Commentaria in Esther
Chapter the Ninth. Synopsis of the chapter
The Jews slay their enemies on the same day which they had appointed for their slaughter, and hang the ten sons of Aman; in memory of this benefit a perpetual feast on the 14th and 15th day of the month Adar is instituted by Mardochai.
1. So in the twelfth month, which we have already said is called Adar, on the thirteenth day, when slaughter was prepared for all the Jews, and their enemies gaped for their blood, the case being altered, the Jews began to be the stronger, and to revenge themselves on their adversaries. 2. And they gathered themselves together in every city, town and place, to lay hands on their enemies and persecutors. And no man durst withstand them, because the fear of their power had gone through all peoples. 3. For the judges of the provinces, and the governors, and the procurators, and every dignity which presided in every place and work, extolled the Jews for fear of Mardochai; 4. whom they knew to be prince of the palace, and to be of great power; and the fame of his name increased daily, and was spread through the mouths of all. 5. So the Jews smote their enemies with a great slaughter, and killed them, rendering to them what they had prepared to do to them; 6. so that in Susan also they killed five hundred men, besides the ten sons of Aman the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews; Adalia, and Aridatha, 9. and Phermesta, and Arisai, and Aridai, and Jezatha. 10. And when they had slain them, they would not touch the spoils of their goods. 11. And forthwith the number of them that were slain in Susan was brought to the king. 12. And he said to the queen: The Jews have killed five hundred men in the city of Susan, and ten sons of Aman; how many dost thou think they have slain in all the provinces? What askest thou more, and what wilt thou have me to command to be done? 13. And she answered: If it please the king, let power be given to the Jews, that as they have done today in Susan, so they may do tomorrow also, and that the ten sons of Aman may be hanged upon gibbets. 14. And the king commanded that it should be so done. And forthwith the edict hung up in Susan, and the ten sons of Aman were hanged. 15. And the Jews being gathered together on the fourteenth day of the month Adar, three hundred men were slain in Susan: and they took not away their substance. 16. But also through all the provinces that were subject to the king’s dominion, the Jews stood for their lives, having slain their enemies and persecutors; so that the number of the slain came to seventy-five thousand, and not one of them took anything of their goods. 17. And the thirteenth day of the month Adar was the first day of the slaughter with all, and on the fourteenth day they ceased to slay. Which they appointed to be a solemn day, that in it for ever after they should give themselves to feasting, joy and banquets. 18. But they that had been slaying in the city of Susan were employed in the slaughter on the thirteenth and fourteenth day of the same month; and on the fifteenth day they ceased to strike. And therefore they appointed that day to be a solemn day of feasting and gladness. 19. But those Jews that dwelt in towns not walled and in villages appointed the fourteenth day of the month Adar for banquets and gladness, so as to rejoice in it, and to send one another portions of the feasts and meats. 20. And Mardochai wrote all these things, and sent them comprised in letters to the Jews that abode in all the king’s provinces, both those that lay near and those afar off, 21. that they should receive the fourteenth and fifteenth day of the month Adar for festival days, and always at the return of the year should celebrate them with solemn honour, 22. because on those days the Jews revenged themselves of their enemies, and their mourning and sorrow were turned into gladness and joy, and that these should be days of feasting and gladness, and they should send one another portions of meats, and give gifts to the poor. 23. And the Jews undertook to observe with a solemn rite all that they had begun to do at that time, and what Mardochai by letters had commanded to be done. 24. For Aman the son of Amadathi of the race of Agag, the enemy and adversary of the Jews, had devised evil against them, to kill them and destroy them, and had cast Phur, that is, the lot. 25. And afterwards Esther went in to the king, beseeching that his endeavours might be made void by the king’s letters; and that the evil which he had devised against the Jews might return upon his own head. Finally both he and his sons were fastened to the cross, 26. and from that time these days are called Phurim, that is, of lots; because Phur, that is, the lot, was cast into the urn. And all that was done is contained in the epistle, that is, in the volume of this book; 27. and what they suffered, and what was afterwards changed, the Jews took upon themselves and their seed, and upon all that would be joined to their religion, so that it should not be lawful for any to pass these two days without solemnity; which the writing testifies, and they keep at the appointed times, the years succeeding one another continually. 