posed to in doing it: then shall there enlargement and
deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; Mor-
decai seemed confident of it, that by some means or
another the Jews would be delivered; if not through
the intercession of Esther, yet from some other quarter,
or by some other hand: but thou and thy father's house
shall be destroyed; for such neglect of the people of God
when in distress, want of pity to them, and not exert-
ing herself as she might in their behalf; so that seeing
she arid her family must perish, it was better to perish
in a good cause than in a bad one: and who knoweth
whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as
this? he intimates that he believed that the providence
of God had raised her to that dignity, that she might
be an instrument of saving his people in the time of
their distress; and this he said to encourage her to
make the experiment.
Ver. 15. Then Esther bade them return Mordecai this
answer. ] Which follows, and was sent by the messen-
gets she sent the above to him.
Ver. 16. Go, gather together all the Jews that are pre-
sent in Shushan, &c.] To acquaint them with what
follows; but not to continue in a body together, which
.might cause suspicion of an ill design in them; accord-
iug to the latter Targum, 1_0,000 chosen priests were
found in it; but that must be an exaggeration of their
number; it can hardly be thought there were so many
Jews in all there: and fast yefor me; that is, pray for
her, tllat she might have courage to go in to the king,
and meet with success; for prayer was the principal
thing, fasting olily an accessory to it, and as titling-for
it, and expressive of affliction and humiliation of soul:
and neither eat nor drink three days, night nor day; it

was to be a continued fast unto the third day; as A ben
Ezra interprets it, they were not to eat at evening, but
fast two whole days, and two whole nights, until the
third day came, on which Esther went in to the king,
ch. v. 1. I also and my maidens willJhst likewise; in the
same manner and as long; these maids ofhonour were
either proselytes, perhaps of her making, or Jewish
ladies, she being allowed by the king to choose whom
she pleased: and so will 1 go in unto the king, which is
not according' to the law; or afterwards, or and then {d}
when they, and she and her maids, had fasted and
prayed so long, then she was determined in the strength
of the Lord to go into the king's presence with her pc~
tition, though it was contrary to law: and if I perish, 1'
perish; signifying, that she readilyand cheerfully risked
her life for the good of her people; and if such
was the pleasure of God, that she should lose it, she
was content, and acquiesced in his will, leaving herself
entirely in his hands, to dispose of her as he thought tit.
Ver. 17. So Mordecai went his way, &c.] About the
business he was directed to; the word used having
sometimes the signification of passing over or trans-
gressing, Jarchi interprets it of Mordecai's transgressing
the command, by fasting on a festival; the letter being
written on the 131h of Nisan, ch. iii. 1_o. the next day
was the passover, on which he supposes the fast began;
and the three days were, the 141h, 151h, and 161h of
the month, and belonged to the feast of the passover
and of unleavened bread; so the Targum: and did
according to all that Esther had commanded him; got
the Jews together, and kept a fast three days; accord-
ing to the Midrash {c} they were the 131h, 141h, and
151h of Nisan.

THIS chapter gives an account of Esther's going in to
the king, and of his holding out the golden seepIre to
her, on which she invited him and Haman to a banquet
of wine that day, and to another the next day, ver.
1--8. which highly delighted Haman; and he went to
his house and family with great joy, and yet chagrined
at Mordecai's not bowing to hini; wherelbre, at the
advice of his wife and friends, he erected a gallows to
hang him upon, proposing to get a grant for it from the
king the next day, vet. 9--14.
Ver. 1. Now it came to pass on the third day, &c.]
Of the fast; though the former Targum paraphrases it
the third day of the passover, the 16th of Nisan, see
the note on ch. iv. 17. though it is probable this was
nearer the time fixed for the destruction of the Jews,
see ch. viii. 9. yet the Jews have fixed the fast of
Esther on that very day, the 131h of Adar f: that Esther
put on her royal apparel; in order to go in to the king,
and appear before him; which to do in a nlournful
habit, such as she had on when fasting, was not proper;
for then she put off' lier crown-royal, as is intimated in
the additions to the book of Esther, oh. xix. 11. and as
was usual.for princes to do in times of mourningt;
but now she put it on, as both Ben Gotion h and the
latter Targum alarm: and stood in the inner court of the
king's house, over-against the king's house; into which
none might go but such as were callec{; yet Esther
being queen, the keepers of the door could not forbid
her, as Aben Ezra observes: and the king sat upon his
royal throne, in the ro.yal house, over-against the gate of
the house; so that he could see whoever came in at it,
into the inner court.
Ver. _o. And it was so, when the king saw Esther the
queen standing in the court, that she obtained .fayour in
his sight, &c.] Which no doubt was of God, who has
the hearts of kings in his hanoi, and turns them as he
pleases; the king had not called her for thirty days past,
or more, which shewed coolness of afft,ction to her,
and now she transgressed a law by coming uncalled for,
which might have provoked his wrath; and for a lesser
matter than this was Vashti divorced; but yet his tnind
was itlclined to her, arid she appeared very amiable and
pleasing to him: and the king  hdd out to Esther the
golden sceptre that was in his hand ; as a token of bis


{d} \^Nkbw\^ & postea, Noldius, p. 198. No. 899. so the Targum, \~kai tote\~,
Sept. & tune, V. L. Pagninus, Montanus; tum, Tigurine version.
{e} Midrash Esther, fol. 94. 4.
{f} Vid Reland. Antiqu. Heb. par. 4. c. 13. scct. 5.
{g} Vid. Paschalium de Coronis, l. 10. c. 11. p. 699.
{h} Hist. Heb. Jud. l. 2. c. 4.