Esher

“ This is no time to cloud the royal brow!
Bring forth the vintage from the deepest vault.
Here are a hundred irised pearls. They cost
A million sesterces. Let each man crush
A lustrous shell and drink it to the health
Of Esther, beauteous queen of all the East.
Arise! She comes! A blaze of splendor. Now
Let every instrument be sounded.
The revels shall continue till the dawn!
[74] Zeresh
[Rushing in with uplifted dagger and thrusting it into the heart of Esther, crying as she flourishes it before the astonished court.]
The dawn, O king, is breaking in the east!
[Curtain.] ”

“ Chapter 14
1 Queen Esther also, being in fear of death, resorted unto the Lord:
2 And laid away her glorious apparel, and put on the garments of anguish and mourning: and instead of precious ointments, she covered her head with ashes and dung, and she humbled her body greatly, and all the places of her joy she filled with her torn hair.
3 And she prayed unto the Lord God of Israel, saying, O my Lord, thou only art our King: help me, desolate woman, which have no helper but thee:
4 For my danger is in mine hand. ”

“ Zeresh
[Who has been concealed in a corner of the hall, advancing.]
At Esther's feet! An Aggagite! Ha, Ha!
A hater of the Jews! You hypocrite!
A lover of this queen! A paramour
Of her who boasts that she can trace her blood
An unpolluted stream a thousand years
To one who watched his humble flocks on bleak
Judean hills. A shepherd queen that rules
The Persian throne, and you, O Haman, you
That fed on venom for her race, are now,
Though premier, a cringing, craven wretch,
Begging this Jewish girl for worthless life.
"A rainbow over polar snows," ha, ha! ”

“ Zeresh
[With contempt.]
Ahasuerus wears a pigeon's heart.
The Persian robe's a Jewish gabardine;
The crown, a Hebrew priest's phylactery.
But did you say forget? Have you been so
Long with me, dear, and doubt my memory?
Forget Ahasuerus, did you say?
That minion of a Jewish girl, who sealed
The death of Haman and his sons? His face
Is seared upon my heart, his image burnt
Into my brain. I tell you Xerxes is
No longer king.
[57] Parshandatha
But is not Esther queen? ”

“ The simplest way out of the dilemma is to suppose that the story of Esther stands upon a historical basis of fact, and that it has been worked up into its present literary form by a Jew of later days who was living in Persia, and who was perfectly familiar with the records and traditions of the reign of Xerxes. It is only an unwarrantable, a priori theory that can be upset by our acceptance of this conclusion. We have no right to demand that the Bible shall not contain anything but what is strictly historical. ”

“ Book Introduction - Esther
Read first chapter of Esther
The significance of the Book of Esther is that it testifies to the secret watch care of Jehovah over dispersed Israel. The name of God does not once occur, but in no other book of the Bible is His providence more conspicuous. A mere remnant returned to Jerusalem. The mass of the nation preferred the easy and lucrative life under the Persian rule. But God did not forsake them. What He here does for Judah, He is surely doing for all the covenant people. ”

“ And so Esther began arguing within herself: Was she bound to hazard her life for these Jews? After all, what had they done for her? They were her race, her kindred, but what of that? Had she not come out from among them? Has not destiny taken her lot and separated it from theirs? Why cannot she live her own life apart from them? Why should she come down from the throne and take her stand among them, exposed to cruel massacre and death? ”

“ In the Land of Israel, not a great distance from the city of Samaria, dwelt Ezra with his wife, Sarah, and their two children, Isaac and Leah. The sun was sinking behind the hills as Ezra and Sarah sat before the door of their humble dwelling resting after the labors of the day. On a couch in the doorway reclined a youth with a pale, sickly face and emaciated limbs. Isaac, the eldest-born of Ezra and Sarah, had been a cripple from birth. ”

“ It was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month; and all the people sat in the street of the house of God, trembling because of this matter, and for the great rain. 10 And Ezra the priest stood up, and said unto them, Ye have transgressed, and have taken strange wives, to increase the trespass of Israel. 11 Now therefore make confession unto the Lord God of your fathers, and do his pleasure: and separate yourselves from the people of the land, and from the strange wives. 12 Then all the congregation answered and said with a loud voice, As thou hast said, so must we do. ”

“ Zeresh
And Esther's life
Was forfeit then through Haman's wicked hate.
Mordecai
I wear the royal robe of blue and white.
Zeresh
Does Esther think because her vanity
Is flattered by the jewels of a queen
That Mordecai is moved by pomp and show?
[55] Mordecai
'Tis not the kingly trappings but the seal—
Not sceptre merely but the signet ring,
Not rank, but rule that Mordecai would have.
I can not understand her tears no more
Than she knows why I wear the crown. But I
Am justified. Jehovah wrought through me.
[Exit Mordecai.] ”

“ In Esther’s still chamber there ’s fasting, and prayer;
While he with the crown, has the homage of earth,
She calls on her God her doomed people to spare.
She thinks of her fathers in Egypt’s dark land—
She thinks of the bush, as in Horeb it burned;
She knows who the hearts of the kings hath in hand,
To turn them, as rivers of water are turned.
To him, for support, and for light to her mind,
She sends up the cries of her soul from the dust;
Then, rising to go to the king, is resigned
To do this and perish, if perish she must.
* * * *
With fasting and tears she is languid and pale ”

