Commentaria in Esther
Chapter the Third. Synopsis of the chapter
Ahasuerus exalts Aman, and commands that he be adored by all. Mardochai refuses to do so. Whereupon Aman obtains from Ahasuerus a decree that he himself and all the Jews be slain on a fixed day.
1. After this, king Ahasuerus advanced Aman the son of Amadathi, who was of the race of Agag: and he set his throne above all the princes that were with him. 2. And all the king’s servants that were at the doors of the palace bowed their knees, and worshipped Aman; for so the emperor had commanded them: only Mardochai did not bow his knee, nor worship him. 3. And the king’s servants that kept watch at the doors of the palace said to him: Why dost thou alone not observe the king’s commandment? 4. And when they said this often, and he would not hearken to them, they told Aman, desirous to know whether he would continue in his resolution: for he had told them that he was a Jew. 5. Now when Aman had heard it, and had proved by experience that Mardochai did not bow his knee to him, nor worship him, he was exceedingly angry, 6. and he counted it nothing to lay hands upon Mardochai alone: for he had heard that he was of the nation of the Jews, and he rather chose to destroy all the nation of the Jews that were in the kingdom of Ahasuerus. 7. In the first month (which is called Nisan), in the twelfth year of the reign of Ahasuerus, the lot was cast into an urn, which in Hebrew is called Phur, before Aman, on what day and in what month the nation of the Jews should be destroyed: and the twelfth month came out, which is called Adar. 8. And Aman said to king Ahasuerus: There is a people scattered through all the provinces of thy kingdom, and separated one from another, using new laws and ceremonies, and moreover despising the king’s ordinances: and thou knowest very well that it is not expedient for thy kingdom that they should grow insolent by licence. 9. If it please thee, decree that they may be destroyed, and I will pay ten thousand talents to the keepers of the treasury. 10. And the king took the ring that he used from his own hand, and gave it to Aman the son of Amadathi, of the race of Agag, the enemy of the Jews, 11. and said to him: The money which thou promisest, keep for thyself: as to the people, do with them what thou pleasest. 12. And the king’s scribes were called in the first month Nisan, on the thirteenth day of the same month: and letters were written, as Aman had commanded, to all the king’s satraps, and the judges of the provinces, and of divers nations, as every nation could read and hear, according to the variety of languages, in the name of king Ahasuerus: and the letters, sealed with his ring, 13. were sent by the king’s messengers to all provinces, to kill and destroy all the Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, that is, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is called Adar, and to take their goods for a spoil. 14. And the sum of the letters was this, that all the provinces should know, and be ready for that day. 15. The couriers who were sent made haste to fulfil the king’s commandment. And forthwith the edict was hung up in Susan, while the king and Aman were feasting, and all the Jews that were in the city were weeping.
1. After these things king Ahasuerus advanced Aman the son of Amadathi, who was of the race of Agag.—Agag was a king of Amalec, whom Samuel commanded to be put to death, I Kings xv. So Josephus, Lyranus, Sanchez and others. Aman, therefore, was an Amalecite of the royal stock. You will say: in chapter xvi, verses 10 and 14, Aman is called a Macedonian in mind and race, and alien from the blood of the Persians, and one who tried to transfer the kingdom from the Persians to the Macedonians. I answer that he was an Amalecite by stock, but a Macedonian by country; that is, his parents were Amalecites; but the Amalecites being slain partly by Saul, partly by Nabuchodonosor, Aman’s parents fled to other nations, and by wanderings and chances came into Macedonia, and there fixed their abode and begot Aman.
A manuscript Chaldee adds that Aman had been a slave, and therefore, raised up by Ahasuerus, swelled with pride and became intolerable. For, as is said in Proverbs xxx, 21: “For three things the earth is disturbed, and the fourth it cannot bear: a slave when he reigneth,” etc. The Chaldee adds that Aman was the one who in chapter i, verse 14, is called Mamucham, and persuaded Ahasuerus to repudiate Vasthi and put his own daughter in her place; but that such a great and foul flux of the belly befell the daughter that by her stench she drove all away. Moreover that Aman went up to Jerusalem to hinder the building of the temple, and many similar things, which seem to be inventions and fictions of the Rabbis.
2. And all the king’s servants, etc., bowed their knees and worshipped Aman; for so the emperor had commanded them.—See here how highly Ahasuerus exalted Aman, that he commanded him to be adored as some god and divinity. For the kings of the Persians wished to be adored as gods and divinities. Hence, as Jupiter in heaven is said to create the lesser gods, so Ahasuerus created Aman, as a lesser god on earth, next to himself, and therefore to be adored by all: so Serarius, of whom presently more. Only Mardochai did not bow his knee, nor worship him.—Why would Mardochai not bend his knee before Aman? First, the manuscript Chaldee answers: on account of the unworthiness of the thing, because Aman had been Mardochai’s slave; but this is uncertain, and unlikely, and does not suffice; nay Mardochai himself refutes it, saying chapter xiii, verse 13: “I would have been ready to kiss the very steps of his feet.” Second, the Jews give as reason that Aman wore on his garment painted images of idols; but this is equally uncertain and improbable. Third, Cajetan brings another cause, namely that Aman was an Amalecite of the race of Agag: but God had commanded the Amalecites to be destroyed by the Hebrews, Deuteronomy xxiv. But that hatred looked to the destruction of the nation of Amalec, not to the denial of honour to Aman alone in Persia, with so great peril to Mardochai and the Hebrews.
Fourth, the same Cajetan: The Jews, he says, bent one knee to a prince, both to God; but Aman wished both to be bent to himself, and therefore Mardochai refused. But this seems false and invented; for Abraham bending both knees, nay prostrate on the ground, adored the sons of Heth, as I said on Genesis xxiii, 7.