John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Esther 4 This chapter relates the mourning of Mordecai, and of the Jews in every province, on account of the edict to destroy them, Es 4:1, the information Esther had of it, and what passed between her and Mordecai, through Hatach, a chamberlain, by whom he put her upon making a request to the king in their favour, Es 4:4, to which she at first objected, because of a law in Persia...
John Gill
All the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces do know,.... Not only the princes and courtiers, but all the king's subjects, the meanest of them; there is scarce a person throughout the whole empire, to whom the following law is not known; this is said, to show how notorious it was: that whosoever, whether man or woman, shall come unto the king into the inner court, who is not...
Matthew Henry
We left God's Isaac bound upon the altar and ready to be sacrificed, and the enemies triumphing in the prospect of it; but things here begin to work towards a deliverance, and they begin at the right end. I. The Jews' friends lay to heart the danger and lament it, ver. 1-4. II. Matters are concerted between Mordecai and Esther for the preventing of it. 1. Esther enquires into this case, and...