Reference: Mordecai
American
The uncle of Esther, who rose to dignity and honor in the court of Ahasuerus. See the book of Esther.
Easton
the son of Jair, of the tribe of Benjamin. It has been alleged that he was carried into captivity with Jeconiah, and hence that he must have been at least one hundred and twenty-nine years old in the twelfth year of Ahasuerus (Xerxes). But the words of Esther do not necessarily lead to this conclusion. It was probably Kish of whom it is said (ver. 6) that he "had been carried away with the captivity."
He resided at Susa, the metropolis of Persia. He adopted his cousin Hadassah (Esther), an orphan child, whom he tenderly brought up as his own daughter. When she was brought into the king's harem and made queen in the room of the deposed queen Vashti, he was promoted to some office in the court of Ahasuerus, and was one of those who "sat in the king's gate" (Es 2:21). While holding this office, he discovered a plot of the eunuchs to put the king to death, which, by his vigilance, was defeated. His services to the king in this matter were duly recorded in the royal chronicles.
Haman (q.v.) the Agagite had been raised to the highest position at court. Mordecai refused to bow down before him; and Haman, being stung to the quick by the conduct of Mordecai, resolved to accomplish his death in a wholesale destruction of the Jewish exiles throughout the Persian empire (Es 3:8-15). Tidings of this cruel scheme soon reached the ears of Mordecai, who communicated with Queen Esther regarding it, and by her wise and bold intervention the scheme was frustrated. The Jews were delivered from destruction, Mordecai was raised to a high rank, and Haman was executed on the gallows he had by anticipation erected for Mordecai (Es 6:2-7:10). In memory of the signal deliverance thus wrought for them, the Jews to this day celebrate the feast (Es 9:26-32) of Purim (q.v.).
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Fausets
A Persian name according to Gesenius, "worshipper of Merodach". But a Babylonian idol's name would not have been given him under the Persian dynasty, which rejected idols. It is rather Matacai. Ctesias (Prideaux Connect. 1:231-233), who probably saw the Medo-Persian chronicles mentioned in Es 10:2, names a Matacas, Xerxes' chief favorite, the most powerful of the eunuchs. Xerxes sent Matacas to spoil Apollo's temple at Delphi (Miletus?) a work congenial to a Jew, as the order was to the iconoclastic king. Mordecai had neither wife nor child, brought up his cousin Esther in his own house, and had access to the court of the women, all which circumstances accord with his being a eunuch as Matacas was, a class from whom the king had elevated many to the highest posts.
Xerxes delighted in extravagant acts; and Haman, who knew his weakness, naturally suggested the extraordinary honors exceeding all that a king ought, in respect for his own dignity, to grant to a subject, because he thought it was for himself they were intended. Mordecai was a Benjamite at Shushan who reared his uncle's daughter Esther: Es 2:5-7. (See ESTHER.) The instrument under Providence in saving the Jews from extermination by Haman, as his not bowing to that Amaleldte was the occasion of Haman's murderous spite against the chosen race. Xerxes' prime minister, or vizier. Instituted the feast Purim. (See HAMAN.)
Probably wrote the book of Esther. Esther's favorable reception by Ahasuerus when she ventured at the risk of death, unasked, to approach him, and his reading in the Medo-Persian chronicles the record of Mordecai's unrewarded service in disclosing the conspiracy, on the very night before Haman came, and Haman's being constrained to load with kingly honors the man whom he had come to ask leave to hang, and then being hanged on the gallows he made for Mordecai, are most remarkable instances of the working of Providence, and of God's secret moral government of the world, in spite of all appearances to the contrary. (See AHASUERUS.)
Mordecai was great grandson of Kish the Benjamite taken captive in Jeconiah's captivity, 599 B.C. Four generations thence, or 120 years, bring Mordecai exactly down to 479, the sixth year of Xerxes, thus proving Ahasuerus' identity and Mordecai's own date. At Xerxes' death, or even before, Mordecai probably led to Jerusalem a body of Jews, as recorded in Ezr 2:2; Ne 7:7. The rabbis designate him "the just." His tomb and Esther's are shown at Hamadan or Ecbatana (?). Others place his tomb at Susa. The palace at Shushan, begun by Darius Hystaspes, Loftus (Chaldaea, 28) discovered remains of; the bases of the great colonnade remain, and accord with the description in Esther 1.
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Hastings
1. A cousin (?) of queen Esther, who thwarted Haman's plot against the Jews. See Esther and Esther [Book of]. 2. One of those who returned with Zerub. (Ezr 2:2; Ne 7:7); called in 1Es 5:8 Mardocheus.
