6 For how can I bear to see disaster fall on my people? How can I bear to see the destruction of my family?"
6 For how can I bear to see the calamity that is coming to my people? Or how can I bear to see the destruction of my kindred?"
6 How can I stand to see this catastrophe wipe out my people? How can I bear to stand by and watch the massacre of my own relatives?"
6 For how can I endure to see the evil that will come to my people? Or how can I endure to see the destruction of my countrymen?"
6 For how can I endure to see my people and my family slaughtered and destroyed?"
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Esther 8:6
Commentary on Esther 8:3-14
(Read Esther 8:3-14)
It was time to be earnest, when the church of God was at stake. Esther, though safe herself, fell down and begged for the deliverance of her people. We read of no tears when she begged for her own life, but although she was sure of that, she wept for her people. Tears of pity and tenderness are the most Christ-like. According to the constitution of the Persian government, no law or decree could be repealed or recalled. This is so far from speaking to the wisdom and honour of the Medes and Persians, that it clearly shows their pride and folly. This savours of that old presumption which ruined all, We will be as gods! It is God's prerogative not to repent, or to say what can never be altered or unsaid. Yet a way was found, by another decree, to authorize the Jews to stand upon their defence. The decree was published in the languages of all the provinces. Shall all the subjects of an earthly prince have his decrees in languages they understand, and shall God's oracles and laws be locked up from any of his servants in an unknown tongue?