Esther 8:15

Esther THE NET BROKENEsther 8:3 - Esther 8:8 , Esther 8:15 - Esther 8:17 . The spirit of this passage may perhaps be best caught by taking the three persons appearing in it, and the One who does not appear, but acts unseen through them all. I. The heroine of the whole book and of this chapter is Esther, one of the sweetest and noblest of the women of Scripture. The orphan girl who had grown up into beauty under the care of her uncle Mordecai, and was lifted suddenly from sheltered obscurity into the ‘fierce light that beats upon a throne,’ like some flower culled in a shady nook and set in a king’s bosom, was true to her childhood’s protector and to her people, and kept her sweet, brave gentleness unspoiled by the rapid elevation which ruins so many characters. Her Jewish name of Hadassah {‘myrtle’} well befits her, for she is clothed with unostentatious beauty, pure and fragrant as the blossoms that brides twine in their hair. But, withal, she has a true woman’s courage which is always ready to endure any evil and dare any danger at the bidding of her heart. She took her life in her hand when she sought an audience of Ahasuerus uninvited, and she knew that she did.

Nothing in literature is nobler than her quiet words, which measure her danger without shrinking, and front it without heroics: ‘If I perish, I perish!’ The danger was not past, though she was queen and beloved; for a despot’s love is a shifting sand-bank, which may yield anchorage to-day, and to-morrow may be washed away. So she counted not her life dear unto herself when, for the second time, as in our passage, she ventured, uninvited, into the king’s presence. The womanly courage that risks life for love’s sake is nobler than the soldier’s that feels the lust of battle maddening him. Esther’s words to the king are full of tact. She begins with what seems to have been the form of address prescribed by custom, for it is used by her in her former requests { Esther 5:8 ; Esther 7:3 }. But she adds a variation of the formula, tinged with more personal reference to the king’s feeling towards her, as well as breathing entire submission to his estimate of what was fitting. ‘If the thing seem right before the king,’ appeals to the sense of justice that lay dormant beneath the monarch’s arbitrary will; ‘and I be pleasing in his eyes,’ drew him by the charm of her beauty. She avoided making the king responsible for the plot, and laid it at the door of the dead and discredited Haman. It was his device, and since he had fallen, his policy could be reversed without hurting the king’s dignity.

(15) Blue and white. —See Note on Esther 1:6 . Crown.—This is a different word from that previously used of a “royal crown” (Esther 6:8). Garment.—The inner robe or tunic. That of the king was of purple striped with white. Linen.—White linen. The city of Shushan rejoiced.—The tide of royal favour had changed, and the people of Shushan were evidently not very different from the mass of the populace of the present day, who shout with the winning side. Nothing succeeds like success, and the mobile vulgus of Susa cheered Mordecai as doubtless they would have hooted had they seen him led to execution. The crowds who welcomed our Lord into Jerusalem on His triumphal entry soon let their enthusiasm die away—“ Hosanna!” now; tomorrow, “Crucify!”

Esther 8:15 . With a great crown of gold — Which the chief of the Persian princes were permitted to wear, but with sufficient distinction from the king’s crown. For it must be observed, that the word royal is not added here, as in chap. Esther 6:8 , nor is the horse mentioned, as there, because no extraordinary honours are here spoken of, but only that honour, and that habit, which immediately belonged to the keeper of the royal signet. — Houb. The city of Shushan rejoiced — Not only Jews, but the greatest number of the citizens, who by the law of nature abhorred bloody counsels, and had a complacency in acts of mercy.

15 . in royal apparel of blue and white ] by way of indicating externally the revulsion of feeling. The Persian king’s own robe was purple, or purple embroidered with gold over another garment of purple striped or mixed with white. See Rawlinson’s Anc. Mon. (2nd ed.), iii. 203. crown ] not kether , that of the monarch, but ‘aṭârâh , which may have been a less rich one. a robe of fine linen and purple ] The LXX. erroneously translate ‘a diadem’ etc. The king wore a diadem consisting of a blue and white band or fillet, encircling the lower part of the crown. The description as regards the sentiments both of Mordecai and the city is worded so as to present a sharp contrast with that of the earlier condition of affairs ( Esther 3:15 , Esther 4:1 ). shouted ] The Heb. verb denotes joy audibly expressed. Thus the A.V.’s ‘rejoiced’ is inadequate.

With a great crown of gold; which the chief of the Persian princes were permitted to wear, but with sufficient distinction from the king’s crown. The city of Shushan; not only Jews, but the greatest number of the citizens, who, by the law of nature written upon their hearts, had an abhorrency from bloody counsels and designs, and a complacency in acts of benignity and mercy; or for other reasons, of which See Poole "Esther 3:15" .

Verse 15. - Royal apparel of blue and white . The Persian monarch himself wore a purple robe and an inner vest of purple striped with white ('Ancient Monarchies,' vol. 4. pp. 153, 154). The robes of honour which he gave away were of many different colours, but generally of a single tint throughout (Xen., 'Cyrop.,' 8:3, § 3); but the one given to Mordecai seems to have been blue with white stripes. These were the colours of the royal diadem (Q. Curt., 'Vit. Alex.,' 3:3). A great crown of gold . Not a tall crown, like that of the monarch, which is called in Hebrew kether (Greek κίταρις ), but ' atarah , a crown of an inferior kind, frequently worn by nobles . And with a garment of fine linen and purple . The "fine linen" was of course white. The real meaning of the word thakrik , translated "garment," is doubtful. Gesenius understands an outer garment' 'the long and flowing robe of an Oriental monarch;" in which case the "apparel" previously mentioned must be the inner vest. Others, as Patrick, make the thakrik to be the inner, and the "apparel" ( l'bush ) the outer garment. The Septuagint, however, translates thakrik by διάδημα , and its conjunction with the "crown" favours this rendering. The diadem proper of a Persian monarch was a band or fillet encircling the lower part of his crown, and was of blue, spotted or striped with white. Ahasuerus seems to have allowed Mordecai to wear a diadem of white and purple. The city of Shushan rejoiced .