John Trapp on Esther 2:1

CHAP. II Verſe 1. After theſe things.]

AFter the wine was out, the fuell of his anger ſpent, and the luſt thereof ſatisfied. When the wrath of King Ahaſhuerus was appeaſed] There is nothing that a man is more ready to keep then his wrath: therefore the Hebrews put ſervare for ſervare iram, to keep, for, to keep his anger, as Jer. 3.5. Pſal. 103.9. Levit. 19.18. Ahaſhuerus, by invading Greece, had ſo incenſed them, that their wrath [non-Latin text not transcribed], unappeaſable, for they thenceforth hated all Barbarians for the Perſians ſake, and forbade them their ſacrifices, as they uſed to do murtheres. But Ahaſhuerus his wrath againſt Vaſthi was, after a time, aſſwaged.

He remembred Vaſthi] Not without ſome remorſe, but without all true repentance. He forſook not his raſh anger as a ſinne; but regrated it for a time, and laid it aſleep, to be raked up again upon as ſlight an occaſion. In graceleſſe perſo ns vitia raduntur, non eradicantur: abſconduntur ſaepius, non exſcinduntur, vices may be barbed or benumbed, not maſtered and mortified. A Merchant may part with his goods, and yet not hate them. A man may part with his ſinnes for ſelf-reſpects, and yet retaine his affection to them as Phaltiel did to Michal, when he went weeping after her afarre off. He may remember his Vaſthi, his boſome-ſinnes from which he ſeemeth divorced; and by ſuch a ſinful remembring of them, recommit them. See Ezek. 23.21. compared with verſe 8.

And what was decreed againſt her] But whoſe fault was that? Wine and anger are the worſt of all counſellours, ſay the Ancients? and Ahaſuerus found it ſo: as did alſo Alexander the great,Plutarch. and many others, but all too late. Hence they came in afterwards with their Non putâram, Had I wiſt; which Scipio ſaid ſhould never be heard out of a great mans mouth. Auguſtus alſo was wont to ſay, that nothing doth ſo ill become a Commander,Sueton. as haſtineſſe and raſhneſſe. Tully taxeth him for a foole, qui cundem & laedit & laudat, who firſt wrongeth a man, and then commendeth him.