Commentaries:
Adam Clarke
The first month - That is, of the civil year of the Jews.
The month Nisan - Answering to a part of our March and April.
The twelfth year of king Ahasuerus - According to the chronology in our Bibles, about five hundred and ten years before Christ.
They cast Pur , that is , the lot - This appears to be the Hebrew corruption of the pure Persian word pari , which signifies any thing that happens fortuitously. There is an addition here in the Greek text that was probably in the original, and which makes this place very plain. I shall set down the whole verse, and give the Greek in a parenthesis, that it may be read consecutively with what is in the Hebrew: "In the first month, that is, the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast Pur, that is, the lot, before Haman, from day to day, and from month to month." ( ̔ ͅ ̔ͅ , ̔ ̔ "that they might destroy in one day the people of Mordecai; and the lot fell on the fourteenth day of the month Adar." )
We see plainly intimated by the Hebrew text that they cast lots, or used a species of divination, to find which of the twelve months would be the most favorable for the execution of Haman' s design; and, having found the desired month, then they cast lots, or used divination, to find out which day of the said month would be the lucky day for the accomplishment of the enterprise. But the Hebrew text does not tell us the result of this divination; we are left to guess it out; but the Greek supplies this deficiency, and makes all clear. From it we find that, when they cast for the month, the month Adar was taken; and when they cast for the day, the fourteenth (Heb. thirteenth) of that month was taken.
Some have questioned whether Pur may not have signified also some game of chance, which they played before or with Haman, from day to day, to divert him from his melancholy, till the lucky time came in which he was to have the gratification of slaying all the people who were objects of his enmity; or they cast lots, or played, who should get the property of such and such opulent families. Holinshed, one of our ancient historians, informs us that, previously to the battle of Agincourt, the English army, under Henry V., were so thinned and weakened by disease, and the French army so numerous, that "Frenchmen, in the mean while, as though they had been sure of victory, made great triumphe, for the captaines had determined before how to divide the spoil; and the souldiers, the night before, had plaied the Englishmen at dice." To this the chorus of Shakspeare alludes: -
"Proud of their numbers, and secure of soul,
The confident and over-lusty French
Do the low-rated English play at dice.
- The poor condemned English,
Like sacrifices by their watchful fires,
Sit patiently and inly ruminate
The morning' s danger; and their gestures sad,
Investing lank-lean cheeks, and war-worn coats,
Presenteth them unto the gazing moon
So many horrid ghosts.
Hen. V.
Monstrelet, who is an impartial writer, does not mention this.
Did Haman and his flatterers intend to divide the spoils of the designed-to-be-massacred Jews in some such manner as this?
Other Adam Clarke entries containing Esther 3:7:
Esther 9:26
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