Esther 4

And put on sackcloth icith ashes. As tho manner was, in great sorrow* And went out into the midst of the city, and cried with a loud and a bitter cry.’] Saying, as the same Targura expresses it, What a heavy decree is this which the king and Hainan have passed upon us 7 Not against a part of us, but upon us all, to root us out of the eaTth: whereupon all the Jews flocked about hira; and he caused the book of the law to be brought to the gate of Shushan, covered with sackcloth; and therein he read those words of Moses in Dem. iv. 30, 31. " When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, in the latter days, if thou turn to the Lord thy God, and shall be obedient to his voice (for the Lord thy God is a merciful God), he will not forsake thee, nor destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers, which he sware unto them." After which he exhorted them to fasting, humiliation, and repentance, according to tho example of the Ninevites.

Esther 4:1

rr HEN Mordecai perceived all that tvas done. WIiich.it is likely he heard by some friend before it was publicly known, but did not express his grief till the edict was hung up… Mordecai rent his clothes.] Both before and behind, saith* the latter Targum.

Esther 4:2

And came even before the king’s gate. That his cry might come to the ears of Esther. For none might enter into the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth.] But he durst not take his place in the gate, because none that were in mourning might come there: so careful they were, not in the least to disturb the king in his pleasures. By this it appears, as from many other places, that In the gate they made their court, as we speak, and dispatched all public affairs (as I have noted often before), which was here practised more thanMn other places, because the Persian monarchs lived more retired than other princes, few but those who attended them being admitted into their palace.

Esther 4:3

And in every province, whithersoever the king’s commandment and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.] All day long they fasted, and wept, and lamented * themselves; and in the night many lay, not in their beds, but on the ground in sackcloth and ashes.

Esther 4:4

So Esther’s maids and her chamberlains came and told it her. As a piece of news, or perhaps they understood there was some relation between them. TJten was the queen exceedingly grieved.] Imagining some mischief had befallen him, and not knowing what it was. And she sent raiment to clothe Mordecai, and to take away his sackcloth from hiin.] That he might come to court, and take his place in the gate. But he received it not.] This, no doubt, very much increased her grief.

Esther 4:5

Then called Esther for Hatach, one of the king’s chamberlains, whom he had appointed to attend upon her. In whom the king had a great confidence, and whom she could entrust with such a message. And gave him a commandment to Mordecai, to know what it was, and why it was.] What was the cause of his weeping and wailing, and why he would not accept of the garments which she sent him; as the latter Targum very well explains it.

Esther 4:6

So Hatach went forth to Mordecai unto the street of the city, which was before the king’s gate. Where, it is like, he still continued lamenting their miserable condition.

Esther 4:7

And Mordecai told him of all that had happened unto him. How he had refused to worship Haman (as the former Targum explains it), and how this had incensed him against the whole nation- And of the sum of the money that Haman had promised to pay to the king’s treasuries for the Jews, to destroy them.] The ten thousand talents he had offered, to procure the king’s consent to their destruction. Some of the Jews here add another marvellous thing which had happened to Mordecai the very night before Hatach came to him, which he desired Esther might be acquainted withal: whether it be true or false, I think fit here to remember it (it seeming to be so piously designed), as I had it, near threescore years ago, from a great man in the Jewish learning, who quotes for it R. Moses Almosnino, in a book called Jede Moseh (the hands of Moses), where he says, That Mordecai going home in great heaviness, reflecting on the danger his whole nation was in, met three boys coming from school, whom he examined what they had learned that day; one of them told him his lesson had been in Prov. iii. 25, 26. u Be not afraid of sudden fear, nor of the desolation of the wicked when it cometh: for the Lord shall be thy confidence," &c. Then Mordecai cried out, I am confident this desolation shall not be so speedy. Then the second child told him he had learned that day, Isa. viii. 10. <k Take counsel together, it shall como to nought; speak the word (or pronounce the decree), it shall not stand; for God is with us." O the wonderful goodness of God, said Mordecai, that thus out of the mouth of babes and sucklings ordaineth strength. And what have you learned? said he, to the third child; who answered, Isa. xlvi. 4. " Even to your old age I am he (that is, the God); unto hoar hairs will I carry you; I have made, and I will bear: even I will carry, and will deliver you." Now, blessed be God, cried Mordecai, that hath not left us comfortless; his hand shall be with us, as in former ages, &c. But another great man, in this learning, hath lately admonished me that this rabbin is but of yesterday, and designed to elude the prophecy of Psalm viii. quoted in the gospel, and therefore unworthy to be mentioned in this place.'

Esther 4:8

Also he gave him the copy of the writing of the decree that ivas given at Shushan to destroy them, to shew it unto Esther. That she might be fully satisfied what was intended. And to charge her that she should go in unto the king, to make supplication unto him, and to make request before him for her people.] He charged her, I suppose, in the* name of God, or, as she loved her nation, to go and earnestly to beseech the king to be merciful to the Jews, as the Targum expounds it.

Esther 4:9

And Hatach came, and told Esther the words of Mordecai. x

Esther 4:10

Again, Esther spake unto Hatach, and gave him commandment unto Mordecai. * -,

Esther 4:11

All the ki?ig*s servants, and the people of the king’s provinces, do know. That is, nobody, either in the court or in the whole kingdom, was ignorant. That whosoever, whether man or woman, shall come unto the king into the inner court, who is not called.] Here the king kept retired from all company, but such as he called for, or was pleased to admit. There is one law of his to put him to death.] Let him b’fc of ever such quality there was no exception; but one law reached all that were so presumptuous. This seems to have 5A