28. These are the days which no oblivion shall ever abolish; and in every generation they shall be celebrated through all the world in every province; neither is there any city in which the days of Phurim, that is, of lots, are not observed by the Jews, and by their offspring, which is bound to these ceremonies. 29. And Esther the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mardochai the Jew wrote also a second letter, that with all diligence this day might be established as solemn for the future; 30. and they sent to all the Jews that were in the hundred and twenty-seven provinces of king Ahasuerus, that they should have peace, and receive truth, 31. observing the days of lots, and celebrate them in their time with joy; as Mardochai and Esther had appointed, and they took upon themselves to be observed by them, and by their seed, the fasts and the cries, and the days of lots, 32. and all things that are contained in the history of this book, which is called Esther,
1. So in the twelfth month, which we have already said is called Adar, on the thirteenth day, when slaughter was prepared for all the Jews, and their enemies gaped for their blood, the case being altered, the Jews began to be the stronger.—Adar, the twelfth month and the last of the year, corresponds to our February. For the first month of the Hebrews was Nisan, that is, March, because in it they celebrated the Pasch, Exodus xii. Furthermore the Jews used lunar months, not solar; wherefore the neomenia, or new moon, was the first day of the month; the thirteenth day was the day immediately before the full moon; for this fell on the fourteenth day. This day, then, the eve of the full moon of February, had been appointed for the slaughter of the Jews, and soon, the tables turned, for the slaughter of the enemies of the Jews. Wherefore even now the Jews on that day in their synagogues every year read the history of Esther, and as often as Aman is mentioned they beat the benches with fists and hammers, just as if they were striking Aman’s head, as Antonius Margarita attests, in his book On the Rites of the Jews, and Gregory of Toulouse, Syntagma book II, chapter xvi, number 10. Furthermore Judas Machabeus instituted another feast on the same day, the 13th of Adar, on account of the notable victory won on the same day over Nicanor, of which II Machabees, last chapter, verse 37.
6. So that in Susan also they killed five hundred men, besides the ten sons of Aman,—whom they first killed publicly in the theatre, as seems, as guilty men condemned by the king; for they began the slaughter with the sons of Aman their sworn enemy, as with the firstfruits and first victims of their just vengeance; then on the next day they hanged the bodies of those already slain on gibbets, as is said in verse 14, to the greater ignominy of Aman and the terror of enemies. In the third month, then, the king issued an edict that the Jews should slay the sons of Aman and their other adversaries, as is said in chapter viii, 9. Wherefore the Jews soon shut up the sons of Aman in prison, lest they should escape by flight, and after nine months, namely on the 13th day of the twelfth month, which was appointed for the slaughter, they slew them, and on the next day hanged them when slain. You will say: in chapter vi, 18, the king, issuing this edict, says that Aman and all his kindred hang before the gate of Susan on gibbets; therefore the sons of Aman were slain with him in the third month, not the twelfth. I answer that by “kindred” there are meant not the sons (for otherwise he would have named them expressly), but the kinsmen and relations of Aman; for these as his supporters were hanged with him; but the sons were reserved for the common slaughter of all, and for the public spectacle of just vengeance on the 13th of Adar.
10. And when they had slain them, they would not touch the spoils of their goods,—both to show that they sought nothing but the safety of their life; for this those who were slain wished to destroy; wherefore they did not gape for wealth, nor kill some innocent rich man among the guilty for the sake of wealth (as often happens); and finally, because Aman, as a sworn enemy of the Jews, was as it were an anathema, so that none dared touch the goods of him and his sons. They did the same to the others slain, whose possessions they would not plunder, as is said in verse 16, though the king had permitted it to them, chapter viii, 11. Would that Christian leaders and soldiers imitated them, who often despoil not only enemies but even friends, nay often slay for plunder!
