Esther 6:1 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

On that night could not the king sleep How vain are all the contrivances of foolish man against the wise and omnipotent God, who hath the hearts and hands of kings and all men perfectly at his disposal, and can by such trivial accidents (as they are accounted) change their minds, and produce such terrible effects. He commanded to bring the book of records His mind being troubled, he knew not how, nor why, he chooses this for a diversion, God putting this thought into him, for otherwise he might have diverted himself, as he used to do, with his wives or concubines, or voices and instruments of music, which were far more agreeable to his temper. “In these records of the Chronicles, which we now call journals, (wherein was set down what passed every day,) the manner of the Persians was to record the names of those who had done the king any signal services. Accordingly, Josephus informs us, that upon the secretary's reading these journals, he took notice of such a person who had great honours and possessions given him as a reward for a glorious and remarkable action, and of such another who made his fortune by the bounties of his prince for his fidelity; but, that when he came to the particular story of the conspiracy of the two eunuchs against the person of the king, and of the discovery of this treason by Mordecai, the secretary read it over, and was passing forward to the next; when the king stopped him, and asked him if the person had had any reward given him for his service; which shows indeed a singular providence of God, that the secretary should read in that very part of the book wherein the service of Mordecai was recorded. Why Mordecai was not rewarded before, it is in vain to inquire. To account for the humour of princes, and their management of public affairs, is almost impossible. We see daily, even among us, that men are frequently unmindful of the highest services which are done them, and take no care to reward them, especially if the person be in himself obscure, and not supported by a proper recommendation; and therefore we are not to wonder, if a prince, who buried himself in indolence, and made it a part of his grandeur to live unacquainted and unconcerned with what passed in his dominions, (which was the custom of most of the eastern kings,) should overlook the service Mordecai had done him; or, if he ordered him a reward, that by the artifice of those at court, who were no well-wishers to the Jews, he should be disappointed of it. There seems, however, to have been a particular direction of Providence, in having his reward delayed till this time, when he and all his nation were appointed to destruction; when the remembrance of his services might be a means to recommend them to the king's mercy, and the honours conferred on him a poignant mortification to his proud adversary.” Dodd.