Matthew Henry on Esther 7:7–end
Here, I. The king retires in anger. He rose from table in a great passion, and went into the palace garden to cool himself and to consider what was to be done, Est 7:7. He sent not for his seven wise counsellors who knew the times, being ashamed to consult them about the undoing of that which he had rashly done without their knowledge or advice; but he went to walk in the garden awhile, to compare in his thoughts what Esther had now informed him of with what had formerly passed between him and Haman. And we may suppose him, 1. Vexed at himself, that he should be such a fool as to doom a guiltless nation to destruction, and his own queen among the rest, upon the base suggestions of a self-see…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Esther 7:10
So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai--He has not been the only plotter of mischief whose feet have been taken in the net which they hid (Psa 9:15). But never was condemnation more just, and retribution more merited, than the execution of that gigantic criminal.
Next: Esther Chapter 8
Adam Clarke on Esther 7:9
Behold also, the gallows - As if he had said, Besides all he has determined to do to the Jews, he has erected a very high gallows, on which he had determined, this very day, to hang Mordecai, who has saved the king's life.
Hang him thereon - Let him be instantly impaled on the same post. "Harm watch, harm catch," says the proverb. Perillus was the first person burnt alive in the brazen bull which he had made for the punishment of others; hence the poet said: -
- Nec lex est justior ulla, Quam necis artifices arte perire sua.
"Nor can there be a juster law than that the artificers of death should perish by their own invention."
John Gill on Esther 7:10
So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai,.... Not within his house, Esther 7:9, but more probably in his courtyard, in the sight of his family and friends; or, it may be, the gallows was taken from thence, and set up without the city, where he was hanged: for so it is said in the additions of the book of Esther,"For he that was the worker of these things, is hanged at the gates of Susa with all his family: God, who ruleth all things, speedily rendering vengeance to him according to his deserts.'' (Esther 16:18)that he was hanged without the gates of Shushan; see Psalm 7:15,
then was the king's wrath pacified; having inflicted punishment on such a wicked counsell…
