Commentaria in Esther
Chapter the Eighth. Synopsis of the chapter
Mardochai succeeds to the dignity of Aman. Esther begs of the king and obtains that the letters of Aman for the slaughter of the Jews be revoked, and new ones written in favour of the Jews. Whereupon the Jews exult.
1. On that day king Ahasuerus gave to Esther the queen the house of Aman, the enemy of the Jews, and Mardochai went in before the face of the king. For Esther had confessed to him that he was her uncle. 2. And the king took the ring which he had commanded to be taken again from Aman, and gave it to Mardochai. And Esther appointed Mardochai over her house. 3. And not content with this, she fell down at the king’s feet, and wept, and speaking to him, besought him that he would give orders that the malice of Aman the Agagite, and his most wicked devices which he had invented against the Jews, should be made void. 4. But he, as the custom was, held out the golden sceptre with his hand, which was the sign of clemency: and she rising up stood before him, 5. and said: If it please the king, and if I have found favour in his eyes, and my request be not disagreeable to him, I beseech that the former letters of Aman, the traitor and enemy of the Jews, by which he commanded them to be destroyed in all the king’s provinces, may be corrected by new letters. 6. For how can I endure the slaughter and destruction of my people? 7. And king Ahasuerus answered Esther the queen and Mardochai the Jew: I have given Esther the house of Aman, and I have commanded him to be hanged on a cross, because he durst lay his hand upon the Jews. 8. Write ye therefore to the Jews, as it pleaseth you, in the king’s name, sealing the letters with my ring. For this was the custom, that no man durst gainsay the letters which were sent in the king’s name, and were sealed with his ring. 9. Then the king’s scribes and secretaries were called (now it was the time of the third month, which is called Siban), on the twenty-third day of the same month, and letters were written, as Mardochai desired, to the Jews, and to the princes, and the governors, and the judges, who presided over the hundred and twenty-seven provinces from India to Ethiopia, to every province, and to every people, according to their languages and writings, and to the Jews, according as they could read and hear. 10. And the same letters, which were sent in the king’s name, were sealed with his ring, and sent by posts: who, running through all the provinces, were to prevent the former letters with new messages. 11. And the king commanded them to assemble the Jews in every city, and to command them to gather together, to stand for their lives, and to kill and destroy all their enemies, with their wives and children and all their houses, and to take their spoils. 12. And one day of vengeance was appointed through all the provinces, that is, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month Adar. 13. And the sum of the letter was this, that it should be notified in all lands and peoples that were subject to the empire of king Ahasuerus, that the Jews were ready to take revenge on their enemies. 14. And the posts went out speedily carrying the messages, and the king’s edict was hung up in Susan. 15. And Mardochai going forth from the palace and the king’s presence, shone in royal apparel, to wit, of hyacinth and sky colour, and wore a golden crown upon his head, and was clothed with a cloak of silk and purple. And all the city rejoiced and was glad. 16. But to the Jews a new light seemed to rise, joy, honour and dancing. 17. Among all peoples, cities and provinces, whithersoever the king’s commandments came, there was wonderful rejoicing, feasting and banqueting, and a festival day; so that many of other nations and sects joined themselves to their worship and ceremonies. For a great fear of the Jewish name had seized upon all.
1. On that day king Ahasuerus gave (in Greek Artaxerxes) to Esther the queen the house of Aman,—furnished with equipment and stored with gold and silver and all things precious, as is plain from the Septuagint and Josephus. The goods of Aman, as of one guilty of treason, the king adjudged to the treasury, and gave to the queen, according to the word of Cyrus in Josephus, book XI of the Antiquities, chapter i: “Those who through disobedience shall have made these our commands (namely about building the temple) void, I will have put on the cross, and their goods assigned to our treasury.” Darius afterwards decreed the same, book I of Esdras: “that every man that shall alter this commandment, a beam be taken out of his house, and be set up, and he be hanged thereon, and his house be forfeited.”
And Mardochai went in before the face of the king,—as if to say: He became the king’s intimate, most closely joined and most familiar, as it were next to the king, as Aman had been.
2. And the king took the ring which he had commanded to be taken again from Aman, and gave it to Mardochai.—This was the royal ring, with which Aman had sealed his letters for the slaying of the Jews as with the royal seal. And so this ring was of the highest dignity and authority, and made Mardochai the king’s vicar and as it were a second king. Hence Alexander ab Alexandro, book II of the Genialia, chapter ix: “Among the Persians,” he says, “to be given a ring by the king was a sign of friendship, signifying by this that they admitted them into closest fellowship and the bond of the greatest alliance.”
Hence Mardochai also was adorned with royal garments and a golden crown, and in chapter ix, verse 4, was called great by the king, and, as Josephus says, book XI, chapter vi: “He governed the empire together with the king.”
