Esther 3:2

And the king's servants that were in the king's gate,.... Or court, all his courtiers; for it cannot be thought they were all porters, or such only that bowed and reverenced Haman; gave him divine

And all the king's servants, that were in the king's gate, bowed, and reverenced Haman: for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence.

The reason of which obstinate refusal was, either, 1. The quality of the person; that he was not only an infamously wicked man, and a heathen, but of that nation which God had obliged the Israelites to abhor and oppose from generation to generation; and therefore he durst not show outward respect to a man whom he did and ought inwardly to contemn. Or rather, 2. The nature of the thing; for the worship required was not only civil, but Divine; which as the kings of Persia did undoubtedly arrogate to themselves, and expect and receive from their subjects and others who came into their presence, as is affirmed by divers authors; so they did sometimes impart this honour to some of their chief favourites, that they should be adored in like manner. And that it was so here seems more than probable, because it was wholly superfluous, and almost ridiculous, to give an express and particular command to all the king’ s servants that were in the king’ s gate, as here it was, to pay a civil respect to so great a prince, which of course they used and were ever obliged to do; and therefore a Divine honour must be here intended. And that a Jew should deny this honour, or the outward expressions of it, to such a person, is not strange, seeing the wise and sober Grecians did positively refuse to give this honour to the kings of Persia themselves, even when they were to make their addresses to them; and one Timocrates was put to death by the Athenians for worshipping Darius in that manner.

Esther 3:2 And all the king’ s servants, that [were] in the king’ s gate, bowed, and reverenced Haman: for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai bowed not, nor did [him] reverence. Ver. 2. And all the kiny’ s servants] His courtiers and others; not his menial servants only. That were in the king’ s gate] Where the courtiers used to walk, that they might be on call; and where others attended that had business at the court. Bowed, and reverenced Haman] Not with so much readiness and diligence as impudence and baseness; for should men bow to a molten calf, because made up of golden earrings? Many of these cringing courtiers could not but hate Haman in their hearts, and were as ready to wish him hanged, and to tell the king shortly after where he might have a fit gallows for him. So Sejanus’ s greatest friends, who had deified him before, when once he fell out of the emperor’ s favour, showed themselves most passionate against him, saying, that if Caesar had clemency, he ought to reserve it for men, not use it toward monsters. For the king had so commanded concerning him] And if the king had commanded these servile souls to worship a dog or a cat, as the Egyptians did, a golden image, as Nebuchadnezzar’ s subjects did, to turn the glory of the incorruptible God into the similitude of a corruptible man, of four-footed boasts or creeping things, as Romans 1:23, they would have done it. Most people are of King Henry’ s religion, as the proverb is, resolving to do as the most do, though thereby they be undone for ever. This is to be worse than some heathens. But why should Ahasuerus be so hasty to heap such honours upon so worthless and wicked a person, but that he had a mind to proclaim his own folly to all his kingdom? But Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence] He did not, he durst not, though pressed and urged to it with greatest importunity. And why? not because Haman wore a picture openly in his bosom, as the Chaldee paraphrast and Aben Ezra give the reason; not merely (if at all, which some doubt of) because he was a cursed Amalekite; but because the Persian kings required, that themselves and their chief favourites (such as proud Haman was) should be reverenced with a kind of divine honour, more than was due to any man. This the Jews were flatly forbidden by their law to do. The Lacedemonians also were resolute against it, as Herodotus in his seventh book relateth. Pelopidas the Theban would not be drawn to worship the Persian monarch in this sort. No more would Conon the Athenian general. And when Timagoras did, the Athenians condemned him to die for it. It was not therefore pride or self-willedness that made Mordecai so stiff in the legs that he would not bend to Haman, but fear of sin, and conscience of duty.

(2) Bowed not.—Perhaps, rather, did not prostrate himself, for such was the ordinary Eastern practice (see Herod. iii. 86, vii. 7, 34, 136, viii. 118). The objection on Mordecai’s part was evidently mainly on religious grounds, as giving to a man Divine honours (Josephus l.c.), for it elicits from him the fact that he was a Jew (Esther 3:4), to whom such an act of obeisance would be abhorrent. Whether Mordecai also rebelled against the ignominious character of the obeisance, we cannot say.

Verse 2. The king's servants, that were in the king's gate] By servants here, certainly a higher class of officers are intended than porters; and Mordecai was one of those officers, and came to the gate with the others who were usually there in attendance to receive the commands of the king. Mordecai bowed not] לאיכרע lo yichra. "He did not bow down;" nor did him reverence, ולא ישתחוה velo yishtachaveh, "nor did he prostrate himself." I think it most evident, from these two words, that it was not civil reverence merely that Haman expected and Mordecai refused; this sort of respect is found in the word כרע cara, to bow. This sort of reverence Mordecai could not refuse without being guilty of the most inexcusable obstinacy, nor did any part of the Jewish law forbid it. But Haman expected, what the Persian kings frequently received, a species of Divine adoration; and this is implied in the word שחה shachah, which signifies that kind of prostration which implies the highest degree of reverence that can be paid to God or man, lying down flat on the earth, with the hands and feet extended, and the mouth in the dust. The Targum, says that Haman set up a statue for himself, to which every one was obliged to bow, and to adore Haman himself. The Jews all think that Mordecai refused this prostration because it implied idolatrous adoration. Hence, in the Apocryphal additions to this book, Mordecai is represented praying thus: "Thou knowest that if I have not adored Haman, it was not through pride, nor contempt, nor secret desire of glory; for I felt disposed to kiss the footsteps of his feet (gladly) for the salvation of Israel: but I feared to give to a man that honour which I know belongs only to my God."

2. bowed down] The Heb. expresses a more profound salutation, after the Oriental fashion, than the A.V. ‘bow.’ the king had so commanded] Bowing down before a superior was such an established custom that one would have thought the king’s command needless. It may have been that Haman’s elevation was so strongly contrasted with his origin that there was occasion for the order to be issued. But Mordecai bowed not down] What was his reason? Although we have Greeks (Spartan ambassadors) refusing to bow down to the Persian monarch (Herod. vii. 136) on the ground that it was not their custom to worship men, yet the Jews had no objection to the act in itself (2 Samuel 14:4; 2 Samuel 18:28; 1 Kings 1:16), and disobedience to the king’s direction in such a matter was fraught with danger. Two possible answers suggest themselves. (1) He considered Haman as the king’s representative, and, as the Persian obeisance to the sovereign involved a belief that he was in some sort an incarnation of the Deity, Mordecai, as a Jew, refused to perform an act of idolatry. If so, however, we do not see how he could avoid bowing down, whenever he happened to be in the presence of the king himself, as in Esther 8:1. (2) Mordecai, as a Jew, refused to bow down to the hereditary enemy of Israel. See last note and cp. Numbers 24:7. A characteristic piece of Targum says that the king’s servants pointed out to Mordecai that a conspicuous ancestor of his, Jacob, had bowed down before one of Haman’s forefathers, Esau (Genesis 33:3). Mordecai, however, replied that he himself was not involved in this act, as being descended from Benjamin who at the time referred to was not yet born.

Mordecai probably refused the required prostration, usual though it was, on religious grounds. Hence, his opposition led on to his confession that he was a Jew Esther 3:4.

2. The king’s servants… bowed — This was but a mark of respect to any officer of high rank, and is a common custom in all courts.