And he thought scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone; for they had shewed him the people of Mordecai: wherefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews that [were] throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, [even] the people of Mordecai.
Ver. 6. And he thought scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone] He thought it a small matter, saith Josephus, μικρον ηγησατο, a thing below him, too little for his revenge, which, like fire, burneth all it can lay hold upon, especially when as here it ariseth from ambition, which, like choler adust, if constructed and stopped in its course, is a dangerous passion, and endeth in burning fevers and madness. Haman thought scorn, contempsit in oculis suis, contempt in his eyes, so the Hebrew, to foul his fingers with Mordecai alone, the whole nation must perish, and all the children of God that were scattered abroad, as he once said, John 11:50; John 11:52. In like manner, nostri temporis Hamanus, saith Merlin upon this text, the Haman of our time (meaning the duke of Guise, as I suppose), when as by the king's favour he was promoted, and promised himself the crown, there being but one family only that stood in his way, he desired together with it to overturn all the Reformed religion and to root out all the remembrance of the Churches in France. Hence the Parisian Massacre, wherein Merlin had his part, being household chaplain to the admiral, and by a miracle of God's mercy escaping those hellish cut throats. The first occasion of that bloody massacre, I have somewhere read, was this (Other things I know were pretended, as if the Protestants had plotted and practised against the king, queen mother, and the princes of the blood, and coin stamped with this inscription, Virtus in rebelles, &c. Courage in rebellion). The pope sent to the cardinal of Lorraine, brother to the duke of Guise, a table, wherein was painted our lady with a little child in her arms, by the most excellent painter in Christendom, and consecrated with his own hands, and enclosed it in a case of silk, and a letter with it, giving him high commendation and thanks for his zeal against the Huguenots. The messenger that carried the present fell sick by the way, and finding one going into France, entreated him to deliver the present to the cardinal. The cardinal read the letter, and laid the table on his bed, for he would not open it, till he might do it with greater solemnity. For this purpose he invited the duke of Guise to dinner with many other great personages. In the meanwhile one that liked not the cardinal, found means to change the table, &c. At dinner the letter was read, and the table taken out of the case in the sight of the cardinal and all his guests, wherein was painted in place of our lady and her child, the cardinal of Lorraine stark naked, the queen mother, the young Queen of Scots, and the old duchess of Guise naked also, hanging about the cardinal's neck, and their legs wrapped between his legs. I cannot say much for the man that did this prank; but that the cardinal and his complices should thereupon design all the French Protestants to destruction, should butcher thirty thousand of them in a month, one hundred thousand of them in one year, some say three hundred thousand; that upon the news of it the pope should proclaim a jubilee for joy, and the cardinal of Lorraine give the messenger a thousand crowns, &c. This was matchless atrocious savagery, this was Haman-like hatred, this was cruelty beyond that of Simeon and Levi, which made good Jacob, in a deep detestation of that dreadfulness, cry out, "O my soul, come not thou into their secret," &c, Genesis 49:6 .
For they had showed him the people of Mordecai] viz. That he was a Jew. Josephus's note upon this text is: Haman naturally hated the Jews, as those that had anciently destroyed the Amalekites' countrymen, he might easily call to mind what Saul had done to them, and David, and, lastly, the tribe of Simeon. God had sentenced them long since to utter destruction; and yet deferred the first execution for about four hundred years' time; and now again, after more than five hundred years, Haman, the Agagite, is thus exalted, but for a mischief, as the eagle carrieth the tortoise on high in her talons, that she may break it in the fall, and feed upon it.
Patientia laesa fit furor.
Wherefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews] Ut sanguineam
famem expleret; as a wolf, breaking into the fold, kills all the
flock; as fowlers take away the young and the dams together, putting
both into the bag (which God forbade, Deu 22:6 ); as Esau, that
rough man, came with four hundred cut-throats at his heels, to
destroy the mother with the children, Genesis 32:11 ; as Uladus,
prince ef Wallachia, was wont, together with the offender, to execute
the whole family, yea, sometimes the whole kindred; as Selilnus, the
Great Turk, in revenge of the loss he received at the battle of
Lepanto, resolved to put to death all the Christians in his
dominions, in number infinite; as Philip of Spain sailed out of the
Low Countries homewards, vowing to root out all the Lutherans there,
and protesting that he had rather have no subjects than such (Hist.
of Count. of Trent, 417); as cruel Dr Story, a great persecutor in
Queen Mary's reign, and hanged for a traitor in Queen Elizabeth's,
whose death he had conspired, cursing her daily in his grace at
meals, and greatly repenting that he and others had laboured only
about the young sprigs and twigs, as he phrased it, while they should
have stricken at the root, and clean rooted it out (A.D. 1571, Camd.
Eliz.); lastly, as the gunpowder Papists, who had prepared by
proclamations to further that horrid plot (if it had taken effect)
upon the Puritans, and under that name to have murdered all those
that had but looked toward religion.
That were throughout the whole kingdom ] Herein he showed himself
a right Amalekite, Mali corvi malum ovum, dirt kneaded with blood
(Pηλος αιματι πεφυραμενος), as one said of Tiberius, He presumed
he might have what he pleased of the king, and, therefore, made
account to make but a breakfast of his enemies, the Jews, to whom he
said in his heart, as once Caligula did to the Roman consuls,
Rideo, quod uno nutu meo iugulare vos omnes possim, I cannot but
laugh to think that I can nod you all to death.
Even the people of Mordecai] Who were more renowned by him than
Co was by Hippocrates, Thebes by Epaininondas, Stagira by Aristotle,
Hippo by Augustine, &c.