And when inquisition was made of the matter, it was found out; therefore they were both hanged on a tree: and it was written in the book of the chronicles before the king.
Ver. 23. And when inquisition was made of the matter] The king neither slighted this accusation, nor too hastily believed it. Not this, lest he should discover a needless fear, or precipitate a wrong sentence. Not that, lest he should betray his own life, and put all into a confusion, as Gedaliah did, Jeremiah 40:13,16; Jeremiah 41:1,3, and as he in the history did, who, being forewarned by a letter of a dangerous plot laid for his life, laid aside the letter with these words, εις αυριον τα σπουδαια, Tomorrow we will mind these serious businesses, but ere the morrow he was despatched. The matter was here inquired into, saith the text, lest haply it might be misreported, and so the innocent be punished. Or, if not innocent, yet doth our law condemn any before his cause be heard? Surely Pilate and Festus were far better judges than Caiaphas and Lysias, for they would execute a man in the morning, and then sit upon him in the afternoon. Aeneas Sylvius, in his twentieth chapter of Europe, tells of some places, wherein, if anyone be suspected of theft, he is forthwith taken and trussed up. Three days after they judge the suspicion; and if they find the man guilty, they let his carcase hang till it rot; as if otherwise, they take it down, and bury it honourably at the public charge. This is preposterous justice, judgment turned into gall, and righteousness into hemlock.
It was found out] As treason usually is, and strangely: witness those in Queen Elizabeth's reign, and the gunpowder plotters. Creighton, the Jesuit, a Scot, falling into Scotland, and being taken by certain Netherland pirates, had torn certain papers in pieces; but the torn pieces, being thrown out of the ship, were blown back again by the wind, and cast by a providence into the ship, not without a miracle, as Creighton said himself; which, being set together, by Wade, with much labour and singular cunning, discovered new designs of the pope and his agents here against England, A.D. 1585 (Cared. Eliz.). Detexit facinus fatuus et non implevit, saith Tacitus of one about his time. Either the traitor's own tongue shall betray him (as it befell those two sent by Mahomet to kill Scanderbeg), or the fowls of heaven shall reveal the mischief, and that which hath wing shall tell the matter, Ecclesiastes 10:20 (it was a piece of a wing, a quill, that discovered that hellish gunpowder plot), or some other way it shall be found out, as here, and the conspirators brought to condign punishment.
Therefore they were both hanged on a tree] Traitors, like bells, will be never well tuned till well hanged, till they have worn a Tyburn tippet, as father Latimer phrased it. Campian, that spider, was swept down by the hand of justice, and drew his last thread in the triangle of Tyburn. His words in his epistle to the honourable counsellors of Queen Elizabeth were these, Quamdiu vel unus quispiam e nobis supererit qui Tyburno vestro fruatur, &c., As long as there is any one of us left to enjoy your Tyburn, &c. Much joy may they have of it, since it is their ambition, and may their quarters be set as high as that false Edric's head once was by King Canute, viz. upon the highest part of the tower of London, therein performing his promise to a traitor, of advancing him above any lord of the land.
And it was written in the book of the chronicles] Heb. In the book of the words of days, in the diary of the kings, or in the book of remembrance. As the Jews, so the Persians, had their chronicles or public commentaries, wherein all memorable acts were recorded, and scribes or historiographers for that purpose appointed and maintained. Plutarch writeth, that at that great naval battle between Themistocles and the Persians, Xerxes sat in a throne of gold, and saw the conflict, having many scribes about him, whose office was to set down all that was done that day. This was a commendable custom, and might be a motive to their kings and great ones to take heed of doing aught that they would not have registered and read by succeeding ages. Suetonius telleth us that Augustus upon this account forbade his daughter and nieces to say or do anything that they would not have to be chronicled (Suet. in August.).
Before the king] Perhaps in his presence, and for his special use. though Mordecai's good service was soon forgotten, God forgat not to recompense Ahasuerus's love to Esther and courtesy to her people, by detecting and defeating those conspirators that sought his life. But he soon forgets Mordecai, God's instrument for his deliverance, though the matter were written in a book before him; hence he goes noted with a black coal for his ingratitude. Tamerlane had a catalogue of the names of such as had best deserved of him, which he daily perused, oftentimes saying that day to be lost wherein he had not given them something. There was a providence in it that nothing was yet done for Mordecai. God's time is the best, and we shall one day say so; neither is there anything lost by waiting his leisure, he bottles up our tears, he books up our sighs, he writes down all we say or do in his roll of remembrance, Malachi 3:6; Malachi 3:16. See Trapp on " Mal 3:6 " See Trapp on " Mal 3:16 "