And Haman told them of the glory of his riches, and the multitude of his children, and all [the things] wherein the king had promoted him, and how he had advanced him above the princes and servants of the king.
Ver. 11. And Haman told them of the glory of his riches] Favourites, observing their mollissima fandi tempora, get many times much wealth under princes; as did Sejanus under Tiberius; Seneca under Nero; that rich and wretched Cardinal, Henry Beaufort, bishop of Winchester, and chancellor of England, in the reign of Henry VI; Cardinal Wolsey, under Henry VIII. That Haman had feathered his nest well appears by his large offer to the king of ten thousand talents of silver, &c. Now riches render a man glorious in the world's eye; hence they go coupled together, Proverbs 3:16; Proverbs 8:18. Hence that of Laban's grumbling sons, Genesis 31:1, "Jacob hath taken away all that was our father's" (nay, not all, but as avarice made Sejanus think all which he acquired not, to be lost, Quicquid non acquiritur damnum est (Sen.), so did these lowlies): "and of that which was our father's hath he gotten all this glory." But what were all this glory of his riches if, for want of children Haman should leave it to those, Quos vel nescit vel nolit, as Austin hath it, to strangers or enemies? He tells them, therefore,
Of the multitude of his children] His sons and his successors like to be. I say, likely to be, not sure to be, for
Omnia sunt hominum tenui pendentia filo.
God gave Leda, Luctuosam faecunditatem, as Jerome saith of her, a sorrowful fruitfulness, because she lived to bury her many children. There were twenty-two children and children's children of the house of Portugal, between Philip II of Spain and that crown; and yet he outlived them all, as histories show, and his successors held that kingdom till within these few years. It is but a vain thing, therefore, for a man to boast of the multitude of children, since he may either lose them, or live to wish, as Augustus the emperor did, Oh that I had either lived a bachelor or died childless! Utinam aut caelebs vixissem, aut orbus perissem.
And all the things wherein the king had promoted him] Wherein, but wherefore he showeth not. Dignity should wait upon desert; but many times we see it otherwise, and it was of old complained of, Psalms 12:8. He telleth what the king had done for him, but not a tittle what God. God was not in all his thoughts. He might justly have been twitted, as once that pope was pithily, when he had engraven upon the gates of his newly built college: Utrecht (where he was born) planted me; Lovain (where he was bred) watered me; but Caesar (who had promoted him to the popedom) gave increase: a merry passenger wrote below, Hic Deus nihil fecit, Here God did nothing. God had done much for him, but for a mischief to him; as he once gave the Israelites quails to choke them, and a king to vex them; as Saul gave Michal to David to be a snare to him; and as our Saviour gave Judas the bag, to discover the rottenness of his heart. This Bernard calleth, Misericordiam omni indignatione crudeliorem. God gives outward blessings to wicked persons to furnish their indictment out of them; as Joseph put a cup into his brethren's sack to pick a quarrel with them, and lay theft to their charge.
And how he had advanced him above the princes] What an impudent Thraso was this Haman! this odious bragging of his Gregory referreth to that third kind of pride, such as God's soul abhorreth, and surely punisheth; as he did in the prince of Tyre, Nebuchadnezzar, Antiochus, Herod, whose hearts were lifted up with their estates, as a boat, that riseth with the rising of the water; whose bloods and goods rose together.
Corde stat inflato pauper honore dato.
But as the peacock so delighteth to be seen, and to behold his own tail, that he exposes his filthy parts behind, so do vain-glorious braggards. It is, therefore, very good counsel that a grave divine giveth to such as are advanced above others. Carry humble hearts, and add grace and virtue to your places, else they shall prove but as a high gibbet to bring you to more disgrace in this world, and torment in the next (Whateley's Archetype). That of the poet also is very savoury and sovereign,
Desinat elatis quisquam confidere rebus:
Magna repente ruunt, summa cadunt subito. (Claudian.)