obeisance to the king, as Artabanus explains to Themistocles, partook of the nature of religious worship. And because Mordecai refuses reverence quâ Jew, and not from mere personal irritation, it was fitting that his whole people should be destroyed with him. The incident of Haman's casting the lots is in itself exceedingly improbable. Moreover, this subordinate episode could hardly have given its name to the festival. Lastly, the word Pur in Persian does not mean 'lot.' Professor Jensen thinks that Pur is of Babylonian origin. Puru or buru means stone in Assyrian, and the Hebrew goral (lot), like the Greek psêphos, had the same etymological meaning.

Haman does not definitely state to the king that the people with the peculiar laws are the Jews. But in any case the royal decree is very incredible. As Professor Kuenen rightly says: 'Is it conceivable that even a tyrant like Xerxes would immediately have given his consent to the destruction of a whole people, and that the decree of massacre should not have been dispatched privately to the governors, but made known publicly to all and sundry?' Judaea itself is of course included in the 'provinces ' of the Persian empire.

§ 7. Mordecai's appeal to Esther.-When Mordecai perceived all that was done, Mordecai rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and cried with a loud and a bitter cry, and came even before the king's gate: for none might enter into the king's gate clothed with sackcloth. And in every province, whithersoever the king's commandment and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and the most of them lay in sackcloth and ashes.

So Esther's maids and her chamberlains came and told it her. Then was the queen exceedingly grieved; and she sent raiment to clothe Mordecai, and to take away his sackcloth from him: but he received it not. Then called Esther for Hatach, one of the king's chamberlains, whom he had appointed to attend upon her, and bade him inquire of Mordecai, to know what it was, and why it was. So Hatach went forth to Mordecai unto the broad place of the city, which was before the king's gate. And Mordecai told him of all that had happened unto him, and of the sum of money that Haman had promised to pay to the king's treasuries for the Jews, to destroy them. Also he gave

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him the copy of the writing of the decree that was given at Shushan to destroy them, to shew it unto Esther, and to declare it unto her, and to charge her that she should go in unto the king, to make supplication unto him, and to make request before him for her people. And Hatach came and told Esther the words of Mordecai.

Then Esther spake again unto Hatach, and bade him say unto Mordecai as follows: 'All the king's servants, and the peoples of the king's provinces, do know, that whosoever, whether man or woman, shall come unto the king into the inner court, who is not called, there is but one law for such, that they be put to death, except those to whom the king shall hold out the golden sceptre, that they may live. And I have not been called to come in unto the king these thirty days.' And they told to Mordecai Esther's words. Then Mordecai bade answer Esther, 'Think not with thyself that thou alone shalt escape of all the Jews because thou art in the king's house. For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou hast not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?'

Then Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer, 'Go, gather all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, although it be not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish.' Then Mordecai went his way, and did according to all that Esther had bidden him

Esther learns of Mordecai's mourning, but is strangely ignorant of its cause. And yet the decree is in everybody's mouth.

Mordecai's final argument to Esther shows the religious intent of the writer. 'From another place' probably means 'from heaven,' and Mordecai wishes Esther to believe that her election as queen may have been providentially determined by God in order that she might save her people.

Esther's resolution shows true courage and heroism. The words 'If I perish, I perish' are justly famous. They are at once strong and pathetic. Esther realizes that she has not become a queen for her own mere personal glory, but for the sake of her people. Whatever fault we may have to find in her subsequent

conduct, her bold sinking of self in the cause of her nation is wholly admirable.

§ 8. Mordecai and the King.-Now it came to pass on the third day, that Esther put on her royal apparel, and stood in the inner court of the king's house, over against the king's house: and the king sat upon his royal throne in the royal house, over against the gate of the house. And it was so, when the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, that she obtained favour in his sight: and the king held out to Esther the golden sceptre that was in his hand. So Esther drew near, and touched the top of the sceptre. Then said the king unto her, 'What wilt thou, queen Esther? and what is thy request? it shall be given thee even to the half of the kingdom.' And Esther answered, "If it seem good unto the king, let the king and Haman come this day unto the banquet that I have prepared for him.' Then the king said, 'Cause Haman to make haste, that he may do as Esther hath said.' So the king and Haman came to the banquet that Esther had prepared.

