl.
Mordecai encourages Esther to estimate her position and lofty calling. “Who knoweth whether thou art not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” God may have given thee the noble mission to save thy nation. He has invested thee with personal beauty; He has given thee the heart and the hand of Ahasuerus; He has made thy home a palace, and seated thee on a throne, not to gratify thy vanity and love of splendor; not for thy safety in the day of thy nation’s peril, but as an angel of deliverance. Who knows but there is a proud destiny reserved for thee, to use thy elevation to lift up thy down trodden people? Brainerd.—As if he had said, “Consider the wonderful and gracious providence of God, in raising thee from among a despised people to be the consort of the greatest monarch upon earth.” Think not but the Lord therein certainly intended that some great work should be accomplished by thy hand in favor of His afflicted Church. And now the hour is come for thee to make use of the advancement given thee by the Lord; and to try, by that power and interest which thou hast with the king, to reverse the decree of our adversary, and effect the deliverance of our whole nation. The argument used by Mordecai to Esther is one of general application and use—viz., that one great purpose for which men are intrusted by Providence with power or riches is that they may therewith do good, and succor those who require their assistance; that they may help those to right who suffer wrong, may stand by their poorer brethren in the day of calamity and distress. Bp. Sanderson.
16. Mordecai hath said enough. These words have so put a new life into Esther that she is resolute to hazard the old: “Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law; and if I perish, I perish.” Heroical thoughts do well befit great actions. Life can never be better adventured than where it shall be gain to lose it. Bp. II.
Fast ye for me. Fasting for another is fasting to obtain God’s blessing on that other, and is naturally accompanied with earnest prayer to God for the person who is the object of the fast. Thus here again the thought of God underlies the narrative. P. C.—Here again the religious element shows itself. Esther’s fast could have no object but to obtain God’s favor and protection in the dangerous course on which she was about to enter. B. C.
Esther had not overlooked the importance of a general union of her people in religious exercise. She called into vitality and determined activity the whole combined and sympathetic force of multitudes, who at her instance did for three days put away from themselves every other thought, care, hope, that they might be found “watching” as regards the crisis of this hour. What an interesting suggestion arises from the words (verse 17), “So Mordecai went his way, and did according to all that Esther had commanded him!” The tender ward has become the strong, firm, religious teacher of her guardian. P. C.
The soul of Esther was worthy of a daughter of Abraham and of Mordecai. It rose with danger and difficulty. To save the life of her nation, she at once determined to go over the letter of a law, over the custom of her sex, and to hazard her own life that her nation might not die. Her bearing indicated deep piety as well as patriotism. Brainerd.—The fair young heroine’s soul rose to the occasion, and responded with a swift determination to her older cousin’s lofty words. Little as she says about her faith in God, it obviously underlay her courage. A soul that dares death in obedience to His will and in dependence on His aid demonstrates its godliness more forcibly in silence than by many professions. “If I perish, I perish.” Think of the fair, soft lips set to utter that grand surrender, and of all the flowery and silken cords which bound the young heart to life so bright and desirable as was assured to her. Note the resolute calmness, the Spartan brevity, the clear sight of the possible fatal issue, the absolute submission. No higher strain has ever come from human lips. This womanly soul was of the same stock as a Miriam, a Deborah, Jephthah’s daughter; and the same fire burned in her—utter devotion to Israel because entire consecration to Israel’s God. Religion and patriotism were to her inseparable. What was her individual life compared with her people’s weal and her God’s will? She was ready without a murmur to lay her young, radiant life down. Such ecstasy of willing self-sacrifice raises its subject above all fears and dissolves all hindrances. It may be wrought out in uneventful details of our small lives, and may illuminate these as truly as it sheds imperishable lustre over the lovely figure standing in the palace court, and waiting for life or death at the will of a sensual tyrant. A. M.