Esther 2:23 - Exposition

It was found out . The subsequent history shows that Mordecai's information was found to be correct, since he was ultimately adjudged to have deserved the highest possible reward ( Esther 6:6-10 ). The two conspirators were condemned to death and hanged on a tree , i.e. crucified or impaled, as traitors and rebels commonly were in Persia (see Herod; 3.159; 4.43; 'Behist. Inscr.,' col. 2. pars. 13, 14; col. 3. par. 8). And it was written in the book of the chronicles . Historiographers were attached to the Persian court, and attended the monarch wherever he went. We find them noting down facts for Xerxes at Doriscus (Herod; 7.100), and again at Salamis ( ibid. 8.90). They kept a record something like the acta diurna of the early Roman empire (Tacit; 'Ann.,' 13.31), and specially noted whatever concerned the king. Ctesias pretended to have drawn his Persian history from these "chronicles" ( up. Diod. Sic; 2.32), and Herodotus seems to have obtained access to some of them. Before the king . i.e. "in the king's presence." This was not always the case; but when the matter was very important the king exercised a supervision over what was written.