Esther 7:9 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Esther 7:9
And Harbonah, one of the chamberlains, said before the king, Behold also, the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman had made for Mordecai, who had spoken good for the king, standeth in the house of Haman. Then the king said, Hang him thereon.
to do or make · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Mordecai
לְֽמָרְדֳּכַ֞יle.ma.re.do.Khai
H4782
Mordecai · preposition + proper noun, a man's name
spoken
דִּבֶּרdi.ber-
H1696
perhaps properly · verb, piel perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
good
ט֣וֹבTov
H2896
good (as an adjective) in the widest sense · adjective, masculine singular absolute
king
הַמֶּ֗לֶךְha.Me.lekh
H4428
a king · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
standeth
עֹמֵד֙'o.Med
H5975
to stand · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
house
בְּבֵ֣יתbe.Veit
H1004
a house (in the greatest variation of applications · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
Haman
הָמָ֔ןha.Man
H2001
Haman · proper noun, a man's name
king
הַמֶּ֖לֶךְha.Me.lekh
H4428
a king · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
said
וַיֹּ֥אמֶרvai.Yo.mer
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Hang
תְּלֻ֥הוּte.Lu.hu
H8518
to suspend (especially to gibbet) · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine plural + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Psalms 7:15-16 He made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made.
Proverbs 11:5-6 The righteousness of the perfect shall direct his way: but the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness.
Esther 1:10 On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, and Abagtha, Zethar, and…
Esther 5:14 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 t…
Psalms 35:8 Let destruction come upon him at unawares; and let his net that he hath hid catch himself: into that very destruction let him fall.
Psalms 141:10 Let the wicked fall into their own nets, whilst that I withal escape.
Daniel 6:24 And the king commanded, and they brought those men which had accused Daniel, and they cast them into the den of lions, them, their children,…
1 Samuel 17:51 Therefore David ran, and stood upon the Philistine, and took his sword, and drew it out of the sheath thereof, and slew him, and cut off his…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
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…
Harbonah, one of the chamberlains, said before the king, Behold also, the gallows--This eunuch had probably been the messenger sent with the invitation to Haman, and on that occasion had seen the gallows. The information he now volunteered, as well it may be from abhorrence of Haman's cold-blooded conspiracy as from sympathy with his amiable mistress, involved with her people in imminent peril.
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 7:9
And Harbonah, one of the chamberlains, said before the king,.... One of the seven chamberlains, see Esther 1:10, his name, with Josephus (y), is Sabouchadas.
Behold also, the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman had made for Mordecai, who had spoken good for the king, standeth in the house of Haman. This man, perhaps, had seen it there, when he went with others to fetch Haman to the banquet, Esther 6:14. The sin of Haman is aggravated by preparing a gallows for a man before he was accused to the king, or condemned, or had a grant for his execution, and for a man that had well deserved of the king for discovering a conspiracy against him, and whom now the king had delighted to honour:
the…
The Church Fathers
It is written in the book of Proverbs: "Whoever digs a pit will fall into it, and a stone will come back on the one who starts it rolling." So also Haman was forced to support the cross that he had prepared for Mordecai.
It is written in Proverbs: "He who digs a pit will fall into it; and when one starts a stone rolling it will roll back upon him" (Proverbs 26). So too Haman was forced to suffer the cross he had prepared for Mordecai. We might, however, ask what it means that, as we have read, the cross itself was made fifty cubits high. For the Law had previously been given to the people on the fiftieth day after a lamb was sacrificed on Mount Sinai; and given that we said before that Haman signified the Jews themselves when they were rioting against Christ—who had been promised to them in the Law—and persecuting his Church, the Law itself, which had been given to them to safeguard their lives, became the cause of their deaths because with it they had snuffed out the name of Christ and tried mightily to kill those who professed him. In other words, those who wanted by means of the Law to oppress the guiltless unjustly received through it the verdict of a just judgment, about which we are told by Paul: "Whoever has sinned in the Law will be judged through the Law" (Romans 2). Moreover, Harbona the eunuch, who handed over the actual cross that had been made, signifies the teachers of the Law who brought to light—by reading the Law itself—the deceit of the Jews and everything which they did contrary to the precepts of God. Hence because Moses foresaw in the spirit the rebels and apostates who would one day come to be, he predicted in his song in Deuteronomy everything that was going to happen to sinners. So too the Savior says to the Jews themselves in the Gospel: "Do not think that I am going to indict you before the Father—it is Moses, in whom you hope, who accuses you; for if you believed in Moses you would perhaps believe in me as well, for it is about me that he wrote. But if you do not believe what he wrote, then how will you believe my words (John 5)?"
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Banquet — A feast provided for the entertainment of a company of guests (Esther 5; 7; 1 Pet. 4:3); such as was provided for our Lord by his friends in Bethany (Matt. 26:6; Mark 14:3; comp. John 12:2). These…
Esther — The queen of Ahasuerus, and heroine of the book that bears her name. She was a Jewess named Hadas’sah (the myrtle), but when she entered the royal harem she received the name by which she henceforth…
Harbona — (a Persian word meaning “ass-driver”), one of the seven eunuchs or chamberlains of king Ahasuerus (Esther 1:10; 7:9).
Harbonah — (Esther 7:9) the same as the preceding.
Gallows · Used for execution of criminals — Used for execution of criminals
Harbona · A chamberlain of Ahasuerus — A chamberlain of Ahasuerus
Punishments · Capital kinds of: Hanging — Capital kinds of: Hanging
Readings, Select · ESTHER’ S TRIUMPH — ESTHER’ S TRIUMPH
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
The king in his wrath arose from the banquet of wine, and went into the garden of the house (קם is here a pregnant expression, and is also combined with אל־גּנּת); but Haman remained standing to beg for his life to Queen Esther (על בּקּשׁ as in Est 4:8), "for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king" (כּלה, completed, i.e., determined; comp. Sa1 20:7, Sa1 20:9; Sa1 25:17, and elsewhere); and hence that he had no mercy to expect from him, unless the queen should intercede for him.
Est 7:8
The king returned to the house, and found Haman falling (נפל as in Jos 8:10; Deu 21:1, and elsewhere) at or on the couch on which Esther was (sitting), i.e., falling as a suppliant at he…
He intended to use it to impale Mordecai: Harbona, one of the king’s seven eunuchs (1:10), was apparently no friend of Haman and was already aware of Haman’s plot. • impale Haman on it! This great reversal of fortunes demonstrates the guiding hand of God. Regarding impalement, see study note on 2:23.
Rashi on Esther 7:9
Moreover, there is the gallows. He “also” committed another evil, that he prepared the gallows to hang the king’s friend, who saved the king from [being] poison[ed].
