Esther 7:9 Kommentar

We are now to attend the second banquet to which the king and Haman were invited: and there, I. Esther presents her petition to the king for her life and the life of her people (Est 7:1-4). II. She plainly tells the king that Haman is the man who designed her ruin and the ruin of all her friends (Est 7:5, Est 7:6). III. The king thereupon gave orders for the hanging of Haman upon the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai, which was done accordingly (Est 7:7-10). And thus, by the destruction of the plotter, a good step was taken towards the defeating of the plot.

INTRODUCTION TO ESTHER 7 Esther, being solicited by the king to tell him her petition, asks for her life and the lives of her people, who were sold to be destroyed, Est 7:1, the king, amazed at her request, inquires who was the person that dared to do so vile a thing; and was told by her it was Haman there present, Est 7:5 on which the king went out into the garden in wrath, and, returning, found Haman on Esther's bed, which still more incensed him; and being told that Haman had prepared a gallows for Mordecai, the king ordered that he himself should be hanged upon it, which was done accordingly, Est 7:7.

And Harbonah, one of the chamberlains, said before the king,.... One of the seven chamberlains, see Est 1:10, his name, with Josephus (y), is Sabouchadas. Behold also, the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman had made for Mordecai, who had spoken good for the king, standeth in the house of Haman. This man, perhaps, had seen it there, when he went with others to fetch Haman to the banquet, Est 6:14. The sin of Haman is aggravated by preparing a gallows for a man before he was accused to the king, or condemned, or had a grant for his execution, and for a man that had well deserved of the king for discovering a conspiracy against him, and whom now the king had delighted to honour: then the king said, hang him thereon; immediately, being ready prepared, the king's word was enough, being a sovereign and tyrannical prince. (y) Antiqu. l. 11. c. 6. sect. 11.

It is written in Proverbs: “He who digs a pit will fall into it; and when one starts a stone rolling it will roll back upon him” (Proverbs 26). So too Haman was forced to suffer the cross he had prepared for Mordecai. We might, however, ask what it means that, as we have read, the cross itself was made fifty cubits high. For the Law had previously been given to the people on the fiftieth day after a lamb was sacrificed on Mount Sinai; and given that we said before that Haman signified the Jews themselves when they were rioting against Christ—who had been promised to them in the Law—and persecuting his Church, the Law itself, which had been given to them to safeguard their lives, became the cause of their deaths because with it they had snuffed out the name of Christ and tried mightily to kill those who professed him. In other words, those who wanted by means of the Law to oppress the guiltless unjustly received through it the verdict of a just judgment, about which we are told by Paul: “Whoever has sinned in the Law will be judged through the Law” (Romans 2). Moreover, Harbona the eunuch, who handed over the actual cross that had been made, signifies the teachers of the Law who brought to light—by reading the Law itself—the deceit of the Jews and everything which they did contrary to the precepts of God. Hence because Moses foresaw in the spirit the rebels and apostates who would one day come to be, he predicted in his song in Deuteronomy everything that was going to happen to sinners. So too the Savior says to the Jews themselves in the Gospel: “Do not think that I am going to indict you before the Father—it is Moses, in whom you hope, who accuses you; for if you believed in Moses you would perhaps believe in me as well, for it is about me that he wrote. But if you do not believe what he wrote, then how will you believe my words (John 5)?”

It is written in the book of Proverbs: “Whoever digs a pit will fall into it, and a stone will come back on the one who starts it rolling.” So also Haman was forced to support the cross that he had prepared for Mordecai.

The king at the banquet urges Esther to prefer her petition, with the positive assurance that it shall be granted, Est 7:1, Est 7:2. She petitions for her own life, and the life of her people, who were sold to be destroyed, Est 7:3, Est 7:4. The king inquires the author of this project, and Haman is accused by the queen, Est 7:5, Est 7:6. The king is enraged: Haman supplicates for his life; but the king orders him to be hanged on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai, Est 7:7-10.

Behold also, the gallows - As if he had said, Besides all he has determined to do to the Jews, he has erected a very high gallows, on which he had determined, this very day, to hang Mordecai, who has saved the king's life. Hang him thereon - Let him be instantly impaled on the same post. "Harm watch, harm catch," says the proverb. Perillus was the first person burnt alive in the brazen bull which he had made for the punishment of others; hence the poet said: - - Nec lex est justior ulla, Quam necis artifices arte perire sua. "Nor can there be a juster law than that the artificers of death should perish by their own invention."

ESTHER PLEADS FOR HER OWN LIFE AND THE LIFE OF HER PEOPLE. (Est 7:1-6) we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed--that is, by the cruel and perfidious scheme of that man, who offered an immense sum of money to purchase our extermination. Esther dwelt on his contemplated atrocity, in a variety of expressions, which both evinced the depth of her own emotions, and were intended to awaken similar feelings in the king's breast. But if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my tongue--Though a great calamity to the Jews, the enslavement of that people might have enriched the national treasury; and, at all events, the policy, if found from experience to be bad, could be altered. But the destruction of such a body of people would be an irreparable evil, and all the talents Haman might pour into the treasury could not compensate for the loss of their services.

Harbonah, one of the chamberlains, said before the king, Behold also, the gallows--This eunuch had probably been the messenger sent with the invitation to Haman, and on that occasion had seen the gallows. The information he now volunteered, as well it may be from abhorrence of Haman's cold-blooded conspiracy as from sympathy with his amiable mistress, involved with her people in imminent peril.

Haman's Downfall and Ruin - Est 7:1-10 At this second banquet the king again inquired of the queen what was her petition, when she entreated that her life and that of her people might be spared, for that she and her people were sold to destruction (Est 7:1-4). The king, evidently shocked at such a petition, asked who was the originator of so evil a deed, and Esther named the wicked Haman as the enemy (Est 7:5, Est 7:6). Full of indignation at such a crime, the king rose from the banquet and went into the garden; Haman then fell down before the queen to entreat for his life. When the king returned to the house, he saw Haman lying on the couch on which Esther was sitting, and thinking that he was offering violence to the queen, he passed sentence of death upon him, and caused him to be hanged on the tree he had erected for Mordochai (Est 7:7-10).