If it please the king, let there go a royal commandment from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes, that it be not altered, That Vashti come no more before king Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal estate unto another that is better than she.
Ver. 19. If it please the king] Courtier-like; lest he should seem to prescribe to the king, or to prejudice the rest of the royal counsellors, he thus modestly prefaceth to his ensuing harsh and hard sentence. He knew well enough it would please the king at present, in the mind he now was in; and to prevent any alteration, he moves to have it made sure by an irrevocable law, that he might not hereafter be censured for this his immoderate and unmerciful censure, but be sure to save one howsoever.
Let it be written, saith he, among the laws of the Persians] Which the king himself could not repeal, Daniel 6:8; Daniel 6:15, but once passed and registered, they remained binding for ever. I have read of a people among whom the laws they had lasted in force but for three days at utmost. This was a fault in the other extreme. Laws are to be made with due deliberation, Legem dicimus, νομον, quasi μενοντα νοον (Plato), and then to be established, and not altered without very great reason, as sometimes there is, since
Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis.
That Vashti come no more before king Ahasuerus] But be absolutely deposed and divorced. Here was no proportion between the offence and the sentence. This judgment was like the laws of Draco; of which Aristotle saith, that they were not worth remembrance, but only for their great severity; as being written not with black, but with blood.
And let the king give her royal estate unto another] The more to vex her. Surely such an exauthoration of so great a personage, with so great disgrace and ignominy, could not but be very grievous, yea, worse than death. High seats, as they are never but uneasy; so the fall from them must needs be dangerous and dismal. How well might holy Esther sing with the Virgin Mary, God putteth down the mighty from their thrones, and exalteth them of low degree, Luke 1:52 .