16. So that the number of the slain came to seventy-five thousand.—Huge was this number of enemies, and therefore of the slain, because the Jews could not be secure of life unless they were slain. And this is what is said here: “The Jews stood for their lives (steadfastly slaying their enemies for the defence of their life), having slain their enemies,” etc. For unless they had been slain, it was to be feared that they would again attack the Jews, nay rebel against the king. Furthermore Mardochai commanded the Jews to inquire diligently and note who were truly enemies of the Jews and guilty, and so be slain, as was done in the Sicilian and Parisian Vespers, and therefore he ordered the slaughter to be deferred nine months, namely from the third month to the twelfth.
26. And from that time these days (the 13th and 14th of Adar, on which the Jews slew their enemies, who were to have slain them) are called Phurim, that is, of lots: because Phur, that is, the lot, was cast into the urn.—So this feast, says Sanchez, is called “Phurim,” that is, of lots, not from the liberty which the Jews obtained on that day, their enemies being slain or subdued, but from the lots which Aman consulted, and which appointed the slaughter of the Jews for that same thirteenth day of the month Adar, so that, as that day returns with the yearly round, the memory of that peril in which they were may be renewed, and what consternation and anguish of mind they had when they received word of the lots and the day. Wrongly in the Roman Septuagint for “phu- phurim,” as the Complutensian Septuagint has it, is read in Persian Phrurim; whence Josephus also calls these days phrourai.
Unless you prefer that the Septuagint and Josephus changed the word phurim, by adding the letter r, into phrourim, to allude to the Greek etymon of the word phroureo, which signifies to keep and guard, as if to say: These days were by the enemies called “Phurim,” that is, of lots, also of breakings, by which they would break our race (for this phur signifies in Arabic); but by God through Esther and Mardochai they were made from phurim into phrourim, that is, guards and preservers, by which we should be kept safe in life, while to our enemies the same days became “phurim,” that is, of breakings, in which they themselves should be broken and slain by us.
So allegorically the days of Christ’s passion were days of “phurim,” that is, of lots and breakings, in which the Jews cast the lot about killing Christ for Barabbas, and the soldiers about dividing the tunic of the crucified Christ; then they broke the flesh of Christ with nails, scourges, thorns; but these days of “phurim” became through Christ phrourim, or guards and preservers; because they freed from sin, death and hell all who believe in Christ, hope in him and love him. The same days became “phurim” to the Jews because on those very days, namely at the Pasch, 38 years after, Jerusalem was taken by Titus, laid waste, and razed to the ground.
The same was prefigured by the lot customarily cast on the day of atonement over two goats, one the scapegoat, the other to be immolated for sin, Leviticus xvi, 8 and 9. See what is said there.
Tropologically the saints keep the feast of “phurim” when adverse lots are changed into prosperous, as they were changed for holy Job, last chapter, for Joseph, Genesis xlii, 44; for Moses, Exodus iv and v; for David, Tobias, and other saints, and by name St. Eustace, as is clear from his life in Surius, on the 20th of September.
Anagogically the day of “phurim,” that is, of lots, will be the day of judgment, on which Christ will change the lots of the pious afflicted in this life, and of the impious exulting in this life, and will assign to the pious perpetual gladness, to the impious everlasting Gehenna, as the Wise Man teaches chapter v, 4, and Isaias chapter lxv, 12.
And all that was done is contained in the epistle, that is, in the volume of this book.—Hence it is gathered that Mardochai is the author of this book. For he was the author of this epistle; and the epistle contained the same as this book contains; but what Mardochai had first written briefly in the epistle, the same, referring it to this book, he wrote more fully and polished more carefully.
