The Expositor's Bible: Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther

The escape from this altogether unexpected danger is due to two courses of events. One of them – in accordance with the reserved style of the narrative – appears to be quite accidental. Mordecai got the reward he never sought in what seems to be the most casual way. He had no hand in obtaining for himself an honour which looks to us quaintly childish. For a few brief hours he was paraded through the streets of the royal city as the man whom the king delighted to honour, with no less a person than the grand vizier to serve as his groom. It was Haman's silly vanity that had invented this frivolous proceeding. We can hardly suppose that Mordecai cared much for it. After the procession had completed its round, in true Oriental fashion Mordecai put off his gorgeous robes, like a poor actor returning from the stage to his garret, and settled down to his lowly office exactly as if nothing had happened. This must seem to us a foolish business, unless we can look at it through the magnifying glass of an Oriental imagination, and even then there is nothing very fascinating in it. Still it had important consequences. For, in the first place, it prepared the way for a further recognition of Mordecai in the future. He was now a marked personage. Ahasuerus knew him, and was gratefully disposed towards him. The people understood that the king delighted to honour him. His couch would not be the softer nor his bread the sweeter; but all sorts of future possibilities lay open before him. To many men the possibilities of life are more precious than the actualities. We cannot say, however, that they meant much to Mordecai, for he was not ambitious, and he had no reason to think that the kings conscience was not perfectly satisfied with the cheap settlement of his debt of gratitude. Still the possibilities existed, and before the end of the tale they had blossomed out to very brilliant results.

But another consequence of the pageant was that the heart of Haman was turned to gall. We see him livid with jealousy, inconsolable until his wife – who evidently knows him well – proposes to satisfy his spite by another piece of fanciful extravagance. Mordecai shall be impaled on a mighty stake, so high that all the world shall see the ghastly spectacle. This may give some comfort to the wounded vanity of the grand vizier. But consolation to Haman will be death and torment to Mordecai.

Now we come to the second course of events that issued in the deliverance and triumph of Israel, and therewith in the escape and exaltation of Mordecai. Here the watchful porter is at the spring of all that happens. His fasting, and the earnest counsels he lays upon Esther, bear witness to the intensity of his nature. Again the characteristic reserve of the narrative obscures all religious considerations. But, as we have seen already, Mordecai is persuaded that deliverance will come to Israel from some quarter, and he suggests that Esther has been raised to her high position for the purpose of saving her people. We cannot but feel that these hints veil a very solid faith in the providence of God with regard to the Jews. On the surface of them they show faith in the destiny of Israel. Mordecai not only loves his nation; he believes in it. He is sure it has a future. It has survived the most awful disasters in the past. It seems to possess a charmed life. It must emerge safely from the present crisis. But Mordecai is not a fatalist whose creed paralyses his energies. He is most distressed and anxious at the prospect of the great danger that threatens his people. He is most persistent in pressing for the execution of measures of deliverance. Still in all this he is buoyed up by a strange faith in his nation's destiny. This is the faith that the English novelist has transferred to her modern Mordecai. It cannot be gainsayed that there is much in the marvellous history of the unique people, whose vitality and energy astonish us even to-day, to justify the sanguine expectation of prophetic souls that Israel has yet a great destiny to fulfil in future ages.

The ugly side of Jewish patriotism is also apparent in Mordecai, and it must not be ignored. The indiscriminate massacre of the "enemies" of the Jews is a savage act of retaliation that far exceeds the necessity of self-defence, and Mordecai must bear the chief blame of this crime. But then the considerations in extenuation of its guilt which have already come under our notice may be applied to him.267 The danger was supreme. The Jews were in a minority. The king was cruel, fickle, senseless. It was a desperate case. We cannot be surprised that the remedy was desperate also. There was no moderation on either side, but then "sweet reasonableness" is the last thing to be looked for in any of the characters of the Book of Esther. Here everything is extravagant. The course of events is too grotesque to be gravely weighed in the scales that are used in the judgment of average men under average circumstances.

The Book of Esther closes with an account of the establishment of the Feast of Purim and the exaltation of Mordecai to the vacant place of Haman. The Israelite porter becomes grand vizier of Persia! This is the crowning proof of the triumph of the Jews consequent on their deliverance. The whole process of events that issues so gloriously is commemorated in the annual Feast of Purim. It is true that doubts have been thrown on the historical connection between that festival and the story of Esther. It has been said that the word "Purim" may represent the portions assigned by lot, but not the lottery itself; that so trivial an accident as the method followed by Haman in selecting a day for his massacre of the Jews could not give its name to the celebration of their escape from the threatened danger; that the feast was probably more ancient, and was really the festival of the new moon for the month in which it occurs. With regard to all of these and any other objections, there is one remark that may be made here. They are solely of archæological interest. The character and meaning of the feast as it is known to have been celebrated in historical times is not touched by them, because it is beyond doubt that throughout the ages Purim has been inspired with passionate and almost dramatic reminiscences of the story of Esther. Thus for all the celebrations of the feast that come within our ken this is its sole significance.

