Esther 7:10

So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai,.... Not within his house, Es 7:9, but more probably in his courtyard, in the sight of his family and friends; or, it may be, the

So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king's wrath pacified. So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared.

The gallows that he had prepared; which stood in his own house, as was now said, and made the punishment more grievous and ignominious. Then was the king’ s wrath pacified; judgment being now most justly executed upon this abominable criminal.

Esther 7:10 So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king’ s wrath pacified.10. So they hanged Haman on the gallows] Heb. tree. Neither hanged they him only to death; but crucified or nailed his dead body to the tree, for greater ignominy. So some gather from Esther 8:5. The Septuagint also render it, So they crucified him. And here hanged the greatness of Haman, who now is fallen from the palace to the gallows, from the highest stage of honour to the lowest stair of disgrace, and lies wrapped up in the sheet of perpetual infamy. "So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord," &c. A like end befell Bonosus, the drunken emperor; Amasis, that insolent king of Egypt; Joan, that libidinous queen of Naples; our Roger Mortimer, that troubler of the realm, hanged at Tyburn; Oliver, that proud prefect, advanced to highest honours and offices by Louis, king of France, but hanged up by his son and successor upon a new and large gallows, set up for the purpose, and not without his desert. High places are not more uneasy than slippery. Even height itself maketh men’ s brains to swim, and when they fall they come down with a poise. That he had prepared for Mordecai] Josephus hath here a very good note: Undo mihi contigit mirari nomen Dei, et sapientiam et iustitiam eius agnoscere, &c., I cannot but admire the Lord’ s wisdom, and acknowledge his justice, in that he not only punished him for his malice to the Church, but by turning his own mischief upon himself, hath made him an example to all posterity, hanging him up in gibbets, that others may take warning. The like the Lord did by Adonibezek, Pharaoh, Goliath, Ahithophel, Absalom, Sennacherib, Maxentius, Valerianus, &c. Quam bene dispositum terris, ut dignus iniqui Fructus consilii primis authoribus instet, &c. See those sacred similes to the same sense, Ecclesiastes 10:8-9 Proverbs 26:27 Psalms 7:16, &c., and beware of making a match with mischief, lest ye have your belly full thereof, οςεναυτωκακατευχειανηραλλωκακατευχων (Hesiod). He that conceiveth with guile, shall (though he grow never so big) bring forth nothing but vanity and worse, Job 15:35. As he hath sown the wind, so he shall reap the whirlwind, Hosea 8:6. Diaboli servus et satelles praecipuus erat Haman, Haman was a servant of the devil and an accomplice in particular, saith Rupertus. Haman was a main stickler for the devil, who had paid him accordingly: the wages of sin is death, and it may well be feared that Haman was killed with death, as Jezebel’ s children were, Revelation 2:23. Fuit enim homo dinae feritatis planeque αθεος, for he was a most cruel wretch, and a plain atheist. I shall shut up the story of his life as Ambrose doth that of Ahab and Jezebel’ s fearful end: Fuge ergo, dives eiusmodi exitum, &c. Tremble at such ends, and be careful to avoid them.