The Pulpit Commentary on Esther 4:1

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public domain

Mordecai rent his clothes. Compare Ezra 9:3, Ezra 9:5 with the comment. The meaning of the act was well understood by the Persians. Put on sackcloth with ashes. So Daniel (Daniel 9:3), and the king of Nineveh (Jonah 3:6).

Either act by itself was a sign of deep grief; both combined betokened the deepest grief possible. And went out into the midst of the city. The palace was not to be saddened by private griefs (see the next verse).

Mordecai, therefore, having assumed the outward signs of extreme sorrow, quitted the palace, and entered the streets of the town. There, overcome by his feelings, he vented them, as Asiatics are wont to do, in loud and piercing cries (comp.

Nehemiah 5:1).

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commentaryMatthew Henry on Esther 4:1-4Mordecai avowed his relation to the Jews. Public calamities, that oppress the church of God, should affect our hearts more than any private affliction, and it is peculiarly distressing to occasion sufferings to others.…Matthew Henry commentaryGreat Mourning among the Jews. (b. c. 510.)GREAT MOURNING AMONG THE JEWS. (B. C. 510.) Here we have an account of the general sorrow that there was among the Jews upon the publishing of Haman's bloody edict against them. It was a sad time with the church. 1. Mor…Matthew Henry commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Esther 4:1-3The cry of a doomed people. The decree against the Jews was not yet known in the palace; Esther herself was not yet informed of it. And the signs of sorrow and mourning were prohibited within the royal precincts; nothin…Joseph S. Exell and contributors commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Esther 4:1-17EXPOSITION MOURNING OF MORDECAI, AND OF THE JEWS GENERALLY, ON HEARING OF THE DECREE (Esther 4:1-17 1-3). Haman had no doubt kept his intentions secret until the king's consent to them was not only granted, but placed b…Joseph S. Exell and contributors commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Esther 4:1-3Distress. We have a very vivid picture, in these few touches, of a nation's exceeding sorrow. We are reminded of ― I. THE HEARTLESSNESS AND IMPOTENCE OF TYRANNY IN REGARD TO IT. The king could cheerfully speak the word…Joseph S. Exell and contributors commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Esther 4:1-3An unyielding grief. I. THE SUFFERING CAUSED BY ONE EVIL ACT CANNOT BE ESTIMATED. It was easy for Haman to draw up the instrument of destruction, and for the king to let him affix his signet to it, and then for both to…Joseph S. Exell and contributors