And Esther appointed Mardochai over her house,—that he might be its steward, nay its ruler, as he had been before she was queen. Serarius thinks that Esther gave Mardochai the house of Aman, given to her by the king, and Josephus relates it, book XI, chapter vi; but this is not properly signified by these words.
5. I beseech that the former letters of Aman, etc., may be corrected by new letters.—Here was a difficult knot; for Aman had written and sealed letters in the king’s name for the slaying of the Jews; but the letters and decrees of the king of the Persians were irrevocable, as is plain in Daniel condemned to the lions’ den, Daniel chapter vi, verse 15. Wherefore Esther by kneeling, tears, and every art strove to bend the king to annul these letters. And prudently, using this reason and method, she accomplished the thing, by saying that these were not the king’s letters but Aman’s, which he had craftily written without the king’s knowledge, and sealed with the royal ring. Since it was now clear to the king that Aman had been a traitor and betrayer, it was right that his acts and writings be annulled.
9. Then the king’s scribes and secretaries were called.—The scribes were the chief officers who dictated the letters, the secretaries those who copied what the scribes dictated, and then to be referred to the public registers and annals.
11. To whom (the posts or couriers) the king commanded to assemble the Jews,—namely, to make known to them the edict issued by the king in their favour, lest magistrates, offended with the Jews, should on some pretext dissemble, delay or suppress it; but should be compelled by the Jews themselves to carry it out; and threaten that, if they did not do so, they would accuse them to the king as contemners of the royal edict. The Septuagint here and our own version, chapter xvi, add that the king by this edict granted the Jews to live everywhere by their own laws.
15. And Mardochai, etc., shone in royal apparel of hyacinth and sky colour.—That is, white, as the Hebrew and Chaldee have it. See what is said on chapter i, verse 6. From this colour the nobles are called horim, as if the white. White garments too they formerly put on on feast days and days of rejoicing, such as this was, according to the saying: “At all times let thy garments be white,” Ecclesiastes ix, 8. See what is said there.
Wearing a golden crown upon his head,—radiate in the Persian manner, that is, brandishing rays like the mithra, or sun (whom the Persians worshipped as god). Behold Mardochai as a second king, who a little before walked squalid and pallid, and destined to the cross: “To so great a dignity,” says St. Jerome in the last part of Daniel chapter i, “God willed to raise Mardochai, that as once in Joseph, and lately in Daniel, so now in Mardochai the captive and exiled Jews might have consolations, seeing a man of their own nation now prince of the Egyptians, now of the Chaldeans, now of the Persians.”
16. But to the Jews (worn with fear, grief and anguish, and as it were half dead) a new light seemed to rise, joy, honour and dancing.—For they leaped for gladness, forming choruses and dancing.
Allegorically Esther is the Blessed Virgin, of whom in the mystical sense it is said, Ecclesiasticus l, 6: “As the morning star in the midst of a cloud;” because like a shining star she came forth dispelling darkness; of whom St. Bernard, homily 2 on Missus est: “She is the noble star of Jacob, whose ray enlightens the whole world, whose splendour shines forth in the heights, and penetrates the depths, illuminating the earth too, and warming minds rather than bodies, she fosters virtues, burns out vices.””
Finally Serarius notes in this tragedy of Aman a sevenfold catastrophe:
First, Aman was exalted above all the Princes: afterwards he was cast down below all.
Second, he had a throne next to the king: afterwards he had to spread the horse for Mardochai, as his groom, and be at his feet.
Third, he had cast very many most threatening words against him: and he had to praise him, like a herald.
Fourth, he was called father by the king, and by the same afterwards was named guilty of treason, a public enemy, a traitor.
Fifth, indignant, he regarded Mardochai with the most hostile and grim eyes: and afterwards he could not bear the king’s countenance.
Sixth, not content with the slaughter of Mardochai alone, he wished to drink the blood of all the Jews; and he himself, not alone but with his whole house, with his ten dearest sons, was put on the cross, and many thousands of Gentiles of the same mind with him were slain.
Seventh, the gibbet and the day which he had prescribed for the death of Mardochai and the other Jews were those on which he himself with his family most miserably perished.
17. So that many of other nations and sects joined themselves to their (the Jews’) worship and ceremonies—that is, were converted to Judaism and the true worship of God. For they saw that this wonderful and unhoped-for deliverance and exaltation of the Jews could not have happened without the special providence of God caring for his people. Wherefore, acknowledging the power, clemency and providence of God toward the Jews, they professed and venerated him as the true God. To this also the religion and holiness of Esther and Mardochai, joined with such authority and glory, contributed not a little; whence it follows:
For a great fear of the Jewish name had seized upon all,—lest they should do to them what they had done to Aman, and what they were soon, by the king’s edict, verse 13, to do to the rest of their enemies. Wherefore, lest they be held enemies of the Jews and therefore be slain, some truly, some feignedly, showed themselves their friends, and became proselytes.