The worthiness of the festival will vary according to the ideas and feelings that are encouraged in connection with it. When it has been used as an opportunity for cultivating pride of race, hatred, contempt, and gleeful vengeance over humiliated foes, its effect must have been injurious and degrading. When, however, it has been celebrated in the midst of grievous oppressions, though it has embittered the spirit of animosity towards the oppressor – the Christian Haman in most cases – it has been of real service in cheering a cruelly afflicted people. Even when it has been carried through with no seriousness of intention, merely as a holiday devoted to music and dancing and games and all sorts of merry-making, its social effect in bringing a gleam of light into lives that were as a rule dismally sordid may have been decidedly healthy.

But deeper thoughts must be stirred in devout hearts when brooding over the profound significance of the national festival. It celebrates a famous deliverance of the Jews from a fearful danger. Now deliverance is the keynote of Jewish history. This note was sounded as with a trumpet blast at the very birth of the nation, when, emerging from Egypt no better than a body of fugitive slaves, Israel was led through the Red Sea and Pharaoh's hosts with their horses and chariots were overwhelmed in the flood. The echo of the triumphant burst of praise that swelled out from the exodus pealed down the ages in the noblest songs of Hebrew Psalmists. Successive deliverances added volume to this richest note of Jewish poetry. In all who looked up to God as the Redeemer of Israel the music was inspired by profound thankfulness, by true religious adoration. And yet Purim never became the Eucharist of Israel. It never approached the solemn grandeur of Passover, that prince of festivals, in which the great primitive deliverance of Israel was celebrated with all the pomp and awe of its Divine associations. It was always in the main a secular festival, relegated to the lower plane of social and domestic entertainments, like an English bank-holiday. Still even on its own lines it could serve a serious purpose. When Israel is practically idolised by Israelites, when the glory of the nation is accepted as the highest ideal to work up to, the true religion of Israel is missed, because that is nothing less than the worship of God as He is revealed in Hebrew history. Nevertheless, in their right place, the privileges of the nation and its destinies may be made the grounds of very exalted aspirations. The nation is larger than the individual, larger than the family. An enthusiastic national spirit must exert an expansive influence on the narrow, cramped lives of the men and women whom it delivers from selfish, domestic, and parochial limitations. It was a liberal education for Jews to be taught to love their race, its history and its future. If – as seems probable – our Lord honoured the Feast of Purim by taking part in it,268 He must have credited the national life of His people with a worthy mission. Himself the purest and best fruit of the stock of Israel, on the human side of His being, He realised in His own great mission of redemption the end for which God had repeatedly redeemed Israel. Thus He showed that God had saved His people, not simply for their own selfish satisfaction, but that through Christ they might carry salvation to the world.

Purged from its base associations of blood and cruelty, Purim may symbolise to us the triumph of the Church of Christ over her fiercest foes. The spirit of this triumph must be the very opposite of the spirit of wild vengeance exhibited by Mordecai and his people in their brief season of unwonted elation. The Israel of God can never conquer her enemies by force. The victory of the Church must be the victory of brotherly love, because brotherly love is the note of the true Church. But this victory Christ is winning throughout the ages, and the historical realisation of it is to us the Christian counterpart of the story of Esther.

1

Josephus, Ant., XI. viii. 7.

2

Neh. xii. 26 and 47.

3

Allowing some months for the preparation of the expedition – and this we must do – we may safely say that it started in the year after the decree of Cyrus, which was issued in B.C. 538.

4

Ant., XI. i. 1, 2.

5

Gal. iv. 4.

6

Jer. xxv. 11, 12.

7

Jer. xxix. 10.

8

Jer. xxvii. 6.

9

Rom. i. 19.

10

Acts x. 34, 35.

11

Hag. ii. 6-8.

12

1 Esdras ii. 14.

13

Ezra ii. 1.

14

Tirshatha. Ezra ii. 63.

15

This name is a later form of "Joshua"; the older form of the name is used for the same person in Hag. i. 1, 14, and Zech. iii. 1.

16

Of course the Nehemiah and Mordecai in this list are different persons from those who bear the same names in the Books of Nehemiah and Esther and belong to later dates.

17

See Ezra i. 5.

18

Luke ii. 36.

19

Ezek. xliv. 9-16.

20

Psalm cxxvi. 1-3.

