And the king took his ring from his hand, and gave it unto Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the Jews' enemy.
Ver. 10. And the king took his ring from his hand] And thereby gave him power to do what he pleased, Genesis 41:42 1 Kings 21:8, En regis huius inertiam et impcritiam. How weak (weak as water, Gen 49:4) was the heart of this brutish barbarian, skilful to destroy! Ezekiel 21:31, seeing he did all these things, the work of an imperious whorish woman, Ezekiel 16:30, rather than of an able man, such as every magistrate should be, Exodus 18:21, just, and ruling in the fear of God, 2 Samuel 23:3. In the case of Vashti he could refer the matter to the consideration of a council. In the case of the two eunuchs that had conspired against his life he made inquisition of the matter, and did all things deliberately. In the case of Haman after this, though deeply displeased, yet he did nothing rashly, till he had gone into the palace garden, and considered with himself what was best to be done. But here upon the very first motion (without hearing them speak for themselves, or admonishing them to do their duty better, &c.) he gives order for the slaying of so many thousand innocents, never considering that every drop of their blood had a voice in it to cry for vengeance against him and his, Gen 4:10 Matthew 22:7. And when the king heard it; for blood cries aloud to God; 2 Kings 9:26, "Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth." Murder ever bleeds fresh in the eye of Almighty God. To him many years, yea, that eternity that is past, is but yesterday. He will give such blood again to drink, for they are worthy, Revelation 16:6. Dealt he not so by Herod, Julian, Attilas, Felix of Wurtemburg, Farnesius, Minerius, Charles IX, king of France, who died by exceeding bleeding at sundry parts of his body, soon after the Parisian Massacre, whereof he was the author, giving as large and as bloody a commission to the duke of Guise to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish all the French Protestants, as Ahasuerus did here to Haman? Neither was he slack to execute it with greatest inhumanity, crying out to those of his party (after that he had slain the admiral), Courage, my fellows, fall on, the king commands it, it is his express pleasure, he commands it (The Hist. of French Mass., by Mr Clark). But what followed shortly after?
Quem sitiit vivens scelerata mente cruorem,
Perfidus hunc moriens Carolus ore vomit.
Ergo Dei tandem verbo subscribite, Reges;
Ne rapiant Stygiae vos Acherontis aquae.
And gave it unto Haman ] Who now being his favourite, might have anything of him, like as it is said of Sejanus, that in all his designs he found in Tiberius the emperor so great facility and affection to his desire, that he needed only to ask and give thanks. He never denied him anything, and ofttimes anticipated his request, and avowed that he deserved much more. It was not, therefore, without cause that the primitive Christians prayed so hard for the emperor, that God would send him good counsellors, and deliver him from flatterers and slanderers, those pests of the court (Tertull. Apol.).
The Jews' enemy] That was his style, or rather his brand and mark of ignominy, worse than that of Cain, Genesis 4:15 , that of Dathan, Numbers 26:9 , of Ahaz, 2 Chronicles 28:22 . It may be he affected this title, and gloried in it; as we read of John Oneal, father to the earl of Tyrone, that rebel 1598, that he inscribed himself in all places, I, great John Oneal, cousin to Christ, friend to the queen of England, and foe to all the world besides (Camden).