Albert Barnes Commentary Esther 7
Albert Barnes Commentary
Esther 7
Albert Barnes Commentary
Esther 7
"for we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my peace, although the adversary could not have compensated for the king`s damage." — Esther 7:4 (ASV)
The king now learned, perhaps for the first time, that his favorite was a Jewess.
Although the enemy ... – that is, "although the enemy (Haman) would not (even in that case) compensate (by his payment to the treasury) for the king’s loss of so many subjects."
"Then the king returned out of the palace garden into the place of the banquet of wine; and Haman was fallen upon the couch whereon Esther was. Then said the king, Will he even force the queen before me in the house? As the word went out of the king`s mouth, they covered Haman`s face." — Esther 7:8 (ASV)
Like the Greeks and Romans, the Persians reclined at their meals on sofas or couches. Haman, in the intensity of his supplication, had thrown himself upon the couch at Esther’s feet.
They covered Haman’s face— The Macedonians and the Romans are known to have commonly muffled the heads of prisoners before executing them. It may have also been a Persian custom.
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