177 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Mordecai wrote these things,.... The transactions of those two days, and the causes of them, as well as the following letter; some conclude from hence that he was the penman of the book; and so he might be, but it does not necessarily follow from hence: and sent letters unto all the Jews that were in all the provinces of the King Ahasuerus,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
To stablish this among them,.... That it might be a settled thing, and annually observed in all future generations, what they had now done: that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly; as the former had been observed by the Jews in the provinces, and both by those in Shushan, Es 9:17 as...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
As the days wherein the Jews rested from their enemies,.... Having slain all those that rose up against them, and assaulted them: and the month which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning unto a good day; for in this month Adar, on the thirteenth day of it, they expected to have been all destroyed, which had occasioned great...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the Jews undertook to do as they had begun, and as Mordecai had written unto them. They engaged to keep these two days as festivals annually, as they had at this time done; not in a religious but in a civil way, not as parts of religious worship, and as additions to and innovations of the law, but by way of commemoration of a civil benefit...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Because Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had devised against the Jews to destroy them,.... Had formed a design to exterminate them from the whole Persian empire in one day: and had cast Pur, (that is, the lot,) to consume them, and to destroy them; had cast lots to find out what would be the most lucky day in...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
But when Esther came before the king,.... To request of him her life, and the life of her people: he commanded by letters, that his wicked device, which he devised against the Jews, should return upon his own head; that whereas his wicked scheme was to destroy all the Jews, the king, by his second letter, gave orders that the Jews should have...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Wherefore they called these days Purim, after the name of Pur,.... The lot; because of the lots cast by Haman; see Es 3:7, therefore for all the words of this letter; in obedience to what Mordecai wrote in his letter to the Jews, and because of the things contained in it: and of that which they had seen concerning this matter; with their own eyes,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
The Jews ordained, and took upon them, and upon their seed, and upon all such that joined themselves unto them,.... Who became proselytes to their religion; that is, they appointed the above two days as festivals, and engaged for themselves, for their children, and all proselytes, to observe them as such; and one of their canons (s) runs thus,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And that these days should be remembered, and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city,.... And accordingly these days are commemorated by them now, and by all their families, and all in their families capable of it; and these words, "every province", and "every city", are used, as Aben Ezra observes, lest a...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then Esther the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, wrote with all authority,.... Strongly pressing the observance of this festival; before, Mordecai only recommended it, but now the queen gave a sanction to it, and laid her obligation on the Jews to observe it; perhaps some of the Jews were backward to it, or neglected to...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he sent letters unto all the Jews,.... That is, Mordecai did, signed in the queen's name, and his own: to the hundred twenty and seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus; among which was Judea, that was become a province, first of the Chaldean, now of the Persian empire, see Ezra 5:8 to whom also these letters were sent, directing and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
To confirm these days of Purim in their times appointed,.... The fourteenth and fifteenth of Adar: according as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had enjoined them; in the letters written and signed by them both: and as they had decreed for themselves, and for their seed; see Es 9:27, the matters of their fastings and their cry; in...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the decree of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim,.... As a festival to be observed by the Jews in future generations: and it was written in the book; either in this book of Esther; or in the public acts and chronicles of the kings of Persia; or in a book by itself, now lost, as Aben Ezra thinks, as many others are we read of in Scripture,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Esther 10 This chapter is very short, and just makes mention of a tribute Ahasuerus laid on his realm, Es 10:1, refers to the Persian chronicles, both for the greatness of him, and of Mordecai, and is closed with the character of the latter, Es 10:2.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the King Ahasuerus laid a tribute on the land, and upon the isles of the sea. Which include all his dominions, both on the continent, and on the sea, the Aegean sea; though Aben Ezra thinks it regards such as were not under his government, but stood in fear of him, of whom he demanded tribute. If Ahasuerus was Xerxes, perhaps his exchequer...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And all the acts of his power, and of his might,.... As Xerxes was a very mighty and powerful prince: and the declaration of the greatness of Mordecai, whereunto the king advanced him; the history of that, and which tended not a little to the greatness, dignity and prosperity of the king himself, and his whole kingdom: are they not written in the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For Mordecai the Jew was next unto Ahasuerus,.... The second man in the kingdom, the principal of the counsellors, and prime minister of state: and great among the Jews; highly respected by them, in great honour and esteem with them, for which there was great reason: and accepted of the multitude of his brethren; or of many, of most, of the...