The Pulpit Commentary — Esther — Section 151

&ultation of the lot, the word "Pur" meaning Ver. 23.-The J'ewa undertook to do·aa "lot" in Persian (ver. 24). The festival they had begun. I. e. "to observe the 14th became a national institution by the general day." And aa M:ordeoai had written to consent of the .Tews everywhere (ver. 27), them. I. e. "Rud to observe also the 15th. ·• Ver. 25.-But when Esther came before nnd has remained to the present day Among the king. Rather, " when the matte,· cCLme the most cherished of their ns11ges. It falls before the king." It is impossible to supply in euly spring, a month before the passover, a proper name which has not occurred once And occupies two days, which are still those in the bst eleven verses. Vvo must supposo fixed by Mordec&i &nd Esther, the 14th and the feminine suffix attached to the verb bo, "came," to be superfluous, as it is in Ezek. 15th of AdRr. The day preceding the feast xxxiii. 33. His wicked device should return is observed as & fast d&y, in commemoration upon his own head. Compru·e Ps. vii. 16. of Esther's fast before going in uninvited to The device of Haman to m&ssacre all the the king (eh. h-. 16). J cws turned to the destruction of the Jews' chief enemies, and of Haman himself and -Ver.18.-The J'ewswhich wereatShushan bis sons among them. assembled together. J. e. "gathered them- Ver. 26.-Wherefore they oalled theae selves together to battle." The verb is the days Purim after the name of Pur. They same as that used in ver. 16 of this chapter, took the Persian word, that is, and gave it a and in eh. viii. 11 ; ix. 2. Hebrew plural, either because the Persian Ver. 19.-The J'ews of the villages, that method of casting involved the use of several dwelt in the unwalled towus. Rather, lots, or because Haman cast " Pur" several "the Jews of the country, who dwelt in the times (eh. iii 7). For all the words of this country towns." There are places where the letter. J. e. "on account of what was said word translated "nnwalled" connotes that in Mordecai's letter to them" (ver. 20). And idea--e. g. Ezek. =viii. 11 ; Zech. ii 8 ; of that which they had seen, &c. "And but the main notion which it expresses is on account of what they h&d themselves seen always that of a "conntry region." Here and suffered." Mordecai's arguments were walls are not at all in the thought of the backed up by their own personal experience, \IT.iter, who intends a contrast between the and the recollection of what "had come to Jews of the metropolis and those of the pro- them." vinces. Ecbatana and Babylon are "conntry Ver. 27.-All such as joined themselves towns" to a Jew of Snsa, such as the writer. to them. I. e. "all who should become A good day. Compare eh. viii 17, with the proselytes to their faith" (see above, eh. viii. comment. Sending portion.a one to another. 17). According to their writing. Accord- Compare Keh. viii 10; and for the precept ing to the writing concerning the days which on which the practice was fonnded see Deut. they had received from Mordecai (ver. 20). xvi 14. In modern times the Jews keep up Ver. 28.-That these days should be re- the practice, and on the 15th of Adar both membered and kept throughout every gener- interchange gifts, chiefly sweetmeats, and ation, every family, &c. The universal adop- make liberal offerings for the poor (comp. tion of the Purim feast by the Jewish nation, ver. 22, ad fin.). originating as it did &t Susa, among the Ver. 20.-llordecai wrote these things. Persian Jews, never a very important part 0 6 Mordecai seems, in the first illst.a.nce, to have the nation, is a curious fact, and is certainly written to the provincial Jews, suggesting to not satisfactorily acconnted for by the beauty them the future observance of two days of and popularity of the Book of Esther (Ewald), Purim instead of one, and explaining the nor by the dignity and :power of Mordecai. gronnds of his proposition, but without Mordecai had no ecclesiastical authority ; venturing to issue any order. When he and it might have been expected that the found his proposition well received (vers. 23, Jews of Jerusalem would have demurred to 27) be sent out a second letter, "with all the imposition of a fresh religious obligation authority" (ver, 29), enjoining the observ- upon them by a Jew of the Dispersion, who &Lce. was neither a prophet, nor a priest, nor even Ver. 2L-To lltabliah. I. e. "with a a Levite. The Jews of Jerusalem, in their view to establishing"-not actually doing so. strongly-situated city, which was wholly Ver. 22.-The month which wa1 tlll'Jled theirs, and with their temple-fortress com- unto them from sorrow to joy. Th.is was plete (Ezra vi. 15), can scarcely have felt, the key-note of Purim, the dominant idea, themselves in much danger from o.n attack to which all else was secondary and sub- which was to have begun and ended in a ordinate-sorrow tnmed into joy, "mourning day. But Joi.a.kim, the high priest of the into dancing," utter destruction into a signal time (Neh: xii 10-12); to whom, IIS we triumph. Pa. x.xx. might well have bee11 have seen ('Introduction,'§ a), the Book of written at this time. Esther was attributed by some, must ha.n ClU. IX. 1-32.] THE BOOK OF ESTHER. 15(;