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Morish
Mor'decai
1. One who returned from exile. Ezr 2:2; Ne 7:7.
2. A Benjamite, first cousin of Esther, queen of Ahasuerus, who, being an orphan, had been brought up by him. All that is known of his history is contained in the book of Esther. Though a captive he had liberty to sit at the gate of the palace, and when Haman was promoted, the faith of Mordecai shines out in that he refused to bow to Haman an Agagite, even at the command of the king. His reason is not given, but it was doubtless because Haman was an Amalekite, upon whom the curse of God rested. Saul was told to utterly destroy them, even to the asses. Ex 17:14,16; De 25:19; 1Sa 15:3. Mordecai, by this action, put his life in danger because of the position of Haman; but, though warned, he was staunch in his refusal.
This led to Haman's plotting in his pride, the destruction, not of Mordecai only, but of the Jews generally. God, however, was watching over His people, and when the right moment came, He wrought deliverance. He caused that the king should not sleep, and that the records should be read to him, which brought Mordecai's unrequited service to remembrance. The proud Agagite had to lead him, seated on the king's horse, through the city, and proclaim him as one whom the king delighted to honour. The fall of Haman rapidly followed, and the raising of Mordecai into power. Thus did God honour the faith of one of His people, though they were in captivity. The plot against the Jews was nullified and they became the victors, as it will be in a future day when God's set time has arrived. Mordecai was promoted to high honour and was next to the king; he sought the wealth of his people, 'speaking peace to all his seed.'
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Smith
Mor'deca-i
(little man, or worshipper or Mars), the deliverer, under divine Providence, of the Jews from the destruction plotted against them by Haman the chief minister of Xerxes; the institutor of the feast of Purim. The incidents of his history are too well known to need to be dwelt upon. [ESTHER] Three things are predicated of Mordecai in the book of Esther:
See Esther, Book of
(1) That he lived in Shushan; (2) That his name was Mordecai, son of Jair, son of Shimei, son of Kish the Benjamite who was taken captive with Jehoiachin; (3) That he brought up Esther.
Watsons
MORDECAI was the son of Jair, of the race of Saul, and a chief of the tribe of Benjamin. He was carried captive, to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, with Jehoiachin, or Jeconiah, king of Judah, A.M. 3405, Es 2:5-6. He settled at Shushan, and there lived to the first year of Cyrus, when it is thought he returned to Jerusalem, with several other captives; but he afterward returned to Shushan. There is great probability that Mordecai was very young when taken into captivity. The book of Esther gives the whole history of Mordecai's elevation, the punishment of Haman, and the wonderful deliverance of the Jews, in clear and regular narrative. But it may be asked, For what reason did Mordecai refuse to pay that respect to Haman, the neglect of which incensed him against the Jews? Es 3:1-6. Some think the reason was, because Haman was an Amalekite; a people whom the Israelites had been commissioned from God to destroy, because of the injuries they had formerly done them, De 25:17-19. But this scarcely seems to be a sufficient account of Mordecai's refusing civil respect to Haman, who was first minister of state; especially when by so doing he exposed his whole nation to imminent danger. Beside, if nothing but civil respect had been intended to Haman, the king need not have enjoined it on his servants after he had made him his first minister and chief favourite, Es 3:1-2; they would have been ready enough to show it on all occasions. Probably, therefore, the reverence ordered to be done to this great man was a kind of divine honour, such as was sometimes addressed to the Persian monarchs themselves; which, being a species of idolatry, Mordecai refused for the sake of a good conscience. And perhaps it was because Haman knew that his refusal was the result of his Jewish principles, that he determined to attempt the destruction of the Jews in general, knowing they were all of the same mind. As to another question, why Haman cast lots, in order to fix the day for the massacre of the Jews, Es 3:7; from whence the feast of purim, which is a Persia word, and signifies lots, took its name, Es 9:26; it was no doubt owing to the superstitious conceit which anciently prevailed, of some days being more fortunate than others for any undertaking; in short, he endeavoured to find out, by this way of divining, what month, or what day of the month, was most unfortunate to the Jews, and most fortunate for the success of his bloody design against them. It is very remarkable, that while Haman sought for direction in this affair from the Persian idols, the God of Israel so overruled the lot as to fix the intended massacre to almost a year's distance, from Nisan the first month to Adar the last of the year, in order to give time and opportunity to Mordecai and Esther to defeat the conspiracy.