21

I.e., if the route was the usual one, by Tadmor (Palmyra). The easier but roundabout way by Aleppo would have occupied a still longer time.

22

Ezra vii. 8, 9.

23

Neh. vii. 70-72.

24

1 Esdras v. 47.

25

Matt. vi. 29.

26

John iv. 21, 23.

27

2 Kings xvii. 25-28.

28

Ant., XII. v. 5.

29

The "Osnappar" of Ezra iv. 10.

30

Isa. lvi. 7.

31

2 Kings xvii. 33.

32

2 Kings xvii. 30, 31.

33

Hag. i. 1, ii. 9.

34

Joel ii. 28.

35

Hag. i. 5, 7.

36

Hag. ii. 9.

37

Hag. i. 1.

38

Hag. ii. 1 seq.

39

Psalm cxviii. 8, 9.

40

Zech. iv. 6, 7.

41

Ezra v. 3.

42

Ezra v. 4.

43

Ezra v. 5.

44

Gen. xvi. 13.

45

Luke xii. 7.

46

Ezra vi. 1.

47

"Nineveh and Babylon," p. 345.

48

Bertheau-Ryssel, "Kurzgefasstes exegetisches Handbuch," p. 74.

49

1 Kings vi. 2.

50

Ezra iv. 24, vi. 15.

51

Ezra v. 8.

52

Ezra vi. 4.

53

1 Kings vi. 36.

54

Ezra v. 9.

55

Ezra vi. 10.

56

Herodotus, iii. 89.

57

Sayce, Introduction, pp. 57, 58.

58

Ezra. vi. 11.

59

Herodotus, iii. 159.

60

Ibid.

61

Ezra vi. 17.

62

Zech. xiv. 21.

63

1 Kings viii. 63.

64

Ezra vi. 17.

65

Ezra vi. 18.

66

Ezra iii. 2.

67

Here, at Ezra vi. 18, the author drops the Aramaic language – which was introduced at iv. 8 – and resumes the Hebrew. See page 71.

68

Ezra vi. 21.

69

1 Cor. v. 7.

70

James i. 27.

71

Ezra vi. 22.

72

Rawlinson, "Ezra and Nehemiah," p. 2.

73

Ezra vii. 1-10.

74

Ezra vii. 11-26.

75

Ezra vii. 27-ix.

76

Heb. i. 1.

77

Psalm xxxix. 3.

78

Phil. iv. 8.

79

Ezra vii. 6.

80

Ezra v. 5.

81

Ezra vii. 26.

82

Ezra vii. 14.

83

Ezra. vii. 14.

84

Ezra vii. 23.

85

Ezra vii. 27.

86

Ezra vii. 28.

87

Ezra vii. 14.

88

Ezra vii. 25.

89

Ibid.

90

The site of this town has not been identified. It could not have been far from Ahava.

91

Judges xx. 26.

92

1 Sam. vii. 6.

93

2 Chron. xx. 3.

94

Ezra viii. 31.

95

Ezra viii. 22.

96

Ezra. ix. 1.

97

Ezra ix. 6.

98

Ibid.

99

Deut. xxi. 13.

100

Deut. xxiii. 1-8.

101

Deut. vii. 3.

102

Ezra vii. 14.

103

Ezra ix. 11.

104

Ezra ix. 8.

105

Ezra ix. 15.

106

Ezra ix. 15.

107

Exod. xxxii. 31, 32.

108

1 John i. 9.

109

Ezra x. 2.

110

Ezra ix. 15.

111

Ezra x. 3.

112

Ezra ix. 4.

113

Ezra x. 15.

114

Ezra x. 44.

115

Cor. vi. 14.

116

Matt. x. 35.

117

Matt. x. 37.

118

Ezra iv. 12.

119

Ezra iv. 6.

120

Ezra iv. 7.

121

Ezra iv. 10.

122

Herodotus, i. 101.

123

Gen. x. 2.

124

Gen. x. 10.

125

Herodotus, i. 125.

126

At Ezra vii. 1.

127

E.g., the Nehemiah of Ezra ii. 2, who is certainly another person.

128

Neh. ii. 3.

129

Neh. i. 1.

130

Neh. ii. 1.

131

Neh. i. 2.

132

Neh. vii. 2.

133

Josephus, Ant., XI. v. 6.

134

Neh. ii. 4.

135

Neh. ii. 20.

136

Ezra i. 2.

137

Ezra vi. 10.

138

Ezra vii. 12, 21, 23.

139

It is used by the chronicler, and it is found in Jonah and Daniel, and once even in our recension of Genesis (Gen. xxiv. 7).

140

Neh. i. 5. See Deut. vii. 9.

141

Neh. i. 6.

142

Matt. vi. 7.