And the king said unto Esther at the banquet of wine, 'What is thy petition? and it shall be granted thee: and what is thy request? even to the half of the kingdom it shall be performed.' Then answered Esther, and said, 'My petition and my request is: if I have found favour in the sight of the king, and if it please the king to grant my petition, and to perform my request, let the king and Haman come to the banquet that I shall prepare for them, and I will do to morrow as the king hath said.'

Then went Haman forth that day joyful and with a glad heart. But when Haman saw Mordecai in the king's gate, that he stood not up, nor moved for him, he was full of indignation against Mordecai. Nevertheless Haman refrained himself: and when he came home, he sent and called for his friends, and Zeresh his wife. And Haman told them of the glory of his riches, and the multitude of his children, and all the things wherein the king had promoted him, and how he had advanced him above the princes and servants of the king. Haman said moreover, Yea, Esther the queen did let no man come with the king unto the banquet that she had prepared but myself; and to morrow also am

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I invited by her with the king. Yet all this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate.' Then said Zeresh his wife and all his friends unto him, 'Let a gallows be made of fifty cubits high, and to morrow speak thou unto the king that Mordecai may be hanged thereon: then go thou in merrily with the king unto the banquet.' And the thing pleased Haman; and he caused the gallows to be made.

On that night could not the king sleep, and he commanded to bring the book of records of the chronicles; and they were read before the king. And it was found written, that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king's chamberlains, the keepers of the door, who sought to lay hand on the king Ahasuerus. And the king said, "What honour and dignity hath been done to Mordecai for this?' Then said the king's servants that ministered unto him, "There is nothing done for him.'

And the king said, 'Who is in the court?" Now Haman was come into the outer court of the king's house, to speak unto the king to hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him. And the king's servants said unto him, 'Behold, Haman standeth in the court.' And the king said, 'Let him come in.' So Haman came in. And the king said unto him, 'What shall be done unto the man whom the king desireth to honour? Now Haman thought in his heart, Whom would the king desire to honour more than myself? And Haman answered the king, For the man whom the king desireth to honour, let the royal apparel be brought which the king useth to wear, and the horse that the king rideth upon, and upon the head of which a royal crown is set and let this apparel and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king's most noble princes, that they may array the man withal whom the king delighteth to honour, and bring him on horseback through the public place of the city, and proclaim before him, Thus is it done to the man whom the king desireth to honour.' Then the king said to Haman, 'Make haste, and take the apparel and the horse, as thou hast said, and do even so to Mordecai the Jew, that sitteth at the king's gate: let nothing fail of all that thou hast spoken.' Then took Haman the apparel and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and brought him on horseback through the public place of the city, and proclaimed before him,

'Thus is it done unto the man whom the king desireth to honour.'

And Mordecai came again to the king's gate. But Haman hasted to his house mourning, and having his head covered. And Haman told Zeresh his wife and all his friends every thing that had befallen him. Then said his wise men and Zeresh his wife unto him, 'If Mordecai, before whom thou hast begun to fall, be of the seed of the Jews, thou shalt not prevail against him, but shalt surely fall before him.' And while they were yet talking with him, came the king's chamberlains, and hasted to bring Haman unto the banquet that Esther had prepared.

Haman, like the king, is strangely ignorant of Esther's ancestry. Everybody about the court knows of her acquaintance with Mordecai; the Jews of the city fast at her order; but Haman and his friends are wholly in the dark! Xerxes has just

sanctioned the extermination of the Jews, but he makes no allusion to this when he orders sudden and special honour to be given to Mordecai, whom he himself names 'Mordecai the Jew'! How inapposite also is the saying of Haman's friends: 'If Mordecai be a Jew. All the world knew that he was.

§ 9. The deliverance of the Jews. So the king and Haman came to banquet with Esther the queen. And the king said again unto Esther on the second day at the banquet of wine, What is thy petition, queen Esther? and it shall be granted thee: and what is thy request? and it shall be performed, even to the half of the kingdom.' Then Esther the queen answered and said, "If I have found favour in thy sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me through my petition, and my people through my request: for we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish.'

Then the king Ahasuerus answered and said unto Esther the queen, Who is he, and where is he, that durst presume in his heart to do so?' And Esther said, 'The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman.' Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen.

And the king arising from the banquet of wine in his wrath went into the palace garden: and Haman stood up to make request for his life to Esther the queen; for he saw that evil was surely determined against him by the king.