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 his wife and friends all that had befallen him. A deeper mortification he could not have experienced than that of being obliged, by the king's command, publicly to show the highest honour to the very individual whose execution he was just about to propose to him. The covering of the head is a token of deep confusion and mourning; comp. Jer 14:4; 2Sa 15:30. Then his wise men, and Zeresh his wife, said to him: ”If Mordochai, before whom thou hast begun to fall, be of the seed of the Jews, thou wilt not prevail against him, but wholly fall before him.” לו תוּכל לא, non praevalebis ei, comp. Gen 32:26. תּפּול נפול with an emphatic ''infin. absol.:'' wholly fall. Instead of the חכמיו אהביו are here named, or to speak more correctly the friends of Haman are here called his wise men (magi). Even in Est 5:14 Haman's friends figure as those with whom he takes counsel concerning Mordochai, i.e., as his counsellors or advisers; hence it is very probable that there were magi among their number, who now “come forward as a genus sapientum et doctorum (Cicero, divin. i. 23)” (Berth.), and predict his overthrow in his contest with Mordochai. The ground of this prediction is stated: “If Mordochai is of the seed of the Jews,” i.e., of Jewish descent, then after this preliminary fall a total fall is inevitable. Previously (Est 5:14) they had not hesitated to advise him to hang the insignificant Jew; but now that the insignificant Jew has become, as by a miracle, a man highly honoured by the king, the fact that the Jews are under the special protection of Providence is pressed upon them. ''Ex fato populorum, remarks Grotius, de singulorum fatis judicabant. Judaei gravissime oppressi a Cyri temporibus contra spem omnem resurgere caeperant. We cannot, however, regard as well founded the further remark: de Amalecitis audierant oraculum esse, eos Judaeorum manu perituros,'' which Grotius, with most older expositors, derives from the Amalekite origin of Haman. The revival of the Jewish people since the times of Cyrus was sufficient to induce, in the minds of heathen who were attentive to the signs of the times, the persuasion that this nation enjoyed divine protection.

Verse 14
During this conversation certain