143

Ezra ix. 6-15.

144

Troilus and Cressida, Act iii., Scene 3.

145

Neh. i. 7

146

Luke xv. 18.

147

Neh. i. 10.

148

Neh. i. 11.

149

Neh. ii. 4.

150

Neh. ii. 1.

151

Neh. ii. 2.

152

Neh. ii. 8.

153

Jer. xlv. 5.

154

Ezra iv. 21.

155

Ibid.

156

Psalm cxlvi. 3.

157

Rev. xii. 16.

158

Neh. ii. 8.

159

Ezra vii. 28.

160

Neh. ii. 8.

161

Neh. ii. 10.

162

James i. 27.

163

Neh. ii. 17, 18.

164

Gen. xxviii. 16.

165

Isa. i. 3.

166

Neh. ii. 8.

167

Psalm cxxii. 2, 3.

168

1 Cor. iii. 13.

169

Prov. xxii. 1.

170

Neh. iii. 1.

171

Neh. iii. 5.

172

Neh. iii. 20.

173

Neh. xi. 1.

174

Neh. iii. 7.

175

Neh. iii. 8.

176

Neh. viii. 16.

177

Neh. iii. 9.

178

Neh. iii. 11.

179

2 Chron. xxvi. 9; Jer. xxxi. 38.

180

2 Kings xiv. 13.

181

Neh. ii. 10.

182

Neh. ii. 10.

183

Ezra iv. 13.

184

Neh. ii. 20.

185

Neh. iv. 1.

186

Neh. iv. 3.

187

Conder, "Bible Geography," p. 131

188

Neh. iv. 4.

189

Neh. iv. 8, 11.

190

Neh. iv. 9.

191

Neh. v. 13.

192

Exod. xxii. 25.

193

Neh. v. 11.

194

Deut. xv. 1-6.

195

E.g., Isa. v. 8.

196

Exod. xxi. 7.

197

Neh. v. 7, 10, where instead of "usury" (A.V.) we should read "pledge."

198

Deut. xv. 3-6.

199

Deut. xv. 7, 8.

200

Luke vi. 34.

201

Gal. vi. 2.

202

James i. 5.

203

At Ono. This place has not yet been found. It cannot well be Beit Unia, north-west of Jerusalem, near Beitin (Bethel). Its association with Lod (Lydda) in 1 Chron. viii. 12 and Neh. xi. 35, points to the neighbourhood of the latter place.

204

Neh. ii. 19.

205

Neh. vi. 10.

206

1 John iv. 1.

207

Neh. vi. 11.

208

Rom. xiv. 14.

209

Neh. vi. 16.

210

Neh. vii. 1-3.

211

Neh. vii. 4.

212

Neh. vii. 5-73 = Ezra ii.

213

1 Esdras ix. 37-55.

214

Neh. viii. 9.

215

Neh. x. 1.

216

Ezra iv. 7-23.

217

Ezra vii. 25, 26.

218

Neh. vi. 15.

219

Neh. viii. 2.

220

Lev. xxiii. 24.

221

In Neh. viii. 4 six names are given for the right-hand contingent and seven for the left-hand. But since in the corresponding account of 1 Esdras fourteen names occur, one name would seem to have dropped out of Nehemiah. The prominence given to the Levites in all these scenes and the absence of reference to the priests should be noted. The Levites were still important personages, although degraded from the priesthood. The priests were chiefly confined to ritual functions; later they entered on the duties of civil government. The Levites were occupied with teaching the people, with whom they came into closer contact. Their work corresponded more to that of the pastoral office. In these times, too, most of the scribes seem to have been Levites.

222

Not translating it into the Aramaic dialect. That would have been a superfluous task, for the Jews certainly knew Hebrew at this time. Ezra and Nehemiah and the prophets down to Malachi wrote in Hebrew.

223

Neh. x. 30.

224

Exod. xxxiv. 16.

225

Neh. x. 31.

226

Lev. xxv. 2-7.

227

Neh. x. 35-39.

228

Lev. xxvii. 30; Num. xv. 20 ff., xviii. 11-32.

229

Strictly speaking, the Hexateuch, as "Joshua" was undoubtedly included in the volume. But the familiar term Pentateuch may serve here, as it is to the legal requirements contained in the earlier books that reference is made.

230

Neh. viii. 9.

231

Neh. viii. 14, 15

232

Neh. viii. 12.

233

LXX. Ezra ix. 6-15.

234

Neh. ix. 8.

235

Neh. ix. 31.

236

Neh. ix. 32.

237

Herodotus, vii. 89.

238

Neh. xiii. 13.

239

Neh. xii. 1-7.

240

E.g., Ezra viii. 33; where the high-priest is passed over in silence.