“ Thus out of the eater comes forth meat. The apocryphal Esdras (or Ezra) , Book I. ch. iii. and iv., gives another account of this decree in favour of the Jews, that Darius had vowed that if ever he came to the kingdom he would build the temple at Jerusalem, and that Zerubbabel, who was one of his attendants (whereas it is plain here that he was now at Jerusalem) , for making an ingenious discourse before him on that subject ( Great is the truth and will prevail) , was told to ask what recompence he would, and asked only for this order, in pursuance of the king's vow. ”

“ And Esther was treated well by everyone who saw her. 16 So Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus to his royal house in the tenth month, which is the month of Tebet, in the seventh year of his reign. 17 The king loved Esther more than all the women, and she obtained kindness and favor in his sight more than all the virgins. He set the royal crown on her head, and made her queen in Vashti's place. 18 Then the king held a great banquet for all his nobles and his servants, Esther's banquet, and he declared a holiday [10] for the provinces, and gave gifts with royal generosity. ”

“ But the king being angry rose up, and went from the place of the banquet into the garden set with trees. Aman also rose up to entreat Esther the queen for his life, for he understood that evil was prepared for him by the king. ”

“ Ezra's precious name saluted us, at first, in the title of the book, but in the history we have not met with it till this chapter introduces him into public action in another reign, that of Artaxerxes. Zerubbabel and Jeshua we will suppose, by this time, to have grown old, if not gone off; nor do we hear any more of Haggai and Zechariah; they have finished their testimony. What shall become of the cause of God and Israel when these useful instruments are laid aside? Trust God, who has the residue of the Spirit, to raise up others in their room. ”

“ Let us covenant, not only that, if we have strange wives ourselves, we will put them away, but that, if we have not, we will do what we can in our places to oblige others to put away theirs." (4.) "Let Ezra himself preside in this matter, who is authorized by the king's commission to enquire whether the law of God be duly observed in Judah and Jerusalem (ch. vii. 14) , and let us all resolve to stand by him in it (v. 4) : Arise, be of good courage. Weeping, in this case, is good, but reforming is better." ”

“ Then called Esther for Hatach - This eunuch the king had appointed to wait upon her, partly, as is still the case in the East, to serve her, and partly, to observe her conduct; for no despot is ever exempt from a twofold torture, jealousy and suspicion.
Verse 8
That she should go in unto the king - The Greek adds, "Remember the time of your low estate, and in what manner you have been nourished, and carried in my arms; and that Haman, who is next to the king, has got a decree for our destruction. Pray, therefore, to the Lord, and plead with the king, that we may be delivered from death." ”

“ She obtained favor in his sight - The Septuagint represents "the king as being at first greatly enraged when he saw Esther, because she had dared to appear before him unveiled, and she, perceiving this, was so terrified that she fainted away; on which the king, touched with tenderness, sprung from his throne, took her up in his arms, laid the golden scepter on her neck, and spoke to her in the most endearing manner." This is more circumstantial than the Hebrew, but is not contrary to it. ”

“ It appeared, by the event, that she did come to the kingdom that she might be an instrument of the Jews' deliverance, so that Mordecai was right in the conjecture. Because the Lord loved his people, therefore he made Esther queen. There is a wise counsel and design in all the providences of God, which is unknown to us till it is accomplished, but it will prove, in the issue, that they are all intended for, and centre in, the good of the church. ”

“ THE BOOK OF ESTHER This Book takes its name from queen Esther, whose history is here recorded. The general opinion of almost all commentators on the Holy Scriptures makes Mardochai the writer of it: which also may be collected below from chap. 9 ver. 20.
Esther Chapter 1
King Assuerus maketh a great feast. Queen Vasthi being sent for refuseth to come: for which disobedience she is deposed.
1:1. In the days of Assuerus, who reigned from India to Ethiopia over a hundred and twenty seven provinces:
1:2. When he sat on the throne of his kingdom, the city Susan was the capital of his kingdom. ”

“ Esther is the type of self-sacrifice which as uniformly refines, elevates, and arrays with new beauty and power. If we would reach the highest nobleness possible to us, we must stand with Esther at the gate, and not envy or imitate Ahasuerus on his gaudy throne. 'He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that loseth his life for My sake and the gospel's, the same shall find it.'
MORDECAI AND ESTHER 'For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place ”

“ Second Vision. v. 14-vi. 34.—Phaltiel, chief of the people, reproaches Ezra for forsaking his flock. Ezra fasts, and in his prayer asks why God had given up his people into the hands of the heathen. Uriel replies: “Lovest thou that people better than He that made them?” Man cannot find out God’s judgment. The end is at hand; its signs are recounted.
Third Vision. vi. 35-ix. 25.—Ezra recounts the works of creation, and asks why Israel does not possess the world since the world was made for Israel. The answer is that the present state is a necessary stage to the coming one. ”

“ ESTHER. The Book of Esther, in the Bible, relates how a Jewish maiden, Esther, cousin and foster-daughter of Mordecai, was made his queen by the Persian king Ahasuerus (Xerxes) after he had divorced Vashti; next, how Esther and Mordecai frustrated Haman’s endeavour to extirpate the Jews; how Haman, the grand-vizier, fell, and Mordecai succeeded him; how Esther obtained the king’s permission for the Jews to destroy all who might attack them on the day which Haman had appointed by lot for their destruction; and lastly, how the feast of Purim (Lots?) ”