Esther 5:1
third <07992> [on the.]
royal attire ..................... royal ..... palace <04438> [royal.]
inner <06442> [inner.]
sitting <03427> [sat.]
Esther 2:11
Mordecai <04782> [Mordecai.]
The apartments of the women are accounted so inviolable, that it is even a crime to enquire what passes within their walls. A man, says Chardin, may walk a hundred days, one after the other, by the house where the women are, and yet know no more what is done there than at the farther end of Tartary. This sufficiently explains the conduct of Mordecai.
walk <01980> [walked.]
Esther <0635 07965> [how Esther did. Heb. the peace of Esther.]
Esther 2:13
Esther 6:2
Bigthana <0904> [Bigthana.]
[Bigthan. door. Heb. threshold.]
Esther 2:3
provinces <04082> [in all the provinces.]
gather <06908> [that they may gather.]
This was the usual way in which the harem, or {seraglio,} was furnished; the finest women in the land, whether of high or low birth, were sought out and brought to the harem. They all became the king's concubines; but one was raised as chief wife, or sultana, to the throne; and her issue was especially entitled to inherit.
authority <03027> [the custody. Heb. the hand. Hege.]
[Hegai. the king's chamberlain.]
{Saris hammelech,} "the king's eunuch:" so the LXX., Vulgate, Targum, and Syriac.
cosmetics <08562> [their things.]
Esther 2:9
found <05375> [she obtained.]
cosmetics <08562> [her her things.]
rations <04490> [such things. Heb. her portions. preferred her. Heb. changed her.]
Esther 4:14
liberation <07305> [then shall.]
liberation <07305> [enlargement. Heb. respiration.]
father's <01> [but thou.]
achieved <05060> [whether.]
time .................................. time <06256> [for such a time.]
The fact related in this verse was unquestionably the reason why Esther was raised to regal honours, by the overruling providence of God: she was therefore bound in gratitude to do this service for God, else she would not have answered the end of her elevation: and she need not fear the miscarriage of the enterprise, for if God designed her for it, he would surely bear her through and give success. It appeared by the event that Mordecai spoke prophetically, when he modestly conjectured that Esther came to the kingdom that she might be the instrument of the Jews' deliverance. Mordecai thoroughly believed that it was a cause which one way or other would certainly be carried, and which, therefore, she might safely venture upon. Instruments might fail, but God's covenant cannot. There is a wise design in all the providences of God, which is unknown to us till it is accomplished; but it will prove in the issue that all is intended for and centre in the good of those who trust in Him.
