When Mordecai perceived all that was done, Mordecai rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and cried with a loud and a bitter cry;
Ver. 1. When Mordecai perceived all that was done] Mαθων το γινομενον, saith Josephus, when he had learned or fully informed himself, so that he knew it to be so, as the Hebrew text hath it (Jadang.). Solicitous he was of the Church's welfare, and sat listening, as Eli did once, what would become of the ark, 1 Samuel 3:13. Now therefore, as ill news is swift of foot, saith Sophocles, αι βλαβαι ποδωκεις, and comes like ill weather, before it be sent for, Mordecai taketh knowledge of that bloody decree, though Esther and those about her had not heard of it, Esther 4:4,5. Neither sitteth he still at home, as desponding and despairing, or seeketh by sinister practices to help himself and his people, but applieth himself, first, to God, by hearty humiliation and prayer; and then to the king, by the intercession of Esther. A carnal heart would have taken other shifting courses, like as a dog that hath lost his master will follow after any other for relief.
Mordecai rent his clothes] To show that his very heart was rent with sorrow for Sion. This custom of rending their clothes in time and in token of greatest grief, was in use not among the Jews only, but Persians also, and other nations, as is noted by Herodotus and Curtius.
And put on sackcloth] The coarsest clothing he could get; as holding any clothes too good for so vile a captive, and showing that but for shame he would have worn none. So the Nine vites sat in sackcloth and ashes, for more humiliation. See Exodus 33:4, &c.
And ashes] He put on ashes or dust, that is, a dusty garment sprinkled with ashes, saith Drusius, putting his mouth in the dust, as Lamentations 3:29, acknowledging himself to be of the earth earthy, and fit fuel for hell fire, Non e foco, sed e terra desumptum pulverem notat (Merlin).
And went out into the midst of the city] That he might be a pattern to others. Si vis me flere, &c.
And cried with a loud and a bitter cry] More barbarico, after the manner of that country; but there was more in it than so. It was not his own danger that so much affected him (how gladly could he have wished, with Ambrose, that God would please to turn all the adversaries from the Church upon himself, and let them satisfy their thirst with his blood? Oτι μηδεν αδικησον εθνος αναιρειται, Joseph.) as that so many innocent people should perish. This made him lift up his voice unto God on high.