Female Scripture Biography, Volume I

by F. A. Cox

Early the ensuing morning, Haman hastened to the palace, for the purpose of obtaining the royal consent to his malignant preparations. Now he was about to rid himself at a stroke of the disdainful Jew that refused him homage; and anticipated the hour when he should witness his enemy on the gallows, so soon and so eagerly prepared! It was, indeed, a strange coincidence. Ahasuerus is as anxious to see his minister, as Haman to be introduced to the apartment of his king. Each has a great object in view, for which the other's concurrence is desired--each too is solicitous respecting the disposal of the same individual, and each ignorant of the other's wishes and projects.

After the usual salutations, the king entreated, the opinion of his favourite minister with regard to the best mode of expressing his attachment to one whom he "delighted to honour." Haman concluded that his royal master, of course, alluded to him, since he well knew no other shared so largely in the royal confidence; and thinking to gratify the vanity of his little soul, he proposed that the favourite alluded to should be, for once, clothed in the royal apparel and crown, carried through the city upon the horse which was appropriated to the king, attended by one of the first princes of the empire, and have proclamation made before him, "Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honour." Approving of this mode of testifying the regard he wished to express, extraordinary as it was, Ahasuerus instantly commanded its punctual execution. "Make haste, and take the apparel and the horse, as thou hast said, and do even so to"--whom? to my favourite Haman?--No--insufferable mortification;--"to Mordecai the Jew!"

Behold Haman again in his house, "mourning and having his head covered, and expatiating upon the misery of his situation." His wise men and his wife agree, that if Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews, all his contrivances to ruin him would prove ineffectual; so fully aware were even the heathen of the peculiar interposition of Providence, in former times, on behalf of that scattered people.

In the midst of their consultations, the king's chamberlain came to attend Haman to the banquet prepared by Esther. He goes--but rather like a man led to execution, than one invited to a festival. But he must conceal his chagrin, and assume the smile of gayety.

Having partook of the feast, Ahasuerus requires of Esther the fulfilment of her promise, in the explanation of her wishes. He assures her with reiterated protestations, that her petition shall certainly be granted, "even to the half of the kingdom." How was he astonished, when she entreated for her own life, and that of her people! It had never entered into the mind of the king, that such a request was necessary. Is it possible that he hears aright? Ignorant that he had really prostituted, his authority to sanction the destruction of the queen as a Jewess, he looks at her and Haman with wild confusion, while she proceeds in a strain of firm, dignified, and eloquent statement: "For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish; but if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my tongue, although the enemy could not countervail the king's damage."

Who can paint the terrors that gathered, at this moment in the countenance of Haman, or the indignant frown of Ahasuerus, when he thundered forth--"Who is he? and where is he that durst presume in his heart to do so? The hour of detection was come. Detestable conspirator, thou shall not escape! Truth shall, at length, come from her concealment, and wither at a touch thy unmerited and unenviable distinctions!" Esther said, "The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman."--"The word was loath to come forth, but it strikes home at last. Never till now did Haman hear his true title. Before, some had styled him noble, others great; some magnificent, and some perhaps virtuous; only Esther gave him his own, 'wicked Haman.' Ill-deserving greatness doth in vain promise to itself a perpetuity of applause." Bp. Hall.

Overwhelmed with astonishment and indignation, the king hastily withdrew from the banquet into the palace-garden: while the offender, who was too well acquainted with the countenance of his master not to perceive that "there was evil determined against him," writhing in all the agonies of despair, produced by a consciousness of guilt, and a dread of merited punishment, implored the queen to intercede for his safety. He who was profuse of the lives of others, with a consistency which is characteristic of villany and despotism cannot endure the thought of forfeiting his own, but betrays a cowardice proportioned to his recent insolence. The king returning at the moment in a state of the utmost exasperation, imputed the worst motives to his suppliant attitude, and allowed his servants to rush forward and cover Haman's face, as a person under sentence of death. The miserable criminal had, probably, many flatterers in the days of his greatness, but his adversity shows that he had no friends. Every one is eager to accelerate his destruction. Harbonah, especially, a chamberlain, proposed his being executed on the gallows of fifty cubits in height, which he had prepared for Mordecai; to which the king immediately assented. In this manner did Providence take the cunning persecutor in his own snare, and vindicate the cause of his oppressed people. Let the enemies of religion tremble, while the children of God are joyful in their King. The arrows which malignity shoots at the church of Christ shall either be broken against her walls, and fall pointless to the earth; or rebounding on the foe that ventures upon the attack, shall pierce his own heart.

The advancement of Mordecai was the natural result of Haman's ruin. Esther having fully informed Ahasuerus of her relationship to the much-injured Jew and his nation, she was empowered to bestow upon him the house of the fallen minister. The Jews, however, were not yet exempted from the decree which the wickedness of Haman had inveigled the king to issue against them! so that Esther, not merely solicitous for her personal security or that of her friend and relative, ventured again before the king, "and fell down at his feet, and besought him with tears to put away the mischief of Haman the Agagite, and his device that he had devised against the Jews." The king renewed the testimony of his kindness, by stretching forth the golden sceptre; and the queen addressed him in these words, "If it please the king, and if I have found favour in his sight, and the thing seem right before the king, and I be pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews which are in all the kings' provinces: for how can I endure to see the evil that shall come unto my people? or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?"

The king was ready to concede every thing it was in his power to grant: but as the laws of Persia were irreversible, and he could not rescind an edict already issued in his several provinces, he adopted the plan of putting his ring into the hands of Mordecai and Esther, to seal whatever decree they might think it right to frame in the present emergency. Accordingly, they gave unlimited permission to the Jews to defend themselves, which it was likely would so plainly evince the royal wishes to nullify his former edict, that few if any would indulge their malice against this people, or endanger their own lives by availing themselves of the first order. Many, however, did so; and even in the royal city five hundred men attacked them, probably some of the partisans of the late minister; but their temerity hurried them on to their own destruction. The ten sons of Haman, were also slain, and at the request of the queen, hung on the gallows.

An annual festival, called Purim, [[53]] was established in commemoration of the deliverances we have recorded, which the Jews continue to observe at this day. It seems to have been appointed by Mordecai and Esther, as a civil, rather than a religious feast; unless it be supposed, that they received some special revelation to authorize such a measure. It is observed in the month Adar, which corresponds with our February and March.