And he wrote in the king Ahasuerus' name, and sealed [it] with the king's ring, and sent letters by posts on horseback, [and] riders on mules, camels, [and] young dromedaries:
Ver. 10. And he wrote in the king Ahasuerus's name] For he knew that "where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou?" Ecclesiastes 8:4; see Daniel 5:19. Mordecai, as he was careful not to abuse his authority, so he spareth not to improve it to the utmost for the Church's good. We may also lawfully and comfortably improve the benefits and privileges granted us by princes and other benefactors. Constantine's donation and Peter's patrimony is much boasted of by that antichrist of Rome. A mere fiction, as various learned men of their own side have proved (Cusanus, Ficinus, Volater, Otho Frising). But if it were never so true, what power had Constantine to give away and alienate such a considerable part of the empire (might he not well have been therefore called Pupillus, as he was in scorn by some heathen historians for his bounty to poor Christians)? or with what conscience could the bishop of Rome have accepted of such a gift, and left it to his successors. But it was neither so nor so. Not Constantine, but Pepin, enlarged the pope's territories; as not Peter, but Phocas, is the right craggy rock upon which is founded the pope's supremacy.
And sealed it with the king's ring] See Esther 3:12, and observe what a strange turn of things here was all on the sudden. Merlin from this clause gathereth, that the king perused and approved whatsoever the scribes wrote by the appointment of Mordecai, he saw it, and signed it.
And sent letters by posts] See Esther 3:15. That was a witty speech of him, who said of secretaries that pretend much to Scripture: they were like posts, that bring truth in their letters and lies in their mouths. And of another, that they do angariare, make posts of the Holy Scriptures; compelling them to go two miles, which of themselves would go but one.
And riders on mules] Which are counted swifter than horses, and yet a horse is so swift a creature, that the Argives consecrated a horse to the sun, as the swiftest beast to the swiftest planet, Equitantes in equis angariis riding on the public couriers horse (Tremel.), O ταχιστος τω ταχυτατω .
Camels] These were large strong beasts, that could endure long and hard travel. It is said of them, that they do drink, in praesens et in posterum, for the present and the future, and can hold out travelling three days together without food.
And young dromedaries] These were also swift beasts, Jeremiah 2:23, and therefore it is by antiphrasis that among us a slow person is called a dromedary, Ut lucus a non lucendo, bellum quasi minime bellum.