But when [Esther] came before the king, he commanded by letters that his wicked device, which he devised against the Jews, should return upon his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.
Ver. 25. But when Esther came] Heb. when she came. This was the subject of the Jews' discourse upon those days, which they spent, not in idle chat, but in telling one another what great things the Lord had done for them; relating all the particulars. All honourable mention was then made of Esther and Mordecai; neither was Haman's malice instanced without utmost detestation. So true is that of Solomon, Proverbs 10:7, "The memory of the just is blessed (or, is with praises, μετ εγκωμιων, as the Septuagint there render it); but the name of the wicked shall rot," as now doth the name of the gunpowder plotters, of Bonner, Gardiner, and other Popish persecutors. Memoria eius sicut vinum Libani, The memory of him as is the wine of Lebanon, say the Jews of those they honour (Bud. Pand.).
Should return upon his own head] According to Psalms 7:17, and haply not without allusion to those Piaculares et Abominales among the Grecians, which were certain condemned persons, on whose heads they put the public guilt, and then tumbled them into the sea, Herod. 1. 2, or else to those expiatory sacrifices amongst the Egyptians, which were first cursed by them, and then cast into the river, or sold to the Grecian merchants, in an apish imitation of the Hebrews' scape-goat, and the day of atonement.