Esther 8:5-6 And said, If it please the king, and if I have favor in his sight, and the thing seem right before the king… Some of you perhaps remember when you were awakened to your danger and saw your condition before God. Does not the recollection move you for the safety of others? "How can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?" If the awful fate must be theirs, we would shrink from it. Hagar in the wilderness — "Let me not see my child die." David — "And the king was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate and wept; and as he wept, thus he said, O my son Absalom! my son I my son, my son Absalom! Would God I had died for thee, O Absalom my son, my son!" (2 Samuel 18:33). A boy was once lost in a storm at sea. His mother went to learn the sad story from the captain of the vessel, who barely escaped with his life. Among other inquiries she asked, "Did you see my boy at the time he met his sad fate?" The captain replied, "Yes, he was clinging to a piece of broken spar that hung over the side of the ship a short time before she sank." "Did he speak to you or say anything about his father or me?" The captain said yes, and then a long pause was broken by the weeping mother impatiently saying, "Oh, tell me what he said, one word of my dear boy will bring me comfort." The captain still tried to avoid tolling her, but she insisted. "Well, then," replied the weather-beaten seaman, "your boy looked despairingly at me and said, ' My parents never prepared me for a moment like this!' Then a huge wave washed him from my sight." (G. H. Smyth, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And said, If it please the king, and if I have found favour in his sight, and the thing seem right before the king, and I be pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews which are in all the king's provinces: |
    |