Ver. 1. On that day] This was a festival and a good day, as Esther 8:17, albo lapillo notandus, for the many signal mercies that thereon came in together, viz. Esther’s petition granted, Haman hanged, Mordecai advanced, the proscribed Jews relieved, &c. As crosses seldom come single (Catenata piorum crux), but trooping together commonly, and treading upon the heels of one another, like Job’s messengers, James 1:2; so do blessings from God: there is oft a continued series, a concatenation; there comes a troop, as she said, when her son Gad came, Genesis 30:11. God is rich in mercy, Romans 10:12. Neither are we at any time constrained in him, but in our own heart. Did the king Ahasuerus give] For into the king’s hands was all Haman’s estate forfeited. The Turks have a proverb, He that is greatest in office is but a statue of glass. Few of their viziers die in their beds, but are cut off at a short warning, and all they have is confiscated. The house of Haman] i.e. His goods and chattels, all that glory of his riches, whereof he had so greatly boasted, Esther 5:11, and which he had been so many years heaping and hoarding. Nem0 confidat nimium secundis. The Jews’ enemy] It is ill being the Church’s enemy: she hath a champion that will stick to her, Isaiah 37:23, so that her enemies shall all be found liars unto her, Deuteronomy 33:29. Let them read their destiny in that cup of trembling, burdensome stone, hearth of fire, mentioned Zechariah 12:2,3,6, and hear the Church’s motto, Nemo me impune lacessit; no one provokes me with impunity, there cannot be a greater folly than to be her enemy, for she conquereth even when conquered; as Christ overcame as well by patience as by power, Victa tamen vinces, eversaque Troia resurges. Unto Esther the queen] So making good that of Solomon, Proverbs 13:22. The wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just. See Job 27:16,17. Thus was that of the Canaanites for the Israelites, of Nabal for David, of the former tyrants and persecutors, for Constantine the Great, to whom the good God (saith Austin, De C. D. 1. v. c. 25) gave so much worldly wealth, quantas optare nullus auderet, as no man could ever have wished. That Haman was exceeding rich, appeareth by that large offer of his, Esther 3:9; who can tell but that he might have as much as Pope John XXII, in whose coffers were found by his heirs two hundred and fifty tons of gold, as Petrarch reporteth. And Mordecai came before the king] As his continual attendant and special favourite, his cousin and counsellor; perhaps one of the seven mentioned Esther 1:14. He that hitherto sat as a servant before the king’s gate is now grown so great a man all upon the sudden. It is the Lord that thus raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory, 1 Samuel 2:8. Promotion cometh neither from the east, west, nor south (where the warm sunshine is), but God is the judge, he putteth down one, and setteth up another, Psalms 75:6,7. He advanced Jovinian and Valentinian, men of low birth, to the empire. In the year of grace 518 Justinus was first a swine herd, then a herdsman, then a carpenter, then a soldier, and lastly an emperor. Cromwell, a smith’s son of Putney or thereabouts (whose mother married after to a sheerman), what a great man grew he here to be in King Henry VIII’s time? Virtue exalteth the meanest, when villany tumbleth down the noblest. For Esther had told what he was unto her] viz. Her first cousin and foster father, her friend that was as her own soul, as Moses phraseth it, Deuteronomy 13:6, and preferreth him before brother, son, daughter, wife. His relation to Esther was as a stirrup to help him into the saddle of highest preferment.
Ver. 2. And the king took off his ring] As a sign of intimate friendship, and a bond of strictest league of love. That this was usual among the Persians, is testified by Alexander. [ab Alexandro, Lib. i. c. 26.] Of Alexander the Great it is told, that when he died he left his ring to his dearest friend Perdiccas, but his dominions, τω κρατιστω, to the worthiest. This set up competitors, and bred much trouble. Ahasuerus knew that a worthier than Mordecai he could not easily find, and therefore besides that momentary honour he had newly done him, Esther 6:10, he now not only by this ring admitteth him into nearest friendship, but, as some think, advanceth him to be keeper of the seal, and lord chancellor of all the empire. Which he had taken from Haman] And so degraded and exauthorated him before his execution: this is usual. And gave it unto Mordecai] Acknowledging thereby his error in promoting so unworthy a man before; whom having punished for his deserts, he here pitcheth upon a better. En Imperatorem valde terribilem nec minus clementem, Behold the very emperor terrible and very little mercy, as Frederick, the elector of Saxony, said of Charles V. Let Ahasuerus be what he wishes, Almighty God is in this text set forth as bountiful to his people, and terrible to his enemies. See Psalms 34:15,16. And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman] As her chief steward, to see that everything went right, and were put to the best. Haman’s sons lived some months after this, but were outed of all. An inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning, but the end thereof shall not be blessed, Proverbs 20:21. He that by usury and unjust gain increaseth his substance, he shall gather it for him that will pity the poor, Proverbs 23:8. God will provide him both an executor and an overseer, as here he did Haman.