27. And what they suffered (“the Jews” from Aman and his followers), and what was afterwards changed (the lot of slaughter of the Jews turned by them upon their enemies; repeat, “are contained in the volume of this book,” and in memory of these and as thanksgiving) the Jews took upon themselves and their seed; that is, they bound themselves, their sons and descendants, nay the proselytes, who would be joined to their religion, (to celebrate this feast of “phurim,” that is, of lots,) so that it should not be lawful for any to pass these two days without solemnity,—not that all must keep both days as feast, but one of the two, or at least the third from the slaughter: for the Jews dwelling in Susa, because they had slain their enemies on the 13th as well as the 14th, celebrated the feast of “phurim” on the 15th of Adar, on which they had ceased from slaughter; the rest who had abstained from slaughter one day sooner, namely the fourteenth, kept the feast on that day.
Which (days) the writing (that is, the epistle of Mardochai afterwards confirmed by the whole Synagogue) testifies,—that is, attests and commands to be remembered with yearly memory and gratitude.
And they keep at the appointed times, the years succeeding one another continually,—namely that every year they celebrate at a fixed and appointed time, the 14th and 15th days already mentioned, and that not only by the decree of Mardochai, but also of Ahasuerus, who commands the same not only to the Jews but to the Persians and other nations subject to his empire, chapter xvi, verse 22.
Anagogically the feast of lots signifies the feast and joy of the blessed in heaven over the triumph over the world, tyrants and the other persecutors, who had cast lots for their destruction; but by one man and one woman they were delivered, that is, by Christ and Mary, and they will punish their enemies with the sword, as it is written Psalm cxlix, 6: “And two-edged swords in their hands, to execute vengeance upon the nations, chastisements among the people, to bind their kings with fetters, and their nobles with manacles of iron, to execute upon them the judgment that is written: this glory is to all his saints.” This will happen at the end of the world, that is, on the day of judgment; therefore it is celebrated in the twelfth month. It is kept on the fourteenth day, that is, at the full moon, because when the Saints with Christ shall judge the nations and rule over peoples, the church of the Saints will have the fulness of her beauty.
But the fifteenth day is added to the solemnity, to signify on this second day the joy which the Saints will take in always seeing the damnation of the impious persecutors, as it is written in Isaias: “And they shall go out and see the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me. Their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched; and they shall be a loathsome sight to all flesh.” So Ribera, book V On Time, last chapter.
30. That they should have peace, and receive truth.—The Hebrew: They sent letters of words of peace and truth, that is, wishing them peace, that is, every kind of prosperity, and exhorting them to keep the promises about celebrating the feast of “phurim” on the appointed days.
And by their seed, the fasts and the cries.—For the Jews were wont to fast on the eve of feasts, as Christians do on the vigils of Saints; they were wont also then to mingle cries with prayers, and to cry in strength to the Lord, especially in public calamity, as here the Jews appointed by Aman for death did; and therefore wailing and lamenting; in memory of whom they renewed these cries every year on the same day with noise and clapping of benches, as I said in verse 1; as Christians in the triduum of Christ’s passion make noise with rattles and clappings: which some, with Serarius, suspect to have come from this act of the Hebrews.
Add St. Athanasius in the Synopsis, that on the same 13th of Adar the Jews, in memory and contumely of Aman crucified, publicly carry round a wooden cross and burn it with an image of Aman in the fire. But because many of the Jews in this tragedy of Aman represented and derided the passion and cross of Christ, as if Christ were masked by a mask of Aman, for this reason the Emperors Honorius and Theodosius forbade these rites and gestures of theirs, as is plain from the Code On Jews and Heaven-worshippers, law Jews, where it is thus said: “Let the governors of the provinces forbid certain Jews to burn, in remembrance of a penalty once undergone, the solemnities of their festival, and with sacrilegious mind to burn the likeness of the holy cross in contempt of the Christian faith.